Has anyone gone 'House & Land' package?

We are doing a house/land package. House hasn't actually started yet but paperwork nearly all completed, just some minor amendments to selections which they tell me will not affect the starting date as they are not structural changes.
I think doing it this way can make things easier, everything was organised for us through the builder except we had to have our own conveyancer for the land sale. Stamp duty and associated fees for the land sale- aprox 2,000 but this will vary according to land price (our land was much cheaper being in a country region) and maybe different states. You pay no stamp duty on the house itself. But didn't have to pay for soil reports etc, also land was offerred at a cheaper price than similar blocks on open market.
Each house/land contract will differ and have different inclusions and conditions. In our case, fencing (but we have no choice of colour, they will probably do cream) basic floor coverings, concrete paths and driveways, garage with roller doors, front landscaping, clothesline, BIR's were all included. However these were negotiable, we have changed some floor coverings and removed and been credited for the landscaping as we would preferr to do it ourselves.
Depending on the company, you sometimes cannot make changes to the floor plan which could be a minus. One package we looked into with a previuos company wouldn't even let us change the ceiling height. However the one we are going with asked us first which plan we wanted from their catalogue and then offerred land from the total of 34 lots in division which would accomodate that. So it wasn't a rigid 'package' but is being set up as one. They were fine with us making small changes such as changing ceiling height to 2.7m, changing a door to an archway and vice versa, small changes to kitchen layout and moving a window and any costs incurred were built into final figure. Not sure how far we could of gone with making changes, plan we selected was almost perfect for us as it was. Because of the shape of the block the plan had to be altered slightly to fit and they did all that too.

Are they actual finished prices, to move into?

In our case, yes, if we only built as per contract it would provide a finished house ready to move into, except air conditioning which we have to do afterwards. We have been given a rough estimate of 11,000 to do refridgerated r/c air con. on a house with living area of 166 m2. We are spending about 20,000 above contract price, variations at selections, but these are all personal choice only, not neccesary, eg electrical upgrades, larger tank, upgrade floor coverings, upgrade kitchen cupboards, add screen doors, change some sanitary ware, that sort of thing.
Of course, we will still have to pay for things like pergola, shed, window treatments, light fittings etc after handover. But house will be ready to move into, we plan to do those things at our own pace when we have moved in.

My advice is to read all the fine print, check how flexible the deal is and go from there . I think it can be a very effective way to go if the deal is right for you. Long reply, hope it is helpful to you.

Hi Tony & Emma

I've also gone with a house & land package through DFH in Wyndham Vale. I'm just waiting for the land to settle. I'll be paying stamp duty & legals on the land at this time.

As Helyn stated previously not all packages are the same however mine included fixed site costs, all floor and window coverings, driveway, clothesline, pathway to clothesline, dishwasher (Yay no more dish pan hands ) and I was allowed to make changes to the layout as I wanted the kitchen on the opposite side of the room to what it showed in their layout. I've also added on ducted heating and split system aircon to be installed during the build.

I spoke with M****con as well as I liked their layout of the Arkley however the driveway and floor coverings were not included in the package price and the site costs were not fixed.


Dana

We were going to go doen the house and land package path, but decided there were things we didn't want and things we wanted that weren't included. In the end the costs would have been higher than if we did a custom-build.

Coz we're picky, you see

Fiona

over here in WA some of the house n land packs are already built homes. (brand new however) No choice with anything then, just like buying an existing house really.

In our estate National Homes purchased about 8 blocks from the 1 street, prebuilt the homes then sold them as the package.

Now that the market has cooled I see this kind of package becoming less common. Ie builder won't take on risk of building if they cant sell the house.

Well, we have definatley decided.

After going back to the Chase today to see how our block is coming along, we went around the Burbank Stoneleigh....again....fine tuned our walkthrough quote and are all set to deposit with them next week.

We went to the land office as we also want to swap our crossover to the other side.

Bugger the investment strategy - I'll worry about being a skint pensioner when I am one! Lets just build us a cracking house for now.

So, all being well, we'll deposit next week - spec and tender ready for contract signing in June, land titled in September and a handover date of June 09. Man, that seems like an awful long way away.

Still, gives up time to save up for some extras - like a pool. Hah....that'l take some saving up for.

BBQ sounds like a great idea. So long as I can drag myself away from the Chase display village for a weekend. It's getting embarasing now as most of the people at the display houses know our faces!

Just been working out our stage payments + our rent that we pay here etc. It's all good so long as Emma gets a job by June, ( that's when we have to sign contracts ). If not, we're stuffed. No way we'll be signing anything untill we definatley have two wages coming in.

So, if anyone out there needs a manager/employment law specialist/volunteer co-ordinator with an economics degree, a law degree and a masters in business - drop me a line! ( sheesh - you'd have thought with that lot they'd be queing up to hire her ). Emma's been job hunting since we landed here on 22nd October and had no joy at all, it's starting to get to her a bit.

Anyhow, apologies for going off topic a bit. I'm off to bed before I start doing any more calculations. I'll be up early in the morning on seek.com.au to find some more jobs for Emma to apply for, another month with nothing and I'm afraid she'll be waitressing at the local Italian.