New York Daily News Link
Link to the Real Estate Story in the NY Daily News - Country Time
Did you hear the one about...?
Did you hear the one about the little design and build company that started with nothing, made it's mark in Sullivan County designing and building new cottages and farmhouses, and then to just really tempt fate and push the envelope and try our luck we expanded into Woodstock and Saugerties two hours away, where we know so little about the area that we have to use gps to get to the grocery store? And have no team in place to help us get 'er done? And then selling our first two homes, worth over $820k, before the sheetrock was even up, without the help of any real estate company? In the middle of a nasty accelerating recession? And still building homes in less than 6 months?
Farmhouse 17. Insulation starts today.
Cottage 37 - Sheetrock starts today.
Spray foam insulation means one thing - our homes use typically half the heat other homes do. So be it low heat alarms, security systems, spray foam insulation, on demand hot water heaters, high efficiency gas boilers or a design collaboration and customization that is more or less 'on the house' - we have the best interest of our customers in mind, all the time.
Trust
We do a lot things well over here at Catskill Farms. We are good businesspeople, we are talented house designers, we are hard nosed construction managers, we are productive members of the community, etc... and so on. But I think what really makes us stand out is how much our clients trust us. On many levels. Families who choose to build with us are not just entering a business contract with us, they are giving us the reins of one the biggest financial and lifestyle decisions they will make in their lives. And we are part of it from the very beginning to the very end. Our entire business model is built on trust. How many builders will build you a house, allow you to collaborate and customize, while footing the bill till the end? That takes a lot of trust from us - faith that the client will accept the parameters of our design process, faith the client will come through in the end with the money to buy the completed house. After 100 homes, I think we lost one or two clients early in the process, who weren't able to see it through. Our sales contracts are all about trust - compared to the detail that could be included in the contract, ours goes the other way and eliminates all but the most general description. Sure, we know what piece of land we are building it on, we know the size and the scope of some of the discretionary upgrades that have been selected, but in terms of kitchen layout, bath layout, electric/plumbing layout, colors, doors, floors, etc... - we kind of improvise and design as we go - an organic Saturday afternoon decision making process, in the house (not on a piece of paper). So by all means, for anyone who has been through a build process, leaving the details for later sounds like a recipe for disaster. But it works for us, it works for our clients - because there is a respect and trust that the self-interest inclinations are kept at bay. Our clients come to us for lawyer recommendations, for financing recommendations, for house material recommendation - that cautious adversarial balance of power share the risk thing is left back in NYC. Thing about it, if we failed to deliver on these issues of trusts - if the lawyers we recommended didn't do a thorough job for these savvy clients, if the banks weren't equipped to handle the diversity of uniquely qualified candidates, if the kitchen guy was found to be marking up the products excessively - in sum, if Catskill Farms didn't enforce a discipline among all of our associates that we refer our clients to, our clients would lose that subliminal faith that makes solving problems together possible. Catskill Farms ensures that no one along the process looks at our clients as 'easy marks', which is the typical way the game is played up here. I think we take our job very seriously - the entire business and business philosophy was founded on an idea that there must be a better way - that people choosing upstate living don't have to buy that 'old wreck of a home' and buy into 'that old house fix up fantasy', they don't have to spend their hours, and mental, spiritual and financial resources trying to get their house to work right and stop with the weekly, expensive surprises. The inspiration for our business was founded on the simplest of notions - let people buy a cool home that works, so they can move onto the 2nd phase of getaway living - entertaining, coolin' it, doing nothing, cutting wood, reading a book, buying the perfect rockers for the front porch. From what I have seen, you can't ever fully recover from a rocky landing at your upstate home - if the whole process - the purchase, the financing, the fixup, the move-in, the cable company, the phone company - if the whole process sucked, well, that carries over into the whole success of the idea. So our idea was simple. Let's be trustworthy enough that people can pin their upstate aspirations on us, and they can leverage all of our knowledge and relationships in order to succeed themselves, and come in for a soft landing and get going on that easy country living. Trust to us means something simple - delivering on the expectations you have set with people. If you set those expectations sky high like we do, then you better be ready to get dirty and get it done for them. And to get these savvy, sour New Yorkers to trust us goes against their instincts, and giving them a great process where their trust is rewarded, -well, for me, that's half the reason it's worth doing in the first place. As they quest for a return to traditionalism in lifestyle and housing, we give them a return of good old fashioned trustworthiness as well. It's really something you can hang your hat on.
White Picket Fence
Yep, that's Lucas, over at Farm 15, looking through some binoculars at his long term plan. And then caught red-handed at the Brooklyn Marriott with Buzz Lightyear trying to crack to code to the room safe.
And Erin and Greg participating in our photo shot for the big spread coming out in a city rag shortly. They own Ranch 1, outside of Barryville NY.
Gary and Nikki, owners of Barn III, did a few additions to the property this summer including a white picket fence to keep the kids and dogs in (or better yet, to keep them out of the house). I thought it looked great. I'm a big fan of white picket fences. The man is this household works with numbers at Citibank.
Farm 16 is moving right along. This house a lot going on, with a finished basement and a 3rd bedroom upstairs. This family, who's man of the house is a construction/project manager in NYC, should be moving in in November.
Here's a new one for us. A nearly 5000 sq ft barn-style house we designed - we are calling it the Big Barn. It sits on 17 acres outside of Narrowsburg. Should be a pretty cool and unique structure when said and done. The man of this casa works with Bonds. That's james, doing his best to look efficient and productive.
The dance of the rock busters.
Without the roof shingles detailed on this Big Barn it looks a little weird, but note the residential-use garage doors defining the back side of this barn.
The family of the house below is run in part by a NYC environmental lawyer. We built this 2000 sq ft cabin and now are getting ready to sell it next week. Since the full blown post is coming down the line, I disguised the house with some photo tricks. this cabin is on 15 acres.
Farm 11 - all 1900 sq ft, 2.5 baths and 4 bedrooms of it - on 12 acres is rounding that final bend as well - with a closing expected in mid to late October. Just waiting on the floors to dry on the inside and we will be in there finishing her up. Eamonn works in IT.
And we just picked up some new land and just like that we picked up a customer who married it with a house (Barn V in this case) and now we are off to the races, putting in the driveway, clearing the land, etc..
And across the street is where Farm 18 is going. 7.5 acres of glory, unspoken for as of yet.
and Lucas with his chocolate cake glazed donut. Don't tell his Mom.
