Ranch 72 Sold, and more news...
Big news - perhaps our last house up in that project straddling North Branch and Fremont in Northern Sullivan County. This is a pretty special place in the world -remote, rural, big skies, big views. But not so remote, just 15 minutes from Callicoon and 30 from Livingston Manor and Narrowsburg. I bought - gulp - 300 acres up there, right at the beginning of Covid, along with my gigantic gamble of 16 lots in Saugerties about the same time, and I think I had another 4 or 5 lots in between in like Kerhonkson, etc... That type of acquisition, entirely with debt, in a world-wide pandemic whose ramifications and consequences were yet to be understood in anyway - I mean, come on, seriously? That's risk tolerance. It's not like Soros betting it all against the British Pound, or Hitler going all in with an attack eastward into the vastness of Russia, or Michael Burry against the real estate market in 2007 - but for my size, cash flow, and sailing into the unknown full of sea monsters and flats earths, the gamble was shockingly bold. And it paid off. I was in the right place, positioned well, with 20 years of accumulated experience, and an opportunity came my way and I pounced, and as importantly, executed. By solving every problem that arose each day. Never slacking. Never shirking. Never procrastinating. Just taking care of business.
It's actually hard to remember how simple tasks became hard tasks - supply disruptions to the point where common lumber became uncommonly hard to get, if not outright unavailable. Price swings that pushed plywood from $20 a sheet to $100, and you use hundreds of sheets in a job. Closed building departments, changing regulatory environment, moving target for sales prices, people getting sick. Pretty crazy stuff.
So this house on 20 acres has pretty much everything and is well-suited and sited to take advantage of the plot of land and the views. It's one of our favorite large Ranches, sold with an assist from Erik Freeland of Country House Realty. Selling for a tidy profit but less than it was worth. But freeing up the cash and moving on is a regret I'm used to living with. It's impossible to calculate, really no way to do it, how much money I've left on the table over the years. But there is a way to measure it - and only one way, and it's a bit indirect - Success. Catskill Farms has it. The micro is unimportant when the macro is undeniable. The micro certainly makes up the macro, but the micro is mostly lost and forgotten while the Macro lives on.
Lives on in my bank account, and in the bank accounts of a huge number of employees, subcontractors, employees of subcontractors, vendors, banks, towns supported by our taxes we generated. Lives on with the homes dotting the landscape of the Hudson Valley, timeless homes, good looking homes, eye catching homes, modest homes, well-tended to homes, valuable homes. Lives on on the profits of our clients bank when they sell, which is actually just so huge it's hard to believe. The impact this hard-working, bill paying, eye-on-the-ball company has made and continues to make is huge.
I guess I'm focused and bit more aware of it lately because I've been out and about lately. Been to party or two, attended Jeff Bank Customer appreciation night at the Forestburgh Playhouse and a bunch of other events I don't usually attend, but have been because, wait for it, I'm engaged and now have a partner in crime to make grand entrances with. The point is when I attend these events, usually filled with business owners, realtors, bankers, community members of some substance, the reaction is always the same - respect and deference for my contributions over the last 25 years. It's just when you are in an industry with tight margins and lots of day to day problems, the macro results and impacts need to be consciously snake charming that beast from the basket, cause otherwise all you know is the danger of the rattle. No matter how you shake it, no matter the angle you view it from, what I've done locally and regionally, for longer, than anyone else around, is of great and enviable import and consequence.
Yes, getting hitched. You heard it here first. 15 years of raising a kid and staying focused on my business, pivoting to a more fully rounded life.
Not to be vain at a moment like this, but I think this athletic shirt wrongly accentuates my gut. Must be the angle, or the lighting.