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

I have always been a voracious reader of business news as far back as I can remember, - in fact I credit the NY Times Business page with most of my broad, real life understanding of micro-business operations - I used to just suck that section up while working my 6am-11am parking lot attendant shift at Shadyside Hospital while attending the University of Pittsburgh from 1988-1992. Under the Business Section, there is a sub-section called Small Business, and it's composed of a bunch of blogs by entrepreneurs. One of them is "You're the Boss." One guy is blogging as he is preparing to open a restaurant, and he just wrote a great thread "How to Make 100 Enemies List" - it was just such a familiar narrative to me, where every push has a pull, every tough decision leaves many disappointed non-chosen ones, and every action has many more opinions than I ever imagined. http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/ And then to have the wherewithal and audacity to actually succeed, - now, that's when you see the real haters. Anyway, these little online communities of persons battling the same or similar wars as us is definitely a great way to keep it all in perspective. Most of the hurdles are so inane that sometimes I think the most successful business people are those that survive and maneuver around nonsense successfully. Anyone can be brilliant, but to suffer fools endlessly in order to grab the big picture, now that's something to see. Actually, after 7 years of building a business in a economically depressed region, I forget that my tolerance for 'eating shit', 'turning the other cheek', 'letting bygones be bygones', 'getting shafted' and 'forgiving and forgetting' is far more advanced than most mere mortals. and that's not meant to be an unhumble statement - it's a business necessity up here, not any less important than cash flow management, employee relations, and quality-control. In an area with a shallow talent/labor pool, you get a lot of chances to be disappointed, and not letting that cloud your decisions (however difficult) is the secret to country success. You build your team with what you have - not what you wish for. And you keep improving incrementally and gradually. Any grander ambition is doomed to failure. And you collect your unexpected enemies like so many notches in a belt, feathers in a cap, or etches in a the tree bark.

For frequent followers of this blog, they remember the needless pain and suffering regarding this Farmhouse.

Now it turns out this is the first resale of a Catskill Farms home that has been resold.

Amazingly, after the worst housing pricing decline in the history of the US with the exception of the Great Depression, this house appraised for more than the owners purchased it for 2 years ago. that's a pretty significant statistic, because while the new owner didn't pay the full appraisal price, the fact remains that this home held it's value with all sort of macro-economic odds against it.

And then my friend Dean went to reappraise his house that he bought in February 2009 (remember when the world was ending) and once again the appraisal landed above what he paid for it. Now, I'm not saying that means selling things in this environment is easy, but it does mean that our homeowners retain many advantages over the average American underwater homeowner - good appraisals mean the ability to refinance into lower rates, good appraisals mean the ability to sell when you need to, good appraisals are what it is all about, and with the extreme conservatism of the appraisal industry these days, getting a deal done - be a house sale or a refinancing - means our homes are passing some pretty serious stress tests.

So we finished up the DIY Blog Cabin show with a flourish. It will air on a day to be announced shortly... And we started roughing in the plumbing and heating at Nikki and Gary's Barn III...

And hosted the local building inspectors for our Certificate of Occupancy inspection at Cottage 28...

...where Tito the master painter was in the house doing his last minute touchups...

And the septic, and siding and sheetrock and front galley walkway at Ranch III...

And Curtis and Bryan working on the staircase as Cottage 29.

...And Ranch II basement buildout underway.

Loads of construction to blather on about, fer sure.

This comment was so good I thought I'd give it its very own thread to highlight this thoughtfully articulated opinion of our efforts - "wow you must be the smartest guy in the catskills. how can you even look at the locals . do you also import fake friends from the city so as you have people with your intellegence level to talk to. this blog is a joke with blather and self promotion that is way over done. pat yourself on the back some more why dont you. " About the 'smartest guy in the catskills', well, they said it, not me. And I would spend even more time patting my self on the back, but I'm pretty busy building and selling designing great getaways. HOT. That's the only word for the last few days.