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Sitting in a coffee shop in Lancaster City PA, the area I was born and raised. Not the city, but one of the many rural farming areas surrounding it. This is my 4th trip down since Jan 1, because my Son Lucas is attending a football quarterback clinic organized by my high school football guru coach. He was a bit of a maniac back in the day, but that was just the way it was. Very serious winning percentage wherever he went.
So it’s a bit of haul - 2.5+ hours from Milford PA to Lancaster, and not really that easy of a drive. Sort of the northeast of PA, winding your way down 209, 80, 33, 22, 100, 222, and Route 30. We have a routine for this 8:30am clinic; we leave Saturday around 7pm, stop in Reading PA about two hours away at a Courtyard hotel, and then finish the drive off on Sunday mornings with a quick 30 minute jaunt, with a stop at the Park City Diner. Then 3 hrs at the clinic, and the drive home, in one shot.
Lucas has been driving some of it, so it’s a good way to put in some road time. Also a great way to put in some quality Dad time, though on the surface it would be hard to identify the ‘quality’ most of the time, as he pouts, goes quiet, gets upset about something, or otherwise casts shade on me and our relationship. Tis is the journey of fatherhood, and this is just a season, so I put in the time, stay quiet, crack bad jokes I know will annoy him, and turn his heat seater on high when he’s not looking at every chance I get.
I’m not sure how I missed it, but I totally missed the daylight savings change. I guess with digital timepieces, you don’t really need to be aware of it anymore. I was seeing a bunch of those ‘eliminate daylight savings time’ articles that come out twice a year, but I guess I didn’t think it was THIS weekend. So I was confused at how 5:30am felt so early. Actually I was surprised that it was 5:30 since after 3am I sleep poorly and crawl through the 3am-5am hours when I finally get out of bed and put the restlessness to good use. We were at the Diner when we figured it out; I think the waitress inadvertently informed us.
I’m surprised this isn’t a Trump issue along with the NFL new kickoff rules, paper straws and immigration - eliminating day lights saving time.
Lots of uncertainty coming our way in the construction industry. Tariffs will directly impact the cost of building a home, in ways that are known to be inflationary, but the exact extent of it will be hard to gauge until we are in it. Looks like we are good through 2025 with our contracts in hand, but we will need to be careful to risk share the uncertainty with our vendor partner and client partners. I don’t mind challenging conditions - I’m a veteran with a nimble blitzkrieg type of team, so bring it.
Lots of good things all around developing, each one took my full participation mentally, financially and strategically. Friday we sold our 8th of 9 homes in our Olivebridge project and Monday we sell our 9th. Another Catskill Farms project sold out. No one has the track record we do of finishing what we start. Rinse and repeat, year after year, decade after decade, economic conditions be damned. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t mind challenging conditions, and I think it makes my job not easier, but more straight-forward, as the competition that springs up during heady times fades away. This will be my 5th season, so to speak. I break the seasons down as follows:
- 2002-2007 - Learning curve with strong sales environment
- 2007-2011 - No competition, good sales, tough sales environment (but good team building environment)
- 2011-2019 - Malaise in the marketplace with low margins but steady growth
- 2020-2024 - GoGo times
- 2024-2026 - Survival of the fittest.
I put to bed an elongated electric infrastructure problem, I laid the final gravestone of that ligation that distracted me for 2 years, I finalized a few new home builds in the ‘your land our homes’ division, fired and hired successfully across the company, and positioned us for a few years of modest home building engagement.
It’s been a crazy 2 years- but you get up, evaluate the challenges, and tease them apart until you have something actionable. The challenges of the small business gig are never-ending and unpredictable - and the worst part of it is that at the worst moments many times there is an opportunity hiding in there somewhere you need the bandwidth to visualize.
My rental lake house in Fremont NY is entering it's 3rd lease, so that's been a big win in terms of monetizing an asset without selling it and paying the taxes. I'd live there in a second.
