Finally signed up with a builder just last night - Goodlife Homes!
After a very long search and a lot of back and forth with other builders - I decided to give someone at Goodlife a call...back.
It's a long story but basically Goodlife were one of the first builders I approached in Sep/Oct 11 but at the time I felt like I still needed to shop around to be sure first. The sales consultant that I have been dealing with is easily the most understanding/least pushy/polite and genuine person I have had the pleasure of giving my business to.
After my initial consultation with Goodlife, my partner and I walked out of the office and realised that he had not tried to sell us anything, asked us to sign anything - or anything of the like. He spent so much time with us just looking at plans and understanding our financial situation but he was upfront with us at the time and told us to first have a good look around everywhere else and be 100% sure of what we want.
Every display I visited from other builders I felt like I was being pressured to buy that very house that very day. Even when explaining to the sales people that due to our financial circumstances we would not be signing anything until it is all in order we always got a "nah no worries mate it will be fine we have in house finance gurus and they always work something out!"
This always displeased me as they came off very unprofessional when going for that hard sell.
But not Goodlife - never once were we refered to their finance specialists etc.
So after searching for a good 6 months we were 100% sure of what we wanted and I gave Goodlife a call back. Our consultant answered and we talked again as if we had only been chatting last night.
We presented him with exactly what we wanted and he had his input in terms of house flow, areas too big/small etc; They drafted up our own custom plan from scratch within the week and had all costings broken down. All costings meaning everything including optional extras!
We were working on a strict budget and Goodlife Homes were very accommodating and understanding of that. I was quite often advised by my consultant who never hesitated to tell me I was being too unrealistic in terms of what I wanted with the budget I had. Some people may take offense to that but I swear I saw that as such a blessing. He was being responsible and felt like he had an obligation to ensure I don't get myself in a situation where I have bitten off more than I can chew. Most other salespeople would often want you to request all the extras under the sun.
Anyways - I have signed a PPA with goodlife awaiting title on my block which is due in April/May.
I am quite happy with the process so far as they have been extremely organised and always on time and it all felt so streamlined. If you would like the details of the salesman who helped me I would be more than happy to send you his details in a PM.
Hopefully the build process is just as smooth as the pre construction process but he has promised he will be there throughout the entire process as the point of contact for me should I ever have any issues.
How good is that!
I hope no one sees this as me trying to sell/advertise Goodlife etc but I honestly feel obligated to let the people of WA know there ARE extremely professional and nice salesmen out there who will not do wrong by you.