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

I'm a big reader - always have been.  Newspapers, magazines, onlines, and books, but recently the book thing has been less than fruitful.  Several started and not finished which is very unlike me since just out of principle I like to finish what I start.

I stumbled onto Shoe Dog, by Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, and finally got reading mono back. Written in 2016, it tracks the history of Nike (greek for goddess of victory.  Nike was almost named 'Dimension Six'.

He writes " We wanted, as all great businesses do, to create, to contribute and we dared to say so aloud.  When you make something, when you improve something, when you deliver something, when you add some new thing or service to the lives of strangers, making them happier, or healthier, or safer or better, and when you do it all crisply, and efficiently, smartly, the way everything should be done but seldom is - you're participating more fully in the whole grand human drama.  More than simply alive, you're helping others to live more fully, and if that's business, all right, call me a businessman.  Maybe it will grow on me."

There is little doubt Catskill Farms does what he describes, has been doing it for 20 years, and continues to improve every day.  In the end, I think that's what makes of seemingly invincible - we keep getting better, leveraging each lesson from each day into a better process and product.  Running a large business with the dexterity of a small entrepreneurial shop.  Our logo could simply be 'We improve lives'.

We got a lot of real estate stuff going on - with 4 homes going up in Stone Ridge near Kingston (all reserved), 4 homes going up in Kerhonkson (2 reserved), 2 going up in Bethel (2 reserved), 2 going up in Narrowsburg (2 reserved), buy 4 building lots in the Beechwoods, 1 in Olivebridge, 2 in Saugerties and looking at another 25 in Saugerties.

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I get around.  

In the course of any given week, I do a lot of traveling around the Hudson Valley and beyond.

Just this morning I was in Bethel reviewing Ranch 33 and Barn 31 before heading out to Narrowsburg in Southwestern Sullivan County to check out 2 houses, now in contract, that will be selling shortly.

Been wet again this year, with postponed little league games every week, tough construction weather, and just a general malaise about the whole thing.  Upside has been a series of really fine weekends for sure.

Barn 28, selling for a little under $400k to an owner of Italian descent,

And Ranch 34, selling for just over $300k, to owners of Indian descent.

Since I was in the area, I road up the small lane on which my first 3 houses reside, Farm 1...

Farm 2 and

Farm 3.

There was a crazy windstorm that blew through last spring (2018) and while dozens of trees were blown over, the houses stood up well against the gale force winds.

A new Ranch, hot of the presses sold last week, as did a resale of a Ranch we built on a nice piece of real estate in Saugerties.  It was interesting to see a 6 year old Ranch 14 (as seen here and here)sell for $643k and our new one sell for $575k.  Means we are still offering so much value, and leaving a lot on the table for our clients.  I guess that's why there is only 1 Catskill Farms, and our competition remains unnoticed and unseen, except for house here and there.

Ranch 28 below -

A classic form that has been well-received over the years.

Interiors of the main living space and the mountain views from the master bedroom.  Some of the best real estate in the Catskills.

We make good use of our ground floor space in these ranches.  Terrific, well-lit spaces with a ton of form and function.

More pics of the new home can be found at Ranch 28 on our Catskill Farms website, which features 20 years of our Catskills homes.

Summer time is here, with summer activities in the Catskills.  Little league, dog walks, hikes, and all sorts of related fun.

Son Lucas.

Catskill Farms Chief, Chuck

And Dog, Lulu.

Other Catskill Farms digital assets can be found at -

https://www.instagram.com/catskillfarms/

For our Zany videos at  - https://vimeo.com/thecatskillfarms

And of course our Website,  www.thecatskillfarms.com

It's little league season, and I love baseball and my once-reluctant now enthusiastic son pitched his first game today.  He did good and got awarded the game ball by the coach.  He also had his 4th grade essay on his football championship game published in the local paper.

Weather was nice so the 9am game started chilly but warmed quickly.  His team, the Thunder, is 7-0.  We then rested for an hour before his private batting lessons, then a trip to GAIT, which is a group that uses equines for therapy that I've been privileged to support with the profits of Catskill Farms, HQ real estate located in Sullivan County, this idea I had nearly 20 year ago.

After GAIT, which was nursing a young male foal that was born just a few days ago, we had to drive to Narrowsburg NY for an appointment to show our newest mini modern house (for sale for $305k and to check out the progress of a 1500 sq ft barn house nearly completed (and under contract)

We ended up taking the '72 Malibu convertible since it was such a nice day, but to be honest, I was too tired after a pretty busy day to get up and take a proper picture.  It's a cool car.

Monday I have a charity gold united way Milford tourney with Eric Goldstein of G5 Agency of Narrowsburg NY.