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

The funny thing about grief related to death is it appears you have several rings of fire - you have those with first ring relationships, the partners, children, parents.  Then you have the 2nd ring which may not be that impacted by the death directly, but are directly impacted by the concern for those that were impacted directly, which can be as challenging as the primary ring/impact, since you aren’t the one in charge of the journey.  The other trick is to remember how long this trip is for those left behind - months barely touch the wound.

I spent my Saturday, at age 55, 2.5 decades into this Catskill Farms project, running around a broad swath of the Catskills helping families envision their upstate future.  Milford to Catskill to Woodstock to Mt Tremper to Milford.  Right now, it looks as if I’ve booked work through 2026, and when you have that done, then you get to gauge the extent of the peripheral risk you want to take - it’s not ‘house money’ but the risk ratio is much diminished.

We also have time on our side these days - there is a very low risk related to ‘timing’ - if things take a little longer to sell, it’s not killing us, though it does look like I’ll be engaged in a little borrowing to complete these homes for the first time in a few years.  I have one house, Ranch 73, that has been sitting complete for nearly 7 months as I wait for electric to the site (which seems to be gaining traction now) - just sitting there, empty, finished, fully funded, nearly 4/5ths of a million dollars.  That’s a lot of money to have tied up, but then again it’s sort of nice to have that diversified investment as the frothy stock market is worrisome to anyone with a brain.

Speaking of the stock market, I have what I thought was a conservative allocation into a dividend bearing etf labeled SCHD - it buys and allocates across non-technology sectors with a long history of principal appreciation and strong dividends payouts - a somewhat defensive position since it shies away from the concentrated gains of the Fabulous Seven (meta, amazon, apple, nvidia, microsoft, alphabet, Tesla) - 7 stocks that have led to a 34% concentration of these holdings in the the S&P 500 - 7 stocks make up 34% of an index that is made up of 500 stocks. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be, but the manager of these funds have no choice but to juice their returns with these holdings.

So the SCHD was intended to be defensive and a counter to the concentration mania, but it wasn’t supposed to be a real dog, returning just 2% in a market where the simple S&P returned 15%.  It’s the type of return that pushes even conservatively-minded investors to take more risk.   The S&P has returned 250% over the last 10 years.  

Though, on the other hand, it’s this type of illogic where a broadly diversified portfolio returns nothing is a red flag of tulip mania mentality in the market in general. It’s when conservative investors capitulate and start chasing frothy returns.  Just by the nature of my real estate activities, I’m pretty diversified; I’d hate have 90% of my wealth tied up in the stock market, as money managers can’t sit on the sidelines but know they are playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette, when a lot of people won’t find chairs once the music stops.  According to one graph I just reviewed, the other 494 stocks in the S&P 500 returned -2% with earnings down -8% since 2021.   Frightening, when you now add in tariffs.

The micro finance hacks I keep seeing are more and more cra-cra - finance your vacation, finance your airbnb, finance your winter gear shopping cart, finance your holidays, finance your gifts - spread the purchase out over 4 easy micro-financed payments.  I’ve never done it so I don’t really know the penalties for missing a payment or failing to pay, but I’m sure it’s onerous.  One of the concerns is these type of finance arrangements don’t show up in the overall reporting of credit usage by Americans, so the indebtedness of the typical American may be understated- but I wonder how delinquencies get addressed - can you report a bad debt to the credit agencies if you have reported the debt in when it was originated?  Probably.

The Chime advertisement I just watched is probably one of the stupidest things I’ve seen in awhile.  It’s asking ‘why should i have to wait for my paycheck until the money hits my account on friday?”  “Why shouldn’t I have it now?”  Umm, it’s called a payroll cycle and if you can’t wait on a payroll cycle, you probably aren’t doing a great job with your money, since now that you’ve accelerated your payday a day or two, that little hack is gone - it’s not like you can accelerate it further - it’s now baked in just like it was, now it’s a Tuesday instead of a Thursday, and I would guess you are paying for the privilege.

With all the stupidity in America and its money, it’s becoming abundantly clear that to stand out, you only have to do a few simple things right - show up, stay off your phone, stay out of debt and have a reasonable attitude.  The bar to success has never been lower.

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This has been a fascinatingly complex week of leadership running the gamut of pro se representation of a legal complaint I made as a Board of DIrector at our Milford Property Owners Association, I had our annual membership meeting at the Crest HOA- a 12 home project on 200 acres just north of North Branch NY - an HOA I’m the president of until I finish building up there, I had a worker’s unemployment hearing that resulted from two previous denials of benefits to this long-departed employee, I had a long overdue meeting with the local utility company to provide electric to 6 of my homes, and I ran for a position on my condo board in St Petes.

All of these items took a different skill set, but skill set indeed.   Some were wins, others were losses, still others (most) will be determined at a later date (court stuff).  Once you don’t mind losing, you can actually get a lot of stuff done.

I also found 2 more pieces of land to buy, bringing my buying spree to 7 pieces of land to be discovered, negotiated, contracted, due diligenced and purchased before November 1st.  Buying land comes with all sorts of starting guns - surveys, septic engineering, deciding which house to pair with the land, sometimes deciding which client in the queue to pair with the land, meetings, walking the land - dreaming up what could be, at what price, in which house style.

Certain pieces of land clearly yell for a certain house style.  Others are more flexible and still others only accommodate a certain house.  A lot depends on the grade and topo of the land.  Gently sloping is best; a steep slope can be accommodated.  Some of the toughest pieces are at first glance the most straight-forward - flat pieces of land look easy, until you try to get gravity fed drainage, or gravity-fed septics, or a walk-out basement - all benefit or even require some sort of sloped land to make everything work right.

What is also a bit counter-intuitiveness is the sense of privacy - heavy wooded and treed parcels don’t necessarily give you the most privacy - especially if it’s a deciduous type of forest.  Tree trunks, bare of leaves, don’t create much of a visual screen.  What is very useful are small or low hung pines or hemlocks, and even better than that is thick mountain laurel which can create an impenetrable visual screen - sucks to hike in before we clear it out for the house, but after that, provides a lot of privacy for these 4-6 acres homes sites. 

Friday night lights.

When I walk onto a piece of land, all my senses are firing imbued with 25 years of evaluating land.  Getting out of the car, with my dog, and walking the land.  Front to back, side to side, criss-crossed and back again.  Looking for deficiencies that can’t be fixed, looking for a neat building site with natural features be a view line, a big rock, a gentle slope.  Evaluating the utilities on the road - is there internet, is there even electric.  What do the neighbors look like?  It would seem having no neighbors on adjacent properties would be optimal, but that’s not always, or even usually the case.  I’m ok with the adjacent properties having houses or improvements on them, because then I know what I’m dealing with and can evaluate it in real time - can I see the house, is it kept up, are they weekenders, junky, neat, an asset or liability to what I might do?  When it’s a vacant piece of land, you never know what some idiot might come and do too close to your property line.  People do not use their brains in this type of work, especially homeowners- they don’t know or maybe care about the impact of their ‘improvements’ on neighboring properties.  It’s foremost in my mind, and a lot of times what we do either has no impact on our neighbors or has a positive impact on the value next door with little to no disturbance of the peaceful existence they may have been enjoying.

I’ve now developed over 300 pieces of land - typically one building lots of less than 7 acres with direct road frontage to a town maintained road.   That’s the low-risk way to go in this uber-risky business - buy the land, engineer your septic, know your property lines, get a driveway permit, submit your building permit application and get building.  As opposed to ‘subdividing’, this is by far the quickest in and out of an investment cycle, with little in your way except your own construction production capacity and skills.  Little in the way of municipal interference except building inspections.   You are propelled or hemmed in by your own skills and team when you engage in what I do and how I do it.  If imitation is a form of flattery, we are being flattered all over the place, with some companies like Western Sullivan Properties - a well-financed group with their hands in a lot of upstate business initiatives - they didn’t even try to conceal or improve on what we do/did - just made a copy of it and went head to head with us.

This will be an interesting story to follow - the Western Sullivan Properties story - because the dollar signs flashing from a few of their successful new build home sales motivated them to take a big swing and they now have 8-10 houses going that will be for sale.  I’ll be watching closely for sure since to do such volume they had to compromise on some of the land selections they made since there just isn’t enough of these 1-off pieces I like to find - so they found some views on a big farm - some views that at the same time greatly diminish a sense of privacy, and they are building a bunch of homes within earshot and eyeshot of each other.  Me, picking the land and placing the homes is an art - when you bastardize that in order to continue to have land available for your now-efficient construction crews, you can get jammed up, but you can be 5-7 homes into your plan before you realize it.  It’s tough to balance - after a lot of blood and sweat and tears you put together a real construction team, and you want to put them to good work and build some houses and take advantage of the team, but at that same time that can inadvertently leave you in front of your skis in a marketplace that can be very unforgiving.  I’m sure, since they aren’t original by plan, they saw our Crest project and misconstrued what we did up there - yes, it had some open fields but I spent a lot of time using the terrain, and slopes and hills and grass and large parcels to have the houses play nicely with one another- complement not intrude.  A real test of my skills of house placement and privacy tolerances of my clients.

Just read in our local newspaper that our local radio station is closing one office and reducing programming across the board due directly to funding cuts from the Trump Administration.   This radio station - Radio Catskill - has been a beating heart, integral part of the Sullivan County vibe for decades - broadcasting from a small studio in Jeffersonville and now a larger one in Liberty.  The cultural impacts of these budget cuts on the fiber of small towns is real, and I might be even ok with it if it was being done honestly in an attempt to curtail federal spending, but that isn’t the case, it’s easy to see.

The red hot rental market are not red hot anymore, and I can’t really figure out why.  I have a house in Phoenixville - literally one the best small towns in USA - and it’s just sitting there, unable to find a renter even though I lowered the rent to what I thought was a great deal, allowed pets, cleaned it up, etc…  My realtor warned me about the softening rental market but I never expected nearly 8 weeks without a qualified applicant.   And I have two more in the same area coming on line shortly.  This is when you are happy your rentals are fully paid for and you aren't living month to month on the rents, because you could very quickly find yourself in a poor position, especially if you had multiple units like I do.  Instead, while a bit frustrating, I look at the situation with an air of curiosity rather than distress.  Yes, the money flow decline is a bit disheartening, but I make plenty of money on other streams and whenever I’m paying a bill or not receiving income as expected, I really focus on my 50% tax bracket.  It’s a successful psychological trick I use on myself - though trick is a strong word since it’s very real - if I was supposed to receive $5k in rent, it was only going to be in reality $2500.

As I watch my NY529 funding for Lucas creep up and past $400,000 with principal and interest, I’m at an interesting way station of my savings journey, since Lucas won’t need half of that most likely, based on his lack of academic rigor and effort.  So It will be there for his kids, x4 since it will have 30 years to grow.  So I should stop funding it each month, but it’s such a habit it’s hard to just stop.  I think the same will be true when I stop working and begin calculating my retirement spending - it will be hard emotionally to eat into the principal of my savings after spending 30 years building it up, protecting it, growing it, defending it.  But unless I’m going to leave Lucas more money than he needs, or plan on giving it to the local dog shelter, I’m going to need to spend it and that will be hard.

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I’m nearly done reading The Color Purple.  I thought it was some horrific tale of Black America, one so dire I’ve never seen the movie, but as of right now, it’s just a good book.  I’m hoping the last 80 pages doesn’t drop some horror bomb.  The life led by most people who have ever lived are barely comprehensible in our American hammock of comfort and convenience. I'm either moving onto The Jungle next or War and Peace.

Also reading A Time to Grieve which bills itself as meditations on grief.  Unflinching and direct, probing, it picks at the open wound and validates, instructs and calms with perspective.   It’s a tough but important read.

Nothing bothers me more than getting my car serviced and they don't reset the Maintenance Required soon. Seems like an easy win for the mechanic's shop.

I'm making a concerted effort to 'unsubscribe' to every piece of email I receive that I don't want - It will be interesting to see if it makes a dent in the inbox inflow. I think it will, but it is a daily effort that's for sure keeping up with it.

Ugh, having dropped an important pass in the end zone when I was 17, I hate seeing games lost by an unusual mistake - the missed Tennessee FG against a rival, the missed extra point by Notre Dame.  I like a good game as much as the next guy - I hate a scapegoat more than most.

It’s hard to tell what's real or not anymore on social media apps like TikTok or Instagram, but today I came across one that had Trump and Prince Charles sitting in a manicured and deeply green yard with a band marching and playing Trump’s campaign song, YMCA.  It seemed so fantastical I doubted its reality.  And if it was real, was it to gain favor with pomp and circumstance with an easily flattered man or just a way to have a little fun with everyone in on the joke including Trump?  Got me.  The world is so inside out upside down who knows anymore.

Just driving around Sullivan County doing our survey and septic due diligence on a beautiful Tuesday.

I’d like to say it’s just the kids who feel the nag of the phone after a few minutes away, but it’s me for sure too. I’m probably better at recognizing the notion, but I’m still tugged by it, especially after doom-scrolling for a little while.  I didn’t really know what doom scrolling was/is - I’m told it’s just spending a lot of time on an app, but to me the phrase feels more like when you watch too many videos about Gaza or police encounters, or people stuck in caves while cave diving - I don’t know why watching videos of new bulls being dropped off at a new yard of eager heifers, or families that make music together, or babies and their dogs would be considered ‘doom- scrolling’ - but that’s what my nearly 17 year old is telling me.

I’m astounded at the number of people who don’t have their estates in order. The more I ask, the more I’m astounded.  Smart people, savvy people. I’m asking everyone now - every employee I have, every small business partner I have - do you have a will, and do you have life insurance?  I’ve already gotten 3 men to act and get it together.  A man without a will and some simple term life insurance is a man who really isn’t showing a lot of love to his family - it’s that simple. So it’s my mission now to make sure the people I have contact with have thought this out and gotten it taken care of.  It literally takes 60 minutes.  The shit-show I’m currently involved with has made what was always abundantly clear abundantly urgent.  I’m sure I’ll annoy a lot of people but that’s the cost of doing business with me from now on.

With the killing of the right wing guy, you can see why people want to ban TikTok - it’s just impossible to control the narrative as you can with cable news or newspapers.  As soon as one side deploys their press machinations of some narrative or another, here comes the army of TikTokers with a couple of million views debating and countering the MSM narrative.

Just planned a trip to FCU and OLB and ATH and EWR IAH to see Denver v San Fran.  Airport codes - Rome, Italy - Olbia, Italy - Athens Greece, Houston Texas, Newark.  Airport codes you learn as you plan some travel.  In May 2026 heading to Sardinia for a 6 day motorcycle ride, then 6 days on the Amalfi Coast and then 5 days on a little ship cruising around the Mediterranean with my 28 yr old nephew wingman.    Gonna miss him when he gets a serious girlfriend.

I once mistook the grocery store floor cleaning robot with the grocery store question and answer robot, so stood there posing questions to the floor cleaning one.

Anyone who has ever run a small business understands the ebbs and flows of headache, heartache and the sweet aroma of victory.  Not sure which - the ebbs or the flows - is considered the positive wave, but whichever, that’s what I’m riding right now.  Good team, good land, sunny weather, lower interest rates and some positive mojo momentum.  I think I’m due for a good run of it, if just by the sheer statistical overdue nature of it.  Yes, I’ve been making plenty of money, but that’s only one metric of success - having a little peace and quiet and routine and predictability and fun is another.

Lots of houses coming up. I keep telling new clients 'it's my last 10' - seems like it's true, hopefully it doesn't turn into one of those 'going out of business' sales tools that never actually happens. Seems less true than it did a few months ago, that's for sure. We will have to see how this wash and rinse cycle goes - land is expensive, construction is expensive, economy dicey, little more competition. I always do have an ejection button at the ready - our margins are gross enough (as in gross margins) that I have a lot of wiggle room for a sales negotiation if push comes to shove.

Before there was Catskill Farms there was Chuck in NYC, ill-fitted, ill-suited, ill-prepared for big city life. But I learned a lot, a lot of it sort embarrassing in the rear view mirror. But I happened to be working in Soho at the Scholastic HQ that was being built and I was at the breakfast bar up top, with a pretty view south towards the towers when all hell broke loose. The next day I made my way down there, having grabbed some Cen Hud yellow coveralls as diversionary disguise - not that there was a lot of perimeter enforcement at the time. Scary, cause buildings were still falling, creaking, moaning and falling over.

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The yellow envelope says "Directions to Country Clubs".

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I spent the day down there, helping on the bucket chains, roaming an empty building, taking some photos on a real camera - no iphones yet.

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Names of those lost from one company etched in real time on a dust covered window.