The Legacy of Land: My Story in Coweta County, Georgia

By Sam Bowers, ALC

Long before I entered the world 56 years ago, the land in Coweta County, Georgia, was already part of my story.

The ancestors of both my mother and father came to Coweta County from South Carolina to farm in the 1830s. As Presbyterians, they founded the White Oak Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in 1837 in the area that they settled. J. Y. Carmichael, my great-greatgreat grandfather, was the first Coweta farmer to use terracing. Loving the land and putting it to its best use was important aspect of my family heritage.

I am the youngest of three siblings and the only boy. My father, Lisle Bowers, managed the LH Bar Ranch for 25 years. I worked alongside my father on the farm from an early age. When I was about 10 years old, Dad paid me to bale hay at one penny a bale. The farm produced beef cattle and row crops such as soybeans, corn, and wheat. After LH Bar Ranch, Dad built his own dairy. The skills I learned growing up on the farms have been instrumental in my real estate career.

My father could see that Coweta County was changing. Farmland was making way for houses as Atlanta saw growth moving outward. When I was a senior at Newnan High School, with the plan to attend Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, my father said to me, “You’re going to have to find something different to do besides farm.”

After completing my two-year degree at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, I went to the University of Georgia and studied ag economics. While at University of Georgia, I was a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, and it would be at UGA that I would meet my wife, Dale.

In 1988, I joined my father in the real estate business. He had been selling real estate since 1972, and I started my career from a small desk in a corner of his office where I would stay for 10 years.

In the beginning, I would sell houses, land–anything to make a living. Eventually, though, I specialized in selling large tracts of land finding that I enjoyed connecting the buyer with the right piece of property.

Buddy Burns and I founded Bowers & Burns Real Estate in 2003. We have stayed in the same small office off the Court Square in downtown Newnan. Originally, it was an ideal spot between our homes but now the fact that we have purposefully kept our business model small and recognizable has been advantageous. Since Buddy and I both grew up Coweta County, we have a history of not only the land here and the surrounding counties but the landowners as well.

My knowledge of the land, not only growing up farming but hunting and fishing gives me a unique, firsthand knowledge of wildlife management, forestry management, as well as pasture and farmland management. It's allowed me to work with my clients to help them find their ideal property while also guiding them in how to manage their new property.

Today, Coweta and the surrounding counties are growing at an exponential rate as the growth in Georgia reaches a new high. Coweta has transitioned from rural to suburban, and our market has expanded covering West Central Georgia as well as parts of eastern Alabama. For over 30 years, we have stayed true to what we know and that is the land. We have five agents that work for us, and we continue to discuss how our business model must adjust with the changing demographics of our area. Still, our business is very much relationship based. Many of our clients are people we have worked with for years, and that happens only because they trust us. Technology is never going to be able to replace that. However, we have stayed on the forefront of mapping technology and drone use to better evaluate land as well as marketing the property.

The use of drones not only gives us easy access to pictures and videos to market the property, but also allows us to evaluate a property for storm damage or even give a client a closer and more personal view of a large tract of land where some areas are not easily accessible.

By implementing various software programs, we can manage day to day operations, such as bookkeeping and website maintenance, in a timely manner allowing me the personal time needed with my clients.

By staying true to our business model, we have been successful even in the downtimes that are a reality for any real estate company. Coweta County is not just a market for me. It has been—and continues to be—home. Dale loves to tell people that on our first date together I told her that I would live and die in Coweta County. After 35 years in Coweta, she finds herself just as rooted to this land. Together, we have shared that love of the land with our daughters, Jessie, 25, and Emily, 20, and we live on land that has been in my family for several generations.

My father has since passed, but I remember those days at that small desk in a corner of his real estate office fondly. His knowledge of Coweta County, love of the land and family, and his honest forthright attitude remain with me. Dad’s attitude was always, “a man’s word is his bond” which is a mainstay within my company reflected in the trust that our clients have with Bowers and Burns. As Dale’s own grandfather use to say, “appreciate and love the land because we are not making more of it.”

Sam Bowers, ALC is co-owner of Bowers & Burns Real Estate in Coweta Georgia. He’s a member of the APEX Producers Club, was named 2003 Georgia Land REALTOR® of the Year and currently serves as the 2023 RLI President-Elect.