which builder to choose

Hi there we got caught up with the Porter Davis and now dont have faith in any builder. What are the best ways to choosing a stable builder.. any leads will be appreciated

Find a small custom builder and ask to check out their current builds and speak to current clients. Do your diligence and be prepared to pay more. If you go with another volume builder you are just playing russian roulette again.

Thank you

Any suggestions on what due diligence and how to do it?

Try and look at as many of their current builds as you can and also speak to their clients and ask lots of questions about their experience. Red flags should show up quite easily.

Thanks again

RSwetha

I just want to add to Stonesthrow's comments and give the following advice:

1. Definitely view some current builds and ask to speak to current clients.

2. I would even ask to speak to a few of their tradies to get an idea if they are being paid on time. A massive red flag is if the tradies accounts are taking a while to get paid and the tradies also hear talk on sites about how a builder is going. They are at the coal face and the amount of industry gossip we hear from them is quite educational.

3. Unfortunately I have known a number of well known builders who have gone bust over the last few years and one of the things they have in common is they all went out and purchased expensive cars and toys. Building margins are tight so unless your builder has a side hustle, if they start buying sports cars, boats and super expensive homes, I would be asking questions about where the money is coming from

I can think of 2 recent examples that have been in the paper where the directors spent up big in the months prior to the administrators stepping in. In one example, I used to go 4wding with the directors who all drove hiluxes and prados , then a few months after I had last seen them, they had upgrades to the big American trucks ( before they were easily available and when they were super expensive) and then a few months later I was at a charity day at Eastern creek and the 3 of them were racing new Audi SQ8s and a few months later the whole business had gone under. This was a business that had been operating successfully for ages. So many people lost their jobs. It wasn't just the Audis it was a rapid expansion, new office and then thinking they were rich enough to buy all the toys.

Another major home builder who recently went under here in Sydney, same story, every toy under the sun and I was hearing cashflow rumours for a year before they went under but he was still buying more toys and taking deposits the day before he went under.

So definitely look out for overspending. I recon if your builder is driving anything more expensive than a hilux, triton or ranger, without a side hustle, they have over extended themselves.



I hope this helps a bit

Cheers

Simeon

You will never regret doing too much research on this to inform your decision. It's so important to get the views of past customers. People are likely to be willing to share their experiences to help others on their journey.

The other thing to consider is, a builder might have a great track record, but then lets someone down for whatever reason. So part of the success is the working rhythm together and the communication from beginning to end.

As someone that used to work for a very large developer measuring the customer experience, builders just think imperfect outcomes are normal and acceptable because it's a 'complicated process'. But it's how they handle the unexpected and the inevitable issues that sets them apart. E.g. their ability to get their subcontractors back on site when those guys feel like they're done and they're on to the next thing. To reduce risks, always be conscious of communicating so clearly with no ambiguity. Make sure you set expectations and of course, get things in writing. Hope that helps. Wish you the best.

Just wait and let some more go under and maybe even wait until after the budget.

Speaking to past and current clients is pretty common-sense - the problem is, how?

One way is to ask the builder for references - however these are likely to be written testimonials, which have been pre-selected, ie only the good stories.

Realistically will the builder give you contact details of past clients, for you to contact/‘hassle’?

The other option is to seek out previous clients via online forums (such as this one) or social media - however if it’s a small/boutique builder then your chances are pretty slim.

So while I agree that more research is definitely better than less - I just don’t see how the typical person wanting to find a builder can practically do this.

I’m keen to hear suggestions on ways to increase confidence though!

I just asked builders for addresses and client details to call. If they didn't oblige I didn't bother with them. Good builders will be happy to and I found clients quite willing to chat and even show me their builds. Got some honest feedback.

I wish I did that from the start.

Speaking to past clients I don't think will reflect the companies current financial situation. At the moment it's about cash flow and that has dried up for 3 reasons.
First new homes in new subdivisions has dropped by 40%-50% so they havemuch less initial deposits.Of course interest rates are raising the costs of materials.
Thirdly the time to do construction is taking much longer than before and builders get paid when construction stages are completed.
The lack of tradies has blow out the time for each construction stage and that is pausing builders cashflow.
With the new home slow down and several builders going under now this will free up tradies and speed up construction times.
The budget usually has incentives for new home buyers and I think the government knows how important the building industry is so they're additional help for the construction industry.
I would feel a lot much more comfortable building a new home after the budget in April.

I asked to speak to people who were currently building and have been going through the worst of it.

It's true though, you will have no idea of the financial situation of the builder and there's no way of knowing that as a consumer. I would say the smaller and more professional builders are likely to have higher margins and more resilient business models. Hard to know who those builders are though.

As for the federal budget, I hope they are thinking much more carefully about home building stimulus than they have in the past. Homebuilder was one of the reasons we're in this mess.

Hi all, below is a link to a checklist I put together late last year on "Questions to ask potential Builders" before signing a contract.

The checklist is based on Construction Quality Management Planning Principles, Financial Auditing Principles, Project Management Principles, and general Time/Cost/Quality questions.

Its aimed at figuring out "is this the right builder for me" based on your values.You should read the checklist first and decide which questions you really want to know the answers to, and which ones are not as important - because there are a heap of questions provided in this checklist for you to ask.

Personally, im a rip the band aid of fast type person so prefer to ask questions beforehand than get angry later. Anyway, here is a link to download it - you don't have to enter an email and there is nothing to pay for it, no catch.

I just created this to help new homeowners who are looking to do Builder Due Diligence before signing a contract. I used to work in a large building company and have built a few houses and I agree with you 100% that builders are poor communicators

The checklist is hosted in Docsend which is Dropbox company.

https://docsend.com/view/32wzixeyqk9fcrxc

DOWNLOAD LINK

I hope this helps.

May the force be with you all

Anthony

Firstly, wow you have put a lot of work into your list of questions! Great job and they are mostly valid questions that a builder should be able to answer.

As a small builder and owner of the company I would be more than happy for a new client to quiz me with this list.

However, most homebuilding clients are going to choose to build with a project home company, and they really only get to deal with the sales person, who in most cases would have no clue as to how to answer the vast majority of the questions on your list.

I am not being critical, just trying to spark a conversation.

I have spent my entire career since 1994 in the construction and property development sectors, I have worked for private commercial builders, I have worked for and hired project home companies and I now own and run my own small custom home business ( we have capacity to do 10 builds a year currently have 7 active on the books).

I have vetted commercial builders with questions and check lists like in your list, I have worked with project home companies to improve their customer service and I have seen how major project home builders operate from the inside.

But despite putting a hell of a lot of thought into it, I can't figure out a fool proof way for normal people to accurately vet their new builder.

The project home sector has been cleverly designed through a lot of trial and error to insulate management from their customers. The whole industry is smoke and mirrors and relies on potential customers being wowed by sparkly things at their nearest display village.

The vast majority of people pick their builder based on whether or not they like the floor plan and interior design, not the financial capacity, or the qualifications of the trades and management. And if you were to ask the sales person those questions they would have no clue in most cases.

There are some really smart people in this forum with excellent experience, so what would be good is if we can put our collective heads together and come up with a short practical list for how to pick a project home builder and maybe Anthony can help put it together for all the newby people in this forum.

Okay I will go first with my base theory:

The display home needs to be perfect - This is meant to be their best work on display

When you are inspecting a project home builder's display home, try to look past the interior design and have a close look at the finishes. Have they caulked the skirtings and around the kitchen nicely, what is the paint finish like on the doors and architraves, are the tiles laid neatly ( are the grout lines straight, is there any lipping etc). My theory is that is they can't get their display home perfect there is no way they will get your home perfect.

I have been to so many display homes in my time and from experience I know who most of the average builders are, and honestly this theory holds true.

What I haven't been able to figure out, is how does the average Joe get an understanding as to the financial capacity of their chosen builder, or the qualifications of their allocated supervisor etc

Anyway, that's enough for now

Cheers

Simeon