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

Upstate has lots of different meanings, as does 'the catskills'.  There is a geographical boundary, at least for the Catskills, and then there is the 'state of mind' boundary.  For instance, a lot of what what we call the Catskills isn't really in 'the catskills', defined by the State charter/designation.   Counties such as Sullivan and Dutchess lay outside the Catskills and even towns like Stone Ridge, Kerhonkson etc... are not in the Catskills proper, but certainly in the Catskills for both descriptive ease and marketing ease.

Same goes for Upstate.  Upstate literally runs from the Catskills to Buffalo, in concentric rings of furtherness.  I just took a 3 day journey into the middle of the State over the last few days that brought this salient fact home to roost.  Hamilton NY - home of Colgate Uk, Vernon NY - home to Turning Stone Golf resort, and now today we are in Cooperstown - home to more than one would think, including baseball hall of fame, Leatherstocking Golf Course, James Fennimore Cooper and one of the prettiest downtown villages I've seen in a while.

One thing for sure, NY is vast, and it is beautiful, with pockets of wealth and poverty seemingly mixed in at random.

The impacts of the Virus are pronounced, as I can see with mine own eyes, and for a small business guy like myself, alarming.  In this Central NY phase 3 reopening area, the extent the hotels and restaurants are obeying and enforcing the rules is impressive.  6' separation, masks for sure, seating arranged by the book, cooperation from guests and staff.  You can see why NY has succeeded for now in flattening the curve and eliminating the spread.

With the virus shutting down a lot of sports, we've been doing a lot of road biking this season, which is a lot of fun.  But unless you are retired or something, you can't do both road biking and golf, since they take up a chunk of time each.  So golf got shelved, and to 'get it out of our system', we hit 3 upstate courses in 3 days, riding in the '72 Malibu.

Leatherstocking, Cooperstown

Colgate U Course.

The Ostesaga Inn, in Cooperstown.

Turning Stone Indian Reservation golf course.

You can also see the distress of small towns and their associated main street businesses; you can see the big resorts, empty, with 5 staff laid off for every one still working.  Empty main streets, empty restaurants, empty parking lots, empty golf courses, empty hotels.  And these are the areas considered a success.

Translates into lack of jobs, lack of sales tax revenue, lack of real estate swaps, lack of enthusiasm, and lack of cash flow from anything from non-profits to small biz to gigantic resorts.  I frankly don't know how this ends, because I am up close and personal with dozens of small businesses everyday, and while they were not impacted, it's a clear window into the short runway to disaster that many of them would face in the face of such a slow down and shut down.  They aren't packing oodles of rainy day funds.  They don't have a 'what if we have to close in the busiest months of the year' plan.  They don't have a 'how to make money with our tables half full'.

So, best case, that vast federal aid helped to keep them afloat.  But then you have the idea of 'zombie' companies, typically applied to larger companies kept afloat with large government bond buying, and low interest rates, can also apply to much smaller companies, where new debt is high, sales are lower, and the businesses aren't reinvesting, growing, hiring - they are just there, zombie-like, wandering aimlessly through the fog of the final economic consequences of the virus, until they fade away, debt-laden and ruined.  The question then, is this the opening for the creative destruction that makes our way of life tick - in with new out with the old - or this something different.  Either way, it doesn't seem quick, and it doesn't seem like it will help with the wealth and opportunity gap of this country.

That being said, Catskill Farms is once again positioned well, so I have a bit of survivor's guilt, but not too much.  Only thing I hate, is there is so much demand in the marketplace that sales come a little too easy and so my competition will grow, and take our overflow.  I like it best when it's harder and I can watch others in my industry get it all wrong.  That may be a character flaw, but one of the few I'm not trying to improve on.

The red velvet rope has been strung in front of shingle, and we've come to the tough decision to turn off the 'welcome aboard' sign.  We've been busy before, and we are good at it - in fact there is a good argument that we - like a fast car or a racing horse - operate better fully employed and engaged and firing on all cylinders, you got to know when to say when, for the benefit of those you are building with now, and those homes you have finished that you owe service to.  It's the benefit and advantage of being an established, mature and experienced company - you know what you are capable of, and there is no shame in stretching that, but not to the breaking point.

A letter that went out last week to people contacting us via our inquiry form -

Is there a better place to park your money than the Catskills, at the moment?  Here's a chance to get in the game, with all the tax benefits of real estate.

In Callicoon NY, and in Saugerties, NY, we have two projects that might be of interest in someone looking to put together a quick upstate rental/airbnb play/portfolio.

In Callicoon NY, (about 12 miles to Livingston Manor and Narrowsburg( we have 3 homes going up, will be finished by end of July.  The homes are all under 1000 sq ft, on 4+ acres, have great views and fun vib.  2 bedrooms, lots of deck and big fields abound.


And then in Saugerties NY, in Ulster County, we have these two side by side homes on 1 acres each.

The benefits of both these projects is the cluster nature of them.   Because they are on the same street, both the projects are easy to manage, maintain, and oversee.  Lots of efficiencies there.

I didn't start out thinking about the potential for this pop up airbnb, but now, as a real estate guy, it seems to make perfect sense for someone looking for a new gig in the Catskills.  From a tax vantage, the ability to 'expense your life' and get the depreciation is why people love real estate.

I like to travel, and I tend to do it a fair amount.  But the lockdown has prevented much of that, and even now that it has 'loosened up', who really wants to navigate empty hotels, dirty airports, unknown airplane crowdedness, and just all the uncertainty.  On top of that, a lot of airlines have reduced their routes, meaning what used to be direct is no longer.  I'm not big fan of connections and tend to plan trips around direct flights.

So, after canceling a trip to ski Big Sky, Montana in March, Bike NY in May, Turks and Caicos in July, I've gone back and forth about a 4 day trip to Wisdom Montana, to a small cabin amidst hundred of thousands of cattle farms about 2 hours northwest of Yellowstone.  My friend from college who lives in Santa Rosa CA has a law partner who has a place.  We'd drink beer, shoot guns and go fly fishing.  But, it's complicated to get there - what normally would be a 7 hr door to door trip now is more like 14 with the connections, etc..., plus who knows what sort of uncertainty, and even risk.

So, I'm not going to go.  We decided to take a 3-4 day golf trip to Upstate's best courses - Turning Ridge, Leatherstocking, Colgate University.  That region is in Phase 3 as of today, so indoor dining and even haircuts might be in my future.  We've been doing a lot of road biking this season, and truth be told you can't do both golf and biking unless you don't work.

Interestingly, no ball washers, no sand rakes, 1 person per cart.  So won't be the same, but it will be something.

What's interesting is Lucas my son typically is only home for a few days per summer with all the running around he does with me and his mom, but this summer looks like just one of those stay at home dog days that I remember growing up.

Today was the last day of school for the area school district around Milford PA.  We drove up, picked up some items left over, took home a paper graduation certificate, and met at a distance outside with his teachers.  No friends around.  I guess in real life this end of 5th grade is marked with elaborate ceremony since it marks the end of elementary school and they leave for middle school.  Everythings just a big blah, all the typical markers and moments of life.  So you look inward, to yourself, your family and some close friends, and you know what, it almost seems the narrower the lane, the more fulfillment to be had.

How cliche is it to have it all, and just want more?  So here and now we reduce the world to close-knit circles of friends and family and rewards are real, tangible and solid. The kids miss out for sure, and the elders for sure too, but for most of us, there are as many pros as cons, surprisingly.

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