Mental meanderings and houses getting snatched up

Turns out, I’m still wired to the 5am-7pm days. Still wired to get out to the job sites when they are quiet on Saturday and Sunday mornings and make some notes and lists and action items.  Still able to make accurate market predictions as it appears our 3 homes for sale being snatched up and deal pendings in the first 3 weeks of the new year - like I suspected, a slow market in the fall was just a pause as the election dust settled and the corporate bonuses figured.

The above pic is a house we are building in North Branch, it's a heating 'ear' fueled with propane, that is kept on low. It was about 6:45 am and was giving off a pre-dawn glow. Somewhat spooky, somewhat cool - the burners give off a hissing, and smell lightly of propane.  I typically use all my senses when entering a house - sight, smell, sound, aware of my feet and any nails, or seams or flex in the floors. It's hard to teach what I know, and to do it well would mean having someone attached to my hip for 6 months as a I go about my daily routines, and being somewhat of a loner, that sounds like a real not-fun scenario. And honestly, unless you are paying for this shit, it's hard to be as invested as I am in troubleshooting. Thing is, with the size we are as a business, I can still move the needle on what comes into my pockets by paying close attention to the operation's details.

The incredibly tight inventory is juxtaposed with buyers not in a rush and  sticking close to their calibrated first offers. It’s an interesting marketplace with a lot of the new construction spec building hard to find now, both a product of the lack of land available for speculative purposes and lots of new entrants into the business of building homes without a buyer pre-arranged exiting with their tail between their legs as the finicky marketplace teaches hard lessons.

Looks like we are going into contract on the house below.

But there’s a black swan event developing for the local marketplace and that’s the fires out west.  It is easy to envision the professionally displaced coming East for a bit to let things play out out there, and they will need housing and maybe once again as in 2020-early 2023, everyone in the housing market Upstate will look smart as buyers swamp and swallow up every home for sale.  The shock is too new to lend credibility to this market guess, but I feel it’s hard to think that it won’t add buyers to the Market.

It’s -12 degrees in Parksville, near Livingston Manor.  It’s -6 in Milford, in NE PA.   My son is dying for the diesel engines of the buses to have trouble starting.  I’m not sure why- I guess out of principle of being a kid - he actually loves his school and his friends. We had a nice snow storm on Sunday pre MLK day. Lulu tracks in the snow.

It’s been 2 years of struggle to remake the company after my right-hand woman lieutenant left but I feel I’m on the precipice of finalizing it.  It’s been tough - as tough as anything I’ve ever done - can’t say more tough, since some of the rows I’ve hoed have been extraordinarily tough, but not easy, and definitely not easy since I was a bit exhausted from the Covid sprint.  But like David Goggins, or the Navy Seals BUDD camps - you can’t count on the finish line - you need to leave some gas in the tank at all times since there is no predictability to business building or business sustainment.  

Looking out over the Delaware River from NE PA, Milford.

Planning our ski trip to the 3 Valleys in France Alps.

Ran around to most of my houses the end of last week into the weekend. -

Taking Lucas to the Eagles-Commanders game this Sunday.