Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Aug 23, 2010 8:13 pm 1 - Land After months of searching you have a good handle on land prices. When you find a block that has everything you need and meets your budget you had better move quickly, right? Wrong, if there is a deal to be had in real estate it will not have been missed by the professionals, whose networks cover every block on the market. When a block is below market value agents work with existing relationships giving the ‘heads up’. So, get a soil test. Problem sites can cost as much as $30,000 in additional Piering or piling should it be required. If the block is not flat there could be considerable costs involved in removing or bringing soil to site. If you try to reduce costs on the site cut then the retaining is likely to bite your pocket harder. Seek professional advice from your builder before signing anything. They will attend site at no cost and offer you unbiased advice. Beware of any claims made by a seller regarding site compaction. Always verify these claims with a registered builder. 2 – Design Designing a home that complements your unique block does more than improve your lifestyle; it also adds value to your investment and can reduce your construction costs. The most common mistake made at design is to be caught with the ‘free sketch’ trick. These are produced by inexperienced or low level designers that work on the ‘1 in 5 formula’. This is a numbers game where a minimal 2 hours of time is spent on each design in anticipation that 20% of the clients will sign up for working drawings at a fee. By allowing just 2 hours for each design every working drawings fee received has cost them 10 hours in total (5 jobs @ 2 hours). A professional would normally expect to spend around 20-40 hours on each sketch which is why they charge. At the other end of the scale are the architects. If you are looking to invest over $2,500 per m2 and have everything specified before going to a builder an architect is an excellent choice. You can expect to pay between $20k and $50k but remain in control of the design. The problem with architects is that they do not price jobs despite having both the tools and the ability to do so. This results in a staggering 85% of designs by Architects never being built due to a blown budget. Start by researching the designer. The better ones are in demand and do not give their time away. Beware, a cheap design could cost you an additional $25k in structural steel and scaffold as well as reducing the value of your home. 3 – Inclusions Your building contract should contain around 50 pages of specifications detailing what is to be included room by room. This whole part can seem overwhelming which is why a lot of clients glaze over and just want to ‘sign up and get moving’. Don’t you think it’s odd that the marketing material you have previously come across contains plenty of imagery and scant text while the specification is dull and heavy reading with terminology? It has been designed that way. Until you sign the contract you remain in control of negotiations so don’t sign anything until you are satisfied. Do not consider any verbal assurances to be part of the contract as they cannot be relied upon in court. In all likelihood you will never hear from that person again once the contract is signed. Insist on having your specification listed by room, this allows you to review your contract in bite size chunks. It is also easier for the inexperienced person to find their way around a document using this method. 4 - Non Inclusions As a client you will be focused upon what is included in the contract and ensuring it is correct but how do you know what is not included? Form a check list as soon you start your research and keep adding to it. When a builder gives you a list of what’s included check it against your master list, if it is not shown they have not included it and will either expect you to perform the work or will charge you a variation fee further down the track. Things to watch out for are VPO checks, Building Approval, Council Fees, Site Access, Fire Ant Monitoring, Contour Survey, Soil Test, Site Identification Survey, Insurance, Height Certification, Pool Platform and Caulking. If they tell you something is not required insist on having it documented in the contract as such. 5 - Start Date You are about to sign the contract but you need the home completed in six months. The contract states your home will be built in 6 months, guaranteed. The problem ****** in the start date, so read the small print. The usual trick is to sign the client up and then after 10 days (the cooling off period) notify them that construction will start in six months time. In 2007 this was stretching out to 12 months as companies structured their workload and effectively protected them from a downturn. The risk to the client is that these companies are the ones that have a tendency to go bust while sitting on a lot of deposits. 6 – Defects Defects are the bane for everyone concerned, builders, sub contractors and clients. At best they are an inconvenience, at worst they can remove the entire net profit from a job for the builder and sub contractor. This is why they will try and manage you rather than the defect. The normal strategy is to hit category one defects early. The rest will be strung over the next few months with countless no shows wearing you down until you reach the stage of ‘just do this one’ At that point the minor defects are normally written off by the client as too hard and too expensive (time off work). For the builder they were written off several months before. 7 - Swimming Pool If you intend to have a swimming pool built at the same time as your home do not be directed by the builder to ‘deal direct’ with a pool builder. If you contract separately with a pool builder ensure you research both companies thoroughly. Although the pool appears less risk at only around 5% of the build costs, the reality is very different. If the pool builder ceases trading (and they are notorious for this) you have no warranty. If you contract through the builder he remains responsible. Ever wondered why they are so keen to ‘give away’ their margin and have you deal direct? Another issue, although less common, is when you have more than one contractor delays are inevitable and also very hard to prove. Builders can issue ‘notice of delay due to circumstances outside their control or influence’ which enables them to acquire additional time at no cost. Matt Brinks - 23rd June 2010 Re: The 7 Biggest Tricks Builders & Developers Use 4Aug 24, 2010 2:22 pm Great advice for all... Good post! P1T Read about my building experience: http://secondhomebuild.blogspot.com Dale Alcock Homes - 'The Nautilus' in Bletchley Park, Southern River - WA Read about my Clipsal C-BUS Home Automation Project: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=20854 Re: The 7 Biggest Tricks Builders & Developers Use 5Aug 24, 2010 5:44 pm Mmm, agree and disagree with some of those points. Sadly if too many people read this, they'll go into a client builder relationship with a negative attitude. I don't think the title is fair for what the information presented is about. That sucks! Hope it all works out. Good to move away from steel anyway for all your reasons, but it's also thermally poor. 16 17724 If what you describe is correct then the brick wall has been dry lined with villa board. That basically means that the villa board is glued to the brick wall with… 3 8294 I'm putting a new floor in my kitchen, slate flagging on a standard concrete slab. I have allowed for a bed thickness of up to 20mm to accommodate the different… 0 17530 |