Most ranch buyers are looking for a getaway — a little ‘tractor therapy’ — but the next owner of Contigo Ranch would be throwing away a cash cow if they keep this Hill Country property for leisure use.
Listed for $14,450,000 by rural land broker Dullnig Ranches, Contigo’s 300 acres include an event hall, hiking trails, and its own vineyard. There’s also two ponds stocked with bass and perch, plus an abundance of wildlife suitable for hunting or photography. Current owner Fred Edgarton operates it as a commercial ranch, which he built from the ground up.
“He’s a project guy,” said listing agent Karl Kinsel, who says Edgarton built Contigo up from a swathe of overgrown scrubland. “It was his dream to live on top of a hill, look over his ranch while making money.”
The property’s been “intensely managed” by Edgarton for customers looking to hunt trophy whitetail deer, but the earning potential of Contigo goes beyond recreational hunting.
Contigo has an event hall with 6,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space that Edgarton has marketed as a wedding venue, plus 14 vacation rental cabins — four of which are historic log cabins dating back to the 1800’s. There are also 14 additional bedrooms on top of the event hall — though they’re currently unfinished.
For Edgarton, the wedding venue started as a side project, but nowadays he finds his vacation rentals on the property booked up two years in advance— all for wedding parties.
Lastly is the vineyard, which spans eight acres and currently grows Petite Syrah grapes for making dark, bitter red wines.
Overlooking the sprawling property from atop a hill is the main residence, a 6,775 square-foot, four-bedroom rustic-style house with hunting trophies in every room.
Kinsel has seen both institutional and individual buyers express interest in Contigo and its many streams of revenue, but he has doubts if any of them could match Edgarton’s talent for ranching.
“A lot of people have the money, but they don’t have the vision.”
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