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

The key to our vibrant Catskills real estate sales activity over the last 16 months comes down to 3 qualities - Quality, design, and price/value compared to other properties for sale. Quality - while by no means perfect, our construction team is producing high quality homes. Not gaudy, not over the top - just a well-designed, thoughtful use of space and materials. Considering the homes also come with real warranties (almost unheard of in this area), we are also dedicated to helping our customers transition into their new homes as painlessly as possible. Design - usually, the current prevailing home design consensus consists of more, more, more. More size, more boring details, more outdated ideas. Catskill Farms has taken a different approach, thoughtfully using simplicity as our modus operandis (sp.?). Elegance through simplicity, value through simplicity. Restraint is probably the most unachieved design element in homes today. Price/Value - I am a student of the regional marketplace. I know what other properties sell for. So when we sell a 2700 sq ft restored farmhouse on 30+ acres with an historic barn on the property for $650k, we know it's worth it. 2700 sq ft @ $200/ft = $540,000. 30 great acres @ $7,000/acre= $210,000. Historic Barn @$40,000 - total value comes in at $790,000. Further proving the proposition is a quick look around at other properties for sale. 15 acres and an average home in the Beechwoods listed for $650,000. Nicely restored 1600 sq ft farm on 8 acres in Cochecton - $549,000. Same goes for our Farmhouse at Chapin Estate - 3500 sq ft @ $200/sq ft - $700,000. 2300 sq ft pimped out basement @ $100/sq ft, 5 acres of land inside the gate of Chapin - $185,000. Total Value - $1,115,000. Sales price - $760,000. Same goes for Farmhouse #6 - 8 acres of great land ($100k), 2400 sq ft new old house ($480,000) - total value $580,000, sales price $475,000. The amazing fact is we can make money and we can give our clients a lot of value by leaving a lot of money on the table - a true win-win situation. Drastically undersell the 'competition', make money, and give our clients value. A super recipe for selling homes. The reason we can do this is because we are committed to the 'long-run', meaning we do not need to hit the homerun on every sale. Every client we introduce to our homes and the area is a good thing for me, local businesses, and the local tax base. The value of our cottages is also easy to see - land ($65,000), house/driveway/electrical infrastructure/well/septic ($280,000), architect ($20,000), real estate fee ($25,000) - Total value $390,000, we sell them for the low $300's. And what's more, with every house we build, we are finding more ways to give the customer more without raising the prices. As a 12 year veteran of home building, I know of no other design/build firm who uses the phrase 'no problem' to customer requests as frequently as we do. The more common refrain is 'that's an extra', or 'that's an upcharge'. Our last 4 homes have come within 1% of the contract budget, and even that 1% is because the customer fell in love with something I just couldn't include. So, for all you smart, sophisticated, research oriented readers and customers (more or less everyone we've sold a house to), there you have it, broken down to its most basic ingredients, our recipe for providing great homes at very fair prices.

Well, my wish came true about more bad news. New home sales are down 26%. What does that mean for me and my buyers - mostly, lower interest rates, better service from our subcontractors, and a more friendly and civil process with every vendor and salesperson we run into. Facts be told, these figures have nothing to do with our limited edition cottage and farmhouses. We don't build overpriced vinyl sided cookie cutter suburban tract homes on 1/8 of an acre where you can see your neighbor cooking breakfast. Honestly, I would venture the buyers of Catskill Farms' homes are in an enviable position. We have not seen any pressure on prices, and because demand is far outweighing supply, we are designing and selling houses at the same prices, or more, than we were a year ago. That's great news for existing and new customers, because, in the end, it means Catskill Farms is selling houses full of value. It's actually pretty easy to quantify. 2 scenarios - Buyer purchases their own building parcel ($65,000), buyer hires an architect ($20,000), buyer pays a real estate fee ($20,000), buyer pays for a lot of surprises ($25,000), buyer pays for a construction loan, and all the interest during the process. Scenario #2 - Catskill Farms, always on the lookout for great property cheap, pays $25,000. Catskill Farms pays for the architect, our customers are finding us directly many times, Catskill Farms pays for all of the surprises, and Catskill Farms pays all the costs of construction and financing and taxes and utilities during construction. For the exact same house, going it alone would cost upwards of $100,000 more. The fact that we have vertically integrated, cut out all the middle men, and passed on all the savings to our customers, has resulted in house values unaffected by the hurricane of bad economic news, mainly because, in a phrase, they are 'drastically underpriced'. Similarly, if the customer was lucky enough to withdraw their money from the market in order to buy the house, they are now insulated from the current violitility. Possibly there are 2 safe spots for one's money presently - cash in the bank, and a Catskill Farms home. This is said as a joke, but in reality, I would think it's got to be a good feeling to not only love one's home, but to realize that the idea and design you fell in love with is standing tall in the chaos of the present financial turbulence. Today, Cheri decided Cottage 3 was perfect for her and her 2 dogs. She is going to be our 3rd full-timer in probably our most unique house ever. Rob and Leah and baby (not sure about the pet count) have firmly committed to Cottage 8, and Pablo and Ana are, I'm sure, checking the mail twice a day looking for the new designs we collaborated on. I can only think of two words - "Rock On".

As far as I'm concerned, this whole 'the world is ending, everyone is losing their homes and jobs' thing going round is working out pretty perfect for Catskill Farms. Today, Rob and Leah signed up for a plumped up mini-house, and Cheri showed definitive interest in Cottage 3. That's on top of Pablo and Ana sending back the sales contracts for Cottage 7, and Gavin moving towards the closing table for his new home at Highland Farms. February and March are going to be interesting months. We are selling 5 finished homes, signing contracts for 3 homes to be started in the spring, buying an awesome huge open bus garage cum my new office/headquarters, buying 14 more acres (3 building lots), and moving towards contract on 50 acres with an old farmhouse I am purchasing. It's a great time to buy anything if you got the money and confidence. Appliances, cars, homes, furnishings. Lots of stores and dealerships are offering great incentives since sales are suffering. And once again, mortgage rates are low, low, low. And for the most part, mortgage rates are almost as important as the price of a home. If a household is in the position to take advantage of the slowdown in the economy, it's a once or twice in a lifetime opportunity to buy, buy, buy. Keep the bad news coming, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, make the news as bad as possible. Seems to be an inverse relationship between bad news and our sales activity.

Being a small business, sometimes life is less than the romantic ideal I paint it. For example, our front porch filled with boxes of toilets, vanities, sinks, barn door tracks, lighting, tile and other assorted items waiting to go into Farmhouse #9 in Barryville NY.

Or, the broken window resulting from Edwin the carpenter getting a little carried away unloading the 14" hemlock shelving we are installing in the pantry of Farm 9.

The full coverage for broken glass came in pretty handy for this doozy. Pretty cold riding around till it got fixed. I could have opted for the duct tape and cardboard temp fix, but that would have entailed finding cardboard, a scissors and duct tape, and frankly, I'm not that handy to begin with.

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