Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA?

Box 27 · Jan 12, 2015 8:50 am

So did anyone find cheap air con installers?

Mrssilverbeetle · Jan 12, 2015 8:53 am

Btw, for anyone that was curious. During those really hot periods, the hottest our house got was 23c however stayed primarily at 22c.
We will be looking or shopping around for quotes soon for evaporative.

Niccles · Jan 12, 2015 2:17 pm

We've been researching all our options with air con, pricing, units etc. We just got one split system installed last week, we put it in the open plan area. That back of the house gets so damn hot, you can feel the heat coming off the windows. Haven't even had a chance to test it out as it's been pretty good weather. Didn't bother even looking into evaporative as it isn't for us. We might get a second one in the threatre room, but we will see how we go with this for now.

Has anybody installed bamboo blinds? We are looking at getting two made from bunnings and installing ourselves. Want to keep the back of the house cooler.

Box 27 · Jan 12, 2015 2:21 pm

Niccles

We've been researching all our options with air con, pricing, units etc. We just got one split system installed last week, we put it in the open plan area. That back of the house gets so damn hot, you can feel the heat coming off the windows. Haven't even had a chance to test it out as it's been pretty good weather. Didn't bother even looking into evaporative as it isn't for us. We might get a second one in the threatre room, but we will see how we go with this for now.

Has anybody installed bamboo blinds? We are looking at getting two made from bunnings and installing ourselves. Want to keep the back of the house cooler.

Who did you to do ur air con install and what did you get installed? How big was your split system? How much did it cost?

Mrssilverbeetle · Jan 12, 2015 2:25 pm

Speaking of curtains. Has anyone chosen block out curtains instead of blinds in the bedroom or theatre room? Preference from anyone? I'm pretty sure we will be outsourcing for the 2 rooms however not sure where to go.
I believe we will use Homebuyers for everything else in the house. We want dark , dark rooms in the bedroom and theatre room.
Also curious as to what you who have alfresco area's have used? Pull down blinds? I've also seen people with these plastic flaps.
We will be building our own however are collecting ideas.
Colour appointment tomorrow and signing of the contract of our building plan.
Any tips??

Box 27 · Jan 12, 2015 2:39 pm

Misssilverbeetle good luck with the colour appointment. You can get the outdoor blinds from bunnings after. It will be heaps cheaper.

The best thing you can do with your appointment is to have a clear idea on what you want to do with your house. So what you want to upgrade and what you will do after the house after is built.

The colour appointment is the time you need to do all the upgrades as its a pain in the butt to do any upgrades after the meeting. And they charge a fee as well!
So just try to have a clear idea of what upgrades that you want and what you want to change.

Mrssilverbeetle · Jan 12, 2015 3:28 pm

Thanks heaps Box 27. I'll let my husband know. Blinds we will go to bunnings and I just saw an ad for SpotLight. They come to your house and measure up for free. I went online and signed up for free for a membership in which you get special discounts which will help.
It's always so hard to know.
So blinds we will delete...yah?
Floors we are outsourcing
Alfresco we are outsourcing
Tiles in bathroom we will upgrade
Upgrading stove and oven top
Getting the extra shelves in kitchen
I know my husband has already gone through his head how many powerpoints we will need.
We're going through the sheets tonight.

Box 27 · Jan 12, 2015 3:40 pm

Really depends how much they will take off for those blinds... If they aren't taking much off I would keep them, that way you can take your time getting the blinds, if funds get tight. But you can always put a sheet up if things a desperate, but for the sake of less than 1c a month on your loan... Always nice to know that they are going to be there. If something comes up and you can't afford to upgrade the blinds straight away.

newbee1 · Jan 13, 2015 2:08 pm

Hi everyone,

I posted some time back about our HBC build but have been tied up finishing uni over the last few months.
Very excited with our home progress though we have slab poured and frames up now waiting for tiling next week. Did anyone have an independent building inspector have a look over the build and if so what stages did they check? We are looking at hiring someone but are unsure if we should do it now or later.

Mrssilverbeetle we are also looking at adding block out curtains after handover as we are planning to put a projector into our theater room. The best prices I have found so far are at Spotlight.

Any further prices on air con install would be greatly helpful. We are looking at split systems.

Mrssilverbeetle · Jan 13, 2015 4:25 pm

Thank you for that newbee. Spotlight it'll be. We haven't even started building however I just ordered some gold rope ties which will go around the curtains. Will give the room and nice movie theatre look.
Colour appointment was fantastic and heaps of fun

Box 27 · Jan 13, 2015 6:20 pm

Mrssilverbeetle

Thank you for that newbee. Spotlight it'll be. We haven't even started building however I just ordered some gold rope ties which will go around the curtains. Will give the room and nice movie theatre look.
Colour appointment was fantastic and heaps of fun

How did you go? What did u upgrade? And did u upgrade more than u expected?

Mrssilverbeetle · Jan 13, 2015 6:35 pm

We upgraded our taps, tile, power points and benchtops. We were right on budget which was great.
Really happy!

puglover · Jan 15, 2015 9:07 am

First of all I want to thank you all for contributing to this forum. I’ve literally read through all 101 pages over the weekend and as a result I believe I'm SO much better prepared for the process with Homebuyers. You’ve helped us decide to outsource our flooring, we’re considering outsourcing our painting, we now know about what to with with our air conditioning, and we’re also now wary of the unexpected costs and not getting stung with price guarantee fees if our land takes too long to settle! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Anyway, I have a couple of questions, and then I look forward to keeping you updated on my progress and helping you all chat about your progress.

First question - we have passed our “resolve finance health check” and we’re being presented with land and plan options this weekend. Did anyone have any problems with Bluebay after passing their finance health check? Homebuyers are acting super confident, even though I’ve had problems with other banks who aren’t happy with my credit score (no defaults, but lots of credit enquiries last year when I took out some credit cards and loans to fund our wedding). All that is paid off now and closed, so we're back to normal but the credit score is still low, I’d hate to get to approval stage and have them say no.

Secondly, has anyone seen any of the variations of the Haven19 floor plan? Apparently there are a few different versions of that design but they’re not available online. I’m being impatient as I know I’ll see them soon but I don’t want to wait, lol!

Finally – did anyone upgrade their windows to double glazing? We’re considering that for the Master Bedroom (I absolutely HATE noise)

Thanks everyone!!!

Box 27 · Jan 15, 2015 9:24 am

Welcome Puglover.

First I can't really help you with bluray as I went through resolve but we settled with commonwealth bank for our lender.
I think bluray are pretty good with lending to people with low credit rating.

Secondly the houses these days need to be 6 star rating, so you should have most of your house double glazed as a standard to meet that 6 star rating. Every window in our house except the toilets were double glazed for that reason.

What area are you looking to build?

puglover · Jan 15, 2015 9:41 am

Box 27

Welcome Puglover.

Secondly the houses these days need to be 6 star rating, so you should have most of your house double glazed as a standard to meet that 6 star rating. Every window in our house except the toilets were double glazed for that reason.

What area are you looking to build?

That's great to know, thanks Box27. We're currently looking to build in Cranbourne West, we're hoping for Quarters Estate but not sure we can afford it, might have to compromise and move across to Cranbourne East. Where are you building?

Box 27 · Jan 15, 2015 9:53 am

Cardinia Lakes in Pakenham. At first didn't want to move that far out as berwick was the preferred area, but apart from the extra travel, loving the area! So quiet, and since it's near the quarry we have an awesome walking track and a great view of the countryside as we are near the top of the hill we over look everything.

There are a few people who have built in Cranbourne. Pooks went though bluray as well. So she would know how the process of bluray more than I would. She started the forum, she still comes on here everyone and then. Or might pay to private message her.

Just a pointer for the sales meeting you are going to, make sure the sales person know exactly what you want to do and what you want. We had issues with ours saying he did and said that that's what he quoted us on, so we took his word, but it was only when construction came we saw it wasn't what we had asked for.

puglover · Jan 15, 2015 9:58 am

That is great advice, thank you.

I think I'll take my ipad with me and take notes of everything we discuss, then email it as a confirmation on the spot. I'm a big fan of 'having it all in writing.'

Cardinia Lakes sounds gorgeous. My family and friends are all in Frankston South, Mt Eliza and Langwarrin so we don't want to go too far from there. I also work in the city so need to consider the commute. I have a friend who is working with Peet on Quarters so he has been able to share a lot of 'on the downlow' information about where to buy and when, which has helped us become a bit emotionally attached, lol!

Box 27 · Jan 15, 2015 10:10 am

Yeah, pakenham is a bit further than I wanted and the travel is a bit of a pain, but being a sales rep I travel around all day so Ive been able to plan around traffic. And my fiencè is a teacher about 30mins from here so not too bad.
But Peet were our developers.

puglover · Jan 15, 2015 11:52 am

I'm noticing a LOT about this process is all about compromise. As long as I get my bamboo floorboards and an alfresco, I'm happy!

pooks83 · Jan 15, 2015 12:44 pm

Happy to help whenever and wherever I can!
So yes, we had a health check done through Resolve and the credit check was all good. When it came to apply for the loan we had a little hiccup- I'm not sure exactly what it was but We had a couple of credit cards (store card and normal credit card) with low limits . Resolve said we can't get approved. So we then paid out the cards (no big deal) and our application was approved. Because we had a low deposit/first home owners and no savings we had to go with Bluebay. The bank has been fantastic though and it's great they are based in WA because they are still open when I get home from work if I need to call. You also deal with the same person each time. The approval process from there was really smooth. We have a very confusing set up with a line of credit/mortgage account and visa all attached to each other but we just do direct debit so I don't need to monitor it closely. I must admit though, even though the approval was smooth the communication with Resolve was horrible. The guy never got back to us and it took 3 months to get an answer. It's because our land hadn't titled yet so they didn't see the rush. They lost documents, didn't reply to emails and I ended up getting assistance from the resolve admin assistant to get everything done. She was great. They have a really high turnover of staff so I think I dealt with about 5 people just from Resolve. Once they are out of the picture though and you are dealing with Bluebay direct it should be smooth sailing! We are in Livingston- also by PEET. I preferred Cranbourne East over West but I found the land prices very much the same at the time I was looking but we wanted a bigger block so at that time, Cranbourne East had more to choose from.
Our alfresco deck is nearly finished and I am so excited!! At the sales meeting- if you end up signing a preliminary work contract (PWC) treat this like a regular contract. Ensure your structural changes (walls/eaves/decks/doors/room layouts) are in this as you cannot change structural later. I don't think you will do a PWC at this one but just incase. Also make sure you build in an allowance of money that you can spend at the selections appointment otherwise you are paying for every upgrade on the day.
Double glazing- both of our living areas are double glazed but not other areas of the house. It also meets a 6 star energy rating. If I could do it over I would have done the master bedroom as well. I don't notice a chane in noise but temperature wise I do.
Good luck!