Name: Kokel, Larry
Title: Founder of Kokel Appraisal Associates
Texas A&M Class: 1976
Inducted: 2014
Larry Kokel was raised on a farm near Walburg in Williamson County, Texas. Larry enrolled at Texas A&M University in the Fall of 1971, majoring in Recreation and Parks. Larry took an agricultural economics course in his Freshmen year with Dr. Pat Wooten. He continued with several agricultural economic courses, taking Land Economics with Dr. Ivan W. Schmedemann his Junior year. Larry talked to Dr. Schmedemann about switching his major to Agricultural Economics at the end of his Junior year in 1974. Dr. Schmedemann outlined various core economic courses and advised Larry to continue with his bachelor’s degree in Recreation and Parks and then enroll in a recently-created Land Economics and Real Estate Master of Agriculture degree program. Larry graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Recreation and Parks in May 1975. During his graduate program, Larry worked in the Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M. As part of his degree program, Larry worked the Spring of 1976 with Governor Dolph Briscoe’s Office and conducted the initial research related to agricultural use property tax valuation. Larry graduated in December 1976 with a Master of Agriculture with an emphasis in land economics and real estate (LERE).
Larry’s initial employment after graduating in December 1976 was with the Southwestern Appraisal Company in Austin, Texas. The firm conducted some of the first county-wide ad valorem tax appraisals in Texas. Larry worked to establish valuation on an agriculture production basis under Article VIII, Section 1-D of the Property Tax Code. Larry went to work with the Texas General Land Office in September 1977. Larry was fortunate to meet and work under Jack Kaiser and Sam McAnally, conducting appraisals of land throughout Texas.
In September 1983, Larry resigned from the Texas General Land Office and started Kokel Appraisal Associates in Georgetown, Texas. In 2001, the firm reorganized as Kokel-Oberrender-Wood Appraisal, Ltd. The firm conducts appraisals on a variety of farm and ranch and commercial property in Central Texas. A significant portion of the appraisal work is related to land with Right-of-Way acquisition being an important part of the company’s valuation business. Since 1985, Larry has also operated TexAg Real Estate Services, Inc. The firm’s brokerage services complement the valuation services providing consultation and investment advice to buyers and sellers of land in Central Texas. David W. Oberrender, Wendell C. Wood, and Michael D. Mays are partners in the firm and all four partners are Texas A&M graduates having degrees in Land Economics and Real Estate.
Larry holds a Texas Brokers License and is a Texas Certified General Appraiser. He earned his Accredited Rural Appraiser (ARA) designation from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers in 1984. He earned his MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute in 1988. He has served on the Texas Appraiser Licensing and Certification Board (2003-2009), appointed by Governor Rick Perry. He also has served on the Board of Trustee of the Appraisal Foundation based in Washington, D.C. (2003-2008).
During the years after his graduation, Larry has contributed numerous hours in mentoring Department of Agricultural Economics undergraduate and graduate students interested in real estate. He has been a “Prof-for-a-Day” in the department’s land economics, appraisal, and rural entrepreneurship classes. He also maintains active participation in the Society of Texas A&M Real Estate Program, known as the Aggie Real Estate Network, networking with other real estate professionals and mentoring current and former Texas A&M students.
Larry and his wife, Dorothy, live in Walburg, Texas and have two sons, Kyle and Colt. Kyle graduated in 2010 from Tarleton State University with a degree in Agricultural Economics and farms in Williamson, Bell, and Milam counties. Colt is a 2013 graduate in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University and is currently enrolled in the Real Estate Master’s Program at Texas A&M.
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