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

I mean, my life is exciting - sometimes in a bad way, many times in a good way, but one thing that is true is that everyday, 7 days a week, brings something my way unexpected - some glory, some defeat, some accolade, some defaming whisper, some back patting, some complaint. Let me walk you through this weekend, for instance. First I find out one of my customers who I thought was a friend is sending mass emails out complaining about Catskill Farms and it's quality, and an attempt to 'rally the troops' to 'see if the homeowners should do something." Now Hugh has been living in his house for 2 years, pretty much problem free. We had a punchlist we punched out, he had a wet basement incident we remedied immediately over a weekend, he didn't have any non-self instigated emergencies otherwise, so for a homebuilder, that's what you hope for. But here I am recipent of a forwarded email from someone on the list with really a negative overtone. The thing is, we would be happy to crack the whip on any subcontractor who failed to meet some basic quality criteria. I mean, putting myself in his shoes - if I was unhappy with my insurance rep because he sold me a policy that has $25,000 deductible if I let anyone on my jobsites without proper insurance verification - do I write an email to all his clients I know, or do I pick up the phone and talk it through with him? And even one step further - if he says he can't do anything about it, and I should've read the 100 page fine print policy, do I then write the mass email? Or do I show a little generousity and give the guy a break, and just work through it? I know what direction I follow every time I have a choice - and that's to give a guy a break. And I think that's why I have a dedicated team up here in the middle of nowhere - a team I have kept very busy when their friends are siting at home, losing their homes and cars, and are otherwise living a depressed existence. So, what may I ask, is Hugh's problem? He spent zero dollars on maintenence for 2 years, just like I promised, and then has his boiler maintenenced and freaks out and writes a 'let's go get him' email. Like Lisa always says - 'Who are these people? They have these beautiful houses, don't really have any problems with the houses, and all they do is bitch and complain." Do I really need to remind these 'haters' - that's our new name for them - that they own the only houses in America that haven't plummetted in value? But these homeowners hire home inspectors who comb through the house before they buy it, everything works fine for 2 years and then they call a random heating guy who talks shit about the previous guy, just like every other tradesman talks shit about the carpenter/painter/tile guy/electrician, that came before them, etc... and all of a sudden we get ganged up on. This one heating guy even told one of my customers they were lucky the 'house didn't blow up'. Now come on, that's pretty extreme. Sad, and counter-productive. I don't think any of our 125 homeowners would ever say I won't at least discuss possible remedies to any issue. It's weird - I built 18 homes on this 2 mile stretch of road, and on one end I have a small group of angry homeowners, and on the other I have happy homeowners - and in the end, the houses are the same, - same quality, same styles, same attempt at service - It's a real testament to the 'power of the mob' - both in a good direction or in a bad. And then I have these other homeowners stopping by our house to invite us over for tennis and barbeque, another of martinis, another for a Memorial Day party, and a few others who make it possible to enter and show off their homes at any time to perspective homeowners. They bring us baby clothes, fresh vegetables, and brag us up to all their friend. And then on the other hand, I get an email from a customer on Saturday saying their basement flooded, - a finished basement, so it's a big deal, with moisture and mold issues, let alone a holiday weekend and all that. So it's no fun, that's for sure. And it's a simple case of the contractor who was hired to do the work closed up the ceiling of the basement without allowing for heat to reach the water pipes now in the ceiling. Now, most times everything will be fine, but as a precaution any time we close up a basement ceiling we do a thorough examination for any pipes that may be vulnerable once they are enclosed in an unheated space. So, little do you know, against all my advice, this homeowner hired someone local to do the work who didn't do the precautionary checklist, and over the winter, the pipe closest to the exterior, the outside faucet, froze and broke, so when the homeowner turned on the hose to water the shrubs and didn't have any water pressure and stood there scratching their heads as 15 minutes of water was running in the finished basement. And then they call me to fix their problem or else my name is Mud, with a capital M. And then on the other end we showed 3 couples our houses this past weekend, and I wouldn't be surprised if all 3 don't end up making offers or joining our waiting list. That means, conceivably, we might be doing 6 deals in the month of May. And to anyone involved in real estate, the adrenaline rush of making a deal, or possibly making a deal, is a real high. And I do realize we are still in a serious recession. Last year about this time in the pretty slow real estate world, we lined up 7 buyers who took us through February of this year. Now, with the economy even slower, and all the deals we started last year fully consumated, we are lining up another crew of future homeowners, hopefully endowed with the ability to enjoy this serious luxury of country living. And then on the other hand I got this guy named Steve running around doing everything he can do to make us look bad - if you remember, this is the guy that hasn't had a job since I've known him (1.5yrs), tried to steal my carpenters everytime I sent them over to do him a favor, and then sits around scratching his head as to why I refuse to come close to his house - I mean, breaking up a guy's business and team, now that's pretty lowdown - and then, considering it's the guy who just built you a really nice house, with no delays, and zero cost overruns, - it's just out of the ballpark classless. This guy Steve Carr, who isn't even one of my homeowners (his wife owns the house), has been running around for 12 months poisoning the minds of anyone who will listen about Catskill Farms - and since he can't find a job, he has a lot of anger and time on his hands. AND SMART PEOPLE LISTEN TO HIM!! And now his neighbors (and the police) think he is vandalizing their plants and property. Great guy - real reliable source of information and has been doing everything he knows how to damage my business, - which affects my family, my employees and their families. So I guess it's time to stop ignoring it and taking the high road and turning the other cheek. Stay tuned to watch Catskill Farms push back - it's always a little Sugar Ray, a little Raging Bull, and, in the end, a big left like Tyson, keeps us standing and our adversary sucking wind on their backs. And then, on the exciting front, and on the other hand, James K from the office is jamming up in Walton NY, with Peter Sorenen's gothic cottage on the hill. The house is framed up and ready to roof shortly. And I just bought 44 acres and we just are putting in the footings for the new houses tomorrow morning. And just went golfing this morning with my friend Eric, on a beautiful morning, with very little in terms of crowds. Well, that's not even the extent of it, but you get the picture. Many thorns in my side, many trophies on my shelf. We've survived 5 years while doing our best, and I hope we can make it another five - since without question, we have enhanced the architectural heritage of Sullivan County real estate. Oh, on another good note - we fought, and we fought, and we fought, and we fought, and we won - we elected a supervisor, who fired the insane assessor, and hired a normal person and the real estate taxes on every single property I own, or have sold in the town of Highland, has been lowered. Tune in, As the World Turns, at the Catskill Farms - http://www.catskillfarms.com/

Big New York Post article coming out in a few days - a lot of new traffic expected in the blog and website. To understand how absurd my life has been since this guy Steve entered it, you have to rewind almost 16 months when my kitchen guy calls me up and says this guy Steve won't stop calling the showroom, wanting to know how much this cost his builder, how much this cost what the markup is, etc.... And then I hear the same thing from a lawyer at the house closing, saying this guy Steve, who wasn't part of the deal at all, was about the rudest person they've ever seen at a closing- making snide comments to the title company and the bank. But rewind a little more - and remember he's not even a customer. He's someones husband that wasn't contributing enough to be owner of the house, listed on the deed - a bystander, for all intent and purposes. So, I sign these people up, and just like I always do, I pay for everything - every 2x4, every sheet of plywood, every faucet, and they get to pick out all the fun stuff like the kitchen, the tile, the paints, the stain, - they show me pictures of a fire place they want, how they want the sink to meet the counter top, the style doors, etc... So everything is cruising along pretty good, it's a harsh winter but we plug along and get the house finished right on time. But, Christine is pregnant, so generous as I am I tell her not to sweat it, let's delay closing for a few weeks so we don't have these two huge life moments (child-birth and house buying) coincide exactly. So, I pay for a few extra weeks to hold the house so Christine doesn't have some crazy stress. So the baby comes and it's all cool and we go to schedule a closing, and lo and behold, they get denied for a mortgage - the bank won't give them the money, and I soon learn that between their low credit scores and desire to get some absurd LTV loan, it just wasn't going to happen. So I build them house, I pay for the whole thing, turn them onto to my best vendors, and then when it's their turn to do their thing (buy the house), they can't do it. So one week turns into two, turns into 4, turns into 8 and just by the skin of our teeth we get this thing sold to them before things got legal. Now, within a week of this 12 week sales date extension I get a call from Steve on my cell - "a tree is going to fall on the electric line!, - the next day, something else, the next day something else, the next day something else, and two of those days with simple emergencies like 'send someone over immediately, my front door needs to be unhinged so I can accept my fourth appliance delivery' - now, he really can't take off his own door?, but we showed up and did our best. Then, with my frustration and irritation mounting because I could see the lack of money to buy the house was just the beginning of the problem, and the continuation of the demands and requests were not going stop any time soon. And then I learned Steve Carr was offering work to the guys coming to work on his house. Imagine, in this little town where hard workers and team players are very limited, I was sending my best team to ensure the Carr's were as happy as I could make them, and Steve Carr was offering them employment. Now, to further see the absurdity, Steve Carr did not have any work - he was new to the area, and somehow landed a little wood siding job, and based on this he felt it honorable to attempt to break up my business, as well as tempt a pretty non-sophisticated carpenter away from a steady job. So eventually, the stupidest of my crew (although still talented) took him up on the offer, and then returned back to the job sites a few days later to try to recruit more members of my team. And in the end, within two weeks this carpenter kid was back begging for work from my homeowners, since Steve's promise of work lasted all of 2 weeks. All the while, Steve Carr is talking trash, defaming us, - he's unemployed, with nothing to do, and through his lack of generosity, used his best energy to tarnish my business, which has invested $17m in the local community, provided a livelihood for countless individuals, and benefited the bottom line of countless businesses and vendors. And the sad thing, he has sort of succeeded in diminishing me and my business - of course, he still is unemployed, still has yet to contribute anything of value to the community at large, still has yet to build anything, pay anyone, or create anything sustainable except for a real bad taste in the mouth to those he comes across. But he is undaunted, certain that his world-view will prevail, certain that his negativity and sour demeanor will infect and, like a virus, spread. The thing is, I don't build -I'm not a carpenter, I'm a business person, so Steve's wicked vile bile is directed at Juan, Curtis, James K, Edwin, Caleb, Al, John, Pete, Casey, Mark, Tito and the dozens of others who take pride in their work, do a pretty good job, and take some pride in being professional in a largely unprofessional community. So, talk about a losing proposition, let's review - 1. Design, build and pay for someones dream home. 2. Finish on time and on budget. Not one surprise. 3. Give them extra time to close on the house because the wife is pregnant. 4. Remain patient while they scramble to find the money to buy the house after being turned down for a mortgage. 5. Sell them a house with smile on my face. 6. Respond to 12 emergency calls within 2 weeks after closing. 7. Have the husband attempt to hire away my staff while I am trying to live up to my warranty. 8. Fail to kiss his ass long enough, deep enough - and in the end have a long non-ending nightmarish defamation campaign waged against me by a guy who has absolutely nothing to do with his time. So, what is the lesson learned here, kids? - very simply, sell to people with class.

I'm down in Fair Hope Alabama, cooling it on the Mobile Bay, at the Grand Resort, visiting Lisa's good friends who moved down here a few yrs ago from Richmond Virginia. I'm sitting here on a computer that is charging me .25 cents a minute, so I'm really hustling through various posts - but, lordie lord, I haven't posted in over a week and know by now my readership must be parched from the inactivity. Well, over the years a few actors, publishers, writers and musicians have bought homes from us and just recently we finished up a house for Albert Hammond, Jr, the guitarist for the Strokes. Here he is with his wingman Gus, as they walk from the house to the studio where they are busy unpacking. Like true musicians, the house is empty, and the studio was tackled first.

The studio from afar.

What was.....

and what was about to be....

I know a lot of people think I'm just a big dickhead steam rolling all in my way - but, in reality, however true that may be, the aspiration of all the brawling and sharp elbows is to enable dreams like a mountain top studio in the woods to become reality, - on budget, on time, and refreshingly unique.

Anyone who has tried to do anything up here in the sticks knows the challenges in the way of timeliness and quality. It don't come easy - and it's not a process that wins a lot of friends.

Oh well, guess I'll have to learn to live with the ramifications of taking my promises seriously. Probably would be more likable if excuses would be more readily accepted.

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This pic was really just to show Erin of the 50's Ranch a few toilets we had in mind for her swanky bathroom, but ended up creating a neat little piece of photograpy.

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