LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — “Fifteen lots sold in under four hours the first day of a three-day [Columbus Day Weekend] land sale,” said Robert Lesperence, managing partner of New York Land and Lakes. “We had to call others with appointments and tell them not to come, that all properties were sold.”

New York Land and Lakes, based in Oneonta, is the land development company that combined two contiguous parcels of land in the town of Cochecton to form Pine Meadows Farm, a 92-acre, 17-lot subdivision. Ranging in size between three and seven acres, the lots differ in shape, views, terrain, vegetation and road frontage.

“The least expensive lots sold for $49,900; the price was not determined solely by lot size. That’s a common misconception,” said Lesperence. “The value of a lot is determined by its desirability. Several factors must be considered when assessing desirability. Size is certainly one of them, but views, the relative amount of woodland and meadowland, the existence of water on the land (some of the properties have a perennial stream running through them) all play a role in determining desirability.”

Of the original 17 lots, two were sold to longtime neighbors before the weekend sale. The remaining 15 lots sold in record time. One sale was not finalized, due to inadequate financing. All told, the 17 lots sold for about one million dollars. But that figure doesn’t represent pure profit for New York Land and Lakes.

“We make it easy for first-time land buyers,” said Lesperence. “We do a lot of the legwork that would normally be done by buyers. The properties are already surveyed, soil reports have been filed with the state, all local land use ordinances have been satisfied, and utility service has been installed. Those services are time-consuming, expensive and require the expertise of specialists like lawyers, foresters, land-use planners and electricians. We do that for them so they don’t have to find and pay those specialists.”

In addition, New York Land and Lakes offers buyer financing. In fact, 25 percent of the buyers opted for its financing option. The remainder of the sales were “cash” sales. “The buyers may have obtained financing through other creditors, but they paid us in cash,” noted Lesperence.

Asked if the buyers had indicated reasons for their purchases, Lesperence said that the vast majority of them used the word “getaway” when describing their reason for buying. “Right now, they want to escape the New York metro area and its COVID-19 contagion. But they also want to get away from urban decay, including high crime rates and civil unrest. Most of them just want a patch of land they can call their own in a scenic place.”

Are they survivalists? “Definitely not,” said Lesperence. “Most of them are middle-aged, upper-middle-income people looking for a place to put down permanent roots.”

In an October 23 phone call, Cochecton supervisor Gary Maas said code enforcement officer Greg Semenetz has already received inquiries about construction permits for three of the subdivision lots. “No permits have been issued yet, but it looks as though construction will begin in spring.”