Firstyle Home - Marsden Park

Build handover was a few months ago.

Way too many things to list and i could literally write a book about the problems... But i don't really want to trash the company just cause my build went bad. They have tried to fix things in the end but only after much complaints and a ridiculous amount of stress.

A few things to look out for building with firstyle

You need to figure out what is standard and what isn't for starters, the display homes have upgrades on upgrades so never assume what you're going to get will be like the display home unless it's in writing. Even upgrades.

Carefully review the plans, especially the boundaries, the finishes, kitchen.

Color selection/electrical can be annoying. Some go quick and claim that they don't want to change things but you're legally allowed to regardless of what they say, especially if you find out there's more than 500% markup on things.

Assume the supervisor is only there to manage the timeline of the build and the tradespeople. Not that they look at the quality of the job. You need to either get a very competent inspector or review every step of the build and make sure you take a lot of photographs and if there are problems, make sure there are emails and photos to back it up. Especially during frame up.

Keep hounding supervisors, never assume ANYTHING, not that they have fixed something cause they said so, not that they are going to "follow up" on whatever. If it's not done or not done right, email.

Never settle for work being done poorly, even if they tell you it's to standard.

Never assume that they care or will pay you a cent for going overtime on the build.

Do not pay them the final amount and do not do handover till the problems are fixed.

Hi Onram,

That's great! But it Starts to feel like forever doesn't it?

We have concrete, frames and apparently windows. Plumber was suppose to be in yesterday. Have not been to see yet since last weekend where most of the frame was up.

I have to say our CS has been pretty good so far 🤞 that continues.

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to know how everybody's doing with their houses at the moment?

I've been following the thread and just curious at the process with Firstyle and how they are keeping their word in dates 😅.

Background: I'm a first home buyer, got the Firstyle Keswick which I'm really happy about.
Land to be registered sometime in October 2020.
Have paid the 5% deposit recently for the land. And also have paid the $15400 admin+planning fee.

I'm hoping the land to register by October as they adviced. Just a little bit worried that it might be delayed due to covid-19.

Hey Anjo!

Where are you building in? We're at about colour selection stages so far. The experience so far so good, Firstyle has always been helpful with everything with all the questions etc. This is our first time so we are still learning as we go.

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to know how everybody's doing with their houses at the moment?

I've been following the thread and just curious at the process with Firstyle and how they are keeping their word in dates 😅.

Background: I'm a first home buyer, got the Firstyle Keswick which I'm really happy about.
Land to be registered sometime in October 2020.
Have paid the 5% deposit recently for the land. And also have paid the $15400 admin+planning fee.

I'm hoping the land to register by October as they adviced. Just a little bit worried that it might be delayed due to covid-19.

Great experience with Firstyle Homes so far... we’re now in stage 4 of our build.

Very responsive in all of our queries and also we’re satisfied on the level of communication.

Hi guys,

I have an issue..

It seems like we haven't had the land contract exchanged yet.

My partner and I have signed and deposited the 5% to Crownland (Macpherson kelley), but on another note, now they require us to sign another document (call to option) where firstyle is nominating us as buyer of the land owned by Crownland.

Did you guys go through that too?

My solicitor finds this strange, for me I am still learning all these things. Hence why I'd like to know if you guys did the same thing?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,


Thanks for sharing mate. If you have time can you please give us further clarity on your additional costs and extras?




Thought I would share our experience with FH so far as I have found the limited insight on here quite helpful!

We paid $2k deposit to secure a H&L package - $1k went to the developer and $1k to the builder.

While we waited for the land to register, we paid $15.4k to commence preliminary plans. We tried to request changes to the plans, which we later found to be pretty pointless given that the only “plans” we were working off was from the tiny little sales pamphlet!! The sales floor plan didn’t have any info on window sizes, dimensions etc. so I would suggest not getting too hung up over the floor plan until they issue prelim plans which will include more detail.

Sometime before land registration, we received a land contract from the developer which offered the strange “put to call” option - we spent some time chasing this up through our conveyancer however weeks went by with literally no response from the developer until the land had registered and they resent a whole new contract. My understanding is the revised contract was more “standard” and so we exchanged contracts for the land shortly after.
We note that the builder is not involved in this process and the only assistance they provided was chasing up through their legal team.

Simultaneously, we received the preliminary plans and had our meeting with the sales team to go over these and request any structural changes. We are sticking to a tight budget and so we were careful with our requests. Below are some of the changes we made:
- 2.7m ceiling height = $4.7k
- Freestanding bath to main bath = $1.5k
- 2x shower niches to bath and ensuite = $1.3k
- Best ever upgrades pack = $1.3k
- Change hinged door to CSD = $350/door

Based on what I’ve learned so far we expect variations at the following events:
- Prelim plans = structural variations
- External selections = eg. If selections are above the range/s you allowed for
- Internal selections = as above
- Tiling selections = as above

We were told that tiling selections don’t occur until after the frame has been constructed to avoid the impact of changes in supply/lead times. This is fine as it actually gives us more time so save for potential tiling upgrades.

We are now waiting for our final plans to be issued so we can sign this off. I think they will organise the building contract to be signed around the same time? They advised about a 4-6 week wait since we requested our structural changes.

—

If anyone on here could provide an answer to any of the questions I have below, that would be fantastic!

Kitchen
- How much to convert cupboards to 1 bank of pot drawers?
- How much to upgrade to matte or chalk or natural Laminex finish?
- How much for two-tone Laminex for kitchen? Eg. Timber upper / white lower
- How much to upgrade to soft-close per cupboard / per drawer?
- How much to upgrade to finger pull/no handles?
Floor Covering
- How much for coloured grout for tiling?
- How much to upgrade carpet underlay?
Doors
- How much to upgrade entry door to include a pull handle?
Bathroom
- How much to upgrade to above counter basin?

Thanks in advance