MLS Sale, Last 360 days, Ulster County
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.
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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.
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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.
Sold in maybe 2012 as one of our first homes in Ulster. Sold for $895k, we probably sold in 20112 for $350k.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1500 sq ft plus a finished basement. They did a great job on the exterior landscaping and walked away with $300k+.
Bought for $500k, sold for $850k. Kerhonkson NY.
Beside renting it for $18k a month during the pandemic, they sold for $1.4m - pocketing nearly $700k.
This house, one of the first in Ulster for us, has resold 4 or 5 times. Beloved each time. Higher price each time.
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.
MLS Sales - Last 360 days Sullivan County
This Farmhouse, Famous Farmhouse 12,
was built around 2008 or so, and has resold 4 times, to very different families each time. Quintessential Quaker style with short roof overhangs and a deck off the MBR. We built and sold this home back in 2008 for $450k. Just sold for $995,000.
I've said for years, and the metrics don't lie, our year to year, decade to decade contribution to the pocketbooks of a wide range of the upstate working community is immense. Our local sales tax contribution is eye-popping; I'd say pushing $600k a year. Real estate transfer taxes, mortgage taxes, etc... - it adds up to large numbers. And it's not just one year - it's year after year. There may be bigger upstate one off projects, but if you measure the totality of what I've created out of thin air over 2 decades, I think we would outshine even the largest upstate investments - just because we just keep at it. These are needle-moving numbers, creating a consumer market for restaurants, hotels, airbnb's farmer's markets and dozens of others that never existed to a degree that small business in the area could be much more than expensive and time-consuming hobbies.
I had some fun doing a MLS search in Sullivan County for the homes of ours that sold last year - those new ones driven by us and the incredibly vibrant resale ecosystem where homeowners and realtors both pocket serious bang. Country House Realty and its lead agent Erik just celebrated most single family sales and highest sales volume agent - and that is made possible in part to the turnover of our good-looking and highly sought after resales, and I also used Erik to sell some of my new stuff, and he also brought some buyers to us on his own. And what's always been true, selling our homes builds some serious cred in the marketplace, and that leads to other listings, and that leads to be considered quite the mover and shaker of good looking high quality inventory.
But truth be told Erik made the first move by blowing doors off some of resales just at the start of the pandemic, and that caught a lot of peoples eye, including mine.
Listed here are just Sullivan County, the county where we made our start in 2001. Doesn't include Ulster or Dutchess, which actually have more sales than these at higher prices.
On 18 acres, this Ranch sold to a couple who already owned one of micro-cottages in Eldred but wanted to upgrade. Famous Ranch 55.
A house I designed, built and finished without a buyer lined up, which resulted in a final inspiring product. This was our last house for The Crest, phase 1. On 10 acres. Famous Barn 52.
This Ranch on 10 acres was another one behind Lander's River Tours off of 97, an area we have been mining for solid 5-10 acres of wooded parcels since 2010. Famous Ranch 62.
Clocking in at around 2000 sq ft, these Mid-Sized Ranches fit the bill for families, couples and singles. Famous Ranch 63.
This good looking classic farmhouse in Cochecton was a larger version of our very first home, inspired by a farmhouse in Fremont NY that was falling down then and still is managing to continue to fall down. Great lines. Famous Farmhouse 60
Classic 1500 sq ft mid-sized barn on a large pond in Bethel, in a development I bought from the same guys who sold me The Crest in Fremont. We built out a project that had more or less seen zero sales in 15 years till we came in a blew the barn doors off by selling out the whole thing - Famous Barn 31.
Built and sold around 2018 for $350k. Just sold for $655,000.
Believe it or not, in 2004 I found a ramshackle one story 800 sq ft house and turned it into this on Fox Mountain Road in Livingston Manor. I would have been better just renovating it into a small cottage ranch but that was before I was the first one to realize the market potential for small homes in the area.
Renovated and sold for $250k. Just sold for $640,000.
An early Cottage that checked all the boxes. Built into the international real estate collapse, the retreat into small homes worked fine for us - a vertically integrated low cost serious design/build firm. Famous Cottage 20.
We built and sold this home for $240k in 2008ish. Just sold $70k above asking for $615,000.
Famous Ranch 58 at the Crest, a 28 lot project where I combined a lot of lots to reduce the density to 17 max.
Sold in the $600's, Chapin Estate is where value goes to die. Famous Chapin Farmhouse.
Realtors love these Catskill Farms listings. They always sell, always embraced by the marketplace, always top dollar. And a lot of what drives the value is the business idea from the very very beginning in 2001 - good looking, durable homes on a private piece of wooded land.
As a history buff, if someone would ever do a deep dive into the historical record in a couple hundred years - they would be wondering about this Catskill Farms who shows up so often deed transfers and municipal records in the 2000-2030 era. Picture super slow fade out - ken burns style - of yellowed deed in the county courthouse. Big legacy.
Following your thoughts
A dash of arctic air this week before a rapid rise into the 30’s and 40’s. I hate the swings; they cause such a mess with snow melting and frost coming out of the ground causing havoc all around, especially driveways and private roads - mud galore. Get cold in November and stay there till March is best for homebuilding - the cold causes its own issues but I’d rather have the consistent issue than navigating the roller coaster of frigid and luke-cold.
34” of snow in Vermont over the last week. We head there for our 10+/- annual Vermont ski trip over President’s Day. With my son now skiing pretty well, makes it a lot of fun. Actually thats not true - he’s actually a pain, never knowing which personality he will bring out that day.
I’m reading The Rings of Saturn, which is a combination ‘serious piece of good writing, with original structuring (think oddly placed paragraphs or lack of and few chapter breaks), a travelogue of sorts, book-ended with writing that follows the writer’s thoughts wherever they may lead” - luckily for me they lead onto random English history based on the coastline he is on, and where is mind goes.
Currently, the coast of England led to quite a few pages about Joseph Conrad (formerly Joseph Koreniowski of Ukraine) and his seafairing experience that led him to the Congo, and a meandering about the Belgium presence there under King Leopold. That intersects interestingly the Kingsolver book I read recently, The Poisonwood Bible, all about the Congo. Let’s just say it’s hard to square any of our western self-impressions of the ‘good guys’ when you read much into the history of colonialization in Africa, South America, or heck North America. All western societies have been more or less white supremist in their actions over their non-white neighbor throughout history. We may now be supportive of individual non-white rights within the individual context, on a broader level among societies, it still is solidly white supremist. We believe ourselves to be better by a long shot over these societies.
The New Yorker had one of their long reads that I turned page after page - some of these can be 15 pages long. This one, “The Long Way” was about a kid traveling solo in the 70’s and his crazy tale of adventure and survival.
My college friends - Leo and Justen - and I zoom on occasion and we were talking about when we traveled after college in the mid-90’s, long before cell phones and daily email. How we would call home on occasion, with our parents having no real idea where we were. How once Justen got disconnected after a short static-y late night call to his mom (the time change never fully considered when deciding to call home), where his mom was left in complete uncertainty as to the point of the call, why it was placed, what was said, and if it was an emergency, - and just sat on that information until Justen called back a few weeks later. That would and could never happen today.
Sullivan County projects
I started this business in Sullivan County in 2002 and continue to build in this county to this day. Currently we have quite a bit going, and the county has always been a good source of business for me. Up until Covid, I literally had next to zero competition because the selling price points were just uninteresting to most people - and I use the word ‘uninteresting’ in sort of the English understatement sort of way - there was little to no way to make money on new construction in Sullivan County (SuCo) - the sales prices just did not support them. SuCo had a ceiling of around $425,000, and if you got that you were really doing something right. The real target was low $300’s.
I guess one of the reasons I’ve been able to hang around so long in this risky business is I honed my whole game in one of the most unforgiving business environments a lot of us have/had ever seen. There’s a saying if you can do it in NYC you can do it anywhere, but back in the day, the business environment of SuCo made NYC look like child’s play.
What a business landscape/environment like that means is you have to be creative with your product, you have to very cost-efficient, and you have to be constantly pivoting with your price points and product. I had an ‘advantage’ in this because I showed a lot of homes back in the day (after 2008 with my son in his child’s seat) and I would always invite the clients in my car, and since it’s SuCo, with big distances separating everything, I would get to know the people, but more importantly, I would learn of their changing tastes, their preferences, and other market insights that to a careful listener would be a lot of information to incorporate into my business plan. And I was a careful listener indeed because I frankly couldn’t afford to go out of business because I had so much debt my life would have ruined forever with that big black stain of bankruptcy.
I learned all sorts of stuff - and always had the modesty to immediately incorporate any valuable market insights into my product. And when I say “the modesty”, I just mean I didn’t let ‘my plan’ interfere with ‘the reality’. Many times people are committed to their ‘plan’ and feel insecure about changing it because that would mean they were wrong to some degree in the first place, and somehow being wrong was a ding to their credibility. Me, I was too insecure about too many other business things (ie survival) to worry about ‘being wrong’ about the exact details of my business plan. I never started building log homes, or modular homes, or ‘going green’ or 100 other ‘ideas’ that crossed my desk, but I did constantly refine my product line and product process - so I stayed in my lane, but incorporated as many inputs as I could. Information was everywhere, you just had to be listening, but as importantly, you had to have a business product that was able to be tweaked and refined.
I had that, and was constantly adding to the line up. Farmhouses, then Cottages, Barns, then Moderns, then Mini’s, then different counties. Each insight, expansion, and risk-embracing pivot allowed us a little more diversity, which translates into a little more fortitude and dexterity which translates into a little more chance of survival if you experience an international real estate and financial system collapse when your pants were fully down (2008), 12 long years of a sort of morbid housing market, the Pandemic, the Inflation, The Competition (because of higher price points). I benefited over and over from information and the ability and willingness to pivot.
5 of the 12 homes we got going currently.
Not many people make it an entire lifetime in speculating in real estate without hitting some sort of hurdle that tosses you into bankruptcy at least once - could be something outside your control like 'the economy' or could just be some land investment that didn't pan out. It's the old adage that there are two types of motorcycle riders - those who have crashed, and those that will in the future. On both accounts, (I was an avid and reckless rider when I was young), I have bucked the traditional wisdom. Since my risk-taking is much less these days, and i don't ride motorcycles anymore, looks like I stand half a chance to buck it for good - which is fine with me.
