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

What we do isn't easy.  It's not easy for many reasons, but the biggest one needs to be the promise we are making to our clients to attempt to pull off this country home thing with the least amount of undue drama possible, and facilitate the transition to this country respite way of life as painlessly as possible - to set our clients up for success.  It's an easy goal to fall short of.

So, it's always rewarding to go back in a year later for the punch list and see a family really enjoying themselves, with simple homey pleasures of space and time and family.

Was up at Farm 24 today, and it was really looking good.

If you like to delegate the Honey Do list, Eric over at Nest can help.

Nest Property Management

I came across this scene early this morning - Guess it's move in Day at Cottage 46 .

Cottage 46 in the flesh.

Farm 30 being dug.  This 1700 sq ft home in Olivebridge is spoken for.

Cottage 47 being dug as well in Olivebridge.  This 1300 sq ft 2 bed 2 bath home is for sale for around $365k.  Mountain views and water features.

Mini Barn #2 in Narrowsburg NY is moving right along.  It's on 5 + acres. This home is spoken for.

Farm 28 in Narrowsburg NY on 17 acres is spoken for and coming in for a soft landing in October.

Farm 27 is a 3 bed, 1.5 bath home with a finished basement adding 600 sq ft to the overall sq footage.  This home is in Narrowsburg and it's spoken for.

1400 sq ft of Ranch Style all the way for this group of friends and relations who hope to be prior to Thanksgiving.

Farm 31 outside of Olivebridge is for sale.

Barn 9 is for sale 20 minutes from Woodstock.

And Farm 32 is just getting started and for sale as well.

NY Post covers the Hudson Valley in an interesting way - I like the fact that Dan the writer tried to act like the newbies over at Hudson Woods had anywhere near the hard earned experience that make our clients' life a breeze, but he knew - deep down, with his great editorial discretion,-who the big boys are up here.

"For Hudson Valley buyers seeking more flexibility in terms of design, location and cost, builder Catskill Farms offers a wide range of turnkey options." (umm, yeah, give me the guy who offers less flexibility in terms of design, location and cost- I love the understated humor here).


Let me annoyingly count the ways we are different from our article-sharer.

100 homes vs 1.

$67,000,000 invested in the Catskills vs. $1,000,000 (of someone else's money).

Areas we build include Barryville, Narrowsburg, Olivebridge, Kerhonkson, Shokan, Woodstock, Saugerties, Rhinebeck, Redhook vs. Kerhonkson.

Price points generally under $500k, many times under $400k, often under $300k vs. $700k+.

I could go on with whats wrong with their business plan - and I am in a way an expert in these things, but since I've matured and grown as a person these last few years, I will refrain (and thus save me some regret embarrassment but at the same lower my readership/view count - people love to watch/read my off the cuff scotch fueled train wreck writings for sure).

There are a few truisms about upstate real estate, and the first is price.  Overprice your product and miss the homebuyer market - snazzy expensive marketing is no substitution for value.  And west of the river, we find that value equates to homes priced between $300k-$500k.  That's a truism many 'developers' have tried to ignore over the years as their project costs soar.

Also, don't miss our friends Courtney and Bronson's Barryville Schoolhouse Inn in a fun and informative VOGUE (yes Vogue!) article just out - Weekend Guide to Upstate NY.