New Intracorp handbook will help purchasers knowwhat questions to ask
Carla Bury
Sun
Carla Bury, shown at the presentation centre for Intracorp’s Spruce project, says homebuyers are better informed today. Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, PNG, Special To The Sun
After 30 years of building and selling homes across Canada, Intracorp is seeing a new breed of homebuyer.
Today’s purchasers are much better informed than the buyers of the past. They now have access to so much information through not only newspapers and the Internet, but also through social media.
It used to be that developers could create a brochure and website and present just the information they wanted purchasers to know.
Now purchasers can find out through Twitter and Facebook what people are thinking about a particular development.
At the same time, although the information people obtain is often accurate, there is also a lot of misinformation on the Web.
Because they are accustomed to having information at their fingertips, today’s purchasers want facts — and a lot of them — delivered in a way that is relevant.
When they come into a sales presentation centre, they have specific information they are looking for; for example, whether hardwood flooring is included in the purchase price, or whether the strata budget includes garbage pickup.
And although the information is out there, people have to do a lot of digging.
We decided to take the digging out of it and let buyers know we are on their side.
We are baring it all, if you will. There is so much to know about buying a brand new home.
Based on the questions we have heard over the years and the pitfalls we see people fall into because they are not fully informed, we have pulled all the information together and made it easily accessible in book form. Show and Tell: Unlocking the Secrets of New Home Buying is a tool to help purchasers navigate through the process and know the kinds of questions to ask.
To ensure the information is both thorough and authoritative, we approached a dozen people who are well respected in fields related to residential development and sales. The result is nuggets of expert advice you’d generally have to pay for, like legal tips from Glenn Leung of McCarthy Tetrault LLP. For example, if you had never purchased a pre-sale home before, you might not know about the purchaser’s seven-day right of rescission: a seven-day “cooling-off period” providing a week to review a pre-sales contract and either proceed with it or cancel it.
Glenn recommends having a lawyer review the contract to explain exactly what you are getting into and what to watch out for, including situations that could cause a potential purchaser to lose both the home and the deposit.
Understanding the details of the purchase is critical, because people tend to get blinded by the display suite. They don’t realize that their finished home may not look exactly like that. Purchasers sometimes don’t know until they take possession that some items in the show suite, such as hardwood flooring, granite counters or stainless steel appliances, may not be included.
Sue Rutledge, Intracorp’s vice-president of sales, recommends going through the feature sheet with the sales person so you know which items are optional and will cost extra.
She also helps buyers understand the square footage number attached to the finished home, because developers vary in how they measure it, with some developers including decks, patios and exterior walls in the total square footage, while others do not do this.
One of the things buyers often struggle with is how to read a floor plan. With pre-sales, the only physical space they see is a show suite, but they choose their own home based on a floor plan. Whether they are first-time buyers or people downsizing from a single-family home, it is often difficult for them to visualize how much space there will be and whether it will work for their lifestyle.
Top interior designer Robert Ledingham explains what the symbols on the floor plan signify and offers advice on what to look for: closets, laundry facilities, oddly angled walls that create awkward spaces and whether your furniture will fit.
One of his tips is to measure out the floor plan in your existing home to compare the two.
The fun part of a new home is making it your own. Although Inform Design co-owner Nancy Bendtsen sells high-end furniture, she offers advice on how to prioritize your spending and where to cut corners.
The first thing to do, she says, is to think hard about how you live and where you spend your time.
If you don’t cook or entertain a lot, for example, don’t bother with a dining table. If you do, you can economize with a table made from an offcut of wood and metal sawhorses from Home Depot.
Invest in a good mattress and save on the bed frame. And if, like most people, you enjoy watching TV, then put the television in the living room instead of hiding it away in a less inviting spot.
As well as handy lists like 101 questions to ask, Show and Tell: Unlocking the Secrets of New Home Buying also includes expert advice on topics like checking out architects’ and developers’ previous work; the advantages of buying new instead of resale; pros and cons of presale homes; spotting a good developer; picking a neighbourhood; recognizing good construction; negotiating tips; and getting the best mortgage.
Like material on the Internet, the book is free, and it can be picked up at any Intracorp sales centre. Intracorp also videotaped the experts as they gave their advice and is posting the interviews on its website, at www.intracorp.ca.
Carla Bury is Intracorp’s director of marketing.
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