Unfair Competition

Catskill Farms has sold a lot of houses. Seriously, a lot. So we know our product and we know our customers. Plus we use all sorts of unfair subconscious tools and tricks to get people to buy - like the kayak coming in the door of our office screaming "NATURE'.

Or the cool bike in my cool office which screams "I'm going to exercise when I have house up here on pretty country roads'...

Or I'll even pull out the really big guns when I have a family getting close to making a decision, like taking them to an existing customer's home so they can see country relaxation up close and personal. I think these tours to homes where people are living are the most effective since people can see themselves in the home, with the kids, on a nice Saturday afternoon doing NOTHING.

But really, it's not fair since it gets hard to say no.

Oh, and this little old finished 750 sq ft finished basement where the kids are having a lot of fun without being underfoot, in the way, or having their crap everywhere - I don't think it takes much imagination to see the genius in that. Compare that to the 4 other crappy resales that they saw earlier in the day, with wet moldy basements that even the creative can't see ever being more than a wet moldy basement.

Oh, those cute little kids playing in the basement and having loads of fun - don't mind them.,

I stopped over at Matthew and Sarah's Cottage 36 last Friday with Lucas, and Matthew is planning a few more projects since he got everything he wanted in a country house including a great house and 15 acres of land for a lot less than he would have thought possible.

And there's Lucas riding the Bear at Cottage 36. He wouldn't leave until the bear laid down and went to sleep. Not sure why the frickin' pictures are blurry, but that's just going to have to be the way it is on this one. Like I say sometimes, complete is better than perfect. Perfectly incomplete is a mantra of too many builders I've seen.

It's the small little details that show how much we've grown recently. When we bought this key case for the homes we build 2 years ago, I remember saying to Janice as the keys filled 1/4 of the box - "Guess we are being optimistic today, are we?" Now we've nearly filled it.

Or, we are clearing land for our 3rd building at our home base in Eldred NY.

We run a spray foam company that goes through a lot of barrels of spray foam...

And even our 'receiving area' is filled to the brim with toilets, faucets, sinks, lights, radiators, door knobs, cable rail and assorted other items for the 5 homes we will finish and close in the next 5 weeks.

Not so bad today, but sometimes our parking lot is jammed with our employees' cars, and the traffic in and out puts us at one of the busiest locals in the vicinity.

That's our new spray foam trailer on the right there.