Andrin

Intro — I saw an ad for new homes from Andrin in Holland Landing. Initially, the flyer said noon on September 19, but then they changed it to 11 a.m. We got there then and took a number and was 35^th in line. People might have come really early or camped out the night before. All these houses were detached from 1700 – 3500 on 38′, 40′ and 45′ lots. They advertised a detached house on a 38′ lot for 630K and that looked like a great bargain. By the time we got in, all of the 38′ lots were all sold out, except for strange shaped lots that had premiums of 12K and 75 to 85K. No thanks!
Process — The place was absolute chaos and there was no one there told you how it worked and you had to ask yourself. I found out that these were final sales! There was no signing and thinking things over for a couple of days. The way it worked here was there was a woman who — in order of the number given to people — looked up whether the house you want on the lot you want is available. If it is, you can purchase it. If you are not ready to buy at this time, she’ll probably give you a little time, but will move on to the next person. Then you wait for awhile until a sales representative presents you with all the papers for you to sign.
Frustration — It is very frustrating to prospective buyers that what they say online does not match what is offered in person. So a new clump of houses was offered called Bravo, but the house plans were not online. We had to quickly look at these floor plans and decide within a short period of time whether we wanted to buy it. The houses were being sold very quickly so it was now or never.
Final Sale Stress — The idea of final sale was overwhelming as I was not mentally prepared for this possibility. I wanted to put down a refundable deposit to hold a spot and take a couple of days to think about it, but here it was take it or leave it. The house we wanted was not available and now we were scrambling to find another house on the 40′ lot size. This new and much larger house cost significantly more. So many thoughts were running through my and my shoulders were very heavy.
Concerns — The stress was tremendous as I haven’t dated my girlfriend that long though we are madly in love and buying a house together presupposes we’ll get engaged and married. We’ve talked about this, but this purchase would make it an inevitability and psychologically I needed time to process that. Also, we wanted to be near the 404 but this site was on Yonge, so location-​wise we would like to be closer to the 404. Queensville and Sharon are closer and had openings in the future. Would their prices match these? If so, I rather buy there. So this was also a concern. There was also the idea of buying used and being closer to the city.
Decision — We considered buying here because it looked like we were getting good value for the size of house, the floor plans were nice, and the distance away from the city was not ideal, but tolerable. The process does take a lot of time so even though we did not have as much time as we wished, we did have a couple of maddening hours to make this decision. In the end, with time ticking down, we agreed to buy our bigger house on a bigger lot, paying a 10K premium because it was further from our neighbours. I thought there would still be time to back out before we signed the papers but I couldn’t find a good reason to do so. There were just so many unknowns and we were taking a chance they would all work out. We had to put a deposit of 10K which we would lose if we changed our minds. The biggest factor in my decision was thinking (1) it would not be a terrible decision to buy and (2) my girlfriend really wanted it and thought it would be our dream home. It the end we signed all the papers and were owners of a brand new home!
Okay with purchase — After thinking it over, the price is likely pretty good and we most likely got a good deal though that is hard to prove as competing prices are not available. However, the next phase will be more expensive and a competing opening in Holland Landing would likely be more expensive or at least comparable in price. My intuition told me that Queensville and Sharon were more expensive given the same house size and from the limited prices I could find, this is true. Now the question becomes does the fact that these two locations are closer to the 404 make up for any price shortfall? My girlfriend was willing to travel further for more house, so she’d lean more towards Holland Landing anyway. After seeing more ads in surrounding areas asking for higher prices, I was more at ease with our decision.
Tips —
1. Find out the process if you can before hand.
2. Know exactly what you want and have a couple of back-​up plans in case things do not work out.
3. Be ready to buy and bring a cheque. Do all the mental processing I was doing then and afterwards beforehand and you will have less chance of regret.
4. I would get there really early & even camp out the night before.