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

"Well, you're the real tough cookie With the long history Of breaking little hearts, Like the one in me That's O.K., lets see how you do it Put up your dukes, lets get down to it! Hit Me With Your Best Shot! Fire Away!" Pat Benatar sums up this world tumult pretty succinctly. Stock markets around the world looking a little scary, suburban housing prices being pummelled daily, headline comparisions with the Great Depression, and we can't keep up with all the calls requesting info for our homes. In fact, for someone who spends quite a bit a money on advertising it's distressing to get these daily inquiries into our homes and not have the time to get back to them - since this is the most important facet of our business. We got no land, we got no homes for sale, - what can I say. What's exciting about these waiting list is the fact that it gives us a little breathing room, and allows me to hire some talent, invest not only in land and architecture, but also some people who can help us grow a little, experiment a lot, and continue to enhance the architecture of Sullivan County. At the moment we have a few new designs under development and we are buying a few complimentry pieces of land. I mean, I have been bragging up the fact that our waiting list is growing in an inverse relationship to the economy - the uglier it gets, the better we are doing. Although totally true, it was also like I felt that if I kept repeating it it would continue to be true. And then I realized - I SELL COTTAGES WITH 5 ACRES FOR LESS THAN $325K. It's a no brainer - We got a lot of rain the last two days, I mean a lot of rain. Hard rain. Big drops. Definitely the type of rain that makes us look foolish pretty quick if we get caught unprepared or with our pants down. Here's the stream at Cottage 7 flowing pretty good around the moss, ferns, rocks, and grasses.

And then the pond across the street from our project outside Eldred - this pond fed waterfall then leads to a brook that runs behind our houses, - Cottage 5, Farm 9 and C0ttage 6. Amazingly, we are now planning Cottage 16.

Here are some more Cottage 7 details. Stained french doors, radiator, wide plank floors and a wainscotting powder room with a window looking out into the woods.

And their fireplace - large logs, large stone, and large living.

Kitchen is pretty unique, with a custom pantry with beadboard sides and an antique screen door, open shelves and an apron farm sink.

And a romantic profile of this stately little cottage in Yulan NY, just a couple of miles from the Delaware River.

And some old school barn doors with strap hinges and gate lever.

I was shopping in Woodstock and Stone Ridge the other day looking to expand our business and the same fact is true over there as is true over here - the architecture over there is just as underwhelming as the architecture over here.

God Bless all the badly design houses out there - it really makes our life easier than it should be.

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Everyone needs to be validated, and it doesn't hurt to be validated and positively reinforced by the NY Times, Dwell, Cottage Living and now, the Wall Street Journal. Old new houses are in, and now these rags are understanding modesty in back in vogue as well. Modesty in the size of homes. Of course, my customers and I have known this trend was real since the first house we built. In fact, of all 35 homes we have built, only one has exceeded the current average home size. Most are less than half the size of the average american home. But now everyone and every rag is talking about modestly and intimate reasonable spaces like the concept just spontaneously combusted onto the architectural scene (anyone remember the show 'That's Incredible', and the episodes on people spontaneously combusted). Reasonableness is back, modesty is in vogue, awareness of one's impact is considered. Wall Street Journal Headline in it's July 18 - "The Newest Cottage Industry - Buyers Snap Up Small Homes" A local real estate guru has only made one bad forecasting call in the 7 yrs I have known him - "No one will ever buy a modest 2 bedroom house." Wrong! Well, the weekend is here, its freakin hot again, and we are just about ready to start grilling some burgers. In a most unsettling development, my girl lisa, now that she is late term pregnant, has started to eat meat. It's very strange to see this vegetarian eating hamburgers.

Readers of this blog have a very unique source of contrarian information, since the only thing I am hearing and reading about is the extremely negative reports of slumping housing prices, and an ongoing recession. Let me tell you something, I first realized we were in a recession in the spring of 2006, when the newspapers and news programs were still touting the vibrancy of the economy. Meaning, we've been struggling for over 2 years now. However, regardless of the headlines, Catskill Farms is getting it done, and we are actually looking to expand. There is no doubt our stress level is a bit higher, since we did have some trouble closing some deals due to the mortgage market, but that was mostly the result of trusting the financial due-diligence to a mortgage broker instead of doing it myself, like I usually do. But we got 5 deals closed this year so far, at all different price points, so I would be surprised if we couldn't continue to 'get it done'. The next test is in August when we close on Cottage 7, and then September when we close on Cottage 8. We only sold Cottage 1 in June of 2007. Now we have Cottage 15 reserved. It does take a village, now, though. Everyone on the team needs to be an 'A' lister - good attorneys, good banks, qualified clients, hard-working appraisals. Any chink in the army could be fatal - and Catskill Farms takes an active role in guiding the process. Deals are falling apart or not get started for a myriad of reasons, but we haven't seen any fallout. I wonder if it's because we sell good houses, priced right, to qualified individuals. Old-fashion like. It's amazing how many games were being played to get the deals done over the past couple of years. Yes we build superior homes, and yes they are priced pretty good, and yes our buyers are pretty qualified - but that's just the starting point now in getting someone into a home - all the stars have to be aligned. So the truth remains that regardless on what is going on out in the real world, Catskill Farms is on a buying spree. Over the last 12 months we have purchased 100 acres, and a couple of houses, and now we are actively looking to pick up more land. The real trick at the moment is to be super-hyper-educated about this local real estate market, and to understand what are attractive prices - many times it's 40% off asking price, since the run-up in prices distorted the reality of value. For our homes, we establish our prices very simply - what does it cost us to build it, buy the land and earn some profit. And to keep us in line, we are always examining what it would cost our customers to build this house on their own. I believe it would cost any of our clients more than $80k extra to build one of our cottage design independent of us, and if that's the case, then everyone is winning. And then the question of why families continue to buy - I think that's a no-brainer - can we expect families to stop living their lives just because we are going through the non-fun time of a business cycle? While the media bombardment makes us wonder if every little business is suffering and nearly bankrupt, I am finding just the opposite. Our customers are diverse bunch of professionals - fashion, shipping, art, accounting, publishing, acting, writing, real estate, finance, web, design - and I don't see these people jumping off the nearest bridge. Sure, everyone is a bit hunkered down, no one likes to live in fear, and the go-go times surely are more fun - but life goes on. And country living is as good of a place to contemplate the world's ills as any place - in fact, I think there's an argument to be made it's better than most. And then I met with some probable future customers yesterday and they one of them had some development background, and they commented that it doesn't seem like all fun and roses to run this business of mine, romantic as its premise is, and that it is unusual to track the downs as well as the ups. Well, I think the beauty of Catskill Farms, and why we are continuing to sell in these tough times, is the fact that I think it's clear it's not all hype, and it's not all roses, and it's not all easy-living. It's a brutal little sport, this construction business, and the battles that are waged on a daily basis hopefully result in an unparalleled process for our buyers - on time, on budget, with quality high. I believe our credibility is strengthened by showing the good with the bad, the irritation with the glory, and the dramatic progress we make on a daily basis is not without it's pain and suffering. Especially up here in the sticks, where every decision I make gets discussed, disected, and reviewed among a small community of locals and my homeowners. But, a few years ago, I realized what is most important about succeeding in a small community is to be consistent, be fair, pay your bills (if they are correct) and let the chips fall where they may. While it's disappointing I can't always be the herioc figure I aspire to be, at least I know anyone else who hopes to enter this business of mine, will have the exact same varied challenges, and since we have no competition, I guess the challenges are more pronounced they may appear at first glance. So here we are, warts and all, busting our ass to build these affordable little country homes.

since i believe tens of thousands of people read this blog (if not millions), i have deleted the post about cm the photographer since there is no reason to give that yahoo free press. long live the internet. long live america, high oil prices and economic distress and all. as john templeton said - invest 'at points of maximum pessimism."