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Dechellis Homes.. anyone building or built with them?
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Author:  LeeanneF [ Jan 23, 2010 5:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Dechellis Homes.. anyone building or built with them?
Hello, I am extremely new to this forum after finding it only yesterday (Monday 18th Jan). I live in Sydney but am originally from Adelaide and its time for my husband and I to move back home after 36yrs away. Anyway my point is that we just got back from a week in Adelaide after looking at Dechellis homes. Fell in love with the Wild Orchid with a St Peters front but have a few worries over pricing etc.
The agent couldn't have been more helpful if he had tried until it came to the price and inclusions. Lets say there were 100 inclusions and none of them had a price next to it. Anything different we wanted added then that was in bold type but still no price. My husband asked for a breakdown and we were told that that was not the usual. I agree with my husband that he wants to see what he is paying for. Example: I did not want the spa bath and so agent said "okay just normal bath" as he wrote on the quote. There has to be a difference in price surely between a normal bath and a spa bath yet nothing came off the price. We have a block at Sellick's Beach and because its so close to the water it has to have stainless steel screws etc. Okay we understand that, but $2000 extra for special paint. Uhm excuse me but theres hardly any painting on the outside of the house. We feel that if they won't show us what each item costs then they must have something to hide. Its upsetting me as I did really fall in love with the house design and could see myself living in it but they have possibly lost a sale due to their secrecy. If they want $264,000 (first quote) from us then tell us why exactly.
I would just like to hear from anyone that has had a house built by them or in the process of having one built and if they have had any problems.
Thanks for your time.
Leeanne
Hopefully I have found the right place for this posting as it was suggested by two other people.
Author:  zeke [ Jan 23, 2010 5:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dechellis Homes.. anyone building or built with them?
I, too, fail to understand why some builders won't understand that people NEED to know these things. Every extra has to be weighed up against alternative ways of spending that money.

We funded our new home from the sale of our old home.....we're too old for a mortgage (been there - done that).

So a $10,000-00 increase in building costs didn't just mean a slight increase in our monthly repayments. It meant $10,000-00 less we had available to undertake landscaping, buy furniture and fittings and even upgrade our 7yo cars in the next year or so, go on holidays, eat out etc etc.

We normally don't spend significant amounts without weighing up alternatives and considering other options. At the very least, we think it's reasonable to expect to be told exactly what we will be getting and exactly how much it will cost us.

So, we feel your pain. My best advice, as usual, is to be upfront and candid. let them know this lack of transparency is potentially a deal-breaker and explain exactly what they need to do to have a chance of securing your custom. If they can't or won't respond adequately, than there is a fundamental communication problem and that SHOULD be a deal-breaker.

Cheers
zeke

PS Did you actually ask why no reduction in price with the bath change? I'd be saying "OK, if there's no reduction, put the spa back in". I found we became more assertive as the build went on. Given my chance again I would've been much more assertive from the outset and I believe we would've achieved a better house with less tears had I done so. Like a lot of people, we prefer not to "rock the boat". Sure, there's no point in being unnecessarily aggressive, but, if ANYTHING concerns you at any stage in the build, it's best to bring it up and discuss it in detail. If you don't, it's too easy for busy builders and SS's to assume it isn't a concern to you - so why should they worry - even if they know the problem exists?
Author:  robinred55 [ Jan 23, 2010 8:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dechellis Homes.. anyone building or built with them?
Hi,
I'm from Adelaide and we were going to build at Aldinga Beach with Dechellis. We changed our minds and 18m later we're building at Noarlunga Downs with a different builder.

The extra $2000 is not just for steel bolts but for your corrosion zone being so close to the beach you need specially treated colourbond gutters, fascia and treated paint for the corrosion treatment. We were quoted around the same.

Everything you decide to do without that's included should be credited to you. The reason they don't give you a printed copy of what different components cost is if their competitors get their hands on it the builder can lose some of their competitive edge. Having said that, you should get a breakdown of some of this stuff when they give you a quote and should verbally give you and idea of what you can save if you chose a normal bath over a spa bath.

Dechellis do beautiful and amazing homes and Sellicks is beautiful. If you can go with the flow and keep asking questions you should get some answers. If not I agree with the above comment that the consultant needs to know this stuff could be a deal breaker.

Hope all goes well for you.
Author:  LeeanneF [ Feb 04, 2010 12:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dechellis Homes.. anyone building or built with them?
We have spoken to the agent since returning home to Sydney and have informed him that for now we are putting a hold on things. My husband tried at the meeting with the agent in Adelaide to let him know that we were not just going to give money away and would like to know what things cost on that quote. Well he ended up emailing us the quote again with the prices included. HA! if you could call it that. Out of say 100 items 10 of them had prices included and of those 10 we already had the price of 8 as he told us at the meeting. So he did us no favours there either. Don't get me wrong as he was a lovely man who opened the show homes for us (they were closed for the month for the holiday season) and took us through exclusively. I think he thought that because we had come over to SA specifically to look at the homes that we would have our cheque book ready to sign there on the spot. There were a few things that we changed and no mention of deducting anything off the cost. I agree their homes are of the highest quality and I was knocked over by the standard of the homes. I could see me living in one thats for sure. We have decided that moving to SA and renting while our house was built would be a better idea as its just too hard to even contemplate building a house while living interstate. ::hyst::
Author:  david3535 [ Feb 06, 2010 8:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dechellis Homes.. anyone building or built with them?
Hi Leeanne,

I am currently building with Dechellis homes. I have never posted on this forum but i thought i'd throw my 2 cents in to hopefully give you an idea of my experience.
I have built before in adelaide with a different builder. the sales people were great - bent over backwards to get our business. it was another thing though when it came to after sales service, or lack there of. because of this the whole build was a bit of a nightmare.
Dechellis have been the opposite for us. the sales staff didnt really work too hard to get our business, we designed the house ourselves (floorplan and frontage only mind you) and basically gave them a list of things we wanted/didnt want. Dechellis then gave us a quote, like yours it didnt have what we were paying for certain items. I asked about a few of the big ticket items as I wanted to know where our money was going - getting these costs from the salesman was like pulling teeth!! on the whole though the quote was very competetive.
We have just had our final selections meeting with them and only now have we found out what we have been credited back for items we didnt want. Dechellis have been VERY generous in this area - most of the time if we took something out of the quote (eg the kitchen sink and tap as we wanted a very specific one) the money they credited us back more than covered our cost of purchasing a different one.
hope this helps a little!
Author:  evelyng [ Feb 08, 2010 5:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dechellis Homes.. anyone building or built with them?
Hi Leeanne,

We are currently building with Dechellis and have found them to be excellent at all stages through the process to date. They have bent over backwards to help us at every stage.

We were given several price guides with our extras separately priced up so we could clearly see where our money was going and what was coming off. We started at their higher spec and added and subtracted items. Certainly they did not spell out the cost of the standard items in their spec (no builder will), but in any event in building its all "swings and roundabouts" as they say - if they give you a big credit somewhere, it will get clawed back somewhere else. So personally, I feel its not the price of the individual items thats important, but rather the value for money in the whole package. When we looked at our specifications as a whole, they far surpassed the package that any other builder could offer for the money. We even had a contact from another prestige builder in Adelaide look over our quote and they had to admit that it was an excellent deal and that there was nothing hidden that we could get stung for later. When the competition compliments you, something must be going right !

Also at selection, everything is very upfront. They will tell you exactly how much you will get back and what changes will cost, and our experience was that the credits/debits were very reasonable and not at all contrived like I have seen friends go through with other builders.

Anyway just my two cents worth :D Hope your building experience, whoever you go with, is a positive one !
Author:  buildingwithhamra [ Feb 08, 2010 9:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dechellis Homes.. anyone building or built with them?
My SS used to work for Dechellis, and he says the quality of the work is great, and he rarely had problems with any of his builds.
Author:  FireFox [ Jun 05, 2010 2:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dechellis Homes.. anyone building or built with them?
found this house for sale on domain.com selling their display house the popular wild orchid, good chance to see more pictures of the interior:

http://www.domain.com.au/Property/For-S ... 2007846465
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