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Any feedback on Scott Park's new project "101 Residential"?
Their "Platinum" inclusions look good.
Wonder how much extra are they on top on starting prices that are listed on their website?
Really unsure if we chose the right builder that's why still looking around (we haven't signed our plans yet).
We started with getting a display home as it was (260k), but then when we got a bit deeper into it there was: this is not included, this will be extra, this will be extra and so on...
So now, really confused and p'sed off as don't see a value in starting from display house specifications and not basic (190k)... really struggling to see the value... Now in this frustration I'm looking at some other builders and their inclusions as ours seems to be as good as Homebuyers Centre or alike...
Seen the stuff and have to say it's pretty impressive - i don't know how good it is though so wouldn't be able to pass comment.
in terms of finding out prices on top, you'd have to probably invest a little bit of time to see what it could look like. This isn't a particular builder issue but more something you'll come across with all builds.
It's one thing for the house price to be x amount as it stands. It'll then either increase or decrease as you go into more detail with items such as finishes etc.
Without knowing the details of inclusions you want and what comes standard, it may be worth stepping back from the plans for a second, and making a list of what is important to you and what are the 'i can't live without' items you are chasing.
A display specification will have a lot of fruit, but may have items you are paying for that aren't important to you.
In my experience, i've seen a lot of value in people starting with a standard specification, coming to us with their 'wish list' and building up the home from there. When starting with a display specification, unless you know exactly what all the differences are, you may be paying for something that isn't important to you which you could delete and receive a credit, or delete and put the money toward something that is important to you.
Does that make sense or help in any form?
Spec is a funny thing as it can be a bit of a mine field with what's standard, what's a bonus or an offer etc.
Its Scott's attempt at the holy grail of home sales.
Its pre-priced, pre-designed housing.
Its every architects worst nightmare.
From a salesman's perspective it is great, they can meet a large range of needs with on-the-spot pricing. However the "flexibility" that Scott talks about is the flexibilty to choose between options 1, 2 or 3
Once you start wanting to tailor the home to your specific needs you will come full circle back to the costs you get from other builder's. This is just a very powerful marketing tool to get you in.
I am starting to sound negative, here so I will say this, it is a very good way of presenting cost effective options to clients and you have to applaud the effort put into developing the range and options. If you built as per plan without changes you could get a very cost effective house.
I am building with 101, and from what I can tell (having not built before however) it's pretty much the same as every other builder where it starts with a base price and goes up from there. We got the premium spec (were never offered a platinum spec!?!) and have since added about 60k in extras to the build, not including anything like air conditioning, flooring, extra electrics etc. (They are now offering free air conditioning as a sweetener which is a bit of a bummer as we signed before that).
I am pretty excited to build with them though, they have been great to deal with and I feel like they are trying really hard to establish a good name for themselves which is a good thing if you're the customer.
I have had nothing but problems with this builder.I nearly lost my block of land because they didnt do the house plans by the agreed by date which i needed for my unconditional finance.
I didnt start pre-start for about 4-5weeks after contracts were signed. I found the upgrades very expensive including a quote for shower heads over 200% of the retail price of their supplier, they laid my slab wrong, missing recesses for the wet areas missing prelays for the electrical conduit for the to kitchen island and plumbing for floor waste in toilet in ensuite. They buried rubbish at the back of my block including the slab reinforcing mesh, sheets of plastic, huge chuncks of cement (size of a small shed), and foam.
The worse thing is they initially fobbed off my concerns and I had go to town council and send a letter of intent to complain to the building commission to get agreement for rectification. I had to pay $550 to get independent advice on what should be done. And 8 weeks after I notified them of the issues they still are not fixed.
Customer service is appaling and practices are unprofessional to say the least. No amount of savings is worth what I have been though and I would not reccommend this builder to anyone. They have turned my dream of my first home into a nightmare.
I built with 101 and have to agree their service is the worst I have seen. There is no communication at all.
Have maintenance issues and looks like I have to go to builders registration board to get them fixed!!
Hello Everyone.
I am also building with 101 Residential and I must say its been the most fustrating build I have ever done.
CONTRACT SIGNED 16/01/2013
BUILD TYPE PURSUIT
DOUBLE STORY
INDEPENDANT SITE INSPECTOR WAS CONTRACTED
Please note im not one of those super fussy people either, I subdivide propertys and sometimes build as some people dont have imagintation when looking a rear battle axes. So basically im not living there but this build is so poor its disgusting and I feel bad selling it in the condtion its in.
July 2013 according to my information I do believe its more like June our pad was laid, November 2013 House was a lockup stage, It is now 5 August 2014 and I still do not have the keys. Now this is where major problems start lack of communication substandard contractors and disrespect to their customers. I will not try go on and on and I will update this thread as I continue this battle.
We have had a major water leak from the POD, The leaks are comming from Various entrance points however the main entrance point is due to the substandard installation of the NON SPECIFICATION FLASHINGS. The Flashings have been poorly installed they have been tek screwed into the Pod which is made from a cooler type installation panel I would assume there is no Anchor points installed for the tek screws as they have just drilled the down pipes into the panels the flashing has not been cut into the pod wall and the roof plumber has smeared silicon all over the flashings and rendered wall. NOTE the flashings where not the Specified flashings and look like rubbish not to mention many tek bolts are missing rubber insulation ring.
Due to the poor workmanship and lack of supervision the front of the house looks very rough.
The lower floor has suffered serve water damage, I have been told that all the jibrock was replaced however it appears they have repainted some of the damaged jib rock and not replaced, the internal brick work has been flooded and alot of water run marks from the cornice to the floor has damaged the internal painting. I brought this matter up with the painter and he pretty much said there is nothing you can do until the house becomes dry again... The Air condtioner ducts also have water stuck inside them SIGH !!! The painter is very substandard, there is alot of painting defects paint on cornices paint lines not straight etc etc very amature
Brick paving Border is not straight and appears the ground may not have been compacted in areas. Alot of brick work is not level and there are major gaps between window frames and brick work, not to mention the top of the window frames are not level and appear to be short in some areas.
render walls they have used plastic beads on every corner, there is not enough render over beads and you can see the plastic behind the render.. Plastic beads should not have been used on corners have no idea why they have done this looks like rubbish.
Jibrock poorly flushed some walls have major bends. etc
Guttering not straight etc
Now in short, As i stated previous lock up was in 2013 I became very impatient as nothing was happing onsite and the house sat there with no work being done. We then started to make contact with 101 and promise after promise was broken nothing happened I thourght maybe I was one of kind until i looked up many poor reviews and thourght well this is going to continue thefore i need to take action.
Friday 1st August consulted housing inspector was happy with there fee of $799 the following Monday 4th of August they where onsite at 9am as promised the inspector liased with my Site supervisor who is my 4th Supervisor . I was waiting for the inspector to arrive and the site supervisor. The inspector arrived and we walked up to the house expecting the site supervisor to be onsite. However he was not and the house was fully open with doors ajar .
The Inspector shook his head and got to work, approx 9:15am during this time received approx 4 missed calls from 101 residential. I was shocked they never call, when it got close to the end of the day I called back the Construction manager who I felt was very ignorant, He made a comment to me suggesting once i receive my report from the independant inspector I should arrange a meeting with him so he can go through the report. I said to the Construction manager that I was unhappy that I had to get the inspector onsite at the cost of me and I feel I should be reimbursed , he replied that its very standard for people to have inspectors visit site and blah blah blah, I stated to him that its not standard to have 4 site supervisors either, he replied once again saying that this was pretty much a standard in WA and thats the way it is.. YEAH RIGHT He was not one bit worried about my concerns he said we would only talk to me onsite with my report and that I shouldnt call him to make the appointment as he is busy and I should consult my 101 contact. This alone is poor customer service !
My site supervisor contacted me and to my suprised he promised the flashings would be removed and new ones fitted friday !!! after all this time.. However I wonder how they will install the flashings to spec when they cant now as the pod would need to be removed to install the flashings as per 101 drawings. 101 appears now to have pulled there finger out and are trying to reslove problems we are well over our 240 contract days and we are into I think day 40 since inspection, which should only take 10 days !!!!
Wednesday 6th Of August I will receive my lengthy report, I dont believe i should share the report with the builder as they choose not to be onsite at the time of the meeting and also they have only started to try and make repairs since the inspector was contracted.I know by providing the report it should help things move along but then i think about first home buyers etc who cannot afford to have a inspector come to site and really they shouldnt have too either if the site supervisor is doing there job along with the construction manager, My fight is for the first home buyers and others aswell ! I have waited this long now so I am going to go as far as i can because this is simply not the right way to conduct business the substandard contractors need to be held accountable and so does 101.
I will be filing a dispute with the building commision after I have served 101 with a 14 days notice. I am now aware if i dont continue this line of approach the build will come to a pause again as no one at 101 seems to really care. I also feel that im entitled to some kind of compensation due to the very lengthy delays and added stress, there is no reason lockup should be so long nor should the build..
I will let you guys know what happens very soon
From the outset I would like to advise that I am a building inspector. I am sad to say that I am one of the few that are actually qualified in building and engineering. Unlike other states and territories, building inspectors are unregulated in Western Australia. My writing should not be seen as advertising as I will not mention my company are anything else that points people in that direction. This posting is all about things to look out for when building your home.
If you look at building companies in general, then the larger ones are the ones to be very wary of. I personally conduct hundreds of inspections a year; about 40% are for new builds. I have inspected homes from just about all of the well-known builders in town and many of the smaller builders as well. Almost without exception, I walk away from the inspections with sadness that some builders have bullied their clients along the building process and the clients have been left with a sub-standard home.
Below are some things that I consider to be important. Most important to remember is that the building process should be enjoyable for the builder and the client. I rarely see that.
Owing to time, if there is interest from readers on my continuing this, I will do so. However, below is just a few examples:
1. Value for Money. When considering a builder, do not base your decision on price alone. Look at what the builder deems to be standard inclusions. You may find that many of the advertising gimmicks they use are already and industry standard; just not mentioned. I have seen some builders advertise that they have concrete floors. Well, so do about 99% of other builders.
2. Specification. Work out your specification before you get their price. Ensure that you discuss tiles, doors, handles, carpet etc up front. Once the builder has given you price, the builder will then charge you a variation for changes. A word of caution on variations: if a builder determines that on your build he is going to make $50,000 margin (margin, not profit) and you reduce the scope, he will still make his pre-set margin. However, if you increase the scope, he will charge a margin on your variation. Therefore, he will make $50,000 plus additional margin. So changes to the scope after the pricing just increases the margin made by the builder. While talking about tiles, builders can buy most standard ranges of tiles for under $30/m2. They charge you $44/m2 just for supply. I think 47% margin on tiles is a bit rich.
3. References. Ask to speak to people that are in various stages of building with the same builder. Unfortunately, they may give you people that are currently happy with them. However, I am not seeing much of that nowadays; especially at the end.
4. Siteworks. Many builders will charge you for siteworks quite a bit down the building process. Ask for a detailed and comprehensive written (binding) breakdown of what is included in siteworks and how much it is going to be for each item. They will give you what is called a PS amount. PS (Provisional Sum) is an estimate by the builder if they cannot give you an exact figure. Personally, I think they are able to give you a proper quotation for many of the items that are for siteworks; it is just laziness that they do not do so. If you can, get them to give you an upper limit. Anything above that limit becomes their responsibility.
If anyone wants more, just comment and I will load additional information. I just do not want to waste time if there is not an interested audience.
Hi Craig,
Thanks for the post! The more info you are able to give, the better!
Hi Craig,
I recently posted that I was looking for a Building Inspector in Perth. However, it seems I should be looking at getting building consultant instead since a building consultant is more qualified. What do you think? Are you a building consultant or an inspector?
The thread that I started is
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=73453&p=1239871#p1239871Cheers!
I am building with 101 Residential and my experience has been a nightmare from the start. I can't wait till the nightmare is over and the house is finished as per the addenda, however given 101's incompetence this isn't likely to be soon. WORST BUILDER EVER, DO NOT BUILD WITH 101 OR ANY OF THE SCOTT PARK BUILDING COMPANIES.
There are a few unhappy 101 residential customers on this post. I can definitely relate to a lot of your problems having also been building with the company. Have you changed your views on them after handover? Have all the issues been resolved?? Did anything ever come from those who went to the building commission?
I can sympathise with the disgruntled people building with 101. I too am in the process of building with them and I'm pretty appalled by them to be honest. This is my first build so admittedly I didn't really know what I should expect.
I was originally told I would be looking at moving into my house in April 2015 and here we are nearly the end of August and I'm being advised that practical completion is STILL about 8 weeks away.
It has been stuff up after stuff up on 101's behalf and they are now scrambling to fix problems they assumed I wouldn't pick up on now they know I have employed a independent building inspector.
I really wish I had of looked up some reviews on 101 before signing, as far as I can see on all the review sites I've looked at they've had a pretty poor wrap.