Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Dec 11, 2011 8:05 pm We have looked at a number of project homes and seen some designs that we like. However, we have wanted to alter some aspects and add some features to the designs. In each case the salespeople at the project home office try to be accommodating but seem to find it difficult. In fact in the case of our favorite project home design, when I had visited several times and asked the approximate cost of a few alterations or additions (such as acoustic insulation in the internal walls) the saleslady said that she could give me no more information and that I would have to pay for a $1000 tender to find out any more. I suspect that if I built a home with my own builder and architect I would not have this problem. But what are the real alternatives to project homes and are they much dearer? Do I have to be an owner builder or can I employ a builder who will run the whole thing for me? What is the difference? Somebody who has gone down the non project home path please tell me whether it is more expensive and does it take longer and who guarantees the work etc etc? Re: Project Homes VS What?? 2Dec 11, 2011 8:57 pm Project homes are generally good value for money in that you get a lot of house fairly cheaply. You can save money by employing an architect and then a builder separately but you will finish up with a smaller house and you will have to pay a lot more than $1,000 up front. I have built both a project home and a custom home to my design with the custom home being built much faster than the project home but I do have a good understanding of all the issues. Even though I am experienced I still used the builder as the project manager as he had lots of local contacts which allowed him to be more efficient than I could be as an owner builder. Because the builder project managed the house he was responsible for the guarantees. You will find a lot of opinions and advice on my website that may assist you The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Project Homes VS What?? 3Dec 11, 2011 9:00 pm Hi domus01, It sounds as though you are in the same position as we were. We found the project home builders inflexible and a right pain. From their perspective they like to punch them out as quick as possible to maximise profit and variations from their standard can cause hassles to their time line. We ended up getting our plan drawn up by a draftsman and then going to a few custom builders to quote on. We had done some research and knew pretty much what we wanted in the house. Having said that, even giving them a list of what you want most still seemed to price in their own standard inclusions. This made it hard to compare apples with apples. I have found that the great thing with the builder we have used is they are flexible to changes during the build and only charge actual costs, not inflated costs to either put you off or to increase their profit margin. As you asked about guarantees, any licensed builder must guarantee their work and in SA they must take out an insurance policy for your house in case they go bankrupt. Different story for owner builder, but we didn't go down that track so best to ask someone who has for their advice As with anything, you get what you pay for and in general one off items are more expensive than one off the production line. We are very happy with the end result of our house. AJ Re: Project Homes VS What?? 4Dec 28, 2011 1:27 pm Hi Domus01 Great question, thanks for asking it, as I was about to post the question myself. Per my limited research, basically, there are 3 ways to put a house on the land 1) Project Homes 2) Custom Builder Homes (somewhere b/w project and architect design) 3) Architect designed Homes Option 3 is the most expensive but you get to really create your dream home (budget permitting). We have jumped straight into Option 3 after buying our dream land but are now doing a back paddle (due to cost) and may go down the track of Option 2. We haven't completely given up on Option 3 yet and are looking for a draughtperson to make changes to our original plans (the person who drew it up didn't want to make changes to the original design) to hopefully bring down the cost. I was told to put out my approved plans for tender, but I could also be an owner builder but using a builder as a project manager or I could fly solo and do the real owner builder thingy. By choosing the owner builder option, I will have to wear the consequence of any post building faults that needs to be rectified. If I use a builder, I would have a 7-year guarantee under their licence. That's my research thus far, would like to hear from people who have taken all the next steps since I'm still stuck in step 1, getting the plans drawn up and DAed. Re: Project Homes VS What?? 5Dec 28, 2011 2:34 pm Domus01 I agree with bobette's three ways to build a house, and they seem to me to be in order of increasing cost as well! My current house was built as a custom builder house, so I had considerable input into the plans (changing the bathroom configuration to have a separate loo, sliding doors on wardrobes to increase useable space in bedrooms, my choice in tiles, taps, wall colours and floor coverings, and just had to pay the extra if I went over the allowance). My new house is still in the design phase - I didn't really have much of a choice but to go the architect route given that I wanted strawbale, and having had several years to think through what I want in my home, some very specific requirements, which I could not see project home builders willing to change their existing plans enough to accommodate, even if I had found one that even came close to the idea in my head! I could probably build close to two homes for what my architect-designed, custom-built house will eventually cost me, but it will be as close as I can get to exactly what I want, and with a minimum of 7 stars energy rating, so I consider it worth the extra expense. Variegated Re: Project Homes VS What?? 6Dec 28, 2011 6:21 pm We got into the same discussion with the project home folks, one guy from Eden Brae was even honest enough to come right out and say a project home was not for us. We have gone the custom build route and that gave us total control of the floor plan, a lot of control of materials, and all the say about inclusions. They did have a standard set of inclusions which was used for budgetary estimates to initially estimate price the house, but we were able to specify all the inclusions when we went to more detailed costing. So far on a like for like basis we are ahead of a project home with tons of upgrades and modifications, but would be well behind using a more standard project home. The challenge really is the amount of choice, and deciding where you want to go upmarket (in our case kitchen and home automation) and where you want to go more middle of the market (main bathroom). If we had a difficult site or special structural ideas then we may have needed to head to an architect (we were interested in zego but the builder would not be in it, they knew what they did well and did not want the risk of a new method). Project Homes VS What?? 7Dec 28, 2011 7:51 pm Hi Another option (which is the way we went) is a kit home. Although you can go the owner-builder route we have engaged a local builder to build the house for us. The advantage is that you get a lot of flexibility. The kit company customised the floor plans for us, working through several iterations to get the final result, all at no cost. We only needed to pay fee once we wanted them to prepare council plans so that we could get a quote from the builder (the kit company provided an estimate of building costs and when the quote came in their estimate was basically spot on). The kit includes everything except the slab, flooring and paint (it did include undercoat and included an allowance for bricks). You are able to delete anything you want from the kit and supply your own (we deleted the kitchen, tapware and lighting). Our builder is also flexible - he was happy for us to source items or ask him to do it or a mixture (eg we sourced flooring, he installed it, while a kitchen company supplied and installed the kitchen). The disadvantage comes in financing - you can't use a standard construction loan to finance the kit purchase as the bank won't lend money on a pile of bits, so you need more capital than with a package build. Paul Re: Project Homes VS What?? 8Jan 03, 2012 5:32 pm We went with a small builder who only built a few homes a year. Not all custom builders are upmarket. We could not use a project builder because we had too much of a slope on our block for them to even look at it. We talked to a few smaller builders and they all varied in price. But if we ever built again even on a flat block I would do the same. Cheer Lou http://take2-customdesigndownslope.blogspot.com 07-10-09 omg they have cut the block 14-05-10 we finally have the keys DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair That laser level looks lovely! We bought one for less than a quarter of that price off eBay. It worked really well for us and it's still going now, five years later. After… 1 16711 If you need to pay for a project manager you would be well advised to just engage a builder who would take full responsibility for the build. As opposed to you OB where… 5 15078 |