Far From Home : Builder Angers Potential Buyers by Changing Rules at Tustin Development
When real estate agent Katie Harris walked out to meet prospective buyers of luxurious new $400,000 homes in Tustin, she was surrounded by a snarling, sun-baked crowd.
“It’s not fair!” yelled a woman in the crowd, expressing the sentiment of the group in housing-starved Orange County, where the average price for new single-family homes has soared to $273,000.
The crowd of about 100 people was enraged because the home builder, J.M. Peters Co., apparently had changed its rules for prospective buyers to apply for the first phase of a 118-unit residential development in Tustin.
‘Safety Threat’
Some in the crowd had arrived in response to a June 29 letter to prospective buyers from J.M. Peters asking that “no line be formed on the site until after 4 p.m. Friday.” But on Friday, they found themselves behind as many as 500 people on a waiting list that the company had started Thursday.
J.M. Peters officials said they began the list Thursday afternoon after dispersing an unruly crowd that had gathered at the home sites, south of Irvine Boulevard, between Jamboree Boulevard and Red Hill Avenue.
“There was a safety threat to people,” said Brian Theriot, director of investor relations for J.M. Peters. “Sometimes cheaters prosper; that’s something we can’t control.”
When prospective buyers who showed up for the first time had lined up to walk through models of the Almeria home development Friday afternoon, security officers appeared in force and told them to form a straight line behind a barricade.
Friday’s group ran frantically behind the gates, many yelling obscenities and shoving each other to secure a place in the line. One woman repeatedly screamed at the man in front of her: “I don’t give a spit where you are on the list!”
“This is humiliating,” said Theresa Koontz, 35, of Corona del Mar, who was among the first admitted. “I wish there was a less humiliating way.”
Word that company officials had begun their own list Thursday infuriated many people who had been forming their own lists and calling the company daily to check on the Friday start time. Some of the prospective buyers for the 28 available homes in the first phase said they had come from out of state for the opportunity to buy one of the luxury homes.
Saying the Opposite
“They were so inconsistent with their story,” said Paul Newman, 23, of San Diego, who sat on lawn chairs Friday with his sister, who was seeking one of the homes. “One time they would say something, then the opposite.”
What angered most of the waiting buyers Friday was the company’s handling of the situation the previous afternoon.
After a large crowd had formed about 4 p.m. Thursday, Tustin police and private security officers forced everyone to leave the area, causing tempers to flare, Tustin police said.
When the crowd dispersed, and a smaller, more manageable crowd was left, company officials appeared and allowed them to become first on the waiting list to purchase one of the homes.
“What we’ve learned is that if you do what they say, you don’t get a house,” said a 37-year-old prospective buyer from Irvine, who feared that giving her name could jeopardize her place on the list. “If you’re disruptive, you get a house.”
Jim Peters, president of J.M. Peters Co., said the company started the list after city officials told them to handle the crowd. And Theriot said it was started after the crowd was told to leave, because the original group had been too unruly.
City officials said the problem actually began last weekend and reached a crisis point Wednesday night, when about 100 cars blocked nearby roads. At noon Thursday, the city asked J.M. Peters Co. to control the crowd, said Christine Shingleton, Tustin community development director.
“There were people that were very, very hostile,” Shingleton said. “People were camping out, (and) the streets were not safe.”
Shingleton said the city was concerned about being liable for the safety of people waiting in a construction area and about the money being spent on police manpower to patrol the area.
Tustin police had sent two or three officers a night out to the area since last Saturday to assist in crowd control and handle the “arguing and bickering,” Tustin Police Sgt. Mike Shanahan said.
Theriot said that while J.M. Peters’ homes are usually in strong demand, the process is usually much more orderly. But he added that the company is not obligated to make any list and can handle sales of the houses however it sees fit.
A Smoother Way
“I think, in hindsight, we could have found a smoother way to handle this,” said company president Peters, adding, “Our business is building houses, not crowd control.”
The problem would never have developed, Theriot said, if everyone that received the first letter would have followed its instructions.
“This thing would work just like Disneyland,” he said. “You just wait in line, everyone pays their dues and gets on the ride.”
Once those waiting behind the barricades were allowed inside the homes Friday afternoon, most were silenced by the opulence and design of the elegantly furnished model houses.
Many of the disgruntled people seemed to forget their troubles and to be lost in thought, imagining themselves in the custom-built back-yard hot tub or sitting on the veranda looking over the tree-lined yards of one of the five houses.
“Be still my heart,” said Mercita McClain of Irvine as she stepped lightly on the thick carpet of the master bedroom. “Everything for a woman. This kind of teases you if you can’t buy the house.”
One woman entered one of the model homes and burst into tears.
“If we had a fighting chance (to buy it), it would be worth (the trouble),” she said.
Theriot said the company has no immediate plans to change the way it offers houses for sale.
But some Tustin authorities said they hope the home builder avoids similar problems in the future.
“Hopefully, they will anticipate the demand a little better next time and things will run smoother,” Shanahan said.
