Browse Forums General Discussion 1 May 18, 2009 9:41 pm Has anyone out there purchased an AV Jennings house and land package? If so, is there anything that I should be aware of/cautious of! ie hidden costs, 'variation' costs etc. I have built previously (building contract only) and I was stung with many extra costs for 'price increases', variations etc and was wondering if it was the same deal with house and land packages. A complete house and land package seems to imply a fixed price, is this the case? Any suggestions would be appreciated... Many thanks! Re: AV Jennings House and Land Packages 2May 18, 2009 10:02 pm There are many previous discussions on house/land packages - do a search and you wil come up with many comments (including some old ones by me ) We did a house/ land package with a different company. So none of this applies to AV Jennings in particular, just packages in general The conditions of packages vary enormously - ours was very flexible, allowed us to basically select any of their plans on a block of our choice within the development (34 house/land packages, all same builder) and then make minor alterations to plan and upgrade things like higher ceilings, make kitchen changes etc. After that the contract was drawn up to include price of land and modified house and this did not change - site costs were fixed and only increases in price were 'selections variations' - things we chose to upgrade - more expensive tiles, electrical upgrades etc. It would of been possible to build house at no more than initial contract price if we wanted to - as it was, we spent about $15, 000 extra at selections. But some house/land packages are very rigid - x house goes on x block and exactly as per plan - no changing anything. We had previously looked at another house/land package with another builder and no structural changes at all were allowed - could not do higher ceilings or even change position of a door. Needless to say, we did not go ahead with this one The other thing to check is the inclusions - ours included fencing, driveway, concrete perimeters around house, clothelines, floor coverings, for example, but this is different in every package. We also had the option to remove inclusions - we opted out of airconditioning and landscaping, preferring to do these ourselves. Some packages wont let you do this. My advice is to check the fine print carefully. I think packages can be a good deal and we are happy with ours but make sure you know what you are getting - and not getting Re: AV Jennings House and Land Packages 3May 18, 2009 10:34 pm thanks for the advice! We are looking at a package that does not allow any changes to the structure/design or interior colour selection etc (however we are trying to negotiate tile selection). However this does not bother us as the proposed design fits our requirements to a tee. I was just concerned about being liable for possible additional costs once building commences (ie extra footings/price increases etc). I am picking up a copy of the contract this week and will pay close attention to the 'fine print'.... Re: AV Jennings House and Land Packages 4May 19, 2009 1:06 pm any other AV Jennings experiences out there? or can anyone comment on their build quality? 13 6632 2 5502 Scientists have used random matrix theory to demonstrate theoretically that the neutrino mass hierarchy can be explained mathematically. When a substance is fragmented… 21 20651 |