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

It’s hard to spend much time appreciating what didn’t happen to you - like proving a negative - if it didn’t happen, how do you calibrate the appreciation? If it did happen- if a house did flood after a storm, if a house did leak after a storm, if roofs blew off after a storm, if a truck or trucks got stuck after a storm - it’s easy to calibrate your rage, which I’d like to say is in direct proportion to the problem in front of you but I don’t find that to be true.  Some of the problems that really aren’t big deals annoy me more than they should probably because they should have avoided in the first place, and some of the biggest are so serious you have no choice but to put aside emotion, and dig in and fix it with all your financial and labor resources.

And I’ve had some doozies over the years- completely out of the blue, disasters.  The one that really sticks out, but only because I was sitting around minding my own business, was after I finally finished a 4 lot subdivision build out in Phoenixville PA, a once in a generation flood hit and I got a call that there was 8’ of water in my olympic-sized swimming pool basement and that the tenant was being rescued in a canoe.  I mean, talk about a scheduling pivot!

The Hudson Valley got some flooding recently, with more rain more quickly than the streams, creeks and rivers could hold, and boy did they rise quickly. It was the volume over a short period of time rather than the volume, generally.  I’ve seen this in my personal experience and with others - that disaster flooding seems to only happen once in a generation for flood prone areas, so there is a memory lapse or fading of how bad it was, and gentrification and business building creeps in and starts to prosper and then wham, bam, flood.   Livingston Manor is once every 10 years, and I’m reading social media like “worst we’ve ever seen’, “omg I can’t believe it’, when anyone who has been around for even a short while is well aware that Livingston Manor floods. Always has, always will, and it’s typically not minor flooding. The fact that most of those new businesses are less than 7 years old means they had no institutional memory of the pretty predictable flooding.  I’m not blaming them, but I couldn’t help but wonder about the ‘when not if’ scenario that was sure to occur.

I've had some additional opportunities to buy land or rental homes in a flood area - not a flood prone area, just an area that could flood - and I turned them down, just because been there done that. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's not.

The flood in Phoenixville was a lot less predictable, with the last one being in 1970, so that’s literally a lifetime - and as Phoenixville expanded there was pressure to develop, redevelop, rehab, fix up or build new in areas that most people around for awhile would and did look at with trepidation - but who’s going to listen to some old timer when deals are to be had.  The timing of it, just after 5 years of effort on my part with a very heavy lift to get it done, during covid and all those challenges, was supremely unfair. Many young families had just moved into the area.

My point is, going back to the beginning, when I drove around on Thursday to our job sites wondering what I was going to find, I didn't find much of anything to worry about, so it's hard to get excited or emotionally elevated about things that didn't happen - the brain just doesn't work that way.

That’s also why you always got to have some reserve gas in the tank, cause shit is going to happen, all the time, when it’s least expected. It’s a lesson that keeps on being true - the test is never over, never ending. While it didn't happen this time, the unexpected is still out there lurking, stalking me.

And that’s why my next move is so interesting, compelling and difficult.  I have the best team I have ever assembled.  I have the money and financing.  I was just introduced to some land that could keep me busy for a few years.  But no matter how great the team or the opportunity, the job is hard, the responsibility real, the management complex, the risks always genuine.  There is no coasting through construction projects - at least not at the volume and speed we need to operate in order to pay our bills, benefits and earn our profits.

I’ve been thinking a bit more about the Taylor Swift wedding, and Im thinking perhaps I was too dogmatic in my opinion of her needing to insert herself into the world cup festivities, the 250 USA founding festivities - I’m not taking all that back, I think her inclination to insert herself in other people’s parties is a bit problematic, but logistically, in NYC, in a covered venue, makes sense.  (pictures are emerging of Travis Kelce a bit out of shape in training camp).

1, so much is going on, high profile people coming and going from the City is rather unnoteworthy and hard to track, so her guest list gets protected.  2, the covered arena eliminates aerial distraction in the form of drones, helicopters, etc… trying to cover the event.  3, the security capabilities is unsurpassed.  4.  It’s easy for her guests to get to.  And 5, then the guests just fade back into the NYC scene, which is always filled with celebs and goings on - with a well-protected guest list, you couldn’t say why this person or that person was in town.  The effectiveness of the NDA is pretty impressive too - few leaks about attendees or activities even a month later - the NDA must have had both real teeth and real ways to track.

Our Ranch being constructed in Kerhonkson seems to be going under contract, which would be a big (though predictable) win.  And with our Barn at Timberlake and the Modern Ranch in Fremont finishing up, and our projects under construction moving right along, it’s just another one of those profitable years- though, the profit margins are shrinking, and good planning and risk management is becoming more and more important - which to be honest is fine with me, the harder it is the more we are equipped to handle it, and certainly more equipped than our competition. Books are tight, cash flow healthy, clear head and lots of pondering the next move.

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Fremont NY Modern Ranch.

I’ve been on the bicycle since last Sunday, left home last Saturday, maybe even last Friday over 8 days ago.  Having 4-6 hours on a bike to think, ponder, conclude, rewind and reconsider makes for a difficult entry point for blog post - oh, where to start. I'll weave a little cultural commentary in here, like Bret Easton Ellis in his book American Psycho, whose narrator unexpectedly riffed on Genesis and a whole host of other tangents in between his murderous night-time activities. Ellis knows his subjects a lot better than i will ever hope to.

Let’s at least lead with the lead for once - successfully closed our big spread on Dymond Road in Kerhonkson, and our bread and butter Ranch in Narrowsburg.  2 completely different exercises of construction, strategy, finance and execution.

Dymond Road Barn house sits on 30 acres.  It also has a 26’x26’ 2 story garage.  The land was cleared for a view.  The house was over 4000 sq ft.  I cleared, grubbed and planted a yard which we tended and grew.  We furnished the house.  We priced it at nearly $2,000,000 - not that much of an outlier for the gold coast of Ulster County, and some of the much lesser stuff that gets priced mid $1,000,000. Compass Real Estate gets the assist.

The Narrowsburg Ranch sold for just under $800k - a good price. It’s on 5 acres.  We’ve built a lot of these, on spec and retainer.  They are fun, liveable, easy to understand. Easy to own.

Between the two, Catskill Farms brought in $2,500,000 in earnings and cash while I was on a bicycle near Canajoharie NY- one of the depressed canal towns we passed through on this 387 mile Erie Canal trek.  Most of that money came to the Catskill Farms coffers, since we build mostly with cash these days.

I had a lot of time to contemplate the current state of America culture on my ride, listening repeatedly to Ella Langley’s album Dandelion.  This Linda Ronstadt-inspired baddie, with front bangs and shirt skirts, produced a great album that has swept across the States and inspired a whole new men’s club, the Ella Fellas.

Linda -

Ella

A little slutty, drinks a bit too much, definitely spends a fair time in pubs and bars, likes her hard liquor and a mastery of the southern twang. The music industry find a muse for our general interests.

The question is, with all the attention, how long till Travis and Taylor show up in the front row of one of her shows, which brings me to another point since I’m vibing stream of consciousness, am I being unfair to these two since they didn’t show up at the World Cup finals, though that could just be attributed to Travis’ uppity and condescending view of soccer as a sport (shared by many of his fellow Americans).

Ella compared to Olivia Rodrigo is interesting, because while Olivia’s Vampire is all about the evil-doing’s of a player-paramour, Ella gives some worldly grace to love’s lost, reserving blame and generally letting and let live. 

The ride from Buffalo to Albany was a big accomplishment - 360 miles on a gravel bike, which is more efficient than a mountain bike but less than a road bike.  It’s a lot of miles, spread out over 8 days, hugging the Erie Canal, which by definition and purpose, is thankfully pretty flat.  But it’s still a lot of time in the saddle, a lot of rotation of ye ole legs.  We passed through dozens of canal towns, once rowdy and raucous and vibrant and promising, but for 125+ years having a future/fortune pegged to a canal abandoned and forgotten, towns existing out of inertia than economic vibrancy. The Canal, finished in 1825, expanded a few times to parlay its success, to flame out relatively quickly as the train took over in the late 1900’s.  A birth and demise based on a transportation revolution, much like the Catskills I home, which many people claim declined in popularity as the airplane allowed New Yorkers to travel farther and easier than the Borscht belt.

We were right in the middle of the forest fires smokes and to be honest, for all the hubbub 24/7 about the smoke, air quality and stay indoor warnings, there was relatively little overt concern on the ride - which was odd on one hand since we were outside and breathing heavy, but not as odd as you would think because anyone riding 400 miles while camping in this religious revival meets traveling circus meets Dead show meets military encampment is a bit out of the ordinary -not in a judgy good or bad way, but just not your average joe.

Smoky orange.

Sitting in Buffalo, on a grassy knoll, just off a Greyhound-like bus from Albany, the day before embarking on a Buffalo to Albany bicycle ride organized expertly and efficiently but NY Parks org.  I mean these people are on it - organizing hundreds of bikers, their parking, their transportation since no one is ending where they started. Hundreds of details with military precision - buses leave at 9, you better be at the bus by 8:50.  Orientation starts at 4, arrive at 4:15 and miss out on half the information. This 7 day sojourn along the Eric Canal is a 50 mile a day trip with hundreds of other bike aficionados - like I said last year when I did half (to Syracuse) - it’s like if you combined a Grateful Dead show, a military encampment and a traveling circus - add in a religious tent revival for good measure.

This year I’m excited to be reading a great book - Wedding of the Waters -  on the Canal’s construction and impact and listening to a fascinating audio book named Devil’s Ditch.  Fully immersive experience - on the bike and off.  For a history buff, the history of the Erie Canal was a missing link in my knowledge library, and explained a lot about Mid-1800’s history revolved a lot about around upstate central NY, a bit of logical disconnect to the those of us who only know this region as generally distressed - Albany, Rochester, Buffalo and a ton of towns in between.

But back in the 1820’s - 1900, the Erie Canal pushed commerce, ideas and politics and religions westward, through the only gap of mountains on the east coast.  George Washington tried push one west from VA but it flopped finanically - It’s why NY got the Empire State label and why NYC and not Baltimore or Charleston or New Orleans or Atlanta or Richmond became the center of the urban American universe - it’s all about the Erie Canal’s construction and economic expansion it spurred.

Since it’s a week, you can camp with your own camping gear, setting up and tearing down each day, but also cherry-picking shady, out of the way locations- if you are a rider that finishes earlier than others.  You can sign on to a service named Comfy Campers which sets up hundreds of tents, adds a mattress, a camping chair and a towel and wash cloth - you finish your ride and the tent is inhabitation worthy - but typically in a big field, organized grid-like, and without a lick of shade, privacy and subject to the privations of all the snoring, hooting, coughing, talking, rustling of the other campers, including my personal unfavorite - the slamming of the plastic porto-potty doors.  You can RV it, with your partner driving from each overnight location, or you can do like I’m doing this year, getting local hotels. I guess there is something to be said for roughing it a few hundred other people, but I'll let someone else describe it raptously.

I chose the hotels because last year it was 100+ degrees riding and 90+ at night, after riding 50 miles, was more than a test of endurance and more like a great way to quantitatively diminish the enjoyment of the ride.  So count me in for a little local hotel, some AC, and fresh sheets.  Though, this year the temps are going to be in the low 70’s at night at mid 80’s during the day - a completely different experience.  Stayed in Albany last night at a nice downtown hotel, but the city itself is a bit of a problem - like Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing'.  Had an excellent Indian meal and a fun delicious breakfast at a very down-and-out diner.  The capitol buildings and surrounds are marvels of architecture and history - then a little section of nice period housing, but then not a whole lot else positive.  But what do I know, - only what I saw and I wasn’t out looking for the grand tour.

If you’d think the majority of riders are really good shape and mid-aged, you’d be somewhat correct.  I think in decent shape for sure, but trends older. Because if you break it down and aren’t in a hurry, even a 50 mile day is only 5 hours of 10 miles an hour - pretty achievable if you can keep your ass seat from turning on you.  Once your butt hurts, that’s a whole new game.

New foundation for modern style home in Saugerties - this could be a home run - gold coast of Saugerties and Woodstock, modern home, views and a historic barn.

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And not to bury the lead - We worked through a lot of issues, obstacles, hurdles and problems (ie, typical day in construction) to prep 2 homes for the sales closing table Friday of next week, which will bring in over $2m of sales proceeds, a lot of it money I personally took out of the stock market to gamble on the housing market.  I’m hoping to turn that $2m into $4m by putting it all to work and even though margins are getting a lot tighter than just 18 months ago, 20% return on money invested in 6 - 8 months is a good return - albeit with a ton of risk and fixed costs attached.  You gotta keep things moving in this game, or the cost of money will eat you alive, like the cannibals did to that young Rockefeller kid when he was exploring hard to find islands he should’ve have left alone - just cause you can, doesn’t mean you should.

A barn that came with a property I purchased in Saugerties.

Barn/Garage we are building new in Cochecton coming along nicely.

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Well, I guess I’m not the only one pondering too much the Taylor Swift wedding, supposedly happening in NYC at MSG this weekend, coinciding with a big American yearly holiday and this year more so because it’s the 250 Anniversary of this American Experiment (which as far as history goes, is pretty short).

Alice Bolin of the NYTimes captures one angle of the wedding objection in her guest essay today, and she nails some good points, but covers others I think are overdone or over-urban, or perhaps over-liberal.  My primary objection, or concern, or cause for a raised eyebrow (as I wrote a few weeks ago) is her seeming need now to always be where it's at - if it’s a media all-consuming event, she will be there, like Forest Gump.  I noted it at the Knicks game.  I noted it at the music awards where Oliva Rodrigo was performing.  And now, competing with a nation’s semiquincentennial, sestercentennial, bisesquicentennial, or quarter-millennial (all different ways to say biannual according to Google’s AI) celebration, seems overly needy, like she has somehow confused herself with us. It’s weird, and I feel bad for her, this need to be there, like:

Carly Simon sings:

Well I hear you went up to Saratoga

And your horse naturally won

Then you flew your lear jet up to Nova Scotia

To see the total eclipse of the sun

Well you're where you should be all the time

You're so vain

You probably think this song is about you

You're so vain (so vain)

I bet you think this song is about you

Don't you don't you, don't you, don't you now

I’m not hating on Taylor Swift, I’m just observing a personality trait that seems to be growing - the spotlight stealer.  That’s never a good look for someone who has spent a lot of time in her own well-earned spotlight.  I don’t think it’s bad for country, I think it’s bad for her, personally, as a person, since regardless of wealth, or fame, in the end, the F Scott Fitzgerald quote about late nights - ““In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.”  Nothing protects us Homo Sapiens from this doubt and mind-meandering.  

That’s why the American mid-westerner is so celebrated - humble, comfortable in their own skin, god-fearing, with an understanding of their place in the world.  Swift’s mid-western charm, and the songs she wrote about them, is a long way off from getting competing with a nation’s birth.

We are busy. Really busy.  And I now know what that means for me, in this period of my always changing business-journey - I’m the guy at the right place at the right time at the right meeting hearing the good bad and the ugly and efficiently acting, reacting, or fixing.  It’s actually really good for the business - to have the most experienced person in the organization who happens to be one of the most experienced construction veterans in the region - being the first to know - it accelerates problem-solving by accelerating problem-identification.  And what’s the old saying - being aware of the problem is the first step to solving it.

But what it also means is I’m dealing with a lot of ‘bad news’ first hand, unfiltered, undelayed.  And I can be a bit of an emotional overreactor, especially with business problems, because like a zebra in the African savannah whose genetic code has taught it to be jumpy, alert and highly suspicious of every blowing blade of tall grass in case a lion lies in wait, I’ve been on a trigger’s edge of hyper-alert sensitivity for that problem that puts me out of business.  So I’ve trained myself out of necessity to be hyper-alert, and to take quick action to problems large and small, since you never know when small will become large.  It also puts me in the position to having to solve, or lead the solving, of the problem, which results in increased blood pressure BUT efficient and clear resolution paths.

And in economic terms, efficient and clear resolution paths result in efficient and clear profit maximization.    There is no money in dawdling over problems.  Identify, construct a plan, throw some money at it, fix correctly the first time, and move onto the next one.  I wouldn’t be solving all these problems without a great team behind me to delegate some pieces of the problem-solving puzzle to, that’s for sure.

It’s hard to know if it’s ‘harder’ now to get things done - it feels like it with interfering building departments - but it’s probably the speed at which we are moving.  And we are moving fast - because, see above - I’m out there in front solving problems.

But to digress back the zebra, that’s why you don’t see domesticated zebras - because their flight and fight instincts are so hair-trigger because for millennia they’ve been bred to worry about all the predators that would love to have them for dinner.   I relate to the plight of the zebra.

Houses all over - in all states of completion.   We are just finishing up three.  Starting 3.  Mid-construction 5.  That’s a lot of construction.   All the dust from this round of housing investment that I started in September 2025 should be washed and rinsed by November of 2026 - and not one inch of it has been done without my micro and constant oversight.

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Teaching my son how to drive my travel van so he and his bros can go up to Lake George for a few days.

Say what you will about me, but one thing baseline truth is that I've handled a lot of other people's money - a lot- over the course of decades - money that had their hopes and dreams wrapped up in it - we are talking millions, hundreds of millions - and never, not even once, have I mis-used, mis-appropriated, borrowed-against or otherwise put it in danger. As a big business story reader, the stories are endless about people in my position of managing other people's money during a building or development process that somehow - purposely or not, competently or not, honestly or not - end up losing this money by not finishing the project or running out of other people's money to finish the project. The responsibility is immense, and I've always met the moment. There has been plenty of times where the cash flow of Catskill Farms was severely strained for periods of time, and that's when you want a businessman at the helm of the business, and not some carpenter who rose through the ranks whose books stink and knowledge of finance is weak.

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Happy 4th. I'm staying close to home.