Building with Wisdom Homes

Hi All, I have selected Savannah facade with open balcony(no roof cover). Wanted to understand if there will issues with such open balcony. For ex does rain water hits bottom of the balcony sliding door and gets into room damaging part of flooring ? Also as the balcony floor is exposed to directly to weather conditions will it cause damage to balcony structure ? Any particular prevention measures ?

No, we didn't have to pay LMI. I know though commbank has not had any issue with wisdom payment schedules for others. Which bank are you going with? Do you have a broker?

Hi guys,

Need your help on brick (PGH, Austral or Boral) upgrades, does any one went to darker color like chocolate or dark brown? How much did you paid for upgrade?

Thanks in advance,

Navy

We went for the chocolatto in PGH which is exposed grade brick and is in the inclusive range so no extra cost. Once you select few colours they will give you some physical address to go and have a look.

Thanks Hashem!

Hi navylion, we have upgraded to a Bowral brick, Brahman granite. Complete upgrade. For our single story 31sq, little over $11k. It is a dry pressed brick, so more insulation too.

Thanks Kirst, we'll take that in our notes.

Hi Willodweller, the balcony gets waterproofed with this black paint stuff and that goes up into the doorway so that flooding etc would not affect the internals of the house. Got it done for my own balcony (Savannah, no roof as well).

Great news, Wisdom have changed their payment structure to meet the LMI requirements. They certainly didnt want to. But it can be done (with the GM's approval). Just incase anyone else encounters the same issue one day, don't take no for an answer, especially if a wisdom home is what you want. We didnt have a 'back up house', so this was our only option. Look forward to getting the revised contract and progressing! What a stressful couple of weeks...

Hi kirst,

Well done.

What sort of payment structure did you have now?

Navy

I mean, is that still progressing payment or pay the 95% later ??

We went with the Wilderness Blackbutt which is an Austral brick. Part of the included range, so no upgrade required (exposure grade) Dark chocolate brick.

Hoping my image works

Thanks MissGoldy,

Dark chocolate is our 1st choice, lovely image ?

We got more ideas now.

Regards,

Navy

So now we have 5%, 15%, 30%, 20, 20, 10. Not all that much different. So don't know what the fuss was about!!!

I see now.

I thought the GM gave you 5% deposit and 95% pay later (or handover) ?

Thanks for the info.

Regards.

Hi Kirst10, congratulations on your negotiations! I am really glad they have finally come to there senses! I would really hate to see other people go through what we did last year.
After a heartbreaking 6 months of dealings with wisdom, over 5k deposit lost, lots of time off for work at selection appointments, rent and interest on land all lost due to a 6 week fight with the bank and wisdom ending with wisdom refusing to amend their progress payments to the ones now required by the banks and as you have gotten.
We were corned into a situation where we either lost over 20k in LMI by changing banks as our land loan was with westpac or lost 6 months and 5k if we changed builders. We chose to change builders, after Wisdom left a very sour taste in our mouth.
We originally ran two tenders at the same time - fowler homes Paris 34 and wisdom majestic 35. Unfortunately we chose wisdom as we loved the plans a little more and the tender presenter Katie was amazing!
This was our mistake.
As soon as we were told for about the 5th time that they were not going to change their schedule and taking it as far as we could, we went back to fowler asking if they would still honour their tender presented to us and also change their progress payments to those required by the bank, I had and answer back by email confirming that yes they would and we haven't looked back since.
After experiencing the full colour, electrical kitchen and tile appointments (yes we had gone through this full process with wisdom so you can imagine how emotionally invested we were)
then going through the same with fowler, I can honestly say that I am GLAD that we are not going with Wisdom. The customer service, the inclusions, the willingness to do whatever it takes to get the house and products you want in your house from fowler has been amazing. Electrical inclusions are fantastic, kitchen upgrades don't cost a bomb and changing models of things like kitchen sinks and bathtubs...not a drama!!
Anyone reading these threads considering wisdom homes, please speak to fowler first, they have great home designs, great inclusions and most importantly I cannot fault their staff and service! If your still stuck on one particular design with wisdom or any other builder, ask the question "will you change your progress payments" and if so, speak to your bank and get them both to agree to the %'s in writing first!
Good luck with you build!

Wow KP16 how disappointing for you.

We were in the same boat as Krist 10 and we are with Westpac too. Fortunately the bank agreed to change their payment schedule and we didn't need LMI so maybe that helped - it just seems to be the luck of the draw with who you get with either the builder or the bank as to your success. But i would been seething if i had invested that much time and then had to start again. 5k is disappointing enough but the loss of 6 mths is so annoying. I guess the advantage with a second round of selections is that you can really confirm if you like what you choose or not.

We also didn't have any drama's with Wisdom changing most of our bath items or kitchen sink, spouts etc and the price for us hasn't been exorbitantly marked up. We just went to Reece noted the item number and sent to our consultant who got it priced up.

We had a tender with another builder and have found Wisdom to be cheaper with a lot of the upgrades than the other builder.
No one seems to get the same experience i seem to detect

Navy Lion, we went with PGH Espresso - we have just had them acid washed and we are sooooo happy with the result. Looks so good and it was an inclusive brick so no extra costs (even better ) I will try and post a pic if you want

cheers
Lou

Hi Lou,

Thanks, yes please post the pics at your convenient time, really appreciate it.

Regards,

Navy

Hi Lou,

Thanks, yes please post the pics at your convenient time, really appreciate it.

Regards,

Navy