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

Even John D. Rockefeller would be impressed with our success with vertical integration and subsequent monopolization of the cool second home lifestyle. By cutting out and minimizing the middlemen everywhere, from architects to real estates agents, we have found a way to produce pretty amazing homes at pretty amazing prices creating pretty amazing values that anyone can see. We've been pretty amazingly busy - with seriously 2 or 3 calls a day not just inquiring but asking how to get in line, how to get a house. Once again, we not just start a risky speculative series of houses, but with the exception of one, we got them all under contract and that one will go soon with people pledging deposits over the phone. This isn't meant to be boastful, since that would infer arrogance when what we are really trying to do is sell homes, stay in businesses, provide for our families, continue to grow and BE THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN. Here a big morning fire with a big dump truck close enough to burn the paint off the cab. 7:30 am, dumping some septic system fill for the excavator.

Below is the only house we have left for sale - at 960 sq ft, 2 bedrooms and a great open floor plan and a bathroom that belongs in a much larger home. The house has electric, plumbing and is already insulated - the sheetrock delivered and starting tomorrow. We smartly decided to use cedar shake on this little beauty, and small smart stone on the approach side. I mean, she's good looking, and this is coming from a very discerning judge of good looking ness.

Inspired by a local home, just updated with bigger windows, more open floor plan, better heating, electric, warmer, cooler, etc...

Yes, to our frequent readers, this house still is in our inventory, ready to sell, in contract, all contingencies met, just waiting on the dates for the closing. This picture was snapped moments before a vicious rain storm this morning, and the light is sort of bouncing off the white trim. I'm thinking this deal will be consummated in the next week.

And Cottage 22 - Bronson and Courtney took the bull by the horns, and jumped in on this one - the first purchasers at our new project over on Tuthill Road in Lumberland. She's really coming along and we have a project close date of Mid to late September.

And Cottage 17, one of our larger cottages that average about 1300 sq ft, and usually fit almost 2 full baths. On 8 acres, on a lonely road 1 miles from the Delaware River, these gentlemen who signed up last week will never suffer from lack of peace, quiet, and serenity.

July 16, 2009 - deep in the midst of an historic recession - and we busier than hell, selling houses like lottery tickets - which, in a sense, they are - the buyers are lucky persons indeed. And the way it's going, it's easier to win the lottery or get hit by lightening than be decisiveness enough to buy one of our homes. But we welcome any effort, nevertheless.

I'm at Blacksburg VA for a wedding, a full 11 hour road trip from Eldred NY. Lisa said it was 8 hours, but it turned out it was 11 and that's one of the reasons she and her friend Amy have the reputation and nickname for BAD INFORMATION. This is no new trend - realistically, all information coming from these two women needs to verified to some degree - This has been one whale of a 18 month stretch for Catskill Farms. Currently, by the numbers - Since January 1, 2008, we have sold 12 houses We are currently building 4 new homes, and renovating 2. We currently have 4 homes in some stage of a sales contract. We currently have a 2 home waiting list. We currently are selling 25% of all homes selling in the entire area over $250k. And that's an incredible statistic. Our sales demographic since January 2008, including houses currently under contract, is - 4 families with children under the age of 5. 6 singles 5 families without children (as of yet) 1 family with grown children A brief extrapolation of the above stats - 'Singles' may include a serious relationship, but the design and purchasing was handled by one person. I was going to break out gay and lesbian and straight families since I think that is an interesting stat, and definitely a frequently asked question (is the area gay friendly? family friendly?), but then I thought it might be one of those things that get me in trouble - but for what it's worth I would estimate of the 6 singles and 5 families without children to date, maybe 35% are gay, and that statistic probably holds steady throughout our 50 home progression. Probably what I find most amazing, consistently - is the diversity of our client-base. In their careers, income, life direction, goals, approaches, etc... And that is probably why we continue to do well - we identified a niche marketplace, and then educated as many potential clients about this niche marketplace. In terms of advertising, there is no other real estate related company in the area that comes close to the energy and money expended to get the word out about our homes. I mean, at any given time we only have one or two homes for sale and we are probably spending 4 large every month marketing those homes - compared with maybe a few thousand a month by real estate companies marketing their entire inventory of homes. As mentioned before, we sell our homes directly to the clients, which allows us to better manage expectations of what they will be receiving, as well as saving everyone a few bucks. When I used to sell our homes through the local real estate companies, I was always beside myself with the lack of exposure, focus and attention our homes got - it wasn't until we started doing it ourselves - showing our own homes, marketing our own homes - that we really started to kick it. It looks like we got a deal going on Cottage 17 - our newest cottage design - Tom and Bryce sent up a deposit this week and we are hot and heavy into getting them 'up to speed' since the house is well under way, having started insulating this week. This 1300 sq ft cottage with with 2 bedrooms and two baths sits on 8 very pretty acres. As far as I am concerned, it's quite a deal for these gentlemen, and they signed up just as the fun is beginning - all the interior design decisions are in front of us - kitchens, paint, stain, stone, tile, fixtures, etc... A commenter earlier suggested I highlight some of the construction processes and materials in order to counter some of the 'shadow' people who make their business to denigrate the good thing we developed up here. I don't think it's a bad idea, but I hate to give away too much since there is a fair share of loser imitators out there still trying to copy, borrow and steal our designs, strategic direction and inspirations. Of course, of the 3 or 4 companies who tried to steal from us instead of coming up with something original, all are either bankrupt or close to it, so I guess there isn't too much to hide, since our success I think comes less from the parts, than the whole - our passion, creativity, experimentation, commitment to improving, understanding of the marketplace can't be stolen or borrowed or stolen - it's what makes us who we are, and yes, they can sneak into our homes and see what type of doorknobs we use, but they can't capture the essence, the flavor, the nuance, the esoteric, eclectic personality of our structures. Our architectural spaces feed back to those who walk through them. And that is very difficult to pull off in new construction. Cottage 17. Just about ready to turn the corner.

We now use organic spray foam insulation in most of houses, giving them a huge energy consumption advantage over other homes. Between the positioning of our homes (passive solar), the size of them (small), the natural and native materials, the efficient insulation and the efficient furnaces, we are probably building the greenest homes in the area. So green, in fact, we don't even have to yell it out.

Here's pretty Cottage 19, the only home we now have left for sale. To those with a trained construction eye, this is a beautiful picture - the house is weatherproofed, clean, and just waiting for the next phase. Compare our construction sites to others, and it's instantly obvious who is paying more attention to the small things.

Wide open floor plan, 960 sq ft, full basement, huge bathroom, 5+ acres. We are roughing her in, meaning all the wiring, plumbing, security and audio and heat are going in before we close 'er up. This house will be ready for sale by the time the leaves start changing colors.

And Cottage 22, ready for the siding. Courtney and Bronson did some fine work on this house, with the wrap-around porch, additional half-bath, and a few other tweaks on the original.

Thanks to all our new Facebook fans. Be patient will we figure out exactly how this social networking is supposed to helping us. It's Saturday morning, I'm just off-campus at Virginia Tech, in Blackburg, getting ready for a wedding at 2pm. Lisa's hot cousin is getting married today. It's funny - she has 4 cousins, I have about 125. Lot's of potential trouble brewed last night, with people feeding Lucas a bottle while smoking with the other hand, people being prohibited from holding the baby after drinking too much, nearly averted bar fights between AARP members (our party) and Virginia Tech summer students, etc..., etc... etc.... Just want to put it out there that I am a terrible golfer - no matter how you spin it, I suck, and I'm not getting better with practice. In fact, just the opposite - I seem to be getting worse the more I work at it. One thing for sure is that while I am sitting here doing nothing, the grass in is growing back home, one day closer to my badminton court completion. I think I'll spend some time now googling (or perhaps 'binging') official height aluminum referee chairs.

www.nofaultsports.com/Tennisfolder/umpire_chairs/umpire_chairs.html

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In our never-ending attempt to cover all marketing bases, we have gone social and created a Catskill Farms Facebook page. To all our readers, please accept this invitation to 'become a fan' of Catskill Farms, available at your nearest computer terminal.

A nice picture of our house on a sunny day, one of the few this year so far. It's been incredible - something like 27 days out of the last 32 have had substantial rain. That's not only depressing, it really has a tendency to make us construction guys look pretty bad - landscapers, painters, and homebuilders all suffer under the same need for at least some dry days.

This was really insulting - we sweat and work at every house to get the grass growing at every house, and here a few seeds fell out of the bag and, without the help of any topsoil or really anything organic at all, started growing on the floor of my old yellow truck.

I thought it might be interesting to point out the local towns I enjoy - Lisa and I travel around a little bit and have been doing so for the past 5 years, so be it Callicoon, Narrowburg, Livingston Manor, Port Jervis, Barryville, Kauenenga Lake - we've seen it grow, and have our favorite restaurants and stores in each. In this area of very small towns, it doesn't hurt to have a little inside info from a guy in the know (that would be me).

I've always like Milford, PA, which is about 25 minutes away from the Eldred and Barryville areas in NY where I build most often. I remember when I was much younger, much before I lived in the area, and would stop in Milford on my way somewhere north from Lancaster PA, my hometown. I always loved the feel of the town - sort of like a Bucks County cousin, without all the wealth. Pennsylvania has always had a certain feel to me - can't cross the border into PA without immediately knowing it, without being perfectly able to articulate it.

The anchor of Milford must be the Hotel Fauchere - where Sean Strub engineered a glorious comeback for a hotel faded into glory. With 2 great restaurants, and a front porch for kicking back, right on the main drag - this hotel spared no expense (probably now to the owner's chagrin) in recreating that dreamy moneyed past of it's storied history. This is probably the best scene in the area, with good food, people and service.

Another place Lisa and I like in Milford is the Cliff Park Inn. It's an old inn - too large to be a bed and breakfast, so has that quiet anonymity I prefer. Weekly poker games in the tavern below on Monday and Wednesdays.

Here's the old church in the center of town.

A sampling of the architecture below.

And the Main Street. Lots of good antiques, especially over by the old lumberyard north of Town.

I'm sure to all the high-falutin' people who read this blog that this town looks nice but 'they've seen a lot nicer.' How true I'm sure, but in these parts, this is about a good as it gets, and we are truly appreciative anytime anyone gets it right - be it a restaurant, a deli, a window treatment place, etc... because from my vantage, having hired hundreds of small local businesses over the course of the last 5 years, it seems intrinsically embedded in the gene pool to do it poorly.

Not to switch gears too quickly (note the clever auto analogy right above the Mercedes picture) but here are Bryce and Tom leaving town after a weekend at Gayle's. Tucked safely in the car somewhere are the floor plans to our two new homes and hopefully we can be saying "hello new homeowners" shortly.

And Gayle leaving after a long weekend -

Here's a quick picture of the the future badminton court now that Norm has her flattened, raked and seeded. Before too longs competitive tournaments of hardcore badminton while under the influence of tasty martinis will be the norm.

And ole Lucas, better looking each time we capture him on film. We've just taught him how to read and write, and honestly, he picked it up pretty quick. Still struggles with the 'i' before 'e' thing, but other than that, really taking to it quickly.

The 4th weekend was fun - very sunny and cool. Played some paintball down by the river, bought my first paint by number (a beach scene which we later determined to be a subconscious cry for sunshine) and just really enjoyed spending time with each other in our newly renovated and added-onto home (talk like that should get me some major points).

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