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.
Hi Leeanne,
I think you will find that this experience you have had is very common. I think most people would agree if all home builders had a list of additional upgrade costs on a list would make customers feel a whole lot more comfortable - but generally they don't.
There are a couple of people building with Dechellis and to be honest its one of the builders in Adelaide I don't think I have read anything bad about - which is really rare. In the "building a new home" section of the forum there is a "building in SA" thread, so it probably wouldnt hurt to post your question there. I would attach a link but I am relatively new and don't know how to!
From memory I think Jose & Henry are building with Dechellis and they also have a thread about their experience (do you know hot to use the search function?) - again I would post a link but... you could also do a search on "Dechellis" and see what it comes up with.
Good luck - Sellicks is such a lovely part of Adelaide, right on the beach there..