Have you ever visited a show home and thought it’s exactly what you want and you’d buy it if you could?
Well, you can and that’s what Emad Hanna and his wife did when they visited a Jayman Built show home in Allard in southwest Edmonton.
As a family physician who divides his time each week working in southside Edmonton medical clinics and in Hanna, Alberta – purely coincidence, he said, in regard to him practicing in a namesake town; it was actually because of a need of physicians there – buying a show home just made sense.
“We were impressed with the design,” said Hanna. “Everything is amazing. We feel we are very lucky to have this place.”
The house they bought was the Emerge, a popular Jayman model. At 2,149 square feet, it features a large gourmet kitchen, a his-and-her ensuite with a make-up desk, a custom fireplace, and has herring-bone hardwood on the main floor.
For the Hannas, one of the reasons behind purchasing the two-storey show home was convenience. As the house was fully furnished and decorated this meant they didn’t need to select interior finishes from flooring to paint colours, and cabinet styles and countertops.
But not everyone buys a show home because they’re short on time.
“It’s almost like a prestige thing, being able to say ‘oh, this was a former Jayman show home’,” said Dave Desormeaux, Jayman’s president and COO. “We go to great lengths to make it universally loved by everybody. The feedback we get is that it is picture perfect.”
And as show homes generally showcase a builder’s most popular models this can make them even more desirable.
“Another advantage is that part of the community is already finished and developed,” added Desormeaux, who points out when show homes are sold, usually around 24 months after they’ve been opened, the builders move on and add new show homes in newer parts of the development. “All those homes beside you were landscaped by the other builders too. There’s usually not that many open lots around (you) with construction and you’re not in the brand-new pioneering part of the community where everything is starting from scratch.”
For those interested in buying a Jayman show home, the builder recently put 16 former show homes in various Edmonton-area communities up for sale in early June. These, which completed their show home cycle, have been professionally cleaned, had paint touched up if necessary, had sales centres removed and proper garages installed in their place, and are as close to brand new as possible.
In addition to these end-of-cycle show homes, buyers can also purchase Jayman’s newer, current show home models. The company has a show home leaseback program where you purchase the home and lease it back to Jayman for a five per cent return until the community’s show home parade ends.
For example, if the show home purchase price is just under $800,000 (for home, lot and GST), the leaseback earnings would get you about $3,135 per month. Jayman also covers all utilities for the term of the lease.
“There is prestige,” said Desormeaux. “There’s something about people saying ‘I live in a former show home.’ They feel very proud of that.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
