Sullivan County Real Estate

Chapin Estate Launches More Affordable Range Product

Yesterday, when Googling "Sullivan County Real Estate", an Adwords ad caught my attention. "Cozy and Rustic Catskill Mountain Homes for Sale from $279,900. www.chapinescapes.com" Yup, that Chapin, the upscale gated community with lakefront lodge style homes, many of which are upwards of 5,000 sq. ft. and cost into the millions.

There are two "Adirondack Cabin" designs in this range, one 1,250 sq. ft., the other 1,500 sq. ft., on 5+ wooded, non-lakefront parcels. It's not a bad move on Chapin's part, given that Chapin has quite a few unsold non-lake parcels and buyers have definitely downshifted to smaller and more affordable. Catskill Farms has enjoyed tremendous success through the downturn by building country charmers that are smaller and more affordable to hit a buyer sweet spot. Chapin Escapes look to be a riff on this model. (This isn't entirely new for Chapin. They dipped into the market with similar designs a couple of years ago, but I believe at a somewhat higher price point.)

It's going to be interesting to see if this takes off. Clearly the price point is good, and owners can enjoy lake access if they join the Lake Club at Chapin. The key will be whether the target demographic for "Chapin Escapes" will embrace the Chapin concept. Those iPhone toting, Mini Cooper driving Park Slopers who are drawn to Catskill Farms houses, in my experience, shy away from gated communities or anything that feels too 'developmenty'. On the flip side, there could be an untapped cabin market that isn't turned on by the repro farmhouse look. We haven't had a sub-$300,000 cabin product on offer to test that market.

Roll Up Your Sleeves Buyers Are Back

Ah, how times change. A year ago, I was commenting that buyers I was working with all seemed to be looking for perfect, blemish free houses that were close to magazine ready. A lot of shoppers had unrealistic expectations of perfection, or were naggingly picky. I found myself having to stuff a sock in my mouth at times, to keep my wagging tongue from saying something I'd regret later in response to a comment about kitchen cabinets not being just the right color, or a house just needing way too much work (when what might have been needed is retiling a bathroom.) I recall having conversations with other Realtors, who also lamented that appointments weren't "happy", and that so many buyers seemed so disappointed with what they were seeing.

Fast forward to spring 2011. It's like a 180 degree change. For the past few months, almost every buyer I've been going out with is looking for something that isn't redone, that they can put their own stamp on. Given the choice of something at $200,000 that they can redo, or something equivalent at $275,000 that's "done", they're largely choosing the less expensive option that needs imagination and elbow grease. They're typically younger city couples with moderate incomes, who are shopping for a great deal that they can grow into over time.

Four of the five deals I currently have in the hopper are "elbow grease" houses, in need of freshening, updating or reconfiguring. Two of the three that my colleague Kathy has on tap are similar. Common to all of the houses is that they're solid with working systems, not handyman fixers. I'm not finding a lot of buyers interested in tackling a heavy lifting gut job.

Where these buyers are coming from is also interesting. Few hail from pricier trendster neighborhoods like Park Slope or Dumbo. More likely they're coming from Gowanus, Fort Greene, Bay Ridge or Inwood.

Working with these buyers has made selling real estate fun again. They're eager and excited, and see potential rather than problems. In many ways, it feels like 8 or 10 years ago, before Sullivan County hit the radar screens of the upwardly aspirational as the next big thing. A decade ago, Sullivan County was the second home choice for moderate income buyers from the city looking for a modest, affordable getaway. If the recent spate of buyers is any indication, we may be back to reclaiming that position.

Current Market Conditions Posted with May Data

I just posted my latest Market Conditions Report for Sullivan County Real Estate with sales data through May, 2011. Please check it out and then drop on back here to leave a comment about what you see happening in the local market.

Upstate Farms The New Locavore Trend?

I've been selling real estate here for ten years, and maintained this blog for five. Over that time, I've chronicled the shifting trends of what city folks are looking for in a second home or country getaway. There was the interest in shabby chic farmhouses, then a few years when Dwell modern prefabs were all the rage. Authentic lake cottages had their turn, followed by smaller reproduction farmhouses ala Catskill Farms. Post recession, the trend has been to cheap and affordable. Small is in, big is out.

This year there's a new trend, farms or farmettes. Right now my colleagues and I at CBA are working with about a half dozen clients looking for a place where they can "farm". That term is loose, but among these buyers it's more ambitious than just garden. (I'm also fielding another one or two calls a week from folks asking about farms.) These shoppers are typically looking for a place with 10, 20 or even more open, tillable acres that can be cultivated, as well as have space for raising animals like goats or chickens. Some are looking to relocate and make their living from organic agriculture. Others are looking for a starter 'weekend' farm or farmette that they can play with for a while, with the dream of maybe expanding into a full time occupation some time down line.

I spend quite a bit of time talking with these folks, particularly to balance the reality with the romance. The dream of having a farm is admirable, and the growing popularity of the locavore movement will only increase demand for locally produced products. But it's hard work, and even keeping up with a big garden is a huge challenge for weekenders. When someone asks about properties with 10 or 20 workable acres, and they're planning to work those acres part time, I think about my part-timer friends working dawn to dusk on the weekends to keep up with an acre or less of organic gardens. 

When I talk to some of these farm shoppers, I get the impression that they want to buy a farm so they can say they own a farm. Having your own farm upstate is probably the ultimate locavore status symbol, and has a lot more punch than just saying that you have a place upstate with a big garden. But for most weekenders, having a big garden is probably more than enough. Cultivate half an acre to an acre with vegetables and herbs, and in August you'll have more than enough zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes and beets to haul back to the city to give to appreciative friends and neighbors. Not to mention you'll be canning well into the fall.

The Dog Days of Summer ... Sullivan County Style

Ah, this is the life. Pic taken this afternoon at my friend Chuck's pond. My dog, Kumba, is in the middle. The other two are my friend Marci's dogs, Chloe on the left and Duke on the right. In the field beyond the pond is a herd of cows. Pastoral perfection. (Click on pic for full size view.) Marci Maclean took the photo.

10 Common Mistaken Assumptions

Buyers frequently make assumptions about what they can do with a property, and those assumptions are often not correct. One reason I like to stick close to my clients during showings isn't to pump them with sales hype, but rather to listen to their running dialogue to catch assumptions. My most common utterances during showings aren't "fabulous kitchen" and "killer view", but rather, "Not true", "Not quite", and "Yes, but".

Country property is alien to most city buyers. They don't have the knowledge to necessarily understand what they can or can't do with a property. It can be confusing because they see something that's been done at one house (finishing off a basement, for example) and just assume that it can be done at another house. In many cases, it can. But in some cases it can't. Take that basement. In House A, the basement had a means of egress to the outside, which is necessary in most townships to get a permit to finish a basement. (Or that basement was finished prior to the current egress rules.) The basement in House B may appear similar and very finishable, but lacks an egress to the outside, so wouldn't qualify for finishing into living space under current permit rules.

Here are the 10 most common assumptions I encounter.

1. You can build a second home on the property. The house you're looking at has twenty acres, so there's plenty of room to build a second house for your parents, right? Not. Most townships now only permit one house per single tax parcel, whether that parcel is 1 acre or 100 acres. To build a second house, you'd need to subdivide off a parcel for that house, and each parcel would need to meet township subdivision requirements. A guest house is often permitted, but it can't be a full home with a kitchen.

2. When you buy land, you can camp on it. Maybe in Montana, but not here. Townships frown on using land for camping or to park a travel trailer or to erect a temporary or seasonal structure like a yurt. There are some parcels zoned 'recreational' where these uses are grandfathered in, but they're pretty rare, and most townships now prohibit recreational/camping use on property that hasn't had that as a previous use.

3. You can put up one of those cute mini prefabs you saw in Dwell and have a cheap little getaway in the country. This is a "you probably can, but" issue. First, any prefab home, whether it's a 400 sq. ft. minihome or 4,000 sq. ft. modern multi-box, has to meet NY state building codes. The NY building code is one of the toughest in the nation, particularly regarding insulation and snow load. Many of the hip modern prefabs are designed for warmer, less snowy climes and can't be erected here. Also, you need to factor in infrastructure costs for well, septic and utilities, which can run $30,000 or more.

4. You can always subdivide a large acreage parcel. Generally yes, but not always. Most townships require minimum road frontage (and acreage size) for subdivided parcels. A 10 acre parcel with 400 frontage feet on the road might be easily subdividable, while a 100 acre parcel with only 100 frontage feet might not. Likewise, parcels with only right of way access (rather than direct road frontage) might not be subdividable at all. There are a number of other factors that can also come into play.

5. You can just put in a pond. Good ponds require springs. Runoff ponds (without a spring feed) tend to dry up in late summer. So never assume that because there's a nice open area below the house that you can just excavate out a good pond.

(Continue to assumptions 6 to 10.)

Feds to Rescind Casino Rule, Possible Casino Boost

On Tuesday, Larry Echo Hawk, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Dept. of the Interior, announced that the department was rescinding a Bush-era rule that prohibited off-reservation casinos that were far from a tribe's reservation. That rule, adopted in 2008,  has largely kept casino plans from moving forward here in Sullivan County.

Rescinding the rule doesn't mean that there will be a slew of quick approvals for off-reservation casinos here or elsewhere. A tribe has to go through an application process that takes into account the interests of the tribe and the surrounding community.

This 180 degree turnaround by the federal government casts the proposed Capelli-Concord-Mohegan Sun project in an entirely new light. With the possiblity of an actual tribal casino, will they delay doing anything in the short term, and not proceed with the harness track-racino step announced last week?

Casino Plans Shaping Up as a Big Bucks Brawl?

A few readers have asked about my thoughts on the latest racino/casino plans announced for the former Concord Hotel site in Kiamesha Lake. Well, you almost need a Racing Form to keep track of the players and handicap this race. Right now, if I were a betting man, I'd keep my two bucks in my pocket.

Some background. Louis Capelli bought the old Concord Hotel site in 2000 at a bankruptcy auction for $10.5 million. Over the next few years, a number of different plans were unveiled to much fanfare, with different tribal and casino partners, culminating in plans for a $1 billion "Entertainment City" in conjunction with Empire Resorts, onwer of the Monticello Raceway. Demolition and infrastructure work started at the Concord site, but new construction never got off the ground — despite repeated announcements from Louis Capelli that construction was imminent.

The project hit two big snags. The first was the economic crisis; funding for risky, large scale projects like the Concord just dried up. In Capelli's defense, he's a mastermind at lining up financing, but the money just wasn't there. And a cornerstone of the project was the hope that the change in administration in Washington would shift policy to permit for off-reservation casinos — which is still largely unchanged from the Bush years.

The Concord project, as envisioned by Capellli, went down in flames, with foreclosure actions and lawsuits. In the end, the Concord property ended up in two hands — and this is where it get's interesting. The investor Entertainment Properties Trust got about 1,500 acres of the total 1,700 acre property (including the golf courses), while Capelli managed to maintain 116 acres that comprised the actual hotel site.

Entertainment Properties Trust — now owner of the 1,500 acres — has teamed up with Empire Resorts to explore development of the site, which, according to resports, may include moving the Monticello Raceway to the Concord site.

Re-enter Capelli. In May, he announces that he's struck a deal with Mohegan Sun to develop the 116 acre site, including a new harness racing track, Concord Downs. (In New York state, a racino with video lottery terminals has to be attached to a race track, thus the plans for the new harness track.) The head of the NY racing commission has indicated it will act favorably on an application for the harness track, but the Catch-22 is that the track has to be built first. The Capelli-led group announced that they plan to secure financing by the middle of this month, start construction at the end of June or beginning of July and be open for business in 2013.

The response to that here? A lot of collective eye rolling. I don't think a London bookmaker would even take bets on whether a Capelli-announced start date would be met at this point. This may be the group that pulls it together, and I certainly wish them well. But there have just been too many announcements from that camp that never panned out for many people up here to get very excited about it.

And then there's Empire Resorts and Entertainment Properties Trust. They're unlikely to sit back and idly watch all this go down (or rather up.) And they own a lot of land, with racino/casino dreams of their own. And that's where we can end up with a big bucks brawl, seeing more action in the courts than construction on any part of the Concord property this summer.

So when readers of this blog ask me about my thoughts on all the new casino plans here, my response is "Whatever. I'll believe it when I see it" — and then I return to something more productive than getting excited about another casino scheme, like pruning my bushes.

I Love My NY Water

Cleanwaternotdirtydrilling.org has produced this short (67 sec.) video, "I Love My NY Water", featuring actors Ethan Hawke, Nadia Dajani, Zoe Saldana, Josh Charles and Mark Ruffalo. (Mark and Nadia are both Sullivanites.) I love this. If you do, too, please pass it along.

Roscoe Gets WFN "Ultimate Fishing Town USA" Nod

The World Fishing Network has named Roscoe with as its 2011 "Ultimate Fishing Town USA". 300 towns were nominated, and then whittled down to 20 to compete for votes to get the title. Roscoe edged out 2nd place Waddington, NY. Read the WFN release here, including a list of the top 20 finishers.

The support by WFN viewers doesn't come as a huge surprise, as Roscoe is so entwined with the history of fly fishing in the U.S., and many fly fishers consider the rivers in the Roscoe area (the Beaverkill, Willowemoc and Neversink) the best in the country.