Sullivan County Real Estate

Ranch Renos

I'm a fan of the underappreciated ranch house. Over the years, they've evolved from their mid-century 50's roots (with cool fireplaces, pine kitchens and then-futuristic Formica countertops edged in stainless steel) through to their '90's incarnations with open floorplan kitchen and living areas. They're the little black dress of housing. Apart from some of the classic 50's and 60's versions, they don't have a strong narrative on their own, but can be renovated and dressed up in any number of styles.

Currently, there are three ranches on the market renovated within the last few years. (Click here to see the three listings.) All has been updated in a more modern style. They're good examples of what can be done with this simple genre. I saw all of these houses when they were on the market in their pre-renovation incarnations, and the transformations are remarkable. While these houses are priced somewhat higher than their unrenovated cousins, whether you buy a renovated or unrenovated version, ranches offer a lot of house for the money. They don't carry the same premium as more in-demand classics like farmhouses or rustic mountain cabins. And for someone looking to do a make-over, the unrenovated versions are relatively affordable and easy to work with.

Farmstock '09 Working Farm Tours

I was out working in my garden (or what was left of it, after a huge hailstorm a couple of weeks ago) when an unfamiliar pickup came drove down my driveway. One of the local farmers got out to hand deliver a flyer for Farmstock '09 - Working Farm Tours, organized to help support the local working farms.

Click here to get a .pdf of the flyer.

There are 5 farms participating, each on a Saturday or Sundays between July 11th and August 15th. Each farm will feature different activities --- cow milking, cheese making, goat milking, honey extracting and wagon rides, depending on the farm. Each working farm tour is from Noon to 3PM. Each Farmtour for adults is $6 and children 5 to 12 are $4.

The Farmtour helps support the continuation of working family farms here in Sullivan County. It's a great cause, and also lots of fun. Kids love it. So make it a point to put one of the Working Farm Tours on your schedule this summer.

What's Up — or Rather, Down — With Toronto Reservoir?

We're well into summer (OK, I know in my last post I stated summer started just two days ago, but that was about the weather, not the calendar) and Toronto Reservoir, the second largest recreational lake in the county, is still way, way down. In fact, the once grand 800 acre lake seems like a puddle of its former self. I didn't take the photo on the left above on the road to the reservoir, but standing about 50 feet from the 'shore' on what was the lake bottom last year. The "road" has been rutted in by boaters towing their boats from the public access point on Moscoe Road to the receding water's edge. The photo on the right shows floating docks belonging to homeowners at the Chapin Estate lying like beached whales on the dry lake bottom.

Over the winter, the lake level was very low, but it didn't raise a whole lot of eyebrows. Lakes are often drawn down over the winter here, although not as much as we saw last winter at Toronto. And with a cover of snow, a lake bottom is as good as a frozen lake surface for snowmobiling and cross country skiing. The first article about concern about the lake drawdown on Toronto, in fact, didn't appear in the Times Herald Record, until March 31st. While Alliance Energy indicated in the article that the draw down was in compliance with NY DEC and FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Requirements), the general feeling among people I talked to was that with the spring snow melt and rain, Alliance would return to a 'normal' level in time for the summer boating season.

That hasn't happened, as you can see clearly from the photos above taken July 6th. The situation has become of such concern, that in early June local politicians held a meeting about it (also attended by Steve Dubrovsky, one of the developers of Chapin, as well as a representive of the recently formed 'Home Owners on Toronto' group). (Times Herald Record article about that meeting.)

Alliance Energy has been pretty mum about the situation, and did not return calls or emails asking for comment from the Record. Alliance did comment for an April article in the Sullivan County Democrat, where the company indicated that it's priority is electrical generation. In a Feb. 10th letter to Town of Bethel Supervisor Dan Sturm, the company stated "the concept of operating the Toronto Reservoir to increase the tax base of the town or the property values for any individual development project is not lawful and would not be in the interest of all the public."

So, what's up with Toronto? Is the low lake level simply a matter of dam maintenance requirements and lower than normal precipitation earlier this year (which resulted in a very low snow pack)? Or is Alliance Energy holding the water level in Toronto "hostage" to get something it wants?

That "something" pops up in conversation here as one of two things. First is a sharp reduction in the assessed values of the reservoirs and dams by township assessors. In 2007, soon after completing the purchase of Mirant-NY Gen for $5.1 million, Alliance sought huge assessment reductions. In Bethel Township (where Toronto Reservoir is located), Alliance wanted the assessments on their 1,600 acres (which includes the reservoir) cut from $3 million to $500,000. It seems that Alliance didn't win that battle, as the 2008 assessment on Toronto (including the dam) stood at $2,514,067. Now the chickens may be coming home to roost, although in the Democrat article Alliance denied that the drawdown had anything to do with it's tax litigation/

Summer Arrived ... Finally!

Well, it's about time. By my calculation, summer finally arrived yesterday (July 4th) at about 11AM. That's when the threatening black clouds finally blew over and we saw something that I was beginning to think only existed in videos and photos: sun and blue sky. The constant, and I mean constant, rain was getting old. It seemed as though summer was never coming. Today was glorious. Let's just hope it holds.

A Second Home, A Starter Budget in Today's Times

Thanks, Crosby, for posting this as a comment on another post. I thought it interesting enough to feature as a top level post. In today's NY Times, there's an article, A Second Home, A Starter Budget, about an NYC couple who bought a little house on 8 acres near Sparrowbush (in NW Orange County) last September, and have been working through the winter to bring it back.

A big thumbs up to the new owners, Christina Selway and John Moskowitz, for doing a stunning job bringing this house back on a very tight budget. I'd swung by this house early last summer to take a peek, just after it came on the market. It was pretty much a wreck, albeit a kinda cute wreck with great potential. (The listing agent remarks even said "In need of repair or demolition.") Clearly these buyers saw the potential, because they jumped on it almost immediately. This house was 'gone' only a couple of weeks after it was listed, and sold for 95% of asking price.

They got a great deal. And had enough experience looking at houses to know it when they saw it. But when you look at the photos in the article, keep in mind that these are the "after" photos, and bear almost no resemblence to the "before". The "after" photos are the function of good taste and the result of lots of sweat and elbow grease. That's the recipe that brought about the first generation of farmhouse and cottage renovations here, in the 1990's.

So how much equity did they likely create from their sweat? The house is a 700 sq. ft., 2 bedroom, 1 bath cottage on 8 acres with a barn, nice quiet setting. Traditional small farmhouse style, with relatively low ceiling heights. If they put the house on the market today, I'd venture it would probably fetch in the range of $150,000 to $165,000, not a bad return on the $105,000 they have into it.

Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of these 'diamonds in the rough' available. But they to occasionally pop up, and when they do, buyers have to jump on them. There was an adorable little classic cape that came on the market near Callicoon Center recently for $129K. My colleague, Kathy Rieser, was on it like a fly on a cow pie when as soon as it was listed, and both of us showed it to a number of potential buyers. A few of them liked it, but none believed us when we said we thought it would go very quickly. Lo and behold, just like that house in Sparrowbush, there was an accepted offer within a couple of weeks.

One important lesson is that if you want to nab a deal, you've got to devote time and energy to the process. The buyers of the Sparrowbush home said in the article they saw 30 houses over a 4 month period. They likely did drive bys on a lot more. They probably spent a few hours a week scouring internet listing sites and Craigslist, and also had one or more Realtors set up auto-notification MLS searches for them. And that perseverence paid off.