SOUTH SALT LAKE — Pitched in a dusty field in 90-degree heat Friday afternoon, a line of tents stood next to a real estate office in South Salt Lake, near where old Granite High School once stood.

Sitting in lawn chairs in their tents' shade Friday, Rinchen Phuntsok and Jeff Johnson were weary from the previous night's camp out but were still "running on adrenaline," as Johnson put it.

"We were very anxious," Phuntsok said, telling of how he and his wife had nabbed the first place in line at 6 p.m. Thursday — a move that caught the attention of Johnson's real estate agent and prompted him to immediately follow suit.

Soon after they set up camp, the men would find out they have pretty good odds of becoming next door neighbors.

"We already shook hands on splitting the cost of the fence," Johnson said, laughing with Phuntsok.

The two men had pitched their tents outside the Garbett Homes real estate office the evening before, eager to claim a spot in line in anticipation of a chance they had been waiting months for — the chance to buy a spot for one of the single-family homes on the former Granite High School property.

As of Saturday morning at 9 a.m., the builders would begin taking "first-come, first-served" buyers — rather than seeking out the biggest and best offer.

It was a new approach to home sales that gave Phuntsok and Johnson optimism, as two hopeful homebuyers who had waited and searched for months for the perfect spot to build their dream homes but who knew, in today's hot market, they would be out of luck if an investor with a large cash offer were to swoop in.

When they found out Garbett Homes was selling the first 31 homes on the first phase of the Granite Legacy development on a first-come, first-served basis, they said they felt they actually had a chance.

Usually, homebuilders will take the highest and best offer, said Johnson's agent, Clint Warner, with KW Utah Realtors' Salt Lake Homes team. Typically, investors who have a lot of cash and can offer $50,000 in earnest money or inflate their offer to win the bid, he said.

"Most people can't compete with that," Warner said.

It's a symptom of Utah's hot housing market, Warner added, where desirable homes are already only spending days on the market before they're placed under contract.

"It's crazy," he said. "I mean, people are willing to sleep out for a few nights just to get a decent lot at a decent price."

Related story:

Demand outpacing supply in Utah housing market, analysts say

Last year was a record for the local housing market, with sales and prices reaching historic levels, according to a new report. But the impacts on the Wasatch Front market could be good and bad, an analyst said.

So Johnson said he's grateful Garbett Homes is "doing something different."

"I think it's a lot better for everybody — especially in this market, you know?" Johnson said. "Not everybody has that kind of cash to just throw away."

Phuntsok said he and his wife are currently living in an apartment in Salt Lake City and have been looking for a home for almost two years. It's been "very difficult" for the average homebuyer, he said, "especially if you're looking for a central location and at the price point you want."

But now, the men felt confident they'd have a good shot of putting their preferred lots under contract. Phuntsok had is eye on lot 106. For Johnson, lot 107.

By Friday afternoon, a handful of others had followed their lead. They expected more to join them later Friday evening.

"It's really interesting that there's already a bonding that's arising from the people waiting in line to pick our their choices of Salt Lake dirt," Johnson said, explaining that he and Phuntsok already feel like neighbors, even though they were complete strangers to each other the night before.

Eileen Whiting, director of sales and marketing for Garbett Homes, said she pushed for a first-come, first-served approach to the Granite Legacy subdivision because there had been "just a lot of interest" in the lots dating back about six months and "there was a lot of pent-up demand."

"Our whole goal is we want to be fair," she said. "We didn't want to get in a bidding war."

Megan Miller, a Garbett Homes sales associate, said more than 200 people signed up on the subdivision's "interest list" eager to place an offer.

Typically other builders accept the highest and best offer, Miller acknowledged, but they decided to try a different approach because "that's really discouraging to those that are kind of on a tight budget."

"It just prices people out of homes, which I don't feel like is fair," Miller said.

Miller said she'd be surprised if all 31 lots up for sale Saturday morning would be sold out in one day, but she said she expects to get close based on how many campers had begun to line up.

The Granite Legacy development — which previously attracted headlines as a controversial project when neighbors fought against the demolition of the historical school — includes a total of 75 homes. Prices range from about $390,000 to $430,000 on the homes, with lot sizes from 0.14 acres to .22 acres.

The 31 up for sale Saturday is the first phase of the development, Whiting said. She didn't know when the other phase, made up of 44 homes, would launch and whether they would also be sold by first come, first served, because she said she wanted to see how the first phase's sales go first.

"This is an experiment for us; we've never done this before," said Glenn Hoggan, Garbett Homes marketing manager. "We've never had this kind of build up waiting for a community to open, so it's a learning experience for us."

Related topics