title: How do I initialize a new instance of a class when I call the AREL association the first time?
body: <p>I inherited a project - controller has a custom action within which we set a couple instance variables:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@contact = @property.contact ? @property.contact : Contact.new
  @contractor = @property.contractor ? @property.contractor : Contractor.new
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I think the Rails way would be to initialize Contact.new and Contractor.new when I call @property.contact or @property.contractor if they don't exist instead of setting these up as instance variables in the controller.</p>
  
  <p>But I don't know the syntax to do it.  </p>