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

Resiliency in this new normal.  Personal and professional.  It's hard to believe that life is just different now, and the idea that in some day in the near future we will all be crowded together again at kids' events, or professional sporting or arts events, or at museums, or live music just seems like a fantasy.  And that's really hard to get my head around.

As we work our way through the 7 phases of grief, I know I haven't even made it through the first 3 - shock, denial, anger  - and can't even fathom 'acceptance'.  A sadness pervades for all that has been lost, and as I watch my young son, it's hard not to be outraged at what has been yanked from his life experience.

It's been a long time since I haven't felt I mostly controlled my destiny, but here we are, in a struggle that seems intent on zapping some of the spice out of life.  Sure, we will all get on, but what will it look like, feel like?  There are some scenarios where life returns to normal quickly (really, just one - a miracle vaccine produced at huge volumes), but just as likely is a long slog of plugging on, without all the highlights of culture, gatherings and celebrations.

One thing that is true is that more than ever, life is about home, both the physical home and the emotional escape and safety of 'home'.  I've often said 'home' is best defined for our busy accomplished harried client as 'respite', and never is that more true than now.  Stay safe (and if you are picking up woodworking to pass the time, mind those fingers!)

Chuck

"Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

Home showcase videos we are working on -
https://vimeo.com/showcase/catskillfarmshomes

(youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVjkKYXNzVg5XBuxH_2J4dQ. - if we get to 100 subscribers we get to customize our channel url.)

We aren't a small company anymore.  We have a ton of obligations.  To our employees.  To our clients.  To our vendors.  The web of people and families and businesses that depend on us is really, not to exaggerate, is gigantic.

As the top, the owner, of a very non-top heavy organization, heavy lies the crown.  I'm in charge of the navigation.

So, we sail on, through the choppy seas.  At this point, beside our physical assets, and our intellectual property, and our top-tier employees, what gives us our most confident buoyancy is the depth of our relationships across a broad array of industries - banking, engineering, surveying, legal, accounting, financial planning.  These things don't matter - really just rather routine - until they do matter, and you do need to test the depth of experience of your team.  And when you find what you use on a daily basis to keep the motor turning is just the superficial surface of what they can offer, then, then you know you've got the team.

So, I hate to use the word 'fun', but it is something like 'fun', to see a path forward in the fog of this virus.  A path for my team, a path for our clients, a path for the interdependence of our process.

And I think it's called Value.  A Value born of 2 decades of concentration, hard work and dedication to providing the best we can.  Those are our roots and from those we return in these choppy waters.

Head down, clear eyed, no tricks or glossy oversold marketing.  Provide value, stick to your lane, and call on those relationships that we have built when the weather was clear.

We are selling homes.  2 in March.  3 in April.  2 more in May.  Signing contracts, making deals.   Made possible by our Value, but also our Team.  How many homeowners who built a house over the last 5 years won't have a builder to call when this is all over cause the company didn't survive?

Seems like we will be here.  Maybe a little hobbled, maybe with some tattered trousers or bullet-hole scarred jacket and a little emaciated, but my money is bet that we will be here, building homes, and putting people in them.  And if the past reflects the future, we may just end up stronger than before, with another notch in our belt for survival, like we did after 9/11, or the Great Recession, or a hundred smaller challenges we've faced daily over the last 20 years.

Dear Catskill Farms Clients, Fans, Followers and Admirers,

Without a doubt, the collection of families that are acquainted and supporters of Catskill Farms are a talented and unique bunch. Resilient, creative, smart, and hard-working. And interestingly, from what I’ve observed over the last 20 years, many times oddly insulated from these economic and social disruptions. I saw it after 9/11, I saw it during the Great Recession, and I’m seeing it now during this pandemic.

Assuredly, there is a lot of wide-spread distress out there. But there are many pockets of families and professionals that haven’t been impacted much if at all – and many of us who are lucky enough not to be impacted, are at the same time spending less money than we ever thought imaginable.

If you’ve been lightly touched by these events, and you find $1200/$2400+ from the Federal Government in your mailbox, consider donating it to one of the many non-profits that are being decimated by a reduction in donations.  One of my favorites is this equine therapy place in Milford PA -GAIT

Stay Well,

Chuck Petersheim

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Lulu,  my dog on the left, has a new friend, Izzy, on the right.   They play and play and play and play.  Lots of growling, running, rolling, nipping, chasing and fetching.

This home, ranch 36 in Kerhonkson, just went into contract.  We are just plugging along, staying in our lane, cautious but assured that we have a product that has sold in many different types of economic environments, and assured to know our margins are big enough that if we need to squeeze them, we can.  The same can't be said for most of our competitors, who can only exist in a boom-boom economy, because their prices are - by any historic measure - high.  We actually been able to raise our prices because of their lead, even with some skepticism of how long the party may last for them.

Funny byproduct of this pandemic is how much more time families are spending in their homes.   I mean, I guess it's not a secret, but one thing that makes our great homes awesome from a business plan vantage is how little they are used.  Take a home, put a fulltime family of 5 in them and all their friends and parties and get togethers - using each and every element and fixture and knob 12 times a day- , and watch how quickly the home has issues.  Our homes are used lightly, maybe 9 days a month, and a lot of families keep them in museum condition, so the warranty obligations and wear and tear on the home is just less.

But interestingly, now with families just camped out at their homes for a month plus, dealing with all sorts of emotions - boredom, sadness, crankiness, cabin fever, productiveness - we are getting a ton of emails from clients about this and that on their homes.  They aren't wrong - but frankly, it's more of a pivot of their use, and a perception of priorities, that is driving the warranty claims and house questions, not any increased or decreased quality of the home.  People are in their homes, bored, so why not write the builder!?  I get it, we are cataloging and will attack as necessary when the 'stay home' order is lifted.

Which brings me to my biggest spur in my saddle about this whole stay at home order.  Seriously, why is fast food open?  How can that be considered essential?

First, it's unhealthy from a purely nutritional vantage.

Two, from a virus spreading vantage, what could be worse than having the same cashier, and then the same food distributor touching the money, exchanging the germs, with the hundreds of people per hour that come through the pickup window?  From what I've seen, no gloves, no protocol after each diner, just business as usual with maybe now a glass partition and an ill-fitting mask.

How you can argue fast food is essential and not dangerous, but single family non-urban residential construction somehow threatens us all?  let me see here, fast food deals with hundreds of people per hour, single family construction is lightly staffed, lots of space, typically pretty solitary, and a lot of times outdoors?

Single Family residential construction is well-paid is well paid and provides the lifeblood of many families, yet here we have an industry (fast food) that is allowed to continue that barely pays a living wage, serves crap food, and has every opportunity to spread the virus (think of one server with the virus) vs well-paid, non-public facing hardworking tradesmen?  it's stupid, and it sort of pisses me off, and makes me wonder what type of game Gov Cuomo is playing, since he has always been serving some well-heeled master in the past.  He's smarter than this.