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

Well, my wish came true about more bad news. New home sales are down 26%. What does that mean for me and my buyers - mostly, lower interest rates, better service from our subcontractors, and a more friendly and civil process with every vendor and salesperson we run into. Facts be told, these figures have nothing to do with our limited edition cottage and farmhouses. We don't build overpriced vinyl sided cookie cutter suburban tract homes on 1/8 of an acre where you can see your neighbor cooking breakfast. Honestly, I would venture the buyers of Catskill Farms' homes are in an enviable position. We have not seen any pressure on prices, and because demand is far outweighing supply, we are designing and selling houses at the same prices, or more, than we were a year ago. That's great news for existing and new customers, because, in the end, it means Catskill Farms is selling houses full of value. It's actually pretty easy to quantify. 2 scenarios - Buyer purchases their own building parcel ($65,000), buyer hires an architect ($20,000), buyer pays a real estate fee ($20,000), buyer pays for a lot of surprises ($25,000), buyer pays for a construction loan, and all the interest during the process. Scenario #2 - Catskill Farms, always on the lookout for great property cheap, pays $25,000. Catskill Farms pays for the architect, our customers are finding us directly many times, Catskill Farms pays for all of the surprises, and Catskill Farms pays all the costs of construction and financing and taxes and utilities during construction. For the exact same house, going it alone would cost upwards of $100,000 more. The fact that we have vertically integrated, cut out all the middle men, and passed on all the savings to our customers, has resulted in house values unaffected by the hurricane of bad economic news, mainly because, in a phrase, they are 'drastically underpriced'. Similarly, if the customer was lucky enough to withdraw their money from the market in order to buy the house, they are now insulated from the current violitility. Possibly there are 2 safe spots for one's money presently - cash in the bank, and a Catskill Farms home. This is said as a joke, but in reality, I would think it's got to be a good feeling to not only love one's home, but to realize that the idea and design you fell in love with is standing tall in the chaos of the present financial turbulence. Today, Cheri decided Cottage 3 was perfect for her and her 2 dogs. She is going to be our 3rd full-timer in probably our most unique house ever. Rob and Leah and baby (not sure about the pet count) have firmly committed to Cottage 8, and Pablo and Ana are, I'm sure, checking the mail twice a day looking for the new designs we collaborated on. I can only think of two words - "Rock On".

As far as I'm concerned, this whole 'the world is ending, everyone is losing their homes and jobs' thing going round is working out pretty perfect for Catskill Farms. Today, Rob and Leah signed up for a plumped up mini-house, and Cheri showed definitive interest in Cottage 3. That's on top of Pablo and Ana sending back the sales contracts for Cottage 7, and Gavin moving towards the closing table for his new home at Highland Farms. February and March are going to be interesting months. We are selling 5 finished homes, signing contracts for 3 homes to be started in the spring, buying an awesome huge open bus garage cum my new office/headquarters, buying 14 more acres (3 building lots), and moving towards contract on 50 acres with an old farmhouse I am purchasing. It's a great time to buy anything if you got the money and confidence. Appliances, cars, homes, furnishings. Lots of stores and dealerships are offering great incentives since sales are suffering. And once again, mortgage rates are low, low, low. And for the most part, mortgage rates are almost as important as the price of a home. If a household is in the position to take advantage of the slowdown in the economy, it's a once or twice in a lifetime opportunity to buy, buy, buy. Keep the bad news coming, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, make the news as bad as possible. Seems to be an inverse relationship between bad news and our sales activity.

Being a small business, sometimes life is less than the romantic ideal I paint it. For example, our front porch filled with boxes of toilets, vanities, sinks, barn door tracks, lighting, tile and other assorted items waiting to go into Farmhouse #9 in Barryville NY.

Or, the broken window resulting from Edwin the carpenter getting a little carried away unloading the 14" hemlock shelving we are installing in the pantry of Farm 9.

The full coverage for broken glass came in pretty handy for this doozy. Pretty cold riding around till it got fixed. I could have opted for the duct tape and cardboard temp fix, but that would have entailed finding cardboard, a scissors and duct tape, and frankly, I'm not that handy to begin with.

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Morning time in the Catskills, with the Moon going away and the sun risin'.

Sunrise over the Toronto Reservoir at Chapin Estate.

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