Building Newport 19 with Coral Homes in Saddlers Ridge

Your tiles look like what i initially chose!
Then i decided to reach into my back pocket and found enough to get porcelain. Hopefully it is worth it.

Look forward to watching your build progress - hopefully it has started, or is at least very close to starting.

Hi Shadowarrior,

well it was going smoothly until we had problems with our Aussie Home Loans broker and some stuff ups by other people problems like our deposit being used incorrectly and the loans being granted wrongly.

We finally may have some stuff sorted out and we can we are just waiting on getting pre approval for the house loan ( just a formality as we had to change brokers) and then we can pay Coral Homes the deposit to start construction

Ah nice, we were also looking at the Newport 20 and liked some features but thought the 19 would suite us better. We also thought about wooden floor boards and had the same idea about pets and decided that a tile would be best. I grew up in old queenslanders so i can only have proper wooden floors or tiles. I cant really stand the vinyl plus we also were thinking of having the outdoor version of the same wooden floor tile for our patio.

Ormeau Ridge? i take it that is next to Ormeau on the Gold Coast? my brother and sister and law live in Ormeau lol

Yeah my partners parents have porcelain tiles and they look nice but we wanted something a bit easier to look after and all that plus we didnt have much money to spend on tiles. We were quite surprised to find that Coral Homes had just updated their tile range before we went for our selection appointment and so we were able to have the wooden floor tiles without having to spend extra money so we spent it on the orange splash back tiles

So just found out pre approval has been granted for the home loan so the deposit was paid to Coral Homes today YAY finally we can see some action soon!!!!

Congrats on the approval

Our broker is from Aussie Home Loans as well... we had someone else from Mortgage Choice before, but we weren't really confident about that person to tackle a land and build application. Coral's salesperson (we were referred to him by a friend who recently started building in Gold Coast) asked us to get in touch with this person in Aussie Home Loans.

Things are looking ok so far with us, we have signed all the contracts and will be applying by early next week for the home loan. So far have paid land's deposit and the first deposit for the builders (the soil test etc).

Anything I should look out for related to deposits etc which you guys encountered?

We had a deal where we could get tiles and laminated timber for free. We wanted laminated timber, but couldn't chose that because of the pets. We had tiles, carpets and vinyl before. Hate carpets, tiles are good except when they chip if you drop something heavy...and I get paranoid about those tile joints
Reading through some forums, they mentioned vinyl is the easiest to maintain for pets, and they are not slippery for them if they run around a lot (which ours do ) Mrs didn't like my choice of getting vinyl. Hopefully there are some nice designs for them.

I will work on decking the patio and front porch after build is complete, so saved some money there.

Yeah Ormeau Ridge is in Ormeau Hills, right next to Ormeau.

Thanks Shadowarrior

Hmm well no there really wasn't anything bad about the deposit stages. We just put some money down to hold the land before we got approval that we can go ahead with the purchase. Then we just paid the payment for the soil tests and all that and that amount of money was the only amount we paid until we got approval for the home loan.

Our home loan was supposed to be a house and land turn key loan, however a person at an aussie home loan branch just upped and left and we were pushed onto someone we didn't want to deal with. That is when our problems started as we had an hour before the land settled to have the loan deposit in the bank account before the bank would approve the loan. Once the land was exchanged we were told that it wont be a house and land package and it will be two separate loans

But now we have made a formal complaint to aussie we are back on track and the new broker is doing really well!

The only thing i would advise about the home and land deposits is that they don't take the deposit and lower the loan by that amount because then you don't have that deposit any more to help with the house loan. Unless you have the full amount for the deposit for both land and house.

That is what happened with our land loan is that the bank took the deposit and lowered the loan by about 10 grand. Once we realised it wont be one loan we had to borrow another 10 grand for the deposit of the house loan to get it approved

Yeah we had tiles and carpet allowance and we preferred tiles as we will be having a cat but nothing like a few dogs running around lol We want carpets in the bedroom though to help with heating and all that. Plus we are hoping we can manage with out aircons and all that till a little bit further on.

Our back deck will probably just be concrete until we save up to get some tiling down out the back but not sure what is going to happen out the front as we still have to hear back whether coral will concrete by the pillars and the front door or not.

Oh nice, its a nice place out there.

Our process is kind of similar to yours as well.

We signed contract on land, and then house. Coral agreed on a fixed price house contract if we stayed within a fixed amount of modifications, which were more than enough for us.

Our Aussie broker (and our Conveyancer and Coral Homes) asked us to put through the house build contract along with the land contract and third party contract (for the fencing) together when applying for the loan so the bank doesn't come bank and re-value the land again during the build stage.

We are waiting on bank decision now, all papers were lodged this morning.

We paid also paid a deposit towards land to hold it and have paid a token amount to builder for doing the soil test etc and draw the build contract. We still need to pay 10% of build cost to builder as deposit. Was thinking of putting that builder's 10% deposit down as soon as we get a word from the bank and the remaining contribution left of that 5% towards land when it settles in October.

Which bank did you guys go through? Did the bank valuator give you 100% value of the whole package?

Cheers,
Sidds

Hmm, with the fence contract was that included as part of the house and land package? Ours says there is an allowance for fencing but haven't been told if Coral builds the fence or we get given some money to pay someone.

The bank is Commonwealth Bank and they said the evaluation was spot on with our changes and inclusions

So Coral received our 10% deposit last monday and have submitted to a private certifier. I thought that usually things go through council and would like to know if many people building with coral had a private certifier instead of council as well?

We have the colour selection appointment booked for the 13th oct and the electrical appointment (having it online) on the same day too

We basically want the exact same colours that were featured on the pamphlet that advertised the house and land package. Not too sure about the internal colours though.

Depending on what was discussed. We had an 'allowance for fence' about half of what it would have cost to get the fence done on all 3 sides. Because your neighbours share the rest of the cost. If Coral builds the fence, you have to foot the remaining half yourself (if you don't have neighbours) or talk to neighbours into contributing. However, the neighbours might not agree with your fencing quote and design and recommend a different fencing quote

We got the fencing cheaper through a proper fencing business and it has what I want as well, 1.8m lapped with a H4 sleeper to touch the ground.

And yes we included the fencing quote in the loan application. It was land cost+build cost+fencing cost, three contracts together. We had to put in the whole fencing cost into the loan application and that's the amount bank will agree to. Once you collect the share from your neighbours, you just draw less from the loan during the fencing stage.

We will most likely go through council since we're in no great hurry. From the council website it appears that ours generally take around 8 weeks which will work nicely for us.

Ah ok well that makes sense about the fencing. Neighbours on either side of us have either moved in or just started to build so our house will be the last one to be built. the only one we are not sure on is the house behind us as nothing has been done to that block of land yet. One of the neighbours has already erected a fence (complying to covenant rules) so we will have to share the cost on that as it is already built. I suppose we will find out when we ask some questions and see what coral say.

Our plans passed through the private certifier and now we just have to wait for the bank to issue the start letter and for us to complete the colour and finishings appointment n the 13th and the electrical appointment in the morning of that day

Just a word of warning, make sure you remember if you are in the day light savings time frame that qld will be an hour behind. We booked the electrical appointment for the morning and realised that because of day light savings we have 30 mins to travel to the selections appointment a fair bit away from our house atm. We should get there just in time as long as the electrical appointment doesn't run late

Oh and forgot to ask, has anyone removed a bayonnet fitting and received a credit and requested led downlights to be installed in that point instead? we are just wondering how much it cost for them to install it and supply the downlight compared to us buying the light and getting them to install it?

Hi cubshome,
We had our clipsal appointment a week ago and I must say it was fantastic,they go room by room and as you decide where you want lights,power points etc they enter it on to your house plan,you have a moniter facing you and the consultant has one,you can see the prices as you go. Battons are $56.20 each,and the 11watt LED
downlights are $130 each. If you want a Downlight instead of a Battons it's $130-56.20=$73.80. I have all of the prices at home,including prices for Saturn range,spotlight for backyard,front feature lights,fans etc
We were pleasantly surprised,we found the prices reasonable,yes if we had waited until after handover we may have save $20 per light,however the inconvience of having to chase around to find someone,the mess,and the we will have a warranty will all work carried out by the builder made it an easy decision to get the majority,done by Coral. They don't have the best range of pendant lights,so we left Battons above breakfast bar and will have corals electrician fit our pendants for us. If you want any more price let me know and I'll put them on the forum.
Julie

One more thing if you want an alarm,ducted vacuum or speakers etc you need to get a quote from corals head office as this can't be done at the clipsal meeting,but they can include on your plan.

Thanks for the jul33m1. On our list of electrical inclusions it actually says our batton light fightings are costing us $66.

Does the $130 for the downlights include supply and fit?

Is there any chance you could pm me the prices that they gave you for the electrical appointment?

Unfortunetly our electrical appointment will be done via the internet as we are in newcastle and it would be a bit hard to get to their closest place

Also just curious to know if the concrete for the portico was included with the slab or driveway? Our building plans show some text saying owner to supply portico base or something along the lines of that. We don't mind leaving it just brushed concrete but i thought the concrete slab for the portico was included as part of the facade. If not then what exactly is included in the facade? just the way the front of the house looks with windows in different positions and stuff?

It is not fun having to study for uni exams that start tomorrow and then the monday the 13th we have the appointments to choose everything

It would be interesting to know if we could use a bunnings voucher we have to buy the downlights cheaper and then just get coral to install them and then get a credit for most of the battons in the bedrooms and supply the downlights and have coral install them instead.

Hi cubshome,
The $130 is per downlight installed, the concrete for the portico and alfresco is extra, the roof section of the portico/alfresco is included in the price. If your budget allows I would advice to have your portico/alfresco slab
poured at the same time(as it's one slab,which would be stronger and include the termite barrier around entire slab). I'll post the electrical prices I have this afternoon it's a long list. My advice would be to have your appointment with clipsal in person,as our consultant "Connie", was excellent,and she helped us save money in some areas,eg: places we could use less downlights with higher wattage.
With your colour selections my advice is to go to bunnings and look at the dulux paints,laminex,ceasarstone, write a list of everything that you want and get quotes included,it's easier to deleted items that have been quoted,than to add additional items,don't let the colour consultant hurry you. If you really want something,remember it's your house stick to your guns. Our colour selection experience wasn't the best,we felt rushed,luckily we knew pretty much what we wanted,even though there were some items that we wanted but weren't asked about,it was tick and flick.
Julie

Oh ok, we saw some downlight kits at bunnings for about $120 for 10 of them being LED as well and i think it will be cheaper to buy them and just get coral to install them.

Unfortunately we can not do the clipsal appointment in person as we are too far away from the closest place.

Our alfresco is included with the slab so we just assumed that our portico came with one and we just double checked the tender and it says the portico slab is not included so we might see if we can get the portico poured at the same time as it should be a lot cheaper to do it when the slab is being poured.

Yeah we might head into bunnings this weekend and have a look at some pendant lights and some others to install after hand over instead of the bayonet fittings. might have a browse through beacon lighting as well. We were given some gift vouchers for bunnings so we went and purchased 6 fans for them to install

We are hopefully going to sit down and plan out a few things on the weekend for the electrical appointment on monday.

Is there any chance you have that list of what you upgraded or received from coral for your electricals? just so we can compare or maybe get some ideas?

Owner supplied downlight installs cost $78 per light. Pretty expensive.
So $130 for supplied light + install isn't a bad cost.
Be aware of this.

Pendant lights are by quote only due to the difficulties in installing some of them. IE a $10k chandelier will cost a lot to install as it will be more complex, possibly weigh to much and need additional bracing and will take the electrician more time to install.

For costs, check out my post here: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=58664&start=40
I listed some of what i was charged by Clipsal.

Hi cubshome,

I post the prices I have tonight,sorry I haven't posted them before,I've been flat out,I have a fairly big list of price as I did most electrical through coral.

Julie