Ranch 66, SOLD
Ranch 66 in Olivebridge also sold while I was away. This home is on 10 acres and once we started clearing the trees for the house and septic, it became apparent we were going to have a view of High Point in Ashokan, a mountain I’ve hiked several times.
Several of the properties had pretty good views which were not apparent when I started construction, and I think for the most part were not apparent even when I sold the lots. Pleasant surprise for everyone but of course you can’t help but wonder if you priced them too low, now that they have some pretty killer views.
The market is pretty interesting, and by interesting I mean tricky. I don’t follow other realtors sales close enough to know if things are sitting around or not and days on the market ticked up measurably, but from just the ‘feel’ of it, it seems like that’s the case. So, while there is always a twinge of ‘what if’ in a lot my sales, in the end, one the hand is worth two in the bush - and booking sales, even if not at tippy top sales, has always been my mantra, and I think its a good one to keep on following.
My lumber bill was $70k last month. I haven’t had a $70k lumber bill since, Idk when - maybe 2008? The previous month was $400k, which is tough on the cash flow fo sure. There’s all sorts of ways to gain insight metrics into business activity, some obvious some not so. The $400k was interesting because that was done when lumber and materials prices had stabilized, not back in pandemic days when things had tripled in cost - the $400k measure construction progress, since all progress is measured by an increase in cost of good sold, so to do that much construction in a month- holy cow. Pretty much not repeatable - but for a shining moment, we crushed it operationally.
That segues backwards about my team-building or lack of - it was clear with a person in that ordering/receiving/purchasing/returns seat - solely focused on it and not in the weeds with the clients - that’s a good structure if you are growing.
Ranch 66 turned out really nice. The clients - which I only have this one action photo - took some risks and they all really paid off. That green kitchen matching or complimenting the green board and batten accent wall, the amazing primary bath, the fun salvaged wall in the ground floor. This Ranch tops out at about 2600 sq ft, has some serious deck, and this one came with a fully conditioned - meaning heat, electric, insulation - studio framed by the mountain.
That’s the 5th sale out of 9. And if you know anything about development, you know about half way or more through you start actually getting past investment recoupment and start getting into profits, so there’s that.
