PD Process

Hi guys,

As you know we have paid our initial deposit to lock in our price/promo/start date to build the Cremorne.

I have been given copies of most of the plans, standard inclusion lists etc which I have had to initial. I have also been given a printed sales quotation with a list of most of our upgrades (excluding things you choose at Hopetoun)

I was just wondering what sort of happens from here, I have been told to expect a call from National Tiles and Hopetoun to organise our colour selections and that when we get settlement of the land (August) we will get our soil tests etc done.

After I have done all this is it then time for tender/contract? What happens at this appointment?

The reason I ask is because I was basically told by s/c to add ALL the upgrades i could possibly think of as when we get a price for site costs (at the moment it is just an approx) we can then either add/remove items at tender/contract to fit in with our budget.

I guess I just wanted to make sure this is correct as I have added ALOT of things which will be fine if our site costs come in at $10000 less than what was quoted, but otherwise some will have to go....

Also I haven't really had the chance to go through exactly how I want my cupboards configured or how I want my pantry shelving etc, where handles will go, placement of powerpoints/lights, when does this all happen?

Thanks for any info you can give, I'm in over my head!!

The very first thing you need to do is to start a blog so we can follow the progress.....



What will happen now is that your block will have a soil test and site survey, and from that PD will work out how much your site costs will be. The site costs will be presented to you at your tender appointment, along with the costs of any extras you have chosen.

Sometimes the tender appointment will be before the tile and hopetoun appointments (as in our case) however it's better if you can make the colour selections before the tender, as you'll have exact costs of your selections at tender appointment time.

Sometimes the Tender appointment is first, as it can take some time to get appointments for colour selections, and delaying a Tender appointment can delay a site start - you'll soon find out what the situation is.

In terms of cupboards and any other changes you want to make, advise them of all these things at tender appointment time. They will reprint preliminary plans while you wait, based on your changes. Also, think about exactly where your house will sit on the block.

Check the blogs of other people who are building the same home and search on "tender", "hopetoun", and "National Tiles", and you'll learn heaps before you go to the appointments.

Feel free to ask here also, of course!

Excellent thanks so much Perry

I promise to start a blog

So is the tender and contract appointment seperate things?

I'm pretty sure we will have our national tiles appointment and colour selections first as we cant get a soil test until late August, so that will be good.

Is the tender appointment with your inital s/c or someone new?

Off to search blogs

We have just done this but we may have messed with the sequence a little being intersate PD did HEAPS to accommodate our timeline.

Yes tender is where you make structural changes etc.

We did out tile and color selections before tender so the price that was given to us included any changes we made in tile, color (carpet etc) and structural.

We then had out electrical appointment where they tell you what you've added or subtracted from the std price.

That all goes into the system and they get drawings done etc and you then front up to the contract meeting where you sign the fixed price contract that is the full price of the house and any land costs etc.

At the tender appointment we met out S/C and were told that that is the person that will oversee our process start to finish.

Tender and Contract appointments are two separate things - Tender is the overall costs. You sign the tender documents to say you accept the contents of them, but at that stage you haven't signed a contract to build.

Contracts is where you pay the larger deposit and sign all the contracts - there's a standard HIA contract they use for this.

Tender appointment is with a Customer Service Consultant (CSC). You won't see your Sales person again once the file goes to the Office for your Tender appointment (unless you go to the display home to look at things over and over again - as we did!).

It's an exciting time - but also a bit stressful - stay focussed, and ask lots of questions.

Cheers!

Unless things have changed, Lifestyle doesn't do a separate electrical appointment - the electricals are worked out with the Sales Consultant.

Electricals are important - print off the plan (even the one from the internet) and think about where you need lights and powerpoints - then add more powerpoints!

Cheers

yea, our electrical was with our sales person

i think the main thing is to remember at ur tender, that no more structural changes after u sign there...so think about your house and what u want...

but from what i see, ur very organised, and have made lots of decisions already...try and get all ur upgrades done in tender, cos they can take it away and give u a price on the day...that way when u go to ur colour appoint, ur upgrades will all be done, and u won't be hit with a big PCV bill from ur colour appointment....

also, with ur colour and tile appointment, we had to ring them ourselves to make the appointment cos they were "so busy" ...our csc told us someone would be in contact with us as well...but a few weeks went by and we hadnt heard anything....

jsut a heads up i suppose...

Bel
I wouldn't hold your breath for National Tiles to call you, either - I waited , then ended up calling them myself - pretty sure that's what happened with Toni, too!

Same here - I rang them too.

They finally sent me the tile samples yesterday that they didn't have when I was there. What for I don't know because that was 4 or 5 months ago and the house is already half built. But what was really special is after all that time they sent me the wrong one!

Anyway, the Hop3toun consultants were pretty good. For the electrical appointment you can see the price increase as you add extras but the other selections you can't see the cost until the final contract signing. If you want to change them then they will put it in as a no cost variation (if you're lucky). I'd be very carefull about taking advice from the Hopetoun people in regards to the price of upgrades - they have no idea what they're talking about.

Actually - I seem to recall and issue with National Tiles and appointments. They are booked out a fair way ahead - so ring them, and make an appointment. Good advice from the others.

I rang both Hopetoun and NT to make my appts. Hopetoun were reluctant in letting me do it but I was adamant that we had our selections before Tender. I really wanted to know how many $$ we were up to at Tender and then we decided how much more to add on at contract which was about another $7,000.

It seems a bit backwards to do it the other way ie have tender then selections and then contract. Getting Post Contract Variations correct for us has been an absolute nightmare.........we are still having problems with our figures today. PD have not deleted the upgraded kitchen - vinyl wrap and cat 2 bench top off our figures and they can't work out why I want them too!!!!

Yeah i do agree with this but i can see why they would like to do tender first. we did our appointments (besides electrical) before tender and it was hard trying to make decisions on a kitchen upgrade, when we didnt know if we could afford them (or let alone want to pay that much for them).

mine you having gone through what we went through (2 crazy days of appointments and then a drive back to canberra) we spent two different occasions prior to the appointments in the showroom to work everything out. we hadnt heard from anyone (Hop3ton or our CSC by that stage) so we just went in and had a look and this help us.

and now we are looking at changing some of our colours (after tender pre contract so it should fingers crossed it will all be good) and thankfully we have great CSC who has been so accomodating with us.

btw it is Jackie - i kinda use Mik's log in....maybe it is just me be lazy.....

Thanks everyone

Now my s/c seems to think PD get a bit annoyed if you turn up with extras you want to add on at the tender appointment because they would rather have had you done it before hand.

I just thought of a few other bits and pieces nothing major/structural, do you think it will matter if I leave these to add at tender, I can't be bothered ringing my s/c again and driving out to wherever to resign all the copies...

Also my s/c ran through my electrical plan and I gave him a rough idea of where I want electricals put - pp location, batton location, downlights...but do they go through this in detail at tender and you can mark exactly where you would like them?

Thanks again guys

We emailed all our requests to our s/c, when we did ours they were happy with this as it was in writing so no need to sign anything.....Shoot of an email to yours and see what he thinks.....

If you can give them warning, then fair enough - but at the end of the day YOU are the customer and are about to hand over a sizeable amount of money, so don't feel pressured. Our CSC was fine with some additional changes we wanted to make at tender appointment. To be honest, what your Sales Consultant thinks doesn't really matter....

Cheers

thats weird, cos normally the s/c are really really helpful....i wouldnt worry about PD getting "upset" about more changes at tender...

fiancee and i did heaps at tender...to be honest, i think they would rather u get all ur changes in at tender, and then not raise as many PCVs later on.

Dont even give it a second thought, PD are there to service u, not the other way around.

We made 'all' our changes at tender! Don't sweat it, it just meant we were left to entertain our self while they sorted out a price for all the little bits, but they were happy to do so.

Excellent thanks everyone - atleast I know they can do it

hi,

sorry to hi-jack, but how soon after your Variations Appointment before a PD CSC calls you?

We've decided to build with PD and it's been almost 2 weeks since we had our variations appointment and I haven't been contacted by anyone.

Should we be proactive and call them, or is this normal???

once again sorry for the hi-jack.

You may find that you have to be proactive a great deal of the time - my experience, anyway! I'd be calling if I were you!