With house prices only going up – and bidding wars pushing them even further in that direction – some people may find themselves thinking that buying a new home is a way to escape the resale world of madness.
After all, new homes are sold at set prices. The first person to show up and agree to the builder’s price gets the house, even if someone willing to pay more comes along later.
But while buying a new build may not have the same cost in terms of money, people interested in doing that now have to pay in another way – with their time.
Twenty lots in Waterloo’s Vista Hills subdivision are going up for sale on Saturday.
Although prices haven’t been revealed yet, some real estate agents and their clients have already started lining up outside the sales office of developer Fusion Homes – nearly a week before they’ll be able to put pen to paper.
Surjit Pablay showed up at 3 p.m. Sunday. That made him the fifth person in line.
“People are looking for affordable housing in small towns like Kitchener-Waterloo,” he said, noting that people from the Toronto area are eyeing Waterloo Region as an escape from the “completely out of control” house prices in the GTA.
Not long after Pablay arrived, real estate agent Satomi Fumitsuki started getting calls tipping her off to the situation in Vista Hills.
She was at the sales office by 4:30 p.m., where she became the 10th person planning an impromptu six-day campout.
And while the red-hot housing market may be bad news for anyone looking to buy a house, it is have positive effects on people like Garrett Lee.
A carpenter by trade, Lee says he’s been busier than ever in recent times – even if he still sometimes shakes his head at the people causing his good fortune by doing things like camping out for a week to get their hands on a house.
“(It’s) a little crazy, but you gotta do what you gotta do,” he said.
With reporting by Victoria Levy
