I am building house in Franklin and I will highly recommend my builder - GOLDRUBY- to any one. It is on a 21sq house. It is now on lock up stage. If anyone wants to visit my house, we can make an arrangement. I usually go there on either Sat or Sun.
Builder Matt (Mathew smith) is really trustworthy, flexible and reliable, more over friendly. Mostly, he does repeated business (it is just from my observation). He know value of customer service something is missing in this industry. So he is getting repeated business.
I haven’t heard anything bad on him from anyone so far. My experiences are also really good including his total team (Jas and Joe). My solicitor gave a 5 stars to him!. She has got around 25 years experiences in this industry (Canberra).
I work for Govt and in IT industry; recommended to another three friends and they are also going through GOLDRUBY.
I am not paid to do this testimony. The reason for this testimony is, I spent around 12-18 months in ACT LDA display homes to discuss builders and paid to some money to blo*** builders as advance for discussion and “initial talks”. I gave up twice after paying 500 and 1000. "Admin" fee if you change something from standard. Pre-decided suppliers, else "admin fee". Suppliers are paying "commission fee" to builders. If a doctor is doing this (prescribing medicine with company name), it is illegal. It is illegal. So, there is no authority to question this?
Matt provided space in his garage to put the stuff those got from non-listed suppliers. He is not charging anything to deliver these stuff to the building site. His favor to customer as I know. I am living in Unit now, don't have enough space to put the stuff. So he was helping me. He is doing around 50-100 houses every year in Canberra ACT.
Most of other Builders know you pay for your dream “house”. You think it is just 1K or 2K. Especially in Canberra things are really worse. You have to pay 50K extra than SYD and MELB to build house. Yes it is our “capital”!!
I just want to help fellow Canberrian. That’s all. My house will be finishing in 4-6 weeks time. I will keep you all updated with latest. If anyone would like to talk to me or want to visit my house please send me message.
Disclaimer:
Whatever I wrote here are completely my views. Purely my view. My experiences may not be repeated to another person, all depending person to person. You should do your own information gatherings, analysis, estimations, expert advice on any builder before you sign the contract. My views are completely my own, it can change at anytime. It is completely ‘personal views’.

Would love to drop by and inspect your house, What address in Franklin.

Will the builder be present on the weekend also to talk.

Cheers Michael

Sent a PVT message to protect privacy.

I could have written that post! I've been telling everybody about Matt!We are going to build with him in May!

This is his details.
Matthew Smith
GoldRuby Homes
0408 622 288

Very Happy Customers.

We are about finish our home now. Moving to there before X mas. Photos soon.[/img]

Hi,

We are building in a year or so and are very interested in Matt Smith, do you have pictures you can post yet??

Kate

Hi Kate

Welcome to the forum, great having another Canberran on board.

Are you building in Forde, we have myself building early new year and enigma brennan who is further advanced and can nearly see the light at the end of the tunnel. Drove past today Paul and saw the house looking real good, when is your move in date they look to be going great guns on it.

What section are you in Kate?

Cheers Michael

Hi Michael,

We are in Forde, land settling in Feb next year, we will build sometime after that but are in no hurry. In section EG, or now called number 46.

Have only just discovered this forum and it is a wealth of info!

Are you in Forde also or Franklin?

Kate

Yes we are building in Forde Kate.

Section 58 , you do not happen to be in Phyliss Frost street by any chance, I had a look of the estate plan and you look to be around give or take 100 mts away from us .

Welcome neighbour and yes i agree it is the best site i have come across in relation to building.

Cheers Michael

Hi again,

We are indeed in Phylis Frost (sp) street, we are block L of EG so on that side.

Such a small world isn't it, what is the letter name of 58? The map I have is the old one.

Have you selected a builder yet?

We were in discussions with someone but have taken a step back to look at other options, and we have heard on the grapevine that Matt Smith is great, but there are a lot of good but expensive!! builders in Canberra. It really is an unknown world to us this building thing.

Kate

Hey! We're building in Franklin in May and going with Matt. I comes highly recommended by a lot of friends...one couple said that they changed their mind nearly every single week and Matt was more than accommodating.
Met they guy a couple of months back...he too us for a tour of 6-7 houses with similar dimensions as ours... he was very thorough.

Welcome Kate, as Michael said, great having another Canberran on board especially one building in Forde

Was out there today and they have opened up the roads around the school - even had the traffic lights working! Will have to look for Phyliss Frost St next time we drive into the new section.

Michael generally very happy with our build but, alas, probably won't be making it before Xmas so looking like Mar '09.

We have an appointment at Amaroo pre-school for next Wednesday re our daughters enrolment so it is finally starting to feel real if you know what I mean.

Please have visit.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32662468@N08/

Hi there,

I am new to building and have heard good things about Goldruby. Just got a few q's - haven't decided who to go with & hoping your answers will make it easier. Hope i make sense...

1)I see their signs everywhere, seems they've a lot of work on around the new estates - lots of empty blocks/early stages, was wondering has this affected their build time for you? ie start later and delays in completion

2)If you've moved in, are there any outstanding tasks that need completion. I know you're meant to sign off on your property before you move in, but not sure how strict this is and if just governed between builder and owner.

3)If you went under budget (I wish!!) and paid your final installment did you get a prompt refund?

Many thanks

BB

PS: bobs007 looked at ur photo's, great house!

Hi mate,

1)I see their signs everywhere, seems they've a lot of work on around the new estates - lots of empty blocks/early stages, was wondering has this affected their build time for you? ie start later and delays in completion

Yes I noticed, a lot of them are going through them. Looks like they are becoming very much dominating the market across Canberra. So, there should be something good. My personal exp. is really good. I met couple of his clients in Franklin, all saying good about. I may be going with another one too.
Talk to him directly all your concerns.

2)If you've moved in, are there any outstanding tasks that need completion. I know you're meant to sign off on your property before you move in, but not sure how strict this is and if just governed between builder and owner.

I moved to my new in early December 2008. Because of Xmas busy, we want to move to there as soon as possible. Else, I am going to pay rent for next 6 weeks. That something I don't want to do. He agreed and finished the work, some small works they did after Xmas holidays. Both agreed. All depending on relationship between you and Matt. He is young, friendly and down to earth guy.

3)If you went under budget (I wish!!) and paid your final installment did you get a prompt refund?

Yes, he paid me back. I got bathroom vanity (Kitchen guy did it for me). He deducted (around 400 bugs). In last installment, we sort out all these.

I will suggest you, go and talked to him directly. Then decide you should go ahead or not. When you drive around Franklin you will find his signs, knock the door and talk to them directly. Everyone knows building a house is tedious task. Most of them will help you out. This is something I did couple of times during initial planning time. People are good and help.

Best of luck.

Hi all congrats on building. The Gungahlin region is really growing. My family and i were living in Gun when there wasn't even a petrol station and we had to go to Kaleen to get it. I can remember when woolies was getting built. Its a great area unfortunately for us we needed a bigger block of land and we really couldn't afford the prices in Canberra , So we moved to yass

bobs007
Thanks mate for taking the time to answer my questions and for your helpful advice. Glad everything turned out well for you. Got more of an idea of where im headed now.

Thanks again

BB