Vail builder will let buyers trade in their old homes

GREEN VALLEY--Norm and Diane Wilkinson put their Canoa Ranch home on the market last year because they felt a little crowded in by their neighbors and wanted more space.

The Canoa house sold overnight. That's good in some ways, but the problem was, the move-up home the Wilkinsons were buying in Vail wasn't going to be ready for several months.

The retiree couple from Colorado leased back their former home for several months, then found a rental close by before moving into their house in Santa Rita Acres Estates in Vail, which they love, Diane Wilkinson said.

However, for many families, especially those with children, the time gap between selling their old home and moving into the new one causes great anxiety, disruption and expense, builder Ron Amiran of ITC Homes said.

Almost inevitably, buyers have to stay in apartments or with in-laws for months, pay to store their furniture, and sometimes drive their kids across town to their old schools.

Trade-ins accepted

In order to reduce that anxiety, Amiran has begun "for a very limited time" buying homes from families purchasing semi-custom homes in his Santa Rita Acres Estates. ITC Homes appears to be the only builder in Pima County accepting trade-in homes.

That way buyers can coordinate the closing dates on the sale of their old homes with the move-in dates for their new homes.

"This idea will remove their anxiety completely. I want them to have the custom house they dreamed about. It's not cheap. These are not first-time homebuyers," Amiran said.

The trade-in approach, which Amiran calls "you buy ours, we buy yours," has just started recently.

The process saves the buyer the headache and expense of finding an agent to list the house or paying a broker commission.

Eight signed up

So far, eight families have signed up to sell their homes to ITC. Ann and Larry Lardinais of Vail have agreed to the trade-in deal with ITC and plan to move in late April or early May into a new five-bedroom home, which means they won't have to move the four children still at home two times.

"When we sold the last home to buy this one, we were in an apartment for three months. It was horrible. You worry about selling a house and if it doesn't sell, it's like 'I'm stuck and we don't get the new house'," Ann said.

When she mentioned the trade-in deal, Lardinais said, "My husband was like 'That's it. We're buying.' It takes the pressure off selling your house. You don't have to worry about moving twice."

Sixty days before the closing date in Santa Rita Acres Estates, the Lardinais will put their house up for sale, with the stipulation that they won't move out until their new house is ready.

Buyer's choice

If it doesn't sell, ITC will take it at a mutually agreed-upon price, and if they and ITC cannot agree, both sides agree to take the price set by an appraiser of the buyer's choice.

Amiran said he has lost occasional sales because buyers had already planned the sales of their old homes, wanted to move in before new homes were ready and didn't want to spend months in limbo.

Buying up existing homes is not a big problem for ITC because the company has deep pockets. Plus, in this overheated housing market, Amiran said, "I'm not sitting with them for years. The average selling period in Tucson is 40 days."

For the Wilkinsons, of course, the selling period was just one day. The buyers actually saw the place and basically decided to buy about two hours after it was listed, Diane Wilkinson said, but they slept on it before making a final decision.

With construction crews at his command, Amiran can do repairs on empty trade-in homes more efficiently than homeowners can while they are living there. And because he already spends about $1 million on advertising, he can list the trade-ins in his advertisements and can sell them to people who want investment properties.

The first homes in Santa Rita Acres Estates were delivered last summer and so far about 100 homes out of a planned 700 have been sold.

"The homes are very highly efficient, both environmentally and utility-wise. We have the best insulation, solar (hot water) systems are installed and we are offering in mid-March an option to have a gray-water recycling system. They start at $289,000 for 2,000-square-foot homes on 1-acre equestrian lots. The high end is $369,000," Amiran said.

For more information, call the sales office at 888-8896 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. seven days a week or visit ITCHomes.org.

pfranchine@gvnews.com | 625-5511 x 28