Overview
Difficulty
Easy
Process
Entitle & Improve
Total Cost
$625,500
Value Created
$203,100
Monthly Revenue
$6,800
Who is this for?
Just outside the bustling town of Livingston Manor, Benton Hollow Road sits here in the Western Catskills, a haven for outdoor lovers. Livingston Manor, the birthplace of fly fishing, boasts prime fishing and hiking spots, including Sonoma Falls and scenic covered bridges. The locale also thrives with a dynamic food and brewery culture, pioneered by Brooklyn transplants.
This 5-acre lot is rectilinear and well-proportioned. It boasts 350 ft of road frontage on Benton Hollow Road and a 25 ft grade change from west to east. An electrical line divides the site, with denser evergreen forests in the northeast, where a natural spring fosters taller tree growth.
For this lot, we plan to place the structure beyond the electrical lines. The house will sit between the dense evergreens and the smaller deciduous trees. We imagine a medium bar standard, for cost and space optimization. Our aim is minimal clearing to accentuate the canopy overhead and the forest floor below and maintain the experience of being in a forest.
To start this project, you’ll need to purchase the lot for $49,900. You can purchase this lot directly from the realtor Joy Romano who can be reached at 845-701-9711, or let us know, and we will be happy to make the introduction.
Eagle View
Site Map - Raw Lot
Phase 1
In Phase 1, we lay the project's vision and begin essential groundwork. This crucial stage entails understanding the land and crafting a strategy balancing finances, time, and function. We value outdoor spaces as much as indoor ones, determining the house's optimal position with design and cost in mind.
Site Map - Phase 1
At HUTS, our site planning begins by gathering information on a lot. We delve into factors such as natural light and sun path trajectories, tree canopy and type, topography, natural features, internal boundaries, external property lines and setbacks other zoning requirements. Armed with this knowledge, we craft a siting strategy focused on amplifying desired experiences. This is how each of our standards becomes unique, hitting the landscape and tuning themselves to the needs of the clients. While we initiate this process with our development opportunity, we refine our approach through site visits and clients' needs to come up with an ideal siting strategy.
Phase 2
In the second phase, we'll build your home, a Medium Bar Standard.
Site Map - Phase 2
Standard Type
In this phase, we’ll build a Medium Bar Standard. This is a compact 3-bedroom home designed for maximum functionality. An open living / kitchen / dining room is surrounded by glass. A loft above the guest rooms holds the principal bedroom and a dedicated lofted working space that overlooks the living room. This standard optimizes value for our clients. In the world of contractors, it's often said, "Corners cost money." Our simple gabled design enhances efficiency in form: no corners.
This project captures the essence of the woods. Strategically positioned between deciduous and evergreen trees, the house offers separate forest views and experiences on each side. The denser backdrop contrasts with dappled sunlight from the southern canopy. We'll be strategic in clearing, only removing the necessary space for the cabin. While ensuring the interior pallet remains bright and airy to reflect the forest's natural light.
Summary
This development offers a transformative escape from urban hustle to serene natural surroundings. The home is versatile, you to use it when you want, rent it when you want, and build more structures in the future.
Fill out the form at the bottom or email us a hello@huts.com. We will set you up with the HUTS buyers agent who helps source and outline these development opportunities. You can schedule a time to walk the property for a comprehensive understanding of the land and the proposed development. Our team will support you from closing through the finished home and beyond.
We’ve seen many different financing approaches depending on our clients financial situations. Typically though, we see a combination of cash upfront and a construction loan to permanent mortgage. HUTS has preferred relationships with local banks in the areas we work since we find they have the best understanding of local development and can therefore offer preferable rates. The upfront cash is to purchase the property, for design and documentation and if possible for initial groundwork. Banks typically require 20-30% of the total cost to minimize their risk. This can be in cash or appraised land value. Ideally, the more you can invest in the land less you have to give the bank in as a downpayment in cash better. The remaining development expenses are covered by a construction loan. We suggest a construction-to-permanent mortgage, a 31-year loan that initially has an interest-only phase during construction. After construction completion and receipt of the occupancy certificate, it converts into a 30-year fixed mortgage. This loan option involves just one set of closing costs and reduces carrying costs during construction, which is vital for clients aiming to cover these costs with short-term rental income, thereby minimizing the duration of expenses without rental income.
HUTS does not provide financing as we are not a financial institution. However, we have extensive experience in navigating various financing structures for developments and are eager to assist. Our close collaboration with financing partners, who are well-versed in our business model and have a successful history with our clients, ensures expert guidance in this area.
We will source a build partner from our contractor network. At HUTS we spend an enormous amount of time building and vetting an extensive network of contractors. Our rolodex is particularly deep in the Catskills, Hudson Valley and Berkshires and we are continually adding new partners. We think a lot about contractor bandwidth in terms of houses per year and execution quality in terms of price per square foot. From the moment a client reaches out to us we are thinking about who will be a good fit to match them with based on who we know to be available with their timing, size and scope of the project and temperamental fit. Building is a team sport and the client contractor relationship is critical for the project's success.
At HUTS we take a hybrid approach that merges the best elements of both design-build and design-bid-build methods. By selecting a contractor early on and engaging in a preconstruction contract, we work collabrativly to arrive at a final construction cost together. In our experience this is by far the most cost effective way to build. Since our houses are repeated products, as opposed to one off prototype designs, we know where pricing should be coming in and the levers that can be pulled in value engineering. This gets us to a financiable, build ready project. This method combines the benefits of both approaches. By bringing a contractor on board early for design and pricing, we gain the efficiency of a design-build firm. Yet, we're not restricted to a specific contractor, which means the competitive pressure of the free market can help lower costs. Many contractors in our network often have experience with several HUTS projects, making them intimately familiar with our detailing and construction techniques.
Our rental estimates are informed by a blend of AirDNA data and local comparables. We set prices that are supported by the market yet avoid participating in a race to the bottom. In the regions we operate, the existing housing stock often falls short. Our distinct design and placemaking landscape strategy results in higher rental rates. Therefore, in our Pro Forma, we set rental rates slightly above the median prices from AirDNA, reflecting our design's value. We maintain a conservative stance on occupancy rates.
We’re working toward better supporting our clients on the rental side. With over 20,000 inquiries for HUTS services, we have tailored our standards and development opportunities to fit the needs of our clients and the market. Although most of our audience may not undertake a HUTS project directly, they are enthusiastic supporters. We aim to offer them opportunities to experience staying in a HUTS property. Efforts are underway to facilitate this more effectively.
Our figures are estimates, but they are grounded in real numbers coming from current HUTS projects. With over forty active projects in the Hudson Valley, we have a clear understanding of construction costs. Groundwork expenses do differ based on each lot, taking into account factors such as house location, land grade, forest clearing, and more. We assess each lot individually to estimate these costs.
We are happy to do as much or as little at once as our clients have an appetite for. People live with their properties over time and we like to break it up into chunks they can break up over time. Some of the main reasons we phase our projects are so that we can set a clear and feasible financial strategy to execute these projects. We like to think about the development in terms of what can be done upfront in cash you have on hand and what can happen behind a construction loan.
HUTS projects are private property, but if you reach out to hello@huts.com we can set you up with a driving tour so that you can see built and in-construction HUTS projects.