On Friday, March 26th, GlobeAdvisor, a part of the Globe and Mail had a quote from Peter Gilgan, President and CEO of Mattamy Homes. Seems that the Globe and Mail has thing for Gilgan. They have done a few pieces on Gilgan and, one of their reporters even contacted me. He didn’t really want to hear about the real Mattamy and just wanted some less controversial stuff to put into an article that was basically a love-in. With the recent pieces, I am wondering if Gilgan is trying for another award somewhere and needs the positive ink – especially after the Fairwinds debacle.
“There is no substitute for preparation. You may think you get that, but then you get lazy and set sail without checking the weather forecast.”
Good piece of advice Gilgan. For the homeowner, very important as your builder might not be following this advice. Know your law and what protection is available to you before purchasing that home and ensure all pertinent legalese is put into the document for you. Especially about having a house inspector. And with what has happened to Mattamy lately, methinks they have gotten lazy. Found it easier to rest on their laurels, so to speak.
He goes on to talk about Mattamy’s move into Newmarket, with bigger and more expensive homes and, detached garages at the back.
‘But we failed miserably. After eight or nine months, one of the sales agents in the model homes said, ‘You know, the people really want the stuff you built in the 1980s, but with an added garage on the side.’
Peter, just how many people really want to leave the comfort of their home and walk uncovered to their back garage while carrying numerous gifts,bags,groceries or whatever and, maybe in a nice suit or ensemble, while a raging rainstorm is passing through? The only time anyone would want to do that walk is when they are off to their workshop that took over the garage and a cool one is waiting for them. I remember telling planners about the problems of rear garages – nostalgic but not always practicable or, safe in CPTED* theory.
Now, I must admit Mattamy put out some real nice stuff back in the 80″s. It was that reputation that caused us to buy from them. Too bad they weren’t able to keep up with what they had established – except in the minds of some “Mad Men”.
“We hadn’t taken the temperature of the consumer before we put our product on the shelf. It wasn’t that catastrophic, but the dollar you don’t make is a dollar you’ve lost.”
Yes, you built some homes that really didn’t do as well on the market but, I wonder how you recouped your losses. The last sentence says it all. You maybe just cut corners for the rest of us and thus made up the difference. Your accounting background came into play and some just lost out. Doing the illegal wiring in my place certainly saved you a bundle. You made your dollar there.
My dollar – I got maybe 75 cents on the dollar in terms of value. Maybe I’ll just pretend it was one of your 80’s homes.
* CPTED – Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
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