Catskills - Sullivan County - Ulster County Real Estate -- Catskill Farms Journal

Even by the Boss standards of Catskill Farms, selling out Ashokan Acres in Olivebridge NY is truly a Boss move. There are so many things large and small to even being able to visualize moving things along that fast it's hard to put into words, but that was the whole idea in the Spring of 2022 when I purchased the 70 acres just down from Tetta's General Store. I'm 2 years into it, pushing close to $5m invested, not a penny of return yet, but it's coming. Even with the vibrant sales of our homes there, it would still be a heavy financial lift if I was using borrowed money at common commercial rates at 8, 9, 10 % - that bleeds money right out of your bottom line at an alarming rate, payable monthly. But nope, mostly self-financed. Still need to keep it moving, for a myriad of reasons, but at least you don't have the interest breathing its sloppy bad breath down your neck 24/7. Frankly, the project has been hard enough - add in severe financial stresses and it would be nearly unbearable.

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For the first time in 4 years, we are also seeing the relief in the schedule of our subcontractors, so it seems like we are entering a perfect storm of good news for our production capacity. Super busy, great relationships all around from subs to suppliers to municipalities, to a staff kicking ass - and then a reprieve in the busyness that everyone from building departments to framers to lumber companies were experiencing, so they can better serve us - Who else better to serve!!, is my question!.

Back in 2009, when we remained busy during the international financial crisis by pivoting to good looking small cottages, we were able to forge some relationships with vendors who were looking for new customers as their primary ones slowed down or went out of business. Some of my most important relationships of my business career happened in the tough times of 2009, when I was able to break in with some subcontractors who never would have answered my calls without a recession.

Today I start flexing my nerd side, which lurks just below the rugged all-american handsomeness, and volunteer at Greys Tower, helping them organize and catalogue their disorganized book collection that numbers around 5000. I love big old mansions, and love old books, so this should be nearly a spiritual experience.

Grey's Tower is in Milford PA, and was the home of the Pinchot family, who are credited with founding the American conservation movement in the late 1800s.

We haven't built one of these mini's since 2020, pre-pandemic - but now that I built it again I remember how special these spaces are. They were a huge hit back in the day, especially these 800 square feet ones, with 2 bedrooms, decks, etc... 5+ acres - really just a slice of heaven. This one sold for $450+/- which is $200k more than our 2010 versions. Costs are up, inventory is down, and there is literally nothing interesting and inspiring in the $400k range - and that's where we come in with our minis.

This one is on Lake Ridge Road in Narrowsburg NY.

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We are selling a lot of houses right now - I know I keep saying that, but it keeps happening. And gratefully, we have a team breathing fire and really creating one of the most seamless experiences and processes we've ever had.

After all the hard work last year putting this vision into place and recruiting the talent necessary to do it, to say it's rewarding to see it come into reality would be a major understatement.

Endurance v Perserverance‍

I’ve discussed at length the journey of then and now; in fact have been discussing it for over 20 years in various forms.  I’ve remarked often on the attributes that have allowed me to stay in the game for so long when most people burn out, make a decision they can’t unwind, or go down an unwise path of no return - or worse, maybe a return but really slow with all sorts of life-altering opportunity costs as the days pass and you are backtracking noisily.

But a friend was talking about me in this regard and she used the word endurance, rather than what I was calling perseverance,  and I thought it over and really liked it better.  Perseverance has that element of ‘woe is me’, ‘look at me and how hard I’m working’ - sort of like ‘rescuing a dog’ from the pound.  In my 30’s when I heard that for the first time, first I didn’t understand what it was, and then 2, thought is was some sort of special case - rather than what it was, which was getting a dog from the kennel or pound or shelter or wherever.  Growing up with lots of animals and lots of relatives and lots of adopted dogs, the sense of hero-hood just wasn’t how we looked at it.  It was a dog, and we liked it, and we took it home.

Same for the word perseverance.  It has that ‘hero-hood’ feeling to it.  Sort of like I’d be doing something else if I could.

Now endurance, now that’s a man’s word.  Grit your teeth and soldier on.  There is no sense of ill-begotten plight.  It’s a purposeful, dedicated effort that you outmuscle whatever comes your way, not with your tail between your legs as you crawl under the covers after another horrid day of risk, problem-solving, and poor results, but with a sense of confidence that you can outmuscle, outsmart, and perhaps most importantly, outlast any problem.

How you frame the situation, and the words you use, not only define the situation, but define how you think and feel about the situation.  Frame it as an effort you direct and that has power to it - frame it as events happening to you, and that has less power.

Perseverance seems more fragile, like you are only one big smack aside the head before you throw up your hands and call it day.  

Endurance - that’s just not a trait you want to see in an adversary, opponent or enemy - cause you know you in for a long fight, and you know the guy’s not going to quit. With enough endurance, and an active creative strategic mind, and ability to put in 16 hours of mind work for 22 years - that’s a type of fortitude you just don’t want to run into, whether you are an inanimate problem to be solved, or an adversary looking to duel it out.

Endurance, it’s a good word.  Most people I surround myself with have great endurance.

Farm 74 just went into contract. That's 5 of 9 now at our project in Olivebridge. Another one cooking right behind it.

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I spent the night at Farm 74 Saturday night. I don't often do it, but when I can, I like to. No better way to make sure everything is running well than to sit quietly for a few hours in a home. I went to a disco party up the street at Inness Hotel in Accord and didn't want to drive the whole way home, plus had a meeting up there on Sunday, plus needed some time inside each home, which I've been doing a lot as we pick up steam.  The twin air mattress - air mattresses a bit challenging under all circumstances - made more complicated by a dog insisting that the hard wood floor was no place for man's best friend.

The idea that Inness even exists, in Accord NY, high end and fun, challenges my sense of reality, having been up here working for 2 decades in a landscape that only could have recently even dreamt of supporting something like that.

My weekend job site visit list - doesn't include any sales, financials, HR, marketing, and the other 50 things we do to keep it going -

Houses

NO DELIVERY TO EG19 OF SIDING

WHERE IS EDWIN?

GARAGES, slabs

Brian - 

• CES

• Remove gas tanks from

• Lr23, 16, 17, A4

• Hook up gas at LR16

• Inventory management

• Cable rails
• View parts, pieces
• Misc in receiving area

Chris

• Where do decision pdf’s live?

• Let’s review

• Kitchen reviews

• A5
• A6
• A7
• Wanger

James

• Zobaer sliding door tracks
• A3 water good
• A4 water keep running in lower bath
• George truck out of the way
• Pick up hoses
• Gas hoses at a4
• Nice curve on A4 shelves

Eric 

Tito

• A4 shed
• A3 finish

Eric

• Keep A5 as is windows

Woodstock

• A6

• Septic 
• Well line
• Gas tank 
• Driveway

• ALL

• Transformer backfills

• Mud skim coat

Clarke - 

• LR 16 

• Water, run through house
• Hot water

• Has anyone shocked LR23 water
• LR 17, PAPER OUT

RHE

• A3 finish
• LR17 finish
• Eg19 rough
• Black vent covers for exterior

General Scheduling

• Bertram A5
• BCS A3
• Check weather
• Electric Apps

• Crest 2
• EG19
• WO 25
• WO 26
• A1
• A2

A4

• Microwave, appliance completion
• CO package and Inspection

• Shock well
• Water test, etc…

• Shed 

• Painting
• Flooring?
• 2 lights

• Exterior

• Grading and grass
• Fix up driveway
• Shed approach
• Drainage by driveway
• Transformer filling

• Septic pump box
• Cleanout handle
• Run all appliances
• RHE

• Chandelier extra linkage
• Shed lights
• Fan remotes

• Screens
• James

• Gather gas and electric hoses
• Run water from downstairs bath faucet

• Tito once more
• Figure out

• Radon schedule
• Blower door schedule

• LINE UP 3 TOO

A3

• HVAC startup
• Sourcing

• Door knobs, interior
• Exterior front door knob
• 1st floor half bath vanity
• Cabinet hardware
• Rail and post system
• Screens
• Kitchen

• Counter

• Bifold hardware
• ½ door hardware?

• Review billings
• Questions

• Upstairs bedroom downloads too low
• Bulb wattage

• Line up Bertram
• Confirm Lenny
• Kitchen shelves?
• Hood available?
• Punch

• Rail and post system
• All shelves installed
• Kitchen installed
• 2nd floor bath vanity mirror
• Scaffolding out
• Mudroom door
• Get rid of 1 light exterior door
• Exterior hardware, front door
• Chandelier bulbs
• Mudroom bifold
• Half door hardware x 3
• Tub protection out
• MBR bathcap
• Laundry counter
• Collect remotes
• Build small box around drain pipe 2nd floor bath/closet
• Appliance delivery

• RHE

• LR Fan, etc..
• Bulbs for chandelier
• Piece missing mbr light?
• 2nd floor bath vanity light

• BFS front door pickup

A5

• Dark wall upgrades?
• Selection sheets update
• Well pump, etc..
• Fireplace stone
• Cable rail exterior
• Bertram?  Colors?
• Keep shed windows as is.
• Shed steps
• Fix chimney leak
• Salvaged issue?
• Stair pieces in?
• Window in when?
• Window trim piece
• Entry Stone

A6

• FINISH
• Paints
• Pool

• Clearing
• Set

• Dryer Duct
• Fireplace - fireplace stone
• Cracked window?
• Front stairs

A7

• Fireplace stone
• Sheetrock
• Flooring schedule

• Mike - FS

• Finish siding
• Foundation stone
• Inspection after fireplace
• Cover basement floors
• Peel off window plastic

A8

• Submit plans
• Redo plans with Vincent
• Order windows?
• Septic line placement?

A9

• Resubmit plans
• Order windows ?
• Septic line placement?

A1

• Electric app
• Plans to Dean

A2

• Electric app
• Plans to Dean

Lr16

• Gas range
• Driveway drainage
• Meter fence protection
• Check in with Bob
• Is AC working?
• Gas tanks out

LR17

• Dryer
• Fireplace
• What do with it?
• Cleaning
• Well line protection
• Light in Bathroom
• Backsplash and shelves
• Gas tanks out
• Downrod
• Black flood light

LR23

• Fireplace caulking 
• Backsplash sketch and approval

• We should be there

• Cabinet arrival
• All appliances run?
• White vent cap
• Clean up outside
• Final cleaning
• Final CO meeting
• Final charges
• Shock well?
• Dumpster out

Wanger

• Insulation
• Sheetrock
• Fireplace details

EG19

• Mechs

• King plan

• Alert subs for 

• Insulation
• FP
• Sheetrock

• Siding, when?
• Eric, When?
• Electric APP
• Cracked window
• Concrete floor pockmarked
• Kitchen measure?

WO 24

• Pricing
• Plans
• BP

WO25

• Plans to Wanger
• Electric APP

WO 26

• Plans to Wanger
• Electric APP

Kathy

• Box Brownie, gas tanks
• A9 MLS
• Mailbox
• Utilities

• LR16
• LR23

• A4 mortgage
• Picture management
• Stewart pricing
• HOA insurances
• Thursday meetings
• 615 submittals

One thing that is very true about our buyers is that if we weren't producing new homes that fit their criteria, many of them would never have found their refuge in the Catskills. It's not as if 'oh, they chose us over a competing property' - for the most part there aren't any competing properties that meet the demands of our clients (a few more options now than there used to be)- we created the product, the process, and raised the bar high enough from a style, process and product perspective that these folks actually would not find something they wanted to buy in a pretty dismal housing landscape. What makes this important is that without our 300+ homes and 300+ families, spending there 300+ discretionary cash on houses, landscaping, pools, restaurants, gifts, holidays, clothes, beer, food, etc..., that money and accompanying community benefits wouldn't be here. Some for sure - most, spent somewhere else, to the detriment of many a main street.

Similarly, it's not just the cash, it's the investment of time and energy and enthusiasm - attending a Christmas tree lighting, a jazz concert, Narrowsburg film festival, a restaurant opening, a craft brewery, a vineyard, the apple picking, pumpkin buying, Christmas tree excursion - all this added enthusiasm injection of people, family, kids.

When you aren't busy renovating, or being demoralized by the needs of a shitty house you bought on a whim, or being beaten down by the needs of that so-so house, you have a lot of time and energy to explore and celebrate and enjoy the community you just joined. With a smile instead of 'woe is me' my country escape is ruining my life, my relationship, my finances. Birthday parties for the kids instead of contractor meetings, house parties instead of site visits, investment in the community rather than the black whole of renovations.

And that negative experience is what I observed back in 2001, where first time homebuyers (not defined by age but by being city dwellers) being sold a 'this old home' dream and the $30,000 and three month renovation was actually 3 years and $300,000 and a result of an unspoken collusion between realtors and home inspectors.

And maybe the worst salt in the wound - is you couldn't sell it when you wanted to. There literally was the most slothful (expect lots of Costa Rica references as I plan for my trip in March) real estate market anywhere, where if you could sell, regardless of financial hit, you felt fortunate. So the homes below in Ulster County, where some families walked away with $600,000 in their pocket after a 2 or 3 year investment is an extraordinary accomplishment of wealth building, manufactured by Catskill Farms. We have created so much wealth for people - be it town budgets, community restaurants, the homes services industry from property managers to landscapers, pool guys, cleaners and appliances, to a thousand other tranches of economic activity - but some to these recent home sales- where families actually made $500,000 or more on a 2 year investment, now that catches even my attention who is used to making large chunks of change.

So while we fight for our day to day reputation as demands for perfection never match the reality of a home with 3459 moving and inter-related parts, our big picture legacy and impact is pretty hard to accurately put into words or charts or graphs. For instance, in one the homes below, the owner wanted a white brick fireplace which I love. Then when it showed 'soot' a little bit more than a dark stone, she thoughts we should come wipe it clean, repaint it, whatever - because there should we zero smoke residue in the house and/or we should have explained to her this possibility, even though be a white shoe, white pants, white car, white walls, white countertops, white house it's completely known to everyone in the world that white takes more maintenance - even though everyone child and parent in the world knows this truism, she wouldn't stop complaining about it and it dinged our relationship - then they walk away 18 months later, after a bidding war, with a house that put $650,000 in their pocket - I'm sorry, but it's hard to look back at that situation as not ridiculous, but it happens all the time. Balancing the here and now with the long term legacy is tough and to some degree irreconcilable from an emotion vantage - from a business vantage it's simple - people want what they want, from a mental health vantage it's like being clobbered by a mallet every few days.

Not many Catskill Farms new sales in Ulster last year, as we were completely locked out of the county because of land prices that quadrupled. Some people may pay $200k for a piece of land before they build a spec home that will then need to sell for more than $1.2m, but having been doing this for 20 years, it, as Bob Dylan would say, 'it ain't me babe.'

That caused me to take a big risk and buy 70 acres of raw land in Olivebridge, something I'm not keen on doing, and going through a subdivision process. Subdivision processes are long, involved, expensive and in the end, you never know when and if you will exit the process, meaning you could spend a lot of time money and planning with nothing to show for it. I hated to do it, but I hated more to be locked out literally one of the most robust real estate marketplaces in the country.  So I rolled the die, got through the process after 14 months (learned a ton), and now have 9 homes under construction and 4 under contract in one of the strongest markets in the country. No risk, no reward.

A few of our sales from last year - resales. It's fun to see how our pictures have developed over the years. Memory lane for sure.

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Farmhouse 21

Sold in maybe 2012 as one of our first homes in Ulster. Sold for $895k, we probably sold in 20112 for $350k.

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A Barn house with white chimney brick sold for low $500's by us, and resold for over $1m 2 years later. You cannot fake that type of market respect for what we are doing. Famous Barn 27.

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Famous Barn 22 in Kerhonkson.

Kerhonkson was once viewed as the undesired step-child of Woodstock area, but I saw the opportunity for low density out of the way but not too much so the first time I found the area. Sold for $500k by us in 2019, resold for $1.2m. Life changing appreciation. Let alone the time spent in the home.

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Famous Farm 36.

Just looking at the few photos we posted at the time, Wow, what a creative house. If I remember right, this was a home bought when completely finished for around $450,000. Sold for $850k 4 years later. Tell me that didn't change someone's life permanently.

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Famous Barn 37

If I remember correctly, this was bought by a young woman with proceeds from a tech startup. Owned it for a few years then pocketed $400k without one single upgrade including bushes and plants.

Funny seeing this Barn trend at that point and time. Lately it's been all about the Ranches.

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Famous Farm 31.

Love this design. They added a garage studio, finished off the basement then resold a $450k original purchase for $1.35m and a robust bidding war.

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Famous Farm 42.

1500 sq ft plus a finished basement. They did a great job on the exterior landscaping and walked away with $300k+.

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Famous Ranch 36.

Bought for $500k, sold for $850k. Kerhonkson NY.

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Famous Barn 26.

Beside renting it for $18k a month during the pandemic, they sold for $1.4m - pocketing nearly $700k.

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Famous Cottage 40.

This house, one of the first in Ulster for us, has resold 4 or 5 times. Beloved each time. Higher price each time.

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These last posts have taken a fair amount of time to put together, but was very helpful in accurately examining my current station as lead designer and builder of the Catskills, built over 20 years of endurance in an ever-changing and challenging Catskills landscape.