How many times have you heard this: homeowners are too picky or better yet homeowners expect too much? Being a part of the residential industry I hear it all of the time, but really who is at fault for the higher expectations? It just can’t be homeowners suddenly demanding the best product for the cheapest price, as I have been quoted in the Edmonton Journal as saying this is the single most expensive purchase a person will ever make in their life. I’m sure that must have something to do with it, but that can’t be the only reason. How about the Builders themselves I’m sure they aren’t doing anything to drive this “I want a perfect home” atmosphere, because the Builders can never be at fault, they always are doing what’s right. Isn’t that the image you get from the industry? I certainly do.
I think part of the problem might be the amount of “fly by nighters”: Builders or people who say they are Builders to be more correct, that have cropped up over recent years. As a former building inspector I’ve seen too many disasters being built, its scary walking into many of these homes. I couldn’t imagine being a first time homebuyer not knowing what is good and what isn’t and having to trust the builder who by day is a taxi cab driver and by night is a Builder. It for sure hurts the industry.
Builders who have no business building definitely do play a part in this but not as much as you would think. What about the advertising that the Builders use, or their slogans, might this be the driving force behind the perfect home? I recently did a Google search just to see what Builders are saying about themselves, what their slogans are and how it influences the market place. I picked 10, in fact my favourite 10. In no particular order:
- The Key to Your Dreams
- We Set The Standard, Then Exceed It
- Quality is Paramount
- From Your First Home to Your Dream Home .... Expect to be Impressed
- Dedicated to Building Homes of Excellence
- There is a Difference
- Like No Other
- Where Building Homes Becomes an Art
- We Don’t Meet The Standard, We Set It
- Still Setting The Standard
I worked for one of these 10 Builders, whose quality must be so good because their catch phrase says so. Don’t believe the hype. This Builder cared so much about the potential homebuyers that when I brought it to their attention that there were code violations that needed to be addressed the Owner and the General Manager told me to leave it until we got called on it by the Municipal Inspector. Hmmm, intentionally breaking the Alberta Building Code, does anyone else see something wrong with that? I did not stay with that Builder very long, my standards are much higher than that, plus it’s called integrity, some of these Builders should look into the meaning of that word.
In advertising you can get yourself into trouble for misleading the public, under the Alberta Fair Trading Act under Chapter 2 Section 6 Subsection 4 – Without limiting subsections (2) and (3), the following are unfair practices if they are directed at one or more potential consumers: Paragraph (a) a supplier’s doing or saying anything that might reasonably deceive or mislead a consumer. Paragraph (e) is even better, it states: a supplier’s representation that a goods or service are of a particular standard, quality, grade, style or model if they are not. It’s written into law that they can’t deceive you, so is a homeowner being too picky when the Builder advertises that they are “Dedicated to building homes of excellence”, how can they be when that’s the message the Builder has sent.
The expectations of a homeowner fall directly on the shoulder of the Builder and when the homeowner is told they will be delivered a superior product only to find out that their home is an industry standard built home they have every right to be upset.
