Question about building a new home or condo...

[tvp2003]

Some background: We are first time homebuyers, and last year, purchased from a pretty reputable builder in Calgary. It is a condo-type development, which I'm guessing is a lot different than building a single family home. Anyways, our estimated possession was last year, but there have been lengthy delays. This has been very disappointing because we wouldn't have purchased this place if we had known it would take this long to take possession. What is more frustrating is that people who purchased other units in the same development have moved in months earlier, even though they purchased likely months later. The only explanation from the builder is that it is out of their control, and that we were unlucky because the framers/trades on our building were slower than the others...

Our realtor mentioned that builders are notorious for not have very good "service" after you put your money down... so, the question is: were our expectations too high? Were we naive? We expected that there might be a delay, but not this long. We also expected that things would work out a little more equitably (i.e. people who purchased first would move in first), but the builder says they can't (and won't) do anything about it. We also feel we haven't really been kept in the loop regarding progress (i.e. being informed about the delays), but that really is another issue altogether.

There's obviously nothing we can do right now, but we just want to know if our standards were too high, and whether we can expect the same kind of "service" if we decide to build again (perhaps a single family home in a few years).

Thanks

[Shazam]

It's pretty much par for the course these days. Especially with condos, you just never know. They won't start building until there's enough units sold, and you pretty well have to wait for your whole floor to be liveable before you move in.

[photon]

Builders are in the driver's seat right now, and they know it, so getting good service or even just good communication can be difficult.

However their point is valid; the length of time it can take from one trade to the next to do the same job can vary quite a bit, and they have to plan many trades a long time in advance, so once a job slips it can be hard to bring it back up.

Right now I'm building a house with the same builder (in the same development too) as some friends.. they bought theirs a few months before ours, but we're ahead of them now and just had our post-framing walkthrough. I asked the guy from the builder about it, and he said it was because their framing crew took an extra week to do the job, and there were more issues that had to be resolved, in fact there's still some.. so while they started out with a hole in the ground and a basement poured about 2 months before us, we're now ahead of them and will probably take possession 2-3 weeks earlier.

I don't think it's realistic to expect the builder to juggle things around just so "who bought first" is maintained.. I mean if they start cancelling and rescheduling all their trades, the trades get upset and go to another builder.

But I agree good communication should be expected, though again it's hard for them sometimes, because often they really don't know when it's going to be done either. Our builder basically came out at the outset and said to us that he wasn't going to give us a date, because we'd just end up being disappointed.

[Shin Pad]

My condolences to anyone building in this market - you are at the mercy of the builders and Subtrades. Your best bet would have been to buy a pre-owned place (something that was built before this boom). I know - you don't get what you want, but, you can get something pretty close to what you want, and change the decor - it's not really that hard.

Anyway, I'm in the building industry and I wouldn't have a house or condo built for me in this day and age. The workmanship on some of the stuff I see on a day to day basis is absolutely appalling. There are far too many people in the building industry that either don't have enough experience to do the job, or are way over booked or have not had the proper training to do the job.

Obviously, the best time to build is when it isn't so busy - when you have builders and subtrades falling all over themselves to get your business. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen now days (at least not for the forseeable future).

[KTown]

Since you allready bought then thsi doesnt apply but for others think of buying read below

Don't buy from Douglas Homes, terrible service, a mickey mouse type organization.

Do your research. The best question to ask a builder is do you have any customer service awards in Alberta. If they got some recently then, they are your best bet.

[Incinerator]

Originally Posted by Shin Pad

My condolences to anyone building in this market - you are at the mercy of the builders and Subtrades. Your best bet would have been to buy a pre-owned place (something that was built before this boom). I know - you don't get what you want, but, you can get something pretty close to what you want, and change the decor - it's not really that hard.

Anyway, I'm in the building industry and I wouldn't have a house or condo built for me in this day and age. The workmanship on some of the stuff I see on a day to day basis is absolutely appalling. There are far too many people in the building industry that either don't have enough experience to do the job, or are way over booked or have not had the proper training to do the job.

Obviously, the best time to build is when it isn't so busy - when you have builders and subtrades falling all over themselves to get your business. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen now days (at least not for the forseeable future).

Shin Pad has it right, regardless of how reputable the builder has been in the past, things have gone a whole lot downhill in general for the past year...Unless you're ready to throw a considerable chunk of cash at a custom builder, if you're really looking for something new-ish your best bet is to look at the stuff built 2005 and earlier.

[return to the red]

I'm having the same misfortunes with my builder here in Lethbridge. I have been keeping track of the progress on my house and for the last 3 weeks aboslutly nothing has been done while other houses around me (with the same builder) are waaaaayyy ahead of us. I can understand the delays but when we had our basement dug and foundation poured before, there should be no excuse as to why no progress has been made on our house

Me's thinks it's time to call the builder and stick a hot iron in their asses

[ken0042]

The one positive spin on those waiting for your house to be done; you are currenly sitting on one of the best invesments out there. If I could put $15K down and have it give me back about $5K per month; I'd be a happy guy.

Obviously this is of little help for those who want to live in their new places long term; just saying.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

A friend of mine got tired of waiting for their condo to be built. It's been almost 2 years since they first put down money, and their original March 2007 date was kicked back to Dec 2007. Not ideal for a newly married couple.

So they decided to buy a new place that's ready for move in, and pull the equity from their 1st condo into the new one. Theyr'e exposed right now on the 1st condo so there's some risk involved, but they did manage to find a bank that did this no problem.

[SteveToms]

We moved in Dec 05, we were the 4th people on the street to move in. The street is still not finished, at least 2 more months I fiqure before the last few are actually done. I feel so bad for the last few people, they have waited forever, the street was finished selling around Dec 05 as well so its been a while.

[tvp2003]

Thanks for the comments... it's a little eye-opening to think of how much we've put down as a deposit, and how much we're actually paying for this thing, only to have these types of delays without the builder taking any responsibility for it (and instead just blaming the trades).

Live and learn I guess -- the sad truth is that there is very little we can do right now about it except sit and wait