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

It was the Hanukkah of birthdays, a series of connected days and celebration, but all good things have to come to an end, and the end came with our 7th annual sojourn to Stowe, with the same cast of characters and hanger-oners.  It's a good mountain, about 6 hours away, always easier to get there on Friday (skipping school and work) than on the way back where Thruway 87 starts to get heavy around Albany and is a parking lot by the Woodstock exit.  It really goes to show how many people are upstate, making their way back home, that an interstate can move that slow.  Flip side is the opportunity that upstate has, and always will, provide our little company.

The ladies of the office, Breanna and Amanda, decorated my office space for my birthday, and last year helped clear my car during a storm.

Some people would be shy about posting such equal-opportunity car clearing, but that wouldn't be me.  Amanda started with me in the summers and holidays while she was Fashion Institute of Tech (I was going to write 'in Manhattan', but that just makes me seem show-offy, since everyone who I want to impress already knows where it's at), then came to work full-time after.  Her best friend Breanna came to work with us nearly 2 years ago.  Amanda is getting married to her long-time Beau this May and Breanna and her sit around planning at lunch (Bre's her best woman).  My one wedding gift was buying an office building 10 minutes up the road from Amanda so that shortens her commute to work by 30+ minutes each way.

As a pretty savvy small business employer who is a pretty good talent scout who takes chances on people as well as a veteran of making a lot of bets on people who don't work out, the risks of hiring a friend of possibly my most valued employee were clear, but outweighed by our never-quenched thirst for talent, especially professional/office talent.

Whenever I see a new idea in the Catskills, perfectly branded, optimistic with a fine game plan that may even on occasion identify a real opportunity niche, I just pity the fool, since I know the first and primary obstacle this person or couple will face is the inability to staff up to meet the demand of a growing business - it's a tremendous skill, the challenge never fades, and unless you were brought up speaking the language of the average Hudson Valley employee, all the cajoling, incentivizing, motivating benefits come to naught, held against you, used against you.  My ability to team build, against the odds, is one of the secrets of the success.  We just keep growing, and we keep finding people who meet our criteria, or can learn or be trained.

I like an underdog, so my best guys are guys I've found when life wasn't working out perfectly, gave them a shot, rewarded them without coodling or cuddling them, and tried to find real ways to make their lives better, mostly through  work they can be proud of, organized job sites and pay/benefit packages that can't be matched, pay packages derived not from the highest priced homes in the area, but homes that have easy to see value to people for 2 decades now.

Speaking of UnderDogs, here's Lulu.  She's so smart she knows when to get off the chair - UPS no treats, stay on chair, Fed Ex, treats, meet them at the door and follow into truck.  I think there's even a story where she forgot to get out of the truck and Fed Ex redelivered her 30 minutes later.

Back to the point of the story, hiring Amanda's friend Breanna - the real risk would be that Breanna wouldn't work out, and it would somehow impact Amanda's desire to work for us, or that the balance of power would change and the employer-employee relationship would be altered for the worst.

A big gamble, just the way I like them, comfortable with expecting and counting on unexpected outcomes.  Rolling the die, spinning the wheel, matching wits and scrambling out of pickles of my own and others making.  A writer's ability to evaluate a situation, meaning from a unique viewpoint, with blindspots for sure, but the unique vantage providing unique and untried paths to problem-solving.

Anyway, I guess this is tangent Tuesday, cause I keep going off on them. It all worked out - 2 of the smartest hardest working people I know - Amanda and Breanna - and since they are doing real jobs for a real busy business, with real financial and project management complexity, put in a position to test their intelligence and ability to learn in real time with real consequences.  And that's a big difference than most bright young people, where you have to put in a ton of time just to get the shot at having real responsibility.  Not at Catskill Farms.  You have to be awesome, or the day of your departure is already cast.  Problem is, most people don't know when they aren't awesome, but no worries, I do.

And obligatory house construction photos, since this isn't an 'eat my shorts I'm in Stowe and work with cool young women' blog.

One of our favorite farmhouse designs, 73.46 % finished, in Kerhonkson NY.

And another fav, in Narrowsburg NY.  Both houses under contract, spoken for, reserved, don't bother calling about them type of situation.

Mid-Winter hike up Ashokan Highpoint outside of West Shokan yesterday, with long time hiking pal Brian, the long time editor of Chronogram and related media properties.

Seems like an analogy worth remarking on, where you journey out on a lonely road to reach some far off goal only to find it all fogged in upon arrival.  Translation, among others, is to enjoy the journey, for the destination is only a piece of the goal.  I know, pretty hunking picture of me and the dogs.  This view is typically gigantic over the Catskills.

We literally have a to going on -

• 2 homes in Saugerties for sale and under construction under $350k
• 4 homes in Kerhonkson, 2 reserved, two for sale.
• 2 homes reserved and under construction in Narrowsburg
• 4 homes for sale and just beginning construction outside of Callicoon.
• 4 new lots in Kerhonkson
• 3 new lots in Narrowsburg
• 8 new lots pending in Saugerties
• At least 5 deals pending through Lazy Meadows, our real estate brokerage
• And possibly 3 to 4 deal pendings with clients for above mentioned properties.
• Moving the office
• Selling the rental in Miami Beach.
• 4 lot subdivision in Phoenixville Pa.

This is a barn house with a finished basement which is about 1/2 way done.  Reserved.

A new Ranch going up, for sale, in Kerhonkson.

Finished the night with a martini at the Kingsley in Kingston, and then some mexican at the Armadillo, in the Rondout.

Our ability to produce and deliver homes is frankly unparalleled in the region.  The combination of office, project management, cash flow, skilled labor, thoughtful subcontractors, lending relationships, and municipal relationships create a delivery schedule that is averaging more than 1 a month for years.

We have some competition out there, but if you add it all together - all the various companies doing new work (half of them just copying our work and confusing the marketplace with similar marketing, language, etc...) - they aren't putting out half the homes we do in a given year.  And not 'a given year', but year after year, and now we are starting to talk about decade after decade.

Now, this isn't to brag, though I'm not against bragging if you got the goods.  It's just an achievement that 1, I'm extremely proud of, and 2, was not easy.  There is nothing harder than putting together a team in the Catskills, where every level of labor supply is shallow - be project management, book-keeper, lead carpenter or clean up guy.  And revert to the last blog post about the efforts I've made to retain help once I find it, with perks and benefits typically not offered in our industry and area.

I was listening to a podcast yesterday - I'm on a run of 'enthusiasm renewal' -reading lots of biographies on people (mostly businesspeople), pod casts on management and entrepreneurism - and the one guy was saying about employee retainage - 'people don't leave companies, they leave leaders'.  I agree with that.  The better I get at my job of communicating and setting out an organized vision that is adapted to the strengths of my employees, the longer they stick around.

So we delivery another finished home, on budget, ahead of schedule, and now another young family - I think a doctor, wife and 2 kids this time - are experiencing the joys of upstate, with its wide open spaces, makers, and things to do.

Ranch 30 - in the flesh.  Ulster County NY Real Estate at its finest.

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Sold a house today, the last of 4 in a small 4 lot Stone Ridge - Kingston area project.  I picked up the land not so long ago.  The project had some complexities, some risk but we pulled it off.  I think a total of $2.3m of real estate total sold.  Out of nothing came something.  I'm not sure, but I think 3 of the 4 started out as a spec homes, ie, without a prearranged buyer.  Thanks Jeff Bank, though at this point I'm using a lot of my own equity.

Catskill Farms offers both a 401k matching plan and a yearly profit share plan, two benefits mostly unheard of in our industry in our area, and actually, in most business in our area.  We started ours 5 years ago on the advice of our accountant at the time and now I think we have $700k of investment and gains in our company-managed plan.  We match 100% of employees contributions up to 3% of their salary, and 50% from 3-5% of their salary.  Yearly profit shares average around $3k.  Add in holidays, bonuses, vacations, workers comp, etc... and you need to be a healthy well-run company indeed in order to implement and continue to fund these benefits.  And is there anything worse than taking back what you once offered?

These programs have enabled us to retain employees, without a doubt, and retaining employees helps you grow, or at least maintain or improve efficiency, which should offset some or all of the costs of the program.   While hard to quantify and calculate, I would agree that 1, these programs have enabled our employees to sustain and improve their family's stability, and 2, thus in turn have helped us keep these employees.  Just had a meeting the other day with a lead crew member, and his package topped out at $113,000, and included base pay, overtime, nearly 3 weeks vacation, 24/7 use of a truck I purchased for him, 401k matches, profit share, health care share.  It's a real job.  The non-salary benefits cost Catskill Farms $120k in 2019.

Another neat thing about the program is the benefit to the small business owner. My maximums are higher, my profit share is bigger.  It's a super intelligent gov't run program that works, and I think it works well because it is based on 'work'.  It's not a handout, a disability, a welfare, it's not a VA loan with high costs - all programs with good intentions that muddle through the fraud and grey areas with unclear tally of good vs harm.  The 401k program, and the related Safe Harbor program for small businesses, that are really well-designed and work just as they were intended, motivating people to save for retirement by appealing to the self-interest of a business-owner, and using the tax code for the benefit of working people.

Down in Miami Beach again.  They are getting ready for the Super Bowl.

And since this is a business blog and not a 'eat my shorts I'm in South Beach' blog, a token house picture of a fantastic home in Narrowsburg that is making good progress seems in order.