Ranch selling and a trip to Martha's Vineyard
After a night in NYC and dining at the mid-town seafood joint Milos, I drove back upstate, managed the bills and payables for the week, packed and then headed out for Martha’s Vineyard, via the Wood Hole ferry.
We have another house queued up for sale in Narrowsburg, which my friend Tony has been sending me a bunch of articles being written about the area. From my experience, when that starts to happen, typically there is someone new in town with some press connections who is getting us in the news. I’ve literally built 50 homes in Narrowsburg, first when it was a true tumbleweed town with a good diner, from there a few hardy small businesspeople who have stayed put and anchored the town. I can’t say our clients single-handedly built that town with their discretionary spending, but there’s no doubt their weekend leisure spending helped create the sustainability that small businesses crave. I’d walk into the Heron when it opened in 2009 or so, and literally, and I mean literally, every table would be occupied by a Catskill Farms homeowner. That type of consistent customer means a lot to an establishment.
More than that, our marketing efforts were more robust and effective than the visitor’s association at the time, our digital footprint easy to find, and our pencil sketches of life upstate - be it the blog, or the houses, or the presentation - drew in a whole new set of eyeballs on the area. From 2002-2015, we were one of the only companies putting up new homes geared to the weekend crowd.
Homes have - to use a favorite phrase a business school grad taught me - not only an economic cross-multiplier, meaning buying a home is just the first of many purchases and investments a homeowning family will make, but there is for sure a continued marketing residue of them owning a home upstate - talking about it, going up there, inviting friends, expousing through social media network about their little dream escape upstate.
The house we have just about ready to sell sits up on a little hill with fantastic tree-filtered morning light hitting an expanse of windows positioned just right - accidental perfect house placement, I think not. It’s a lot of value for what they are paying in today’s market.
I came across an article listing, in breathless tones, the salaries of cardiac surgeons, etc… and I have to say, I was surprised by the modesty of them. Spend 15 years in school and make $600k. My mason probably doubles that. My one excavator who has his fingers in lawn care, hardscaping and dirt work, definitely meets or exceeds that. I haven’t seen those levels in 5 years and typically double, triple or more that. I tell you, there is a ton of money in the trades, and you can definitely be making $100k at age 22 with no student loan debt with a good plan - that puts him/them on a route to be $700,000 in earnings more than the college graduate. And if that college person is coming out with debt and making $60k a year, by the time the two different routes hit 30, the tradesperson is a million dollars ahead. And even in future earnings, there’s as much advancement potential for the trades than there is for white collar, and more often than not, the trades actually reward accumulated skill whereas white collar is half bullshit and the other half faking it. Of course, that’s too strong of a characterization, but a lot of white collar stuff is nonsense - staring at a screen, acting busy.
I don’t really believe everything I just wrote, but there’s truth to it.
Now, back to Martha’s Vineyard. During summers at the University of Pittsburgh, where I was the first person in a large family attempting college (I have 100 first cousins), I met up with some guys and became friends and we ventured to Martha’s Vineyard one cold weekend in winter, 1989, looking for work. Farmer Jim Athearn of Morning Glory Farm hired us on the spot (for $4.25 minimum wage) for that coming summer in the comfort of his living room. This was pre-Clinton, who raised the profile of the Vineyard, followed by some boom years, then Obama sought it out, so the trajectory has been growth and more growth. The farm was a nuts and bolts operation back then and now its got an international brand. Lots of people know Edgartown and Morning Glory Farm.
So my friend Leo, from college and the Vineyard, now lives in Sonoma Cty California, and my friend Justen, has called Martha’s Vineyard home since 1994. So we are all up here, they with their wives, me solo, telling the same stories of the glory days of end of farm work week downing large quantities of Southern Comfort and stumbling around town. While we weren’t part of it, the children of the New England blue bloods abounded. I haven’t been up here in a bit, and you forget about the polished safe leisure good-looking life of the Ivy League Upper Classes.
I brought my bike, and did 35 miles in a stiff wind around the island. Packing my bike in my Benz coupe, working with rachets, and tools and the like and trying to get it into the trunk and more or less just looking like a fool, reminded me of something I’ve known for a long time but kind of keep quiet - I would never hire myself for any of the field work required for the success of what I do - even as a laborer. Both my aptitude for it, and my attitude towards it (when I’m doing it myself, I greatly admire and respect the work of others) both are lacking, and it shows quickly when put to the test.
Lucas' summer is getting off to a fast start, with a week at Virginia Beach and then a week at my house leisuring caped off with an epic day of friends and a sleep over.
Half of this crew and others dyed their hair blonde.
The room temperature down in the TV room was like 95 degrees with all the heating engines of teenagers.
It occurred to me, while riding my bike, that most town I've lived in over the last 40 years have been on an upward trajectory, economically - Lancaster, PA - Pittsburgh PA - Martha's Vineyard - NYC - Catskills - Milford - Hudson Valley. I'm sure that economic 'brighter day' has served as a strong rip tide in my overall business investment optimism as I launch ventures, or stick with it in hopes the tide turns my way.
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.
Ranch 68 SOLD
Had a pretty good vacation, and also did a lot of monetizing and movement while I was gone. We closed on Ranch 68, closed on Ranch 66 and went into contract on a resale that the owners of 8 years were kind enough to let me list and sell. That's about $2.2m of transaction value while on the beach in the Riviera, if anyone is counting.
This house, even though it wasn't the first to close was the first to go into contract as a result of a food truck open house I had about a year ago. Was it only a year ago I hadn't sold a house there?- wow, hadn't thought of that way. Anyway, this young Ukranian handsome couple who had their first child while we were building the home, was the first the sign up. I often joke - at least I think he knows it's a joke - that here is was acting like a rookie home/land buyer, with his foreign naivety going up against and aged and veteran Catskills deal maker, and by moving first and having a good eye ended up getting the best deal in the project - literally picked my pocket!!! And picked a winner of a piece of land when it was pretty hard to decipher what was going where, etc.... My no problem - early movers, the ones that take on a little extra risk, usually get rewarded with better pricing. Same thing happened to me in St Pete's, where I was one of the first 15 buyers in a new downtown condo and got about a $200k first mover, developer needs sales, discount.
So good for them. I'll do a quick aside - you know what they didn't have while navigating the duty and work and stress of a pregnancy - they didn't have build drama. Sure we had our issues and problems to work through, which we did and now they are moving in. Pretty much on time and pretty much on budget - 2 things you don't encounter much in this business - plus a really fun and creative and tasteful home that will meet their needs for a long time to come.
If you zoom in you can see the baby with a huge smile.
A 2400 sq ft 3 bedroom Ranch on 7+ acres. The acreage we are able to offer up there is unheard of in this market. With land itself going for $250k+ for questionable quality, what we are doing up there in terms of the whole package pricing is simply not touchable for most of my competition. That's why I took the leap and did the subdivision, even though I knew the risks of time and money it would entail.
Beautiful home. Lovely clients. Another notch in our 24 year track record belt of designing, building, selling homes and pairing them with best in class pieces of land.
A brain is a funny thing to waste on over-focusing on problems and their requisite solutions instead of the glory of the sale and all the relationships - I guess the issue is the 'win' is static and defined, while the problems are fluid and evolving.
Back from france and back in the saddle
Ok, I was probably a little hard on American Airlines. In fact, I’m probably a little hard on everyone, but everyone’s hard on me, so what’s good for the goose….
I only mention the AA reevaluation since the flight home was so perfect, probably a mindset and reset after a fabulous time away as much as anything. I’m starting to get a glimpse of a lost personality that was just overwhelmed with work and responsibilities going on 4 years now. I guess ‘overwhelmed’ is the wrong word - being a word person - overwhelmed infers ultimately defeated, and that didn’t happen here. But I was fully employed to say the least, fully engaged, tested stressed and taxed every moment of every day for years. Starting to emerge from that test. I passed. But I was tested.
I saw something once, and then again recently, and it’s true. If you are a motherfucker who won’t quit - seriously won’t quit, just won’t do it- that’s a serious person as a friend or adversary. I’m that guy. I heard someone calling it ‘callousing your mind’, meaning you get used to doing things you don’t want to - be waking early, a Saturday or Sunday meeting, a late night, a long drive, a tough conversation and a hundred other examples - just as tradesman develops callouses that protects his hands, a calloused mind enables to you just get in there and get it done. Lots of softies out there - a hard working calloused mind is a serious thing.
Seven hours into an eight hour flight. Went pretty fast. I’ve been eating a lot of sweets, will have to tip the scales and see the damage done when I get back. If I could get back to Riviera next year too, that would be a win for sure.
Have to pick up the poor dog who’s been kenneled for 2 weeks and then on Friday drive to Penn State to watch my son’s QB varsity career get started with a 7x7 at one of the Penn State facilities on Friday. Got weekend client meetings, a baseball game on Sunday. Hitting the ground running but it’s in a decelerating fashion - if I’m doing a 1/3 of the business next year this time I’m doing now I’ll be surprised. My run is over and now the 24 year cash flow grind is settling and not being re-deployed immediately and rashly. Will be interesting to see what that looks like come December. The decision to hang it up, not to be putting up the most homes in the Hudson Valley at the greatest value for a large number of homeowners, didn’t come easy, but I tried for 16 months to build a team around me that could scale, and I failed. I tried, and we mixed it up a few different ways, and built some great homes and worked with some good people, but in the end, I got left continuing to do the heavy lift. In fact heavier, since now I had a more human resource bullshit to deal with. People! People have been the story of this whole journey of course - and the relationships therein have been amazing, but I'm not a natural people person, and especially not a natural under the stress and strain I put everyone around my under as we always push the boundaries of what is possible with enough strategic thinking and attention to peak efficiency.
I definitely see how the company I want to have should be organized, I just failed to find the people to do it with. Probably mostly my fault - I just didn’t have the ability to manage the intense nature of the operations, and the tedious nature of personnel management, at the same time- the techniques and methods for resolving each were too different and I was unable to summon the disparate hats needed to pull it off. I mentor, and have mentored, in life changing ways - dozens if not hundreds of people but the failure to build an office staff stemmed from the whiplash nature of people, their needs, idiosyncrasies, problems, quirks, talents, deficiencies, etc…. Just too much and the sand in the hour glass ran out before I got it figured out, got rested up and got recharged.
It’s fine. I couldn’t be more relieved. Feels good to decrease the RPM’s on our race car. Vrrromm, vrrrooom. Now I get to see how it feels to hop off the hamster wheel of building and selling, rinse and repeat. I guess the values of our existing homes go even higher with an even greater scarcity.
Above, the church steps I decided to sit on at 11:30pm on night and check in with 20 members, one by one, of the team - since it was 5:30, just after work back home. I didn't work a lot, but I did check in and I'm a morning checker-iner - so I had to refrain till mid-afternoon to check in for their morning. That was interesting.
