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

I’m nearly done reading The Color Purple.  I thought it was some horrific tale of Black America, one so dire I’ve never seen the movie, but as of right now, it’s just a good book.  I’m hoping the last 80 pages doesn’t drop some horror bomb.  The life led by most people who have ever lived are barely comprehensible in our American hammock of comfort and convenience. I'm either moving onto The Jungle next or War and Peace.

Also reading A Time to Grieve which bills itself as meditations on grief.  Unflinching and direct, probing, it picks at the open wound and validates, instructs and calms with perspective.   It’s a tough but important read.

Nothing bothers me more than getting my car serviced and they don't reset the Maintenance Required soon. Seems like an easy win for the mechanic's shop.

I'm making a concerted effort to 'unsubscribe' to every piece of email I receive that I don't want - It will be interesting to see if it makes a dent in the inbox inflow. I think it will, but it is a daily effort that's for sure keeping up with it.

Ugh, having dropped an important pass in the end zone when I was 17, I hate seeing games lost by an unusual mistake - the missed Tennessee FG against a rival, the missed extra point by Notre Dame.  I like a good game as much as the next guy - I hate a scapegoat more than most.

It’s hard to tell what's real or not anymore on social media apps like TikTok or Instagram, but today I came across one that had Trump and Prince Charles sitting in a manicured and deeply green yard with a band marching and playing Trump’s campaign song, YMCA.  It seemed so fantastical I doubted its reality.  And if it was real, was it to gain favor with pomp and circumstance with an easily flattered man or just a way to have a little fun with everyone in on the joke including Trump?  Got me.  The world is so inside out upside down who knows anymore.

Just driving around Sullivan County doing our survey and septic due diligence on a beautiful Tuesday.

I’d like to say it’s just the kids who feel the nag of the phone after a few minutes away, but it’s me for sure too. I’m probably better at recognizing the notion, but I’m still tugged by it, especially after doom-scrolling for a little while.  I didn’t really know what doom scrolling was/is - I’m told it’s just spending a lot of time on an app, but to me the phrase feels more like when you watch too many videos about Gaza or police encounters, or people stuck in caves while cave diving - I don’t know why watching videos of new bulls being dropped off at a new yard of eager heifers, or families that make music together, or babies and their dogs would be considered ‘doom- scrolling’ - but that’s what my nearly 17 year old is telling me.

I’m astounded at the number of people who don’t have their estates in order. The more I ask, the more I’m astounded.  Smart people, savvy people. I’m asking everyone now - every employee I have, every small business partner I have - do you have a will, and do you have life insurance?  I’ve already gotten 3 men to act and get it together.  A man without a will and some simple term life insurance is a man who really isn’t showing a lot of love to his family - it’s that simple. So it’s my mission now to make sure the people I have contact with have thought this out and gotten it taken care of.  It literally takes 60 minutes.  The shit-show I’m currently involved with has made what was always abundantly clear abundantly urgent.  I’m sure I’ll annoy a lot of people but that’s the cost of doing business with me from now on.

With the killing of the right wing guy, you can see why people want to ban TikTok - it’s just impossible to control the narrative as you can with cable news or newspapers.  As soon as one side deploys their press machinations of some narrative or another, here comes the army of TikTokers with a couple of million views debating and countering the MSM narrative.

Just planned a trip to FCU and OLB and ATH and EWR IAH to see Denver v San Fran.  Airport codes - Rome, Italy - Olbia, Italy - Athens Greece, Houston Texas, Newark.  Airport codes you learn as you plan some travel.  In May 2026 heading to Sardinia for a 6 day motorcycle ride, then 6 days on the Amalfi Coast and then 5 days on a little ship cruising around the Mediterranean with my 28 yr old nephew wingman.    Gonna miss him when he gets a serious girlfriend.

I once mistook the grocery store floor cleaning robot with the grocery store question and answer robot, so stood there posing questions to the floor cleaning one.

Anyone who has ever run a small business understands the ebbs and flows of headache, heartache and the sweet aroma of victory.  Not sure which - the ebbs or the flows - is considered the positive wave, but whichever, that’s what I’m riding right now.  Good team, good land, sunny weather, lower interest rates and some positive mojo momentum.  I think I’m due for a good run of it, if just by the sheer statistical overdue nature of it.  Yes, I’ve been making plenty of money, but that’s only one metric of success - having a little peace and quiet and routine and predictability and fun is another.

Lots of houses coming up. I keep telling new clients 'it's my last 10' - seems like it's true, hopefully it doesn't turn into one of those 'going out of business' sales tools that never actually happens. Seems less true than it did a few months ago, that's for sure. We will have to see how this wash and rinse cycle goes - land is expensive, construction is expensive, economy dicey, little more competition. I always do have an ejection button at the ready - our margins are gross enough (as in gross margins) that I have a lot of wiggle room for a sales negotiation if push comes to shove.

Before there was Catskill Farms there was Chuck in NYC, ill-fitted, ill-suited, ill-prepared for big city life. But I learned a lot, a lot of it sort embarrassing in the rear view mirror. But I happened to be working in Soho at the Scholastic HQ that was being built and I was at the breakfast bar up top, with a pretty view south towards the towers when all hell broke loose. The next day I made my way down there, having grabbed some Cen Hud yellow coveralls as diversionary disguise - not that there was a lot of perimeter enforcement at the time. Scary, cause buildings were still falling, creaking, moaning and falling over.

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The yellow envelope says "Directions to Country Clubs".

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I spent the day down there, helping on the bucket chains, roaming an empty building, taking some photos on a real camera - no iphones yet.

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Names of those lost from one company etched in real time on a dust covered window.

You know you are feeling mortal when you take a look at your 90 page living trust and identify a hole in the detailed plan - that hole revolving around what if me and my son die together or at the same time, or what would happen if I would pass, and then he would pass without a will or beneficiaries (meaning, pass young).  Turns out in PA where I live, my estate would then be considered ‘intestate’, and governed by the rules of the State, the exact opposite of what all this planning is about.  And here’s the thing about all you aghast at even the thought of this - there is zero correlation between planning and dying.  We all go sometime - fade off into that bright light, down that long tunnel. There is no living without dying - one defines the other - one makes the concept of the other possible.  Good planning is just that - good planning.  And I’m a planner and give a lot of credit to good planning for making all this all possible.

Monday night gravel ride in Milford. 5 miles in, 5 mile out. My Strava failed to kick and I'm suffering from the 'if it's not Strava it didn't happen' feeling.

So, I’ve begun making a concerted effort in my iCloud email account to unsubscribe to every email that is junk or a mailing list I don’t want to receive (i.e., 85% of them) instead of just deleting them.  I’ll report back in a month if it changes the volume of junk emails I get.

We push ahead on the closing of 7 new pieces of land at prices about double what I’m used to paying.  That means a lot of things, but one of them is that it costs more money to buy them.  Obvious, yes, in theory, until you start writing the checks and the bank account starts dropping by 6 figures at every closing instead of after 2 or 3 closings.  Surveys, septics, walking the land, dreaming and envisioning what house will go where, what will the market support from a price vantage - reverse engineering the land and house package in order to back into the best play for the market at this particular time.

My home gym.

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“This particular time” to me currently means there are good buyers for the right homes at the right price and that right price is elevated for something special and profitable for our bread and butter 5 acres and a cool house.  Inventory remains low.  Buyers remain motivated.  Good houses sell.  Catskill Farms resales jump off the rack (the mature landscaping after a few years of ownership post-build and general love of property all our homeowners exhibit is clear to anyone and make the properties irresistible to prospective buyers).

Came across this resale on Rivka Road - A Ranch we built and sold in 2021/2022 during the Covid go-go times.  Nice house - in fact if memory serves me correctly, it was this father-daughter duo who took our one Ranch design, and stretched and tweaked it onto we had a new design, about 500 sq ft bigger, and we’ve never looked back.   I think they were Airbnbing this in the end, and that game just isn’t what it used to be - low margins, lots of work, picky clientele who are looking for a special amenity.  3 or 4 bedrooms with a porch is just a hard sell in this competitive space.  The $899,000 price tag is also interesting - a little lower than I would have expected, placing it solidly in the ‘profitable’ category, but by no means a grand slam.  I think we originally sold it for $710k, and was one of the homes in this 16 home project that began to come close to real market value. 

Out bushwhacking and scouting land.

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All during Covid, our prices lagged behind the market since our deals were made 9 months before the sales date, and prices were going up 5% a month - meaning a $600,000 price tag house was north of $700k market value when we sold it.  Meaning, I lost out on a ton of profit - but I was too busy to cry in my milk too much, and I’m careful, didn’t overprice, booked a ton of deals at good prices, crept my prices up house by house.  What it means is nearly everyone who bought from us in 2020-2023 have hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity in their homes.

I look at some other builders and they are literally leaving their clients under water, house after house after house.  Taking every nickel of value and finding a way to charge for it, wring it from their clients pocket to theirs.   Through almost purposeful inefficiency.  Our entire business plan revolves around being serious about time and price, and that’s actually just rare.  It’s easier to jerk people around with a smile on your face and grab every unearned nickel.  Someone should do a study on how much our clients have made off of Catskill Farms homes, vs the resale value of other builder’s homes.  

Lulu loves our daily off-leash walks in the Bashakill.

This inadvertent design leap and tweak I mentioned 3 paragraphs ago has happened more than once - we are working with a client with a good eye, who likes one of our designs, requests some changes, requests some more changes, and boom, before you know it, you have a new floor plan.  One of our favorite barn houses happened that way.  More than once as well someone - a framer, plumber - someone makes a mistake that provides a view for different layout and wallah, something new.  Same thing on the barn house - a framer made a mistake and the more I looked at it the more I realized the mistake could actually be a new half bath layout.  That’s the advantage of me being on the sites a lot - I catch things, and I know my homes well enough that sometimes a mistake provides an opportunity.

Many times good opportunities arise as you are digging out of a mistake.  The climb out of the mistake is steep, so you look for alternatives, and then there is a brand new lane to travel, and many times we never look back - the new alternative lane and route is better, more compelling.  But let’s not get carried away - many times a mistake is just a mistake and you have to through a bunch of money at it to fix it.

The big house on a lake in Fremont, just north of Callicoon and North Branch, is coming along nicely and quickly.

Now that I got this all figured out, have a pretty dynamic team, have the modular pool income stream, and look back at where I was 10 years ago - another 5-10 years of this just might be doable. Although it is getting a little annoying/concerning as members of my team - suppliers, vendors - get up and retire, leave us scrambling to fill their big shoes, many times unsuccessfully. We've been replacing some with younger newer teams, but some it's hard to see replacing them with similarly talented teams.

Life goes on.  Now I’m into a whole new genre of reading - teenage grief, parenting grief, general grief, etc…, with no firm timeline of exodus, surety of path or success of endeavor.  Times like this is when the habit of reading matters - you can go searching, peeling back the slow wandering thoughts of others.

I just finished the 800 page tome of a book.  Searching for the right word, I found ‘tomb’ also works, but is more slang, and means like it sounds - a large heavy ‘and potentially dusty’ object whereas ‘tome’ means large heavy book.

This was that. Both tomb and tome.  It had been sitting on my shelf for years, given as a present to me a few years ago - intimidating in its size as well as its subject matter - Che Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary from Argentina.  Did I really need to know that much about him?

Once I dug in, I found it very readable, both in the verse and the treatment of the subject matter.  I learned a ton about a ton - American policy in South America pre-Kennedy, Cuba’s uneasy and unplanned relationship with both USSR and China, the true ambitions of Che and Castro to spread marxist revolution through each country of South America, the true believer of Che in this effort and the familial and lifestyle sacrifices he made, their efforts in Africa, that the Cuban revolutionaries numbered only in the twenties when they toppled Batista’s Government in the 50’s so on and so on.  Very interesting.

My takeaways run both ways - because of all the ‘overwrought communism’ hysteria we’ve been taught was overplayed, it’s easy to downplay the aims and ambitions of Castro and Che.  However, hey had every intention of repeating Cuba throughout the hemisphere.  The problem of repeating it was multi-fold, and started with the lack of surprise, which was extinguished after Cuba’s overthrow.  The fall of Cuba woke up its neighboring states who then fortified their internal defences as well as their intelligence gathering techniques.  Three, for whatever reason Cuba’s government was so weak that a few dozen fighters could topple it was both hard to understand as well as hard to replicate in other places.

Lulu basking in the evening glow. She seems to curate her perches thoughtfully.

On the American side, a few things were at play.   Long before 1961 and the Bay of Pigs, the US was messing around down there, turning most of the continent into vassal states of big business and American interests.  The US’s casino and resort economy of Cuba was just the public face of a ton of interferenc, as it is now, a lot of it provoked by the success of Castro and Che in Cuba.  The concern grew from a business interference problem, to a continent-wide Marxist takeover, more of the domino effect you hear about SE Asia and Vietnam.  And the US leaders weren’t wrong in fearing what the Che’s had in mind and they got serious about stamping it out.

Of course, this is only one book and one perspective.  However it can’t be dismissed like an AI meme since it was 800 pages not 8 seconds.  I’m afraid I’m now going to be on a Cuba/South America reading binge, though this topic and books surrounding it also might qualify for my Audible listening, of which I’m quite particular of what gets read and what gets listened to.

Road biking every Thursday.

As an Audible book describes well- “a scruffy handful of self-taught revolutionaries - many of them kids just out of college, literature majors, and art students, and including a number of extraordinary women - who defeated 40,000 professional soldiers to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.”  Highly unlikely, but it happened, and was never repeated,

Which reminds me of one of my maxims in my business - just cause it worked yesterday, don’t be so sure it will work today and tomorrow. That’s a trap just waiting to spring.

Business continues as I step up to the plate again, buy 7 pieces of land and take a big swing.  Why not?  Life is short and with my new all star team, I’m able to make it look easy.  Step up and spin the wheel of million dollar speculation - a habit I picked up 23 years ago now. Good to end a Cuba post about gambling, as it was a promising mecca until Castro had his say.

Friday night light season.

Grief. It's a horrible club to belong to - tainted and estranged from the everyday pleasures, whispers and two left feet condolences. I'm not on the very front lines of it but certainly close enough, but for those who are, they carry it around, tangibly, where ever they go. Grief is heavy and loud and slippery and quiet. One minute graspable the next an infection into the soul that no hand-wringing, denials, bargaining or prayers can change.