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

Lisa and my bookkeeper Deborah both independently commented that my last post was BIZARRE - ending a nice rock star thread with unlinked and disconnected thoughts on taking abuse. Well, I guess it was a bit odd but I beg a little latitude because I have been UNINSPIRED recently - I don't think I'm really uninspired since it is Spring and I'm always inspired by the end of the brown season and the greeting of the green season. And it was pretty stressful to have day after day pass with no blog inspiration knowing the multitudes just out there waiting for some morsel of genius. I just think after 10 months of kickin it big time, developing/designing/selling 10 homes in 9 months (14 in 13 months), I just think I'm a bit exhausted and need a little physical and mental downtime. Take for instance my inspiration to start my last post about the rock star with the following - We started dancing And love put us into a groove As soon as we started to move The music played While our bodies Displayed through the dance We started dancing And love put us into a groove As soon as we started to move The music played While our bodies Displayed through the dance He tried pretending A dance is just a dance But I see He's dancing his way back to me He's dancing his way back to me ... but I ended up with nothing. Oh well, hopefully, I can regroup and kick start the imagination, exaggeration, and bravado before too long. But, in the interim, here are some pics to make me seem family-oriented, well-travelled, leisurely, and, mostly, truely white bread. Me, looking well-groomed, in our bay front room in Fair Hope. The first two nights we were there, big big storms with massive lightening and thunder blew in off the gulf bay.

Here's me and my son and lots of white linen.

And my good host Jason, striking a pose before Sunday brunch. He's pretty good looking but has serious chicken legs.

Big southern oak tree.

Pelican posse.

Lucas close up.

The ships and boats at the Grand, from our window.

Well, that's it. A nice vacation to the deep south with lots of homecooking and hospitality. Now its time to get back to work and sell some houses in this challenging environment. Just entered contract to buy 44 acres and a house for a price not seen for a few years - I'm pretty sure this isn't the end of the world, and soon enough optimism will pervade the psyche, and Catskill Farms will be there with a little house to augment those fancy life aspirations.

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I'm a huge complainer - I mean, a real professional. I complain all day long, every day, about something. Paint neater, build faster, organize better, - everyday I am complaining big time about something - so much so that I probably am one of the most effective complainers out there. I complain with a goal in mind, and a strategy to get there. In the end, I have nothing against complaining - it's the way things get done and remedied. Why do we complain and remain a royal pain to most of our suppliers? Simply, So we can provide a constantly better product to our customers. For instance, I already know of 5 people/businesses that need to be complained to today - the appliance guy for setting off 2 alarms in 2 separate houses (the yell, I'm going somewhere else strategy), the employee for copying the wrong person on an email (the sympathetic 'we try to keep the dufusness to a minimal' spiel), the excavator (can it take you any longer?) and a few others to unexciting to mention. But we have engaged in a 5 year improvement process, where everyday we try to get better - which is saying something since we are pretty good now. We try to get better, faster, more efficient, less wasted time and materials. We have probably hired 75% of all contractors in the area, and fired 99% of them for one reason or another. Achieving quality - it's a lot harder than you think, and it's a constantly moving target. Get better today, get better tomorrow, get better next month. What I don't understand about the previous guys I was posting about was, in the end, upon resolution/non-resolution/satisfaction/dis-satisfaction - life goes on, and something new comes up that needs to be complained about, resolved, gotten over. I think that's what I think is impressive about Steve Carr's 16 month complaint odyssey - he never loses focus, he never has anything new come up in his life that trumps this Catskill Farms complaint motif. I mean, most people just get over it and move on, even if they didn't get what they wanted.

"You are the absolute best. THANK YOU!! We will be your best homeowners, and we will never behave like those creeps from your blog!!" "We never, ever have to go out of our way to talk you up. We are always happy to say good things..." "You are definitely 'the man'". Actually, I made up the last one.

I mean, my life is exciting - sometimes in a bad way, many times in a good way, but one thing that is true is that everyday, 7 days a week, brings something my way unexpected - some glory, some defeat, some accolade, some defaming whisper, some back patting, some complaint. Let me walk you through this weekend, for instance. First I find out one of my customers who I thought was a friend is sending mass emails out complaining about Catskill Farms and it's quality, and an attempt to 'rally the troops' to 'see if the homeowners should do something." Now Hugh has been living in his house for 2 years, pretty much problem free. We had a punchlist we punched out, he had a wet basement incident we remedied immediately over a weekend, he didn't have any non-self instigated emergencies otherwise, so for a homebuilder, that's what you hope for. But here I am recipent of a forwarded email from someone on the list with really a negative overtone. The thing is, we would be happy to crack the whip on any subcontractor who failed to meet some basic quality criteria. I mean, putting myself in his shoes - if I was unhappy with my insurance rep because he sold me a policy that has $25,000 deductible if I let anyone on my jobsites without proper insurance verification - do I write an email to all his clients I know, or do I pick up the phone and talk it through with him? And even one step further - if he says he can't do anything about it, and I should've read the 100 page fine print policy, do I then write the mass email? Or do I show a little generousity and give the guy a break, and just work through it? I know what direction I follow every time I have a choice - and that's to give a guy a break. And I think that's why I have a dedicated team up here in the middle of nowhere - a team I have kept very busy when their friends are siting at home, losing their homes and cars, and are otherwise living a depressed existence. So, what may I ask, is Hugh's problem? He spent zero dollars on maintenence for 2 years, just like I promised, and then has his boiler maintenenced and freaks out and writes a 'let's go get him' email. Like Lisa always says - 'Who are these people? They have these beautiful houses, don't really have any problems with the houses, and all they do is bitch and complain." Do I really need to remind these 'haters' - that's our new name for them - that they own the only houses in America that haven't plummetted in value? But these homeowners hire home inspectors who comb through the house before they buy it, everything works fine for 2 years and then they call a random heating guy who talks shit about the previous guy, just like every other tradesman talks shit about the carpenter/painter/tile guy/electrician, that came before them, etc... and all of a sudden we get ganged up on. This one heating guy even told one of my customers they were lucky the 'house didn't blow up'. Now come on, that's pretty extreme. Sad, and counter-productive. I don't think any of our 125 homeowners would ever say I won't at least discuss possible remedies to any issue. It's weird - I built 18 homes on this 2 mile stretch of road, and on one end I have a small group of angry homeowners, and on the other I have happy homeowners - and in the end, the houses are the same, - same quality, same styles, same attempt at service - It's a real testament to the 'power of the mob' - both in a good direction or in a bad. And then I have these other homeowners stopping by our house to invite us over for tennis and barbeque, another of martinis, another for a Memorial Day party, and a few others who make it possible to enter and show off their homes at any time to perspective homeowners. They bring us baby clothes, fresh vegetables, and brag us up to all their friend. And then on the other hand, I get an email from a customer on Saturday saying their basement flooded, - a finished basement, so it's a big deal, with moisture and mold issues, let alone a holiday weekend and all that. So it's no fun, that's for sure. And it's a simple case of the contractor who was hired to do the work closed up the ceiling of the basement without allowing for heat to reach the water pipes now in the ceiling. Now, most times everything will be fine, but as a precaution any time we close up a basement ceiling we do a thorough examination for any pipes that may be vulnerable once they are enclosed in an unheated space. So, little do you know, against all my advice, this homeowner hired someone local to do the work who didn't do the precautionary checklist, and over the winter, the pipe closest to the exterior, the outside faucet, froze and broke, so when the homeowner turned on the hose to water the shrubs and didn't have any water pressure and stood there scratching their heads as 15 minutes of water was running in the finished basement. And then they call me to fix their problem or else my name is Mud, with a capital M. And then on the other end we showed 3 couples our houses this past weekend, and I wouldn't be surprised if all 3 don't end up making offers or joining our waiting list. That means, conceivably, we might be doing 6 deals in the month of May. And to anyone involved in real estate, the adrenaline rush of making a deal, or possibly making a deal, is a real high. And I do realize we are still in a serious recession. Last year about this time in the pretty slow real estate world, we lined up 7 buyers who took us through February of this year. Now, with the economy even slower, and all the deals we started last year fully consumated, we are lining up another crew of future homeowners, hopefully endowed with the ability to enjoy this serious luxury of country living. And then on the other hand I got this guy named Steve running around doing everything he can do to make us look bad - if you remember, this is the guy that hasn't had a job since I've known him (1.5yrs), tried to steal my carpenters everytime I sent them over to do him a favor, and then sits around scratching his head as to why I refuse to come close to his house - I mean, breaking up a guy's business and team, now that's pretty lowdown - and then, considering it's the guy who just built you a really nice house, with no delays, and zero cost overruns, - it's just out of the ballpark classless. This guy Steve Carr, who isn't even one of my homeowners (his wife owns the house), has been running around for 12 months poisoning the minds of anyone who will listen about Catskill Farms - and since he can't find a job, he has a lot of anger and time on his hands. AND SMART PEOPLE LISTEN TO HIM!! And now his neighbors (and the police) think he is vandalizing their plants and property. Great guy - real reliable source of information and has been doing everything he knows how to damage my business, - which affects my family, my employees and their families. So I guess it's time to stop ignoring it and taking the high road and turning the other cheek. Stay tuned to watch Catskill Farms push back - it's always a little Sugar Ray, a little Raging Bull, and, in the end, a big left like Tyson, keeps us standing and our adversary sucking wind on their backs. And then, on the exciting front, and on the other hand, James K from the office is jamming up in Walton NY, with Peter Sorenen's gothic cottage on the hill. The house is framed up and ready to roof shortly. And I just bought 44 acres and we just are putting in the footings for the new houses tomorrow morning. And just went golfing this morning with my friend Eric, on a beautiful morning, with very little in terms of crowds. Well, that's not even the extent of it, but you get the picture. Many thorns in my side, many trophies on my shelf. We've survived 5 years while doing our best, and I hope we can make it another five - since without question, we have enhanced the architectural heritage of Sullivan County real estate. Oh, on another good note - we fought, and we fought, and we fought, and we fought, and we won - we elected a supervisor, who fired the insane assessor, and hired a normal person and the real estate taxes on every single property I own, or have sold in the town of Highland, has been lowered. Tune in, As the World Turns, at the Catskill Farms - http://www.catskillfarms.com/