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

Catskill Farms has sold a lot of houses. Seriously, a lot. So we know our product and we know our customers. Plus we use all sorts of unfair subconscious tools and tricks to get people to buy - like the kayak coming in the door of our office screaming "NATURE'. Or the cool bike in my cool office which screams "I'm going to exercise when I have house up here on pretty country roads'...

Or I'll even pull out the really big guns when I have a family getting close to making a decision, like taking them to an existing customer's home so they can see country relaxation up close and personal. I think these tours to homes where people are living are the most effective since people can see themselves in the home, with the kids, on a nice Saturday afternoon doing NOTHING. But really, it's not fair since it gets hard to say no.

Oh, and this little old finished 750 sq ft finished basement where the kids are having a lot of fun without being underfoot, in the way, or having their crap everywhere - I don't think it takes much imagination to see the genius in that. Compare that to the 4 other crappy resales that they saw earlier in the day, with wet moldy basements that even the creative can't see ever being more than a wet moldy basement. Oh, those cute little kids playing in the basement and having loads of fun - don't mind them.,

I stopped over at Matthew and Sarah's Cottage 36 last Friday with Lucas, and Matthew is planning a few more projects since he got everything he wanted in a country house including a great house and 15 acres of land for a lot less than he would have thought possible.

And there's Lucas riding the Bear at Cottage 36. He wouldn't leave until the bear laid down and went to sleep. Not sure why the frickin' pictures are blurry, but that's just going to have to be the way it is on this one. Like I say sometimes, complete is better than perfect. Perfectly incomplete is a mantra of too many builders I've seen.

It's the small little details that show how much we've grown recently. When we bought this key case for the homes we build 2 years ago, I remember saying to Janice as the keys filled 1/4 of the box - "Guess we are being optimistic today, are we?" Now we've nearly filled it.

Or, we are clearing land for our 3rd building at our home base in Eldred NY.

We run a spray foam company that goes through a lot of barrels of spray foam...

And even our 'receiving area' is filled to the brim with toilets, faucets, sinks, lights, radiators, door knobs, cable rail and assorted other items for the 5 homes we will finish and close in the next 5 weeks.

Not so bad today, but sometimes our parking lot is jammed with our employees' cars, and the traffic in and out puts us at one of the busiest locals in the vicinity. That's our new spray foam trailer on the right there.

All in all, lots of good stuff going on all around us.

Our first effort in the cool area known as Stone Ridge New York continues to move ahead briskly. I think we started this home in November, found some lucky buyers and went into contract in December, and now are on the home stretch here in early April. Below is a picture of a nice rock we took the time to place strategically.

I'll tell you what - if you ever want to create some general aggravation in your life, outsmart yourself by arranging all your icons and apps on your phone into uber smart and organized folders so the next week of your life is spent looking for stuff you used to find with your eyes closed and arm tied behind your back. Although I do have to admit moving my go to calendar from some arcane home screen location to the hot four at the bottom of my phone has reinvented my life in a small way. The Stillwater cottage is pretty hot, inspired by past homes but enhanced in a lot of small little ways. It's not cheap but if you are looking for perfect, Cottage 38 comes pretty close - with 3 acres, a stone wall, 1300 sq ft, 1.5 baths, 2 bedrooms, screened porch, loads of decks/porchs and a 500+ sq ft finished basement with a bathroom, open living space and an office.

We are just entering the final carpentry stage which means I send in our Seals team of six highly trained and thoroughly experienced carpenters to spend two weeks installing the wood ceilings and wallcoverings, installing the window trim, the flooring, the doors, the door trim, the closet shelving, the kitchen - and through a dusty cloud of action arises a home that is ready for the painter. We hope to close on this house in the end of May.

Like many of our homes, the floor plan allows a view of the entire home as you walk in the front door.

Although not a big house, the floor plan is smart enough to allow for this 2 story stone chimney to define both floors of the house.

And of course having a 120 yr old barn beam accenting a handsome woodburning stove never hurt anyone either. Catskill Farms handpicks the salvaged beams and posts for our homes.

And here is how the sausage is made - walls up, and the 12" wide plank floor separated and left to air dry and acclimate for a few days before installation. That prevents, or attempts to prevent, cupping, cracking or shrinking of the boards.

Cottage 38 in Stone Ridge New York has a lot happening inside - here's a shot of the cathedral ceiling clad in wood planks.

The finished basement area is always a bonus. Note the plentitude of light finding a way into this room even though it is partially underground and covered by a deck. We installed a gas fireplace for good measure.

A view from the 2nd floor top of the stairs area, looking down to below.

And then over in Bearsville, a few miles outside of Woodstock proper, sits the new foundation for Cottage 40, a super sweet reinvention of Cottage 36 for a family and their young baby.

On the books -

Under construction - Big Barn, Ranch VI, Barn V, Farm 18, Cottage 38, C0ttage 39, Cottage 40.

Starting soon - Farm 19, Farm 20, Arts & Crafts 2, Arts & Crafts 3, Barn VI, and Cottage 41.

Tonight - "Street Car Named Desire" in NYC. Currently in Saugerties NY, manning our homes under construction up here.

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Good seats (hopefully) tonight to the new production of Death of a Salesman - one of my favorites for sure. Saw the Brian Dennehy version in 1999, the last time (I think) the show had a major broadway run.

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There’s been a lot of activity with FH20 over the past month.

Let’s start with acquiring the land. The play we ran was fairly simple but looking back, we definitely got lucky. This is basically how it worked: (1) I would scour web sites, individual broker listings, and MLS aggregators for land listings I thought looked interesting and fit within my budget. (2) After compiling, culling, cutting, I had a “top 5” or “top 10” list of possible build sites. I sent these to Chuck and he ran them through his various filters. (3) Chuck and/or his contacts would typically know something already about these properties or know someone who knew something about these pieces of land. Many of these properties had been on the market for some time, or they were represented by certain realtors that dominated listings in certain developments or local towns.

I was amazed at the various factors that made plots suboptimal or even unsuitable for building. Tiny road frontage and railroad-car, cookie-cutter layouts. Wetlands or poor drainage. Road noise. We even found an amazing, secluded plot with sweeping views, varying elevation, gorgeous old trees, and an attractive offering price. Perfect, right? Too bad that small creek and gulley that ran alongside the property line meant no direct or easy access given the property lines, and building a “bridge” of sorts might require months or even years for DEC permits and cost tens of thousands of dollars! There is no way anyone could have done this by themselves – even with the help of real estate agents, who might have a whole different set of incentives. It was critical to rely on Chuck’s eyes and ears, many years of experience, and local contacts to whittle things down to possible build sites.

Since I think the farmhouse building and planning parts are a lot more interesting than the land search, I’ll just fast forward and say we’re in contract on a good-sized plot with lake rights in Sullivan County. Chuck even helped negotiate the asking price down to what I’d say is a pretty fair level. Could we have squeezed another thousand or two if we really tried, given this economy? Probably, but what’s the point? The effort, hassle, and bad-blood weren’t worth it at that time... we’d be past the point of diminishing returns. This was the best, most appropriate plot we found for our purposes, and it’s entirely possible I’d still be out there searching if we didn’t find this piece. So we got lucky. I think we found great land and settled on a fair price where both buyer and seller are eager to move forward, and I’m excited to close in the near future and get started on FH20.

Lessons learned:

* Web sites and MLS aggregators are great resources, but I found the best listings were “broker login” listings from their respective MLS. Many times those listings would have exact addresses, maps, clearer photos, tax info, and other details not on public sites. I generally had good success contacting selling agents and asking for these pages; as you can imagine, they all preferred working direct without a buyer’s broker.

* Again, you’ll have to go local for the best info and advice. Chuck has your back.

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