Tendering Advise Please

bread and butter · Sep 08, 2007 11:56 pm

Hello,
What a relief we found you all. We have been looking and knew you were out there somewhere.
We are about to take the second step in building our new Edan Brae home. The fist step was to decide what home to build, (we decided on the Madison 40 MkII), the second step now is our tender appointment with Edan Brae.
Can anyone shed some light at what actually happens when tendering? How flexible are Edan Brae and how far can we go with negotiating prices and inclusions? We are looking at higher ceilings, cesar bench tops, maple stained staircase.
Anyone with advise, it would be greatly appreciated.
We are looking forward to sharing our building experiences with you all and reading yours.
Until then,
bread and butter.

stonecutter1309 · Sep 09, 2007 4:10 pm

hi b&b!

we have very preliminary discussions with EB in regards to the Windsor 46/47 - and they weren't too flexible. E.g. you would get $3k in credit if you took one of the 5 bathrooms out, but if you wanted to add another one - it would cost $7k - and things were priced down to the last dollar! So perhaps not much room for haggling.

I would try and ask for anything and everything! The worst they can say is no. The biggest bargining tool you have is the power to walk away. I'm not sure how EB are doing in terms of meeting sales targets etc with the current rate increases and building slowdown in Sydney - but I think they need the work now more than they did 3-4 yrs ago before the slowdown. I suppose the thing with building a home though, is that it's hard to walk away.

It's easy to walk away from the wrong price if you're in a Vietnamese market place haggling over a silk shirt - but it's a bit harder to walk away from your dream home

We are going with a smaller builder (Wisdom Homes) who have indicated that we will be able to negotiate on price.

bread and butter · Sep 09, 2007 5:03 pm

Thanks Stonecutter for your reply. Well, we will see how we go. As you mentioned, all they can say is no! And yes, it would be hard to walk away.
Will keep you posted with the outcome.
Cheers
bread and butter

ahuang · Sep 10, 2007 1:05 pm

I like their interior and inclusions very much. Unfortunately when we spoke with them last year, they weren't very clear about our council requirement and only willing to build a smaller house when compared to AllCastle/Domaine (now part of Clarendon). They later admitted their mistake and appologised/updated the drawings, but it's a bit too late...

mrees · Oct 07, 2007 11:34 pm

stonecutter1309

we have very preliminary discussions with EB in regards to the Windsor 46/47 - and they weren't too flexible. E.g. you would get $3k in credit if you took one of the 5 bathrooms out, but if you wanted to add another one - it would cost $7k - and things were priced down to the last dollar! So perhaps not much room for haggling.

Aint that the truth
We are currently going thru the tender process with them (and have been for nearly 6 MONTHS now), and they do not leave much room for negotiation. So much so, that I nearly walked away for a $500 modification (and Im still tempted to).

I love their homes, but I can honestly say that the tender process hasnt just been Way Too Long, but its also been Way Too Painful!

Good luck

matt walker · Oct 07, 2007 11:43 pm

mrees!!

you came...lol

mrees · Oct 07, 2007 11:50 pm

Audio Visual Dreams

mrees!!

you came...lol

Big Fan of your work mattwalker

I like what I see so far!

matt walker · Oct 08, 2007 10:29 am

mrees,

Theres a lot less fighting here than in the XPMCEAU forum...

Good to see you came accross!

Matt

mrees · Oct 08, 2007 9:33 pm

Thanks Matt

And thanks for the heads up mate.

Now, go kick some A$$ over that kitchen benchtop of yours!