QUICK POSSESSION
Builders offer option for buyers who want a newly built home without all the headaches
For some home buyers, building a home from scratch is a dream come true. From blueprints to the final nail, the whole journey can be utter bliss.
For Alannah Muirhead and her husband, the thought of building was stressful, with too many decisions to make and too many unknowns. But with two teens and a cramped bungalow, they were conflicted about whether to build new or buy resale, with advantages to both.
“When you buy something already built, the neighbourhood is established. But, building new is nice because no one has lived in it before,” she says. “At one time, we actually had drawn up plans with a builder and then things didn’t work out.”
Muirhead found the answer online. A Marcson Homes advertisement promoting quick-possession models popped up one day. She clicked the link, arranged to see a spec home in Graydon Hill, walked in and immediately felt at home.
“By the end of the weekend, we had made an offer,” she says.
The Muirheads purchased Marcson’s 2,220-square-foot, two-storey Noah model home and will take possession on Oct. 31. They’ll be moving from Royal Gardens to Graydon Hill, a community in the Heritage Hills district that they’d previously considered but thought was out of their price range.
“When we walked into that home, it felt warm and cosy. I could see where I’ll put my Christmas tree. I have a hard time looking at floor plans and thinking, now, how does this look. That was another big feature for me with a quick possession home,” she says.
Like most new-home builders, Marcson earmarks one or two choice lots in each phase of a new community for quick-possession homes. The builder chooses the lot and the floor plan with full confidence in what potential buyers might want.
“We choose our spec homes based on the most desirable lot and add the most popular model,” says Miles Kohan, president and CEO of Milestone Builder Group. He says many buyers have a “time sensitive” requirement for a new home, such as a move to the city or change in family structure.
“Rather than be limited to what is on MLS, we can have something available with shorter timelines. But the biggest advantage is that buyers get a brand-new home, still under warranty, with the latest and greatest details,” he says.
If a spec home remains unsold once it’s ready for market, it may be offered at a discounted price. The same is not entirely true for quick-possession units in multi-family projects.
Builders such as Langham Developments, currently selling the Falcon One highrise project in downtown Edmonton, don’t purpose-build spec units, but may have move-in ready homes by virtue of unsold units when the building is finished.
Taylor Townsend, Langham vice-president, says units are completed floor by floor. Those not spoken for are professionally designed based on popular choices. All new construction is covered by a warranty.
“Resale wouldn’t have a warranty,” he says.
Consumers hoping for quick possession pricing on empty units in a finished building might not find it.
“There’s a price incentive when you buy in the presales phase. You have to wait for it to be built,” he says.
In a best-case scenario, the value of a unit will increase in the time between preconstruction and possession.
“You come out ahead if you’re lucky. When the building is done, that incentive is gone,” Townsend explains.
Kohan says Marcson gauges the number of spec homes built based on Alberta’s net migration numbers.
“Excess inventory on the market as a whole caused builders to throttle back. But net migration is slowly returning. It’s the highest it has been in the past five years, so I would expect the inventory levels to continue to come into balance.”