Everyone's got a pet peeve. And after being immersed in new home construction sales, marketing, and verbal glory of it for well over a dozen years, there will always be one scenario that drives me up a piece of drywall. That's the new home builders' habit of buying a piece of subdivided land and, long before any formal "right to sell" documents are on the proverbial bureaucratic assembly line, the builder has a dusty sales trailer out there to lure buyers to his new subdivision. The sign on the outside looms large, beckoning the passerby to tromp on up the trailer ramp to check out the unique and exciting new homes being offered for this neighborhood-to-be. And the salesperson, starved for human contact, puts on his best pre-model presentation, trying hard to create urgency in the situation, when, in reality, he will have eons of time to play computer blackjack while waiting for the first stick to rise from the dust.

Mind you, it may be literally six months (or longer) before a real sales contract can even have the hope of being drawn up on one of the new homes. As in many states, it takes an act of God for what we, in California, call a "white report" to be published, along with a recorded final map around the same time frame. In the meantime, the builder is not only trying to "pre-sell" his new community, but also is attempting to do so without a hint of what the final prices should be. Why? Well, if you have no idea what it would cost you to build the house six months from now, how would you be able to know what marketable price to charge a buyer for it?

The decision to "hurry up and wait" by new homebuilders is nothing new. There is not a new home agent I know who hasn't experienced "sales trailer ennui" some time in their careers. Occasionally, if done properly, it can be an exciting experience, with the model homes half to nearly finished by the time the trailer arrives, with a somewhat smooth transition from trailer to garage-converted sales office. The buzz of activity created by a row of new homes in their various stages of construction creates an electricity that can keep agents passionate about their careers for a good long time. There's always the close "promise" of the completed model home park, and the elegant furnishings, beautifully designed landscaping, and fully paved and washed down streets. Slick marketing materials are ready to bestow on the buying public, and a grand opening date has even been set.

What I am talking about is a type of builder paranoia that forces so many people and factions to prematurely spend months and months of their lives waiting for this to happen. Buyers wait for more definite answers from the builder regarding prices, options, and lot premiums until they are sometimes blue in the face. Agents, whose deflated sales balloons were once full and firm with the promise of closing commissions near at hand, begin to sound like broken records when trying to give these buyers reassurances to help them decide to buy there. What is this builder paranoia of which I speak?

Some of it may no doubt be driven by ego. The builder is so stoked by his land acquisition, he wants to feature it in newspaper ads and make his operation more viable to the powers-that-be within his own corporate structure. Construction financing prospects may also figure into the picture. "Peacocking" to would-be investors is always easier with a pre-sale trailer and warm body in place. Another part of his paranoia may be plain old fear. Fear that buyers who are looking in the area would possibly pass up the opportunity to buy there, choosing another builder's neighborhood. And if they had only known about it (way) ahead of time, they might have waited to buy.

The Chinese water-torture aspect of the premature sales efforts by new home builders will not go away in my lifetime, I am afraid. As long as there are builders who remain dedicated to the American Dream, they will live to splash their communities of the future in our faces as often and as early as possible, to make sure we have the option to make them among our choice of possible homebuilders. I am, however, blessed to have the opportunity to sound off about it in my industry-related rants, because I never was very good at computer blackjack.

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Published: August 27, 1999

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.