eeninety wrote:
We went on a Saturday last March, drove by the sales office randomly as well and I wanted to see what the crowd was about.. so we stopped and saw that they were selling houses. I thought to myself, hmmm a house might be nice. So I walked through the line and asked for some brochures and was told not to bother waiting in line today.
Went back on Sunday to talk to someone and there were maybe 2 or 3 people milling about.. I walked in to talk to someone about these homes and was told there were 2 or 3 lots left, so we just impulsively bought one of them. Stress-free. Price of the house was great for a 30' lot too.. our same house has gone up over $100k since last March lol..
I think if you buy the day of the big release, in addition to getting first pick on the lot #, there are certain incentives, like so much $ off the purchase price and so much $ towards design upgrades. I'm not sure if you get that if you walk in on a different day. But you can't lose buying after the release either. The prices keep going up, as you said your house has gone up by 100k! And it must be nice to avoid waiting hours in the snow.
When we bought our townhome, we stood outside in January for 14 hours at Rattlesnake waiting for our ticket to be called (I think we got 5K off the purchase price and 5K in upgrades). Then about 2 yrs later, we decided to purchase a detached home Nov 2015 and we waited for about 14 hours again (5K of the purchase price and 10K in upgrades). But at least the second time we got to wait mostly indoors. It sounds like if we had decided to buy earlier, like when you did, we could have avoided lining up and spent less on the house (that is assuming my model was available to purchase when you did in Mar 2015). Oh well!
it was an experience.
We weren't even thinking of buying a home. Rushed from downtown as our family member waited in line for someone else. Decided to grab a number and showed up the following weekend to see the process. Saw >200 people all lined up and decided to try and get the house that day. Waited all day and still didnt make it to the sales office with ~60 people in front of us at EOD, and most lots sold. The following day we were the first in line after showing up first thing in the morning. Apparently a lot of people were waiting for a larger lot, or had their mind set up on specific location.
Walked away with a great 30' lot in the 1st phase. So far best decision we made, but definitely a stressful one.