Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Oct 31, 2012 12:27 pm Hi all, I am new here and have been reading over your posts and thought the best way to get the info was to ask the question. We have just bought a 14 x 32 peice of land in Greenvale Lakes and it will be titled in March. We have looked over houses and have selected a few we liked with Carlisle, Bentley and East West Homes. My question is what exactly does each company include, we have asked for inclusion lists and recieved these but a few seem to be quiet when we ask what extras will cost. We need fencing and a concrete drive which is something we were told by Carlisle would not be included, is this standard for most builders? Any info or websites we could be directed it would be greatly appreciated, we have looked over Product Review website already but we wanted to hear further from other people on how they went with the builders, if there are any others we should be looking at and if there is anyone else that has built in Greenvale Lakes. Thanks in advance Re: Help! We need to choose a builder 2Oct 31, 2012 1:02 pm Howdy neighbour (sorta ) Is your questiom more aimed at finding a house design with features you like, or the reputation/procedure of dealing with the builder? Perhaps some info on what house features you want might make it easier for people to give some direction? There are a ton of blogs linked in the appropriate thread - some will be more detailed with others about their salesperson experiences. Building a Delta 21 at Craigieburn - http://homeofzero.blogspot.com.au/ Deposit: 26/02. Contract: 22/05. Settlement: 29/05. Site start: 18/10. Re: Help! We need to choose a builder 3Oct 31, 2012 2:37 pm Thanks, we will have a look at the blogs and see what they say. We are more concerned about the repuation of the builder I guess having heard many friends go through horror stories of builders that they have dealt with in the past. We are also looking for a builder who will include most of the costs for example we would rather pay $230,000 up front for the house and know that there will no extra costs then a builder who will charge $155,000 for the house we want but hardly any features are included. We basically want a builder that is up front an honest and has experience in the Greenvale Lakes area Re: Help! We need to choose a builder 4Oct 31, 2012 4:21 pm Hi Anvil We are building with Carlisle and one of the things we have been impressed with is the up front nature of the costs. By the time you have your sales quote you have a very good idea of the full cost and we were able to get through colour selections with minimal extras. We were able to add in the major ticket items we knew we wanted like double glazed windows at the sales quote stage which was really helpful. We were also able to fix our site costs with Carlisle which turned out to be the right move as we ended up with needing an H2 slab. We are just about to go to site and so far I couldn't say one negative thing about Carlisle. Building the Ascot 35 with Carlisle Homes in Pasadena Estate, Clyde VIC My build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=59776 Re: Help! We need to choose a builder 5Oct 31, 2012 4:58 pm Hi, We got our price from Carlisle in August 2011 and that was what we paid in September 2012. Re: Help! We need to choose a builder 6Oct 31, 2012 5:44 pm I am going through this process at the moment. All you can do is research, research, research. Make sure you take a notepad and a list of questions in mind. Focus your time on talking to the salespeople. For some project home builders I have visited each of their display villages just so I can ask the questions I've missed. Some salespeople can be quite arrogant and others quite helpful. Site costs are the main area where you need to be careful. Some allow 60 lineal metres of piering and others allow 100 or more. Some factor it in by the depth of the piers. I'm looking forward to the point where I can select a builder and chuck out the stacks and stacks of brochures / plans. This industry is in *dire* need of regulation. At least some way of presenting costs that allows the walk-in-price to be easily compared from builder to builder. Build thread: here Land Nov 12, Contract 6/07/13, Consent 15/08/13, Start 20/09/13, Slab 25/09/13, Frame 4/10/13, Brick 21/10/13, Roof 2/11/13, Lock-up 17/12/13, Handover 3/3/14 Re: Help! We need to choose a builder 7Oct 31, 2012 9:36 pm Hi, we are building with Dennis family homes! They do include a fair bit in the price and it also depends on the deal at the time. We got things like splashback, ceaserstone benches inc on the price, and I thought the standard range was reasonable which meant there was not a huge amount to pay extra and upgrade with. This is our third build and only one of the builders included landscaping in base price, and it wasthe most basic landscaping job ever.. Expect to add another $50,000 to $100,000 for upgrades, and extras. I've built with three main stream builders and this is just from my experience only. Good luck with it all Re: Help! We need to choose a builder 8Nov 01, 2012 7:57 am Anvil16 We are also looking for a builder who will include most of the costs for example we would rather pay $230,000 up front for the house and know that there will no extra costs then a builder who will charge $155,000 for the house we want but hardly any features are included. We basically want a builder that is up front an honest and has experience in the Greenvale Lakes area Yeah, I went through this. In fact I only recently discovered that Hénlêy don't include flooring to the alfresco areas when they price things up to include flooring! There's so much to be caught out by. What you need to be asking for is a turnkey package. For example, I quickly discovered that a Lexi 3 with a base of $164,000 came to about $212,000 once you included site costs, developer requirements, a fence and driveway. That promo at the time included floors. I agree with the problems re costs and industry regulation - in fact, I'm sitting down with a local MP shortly to discuss this. Building a Delta 21 at Craigieburn - http://homeofzero.blogspot.com.au/ Deposit: 26/02. Contract: 22/05. Settlement: 29/05. Site start: 18/10. Re: Help! We need to choose a builder 9Nov 01, 2012 8:43 am I think it will be hard to find a main stream builder that has an upfront cost and no extras or upgrades included. Don't forget things like bal 12.5, fees for hitting Rock, we had to pay for a useless security fence, sur charge for being further out these things alone came up to an extra 12,000, all we really upgraded was the carpet, oven, driveway, airconditioner front door wood laminate floor in certain areas. We had been looking for three years and checked out several builders seemed that it was the common theme among them all. I think you gotta pick the best design for you within your budget and then work out what are the main things you can do cheaper once you have handover. Some builders did include bal 12.5 in there house and land packaged but if you think about it... They are not in a bushfire zone to begin with they just advertise that you are getting a great deal... Re: Help! We need to choose a builder 10Nov 01, 2012 12:18 pm Thanks everyone for your help. After researching we have decided to go with our favourite design in line with the cost we can afford bcause it seems each builder has pros on cons. Was very interesting to check out Carlisle on Product Review and see they are nearly all positive feedback but then you check their website and see that if you enter a positive review you go into the draw to win an IPad. We are going into a number on Saturday to try and find out all costs, I think it's essential we find someone who is building in the area as well. Re: Help! We need to choose a builder 11Nov 01, 2012 2:36 pm The area is largely irrelevant to the actual build process. What site supervisor you have may have more impact than anything else. I'm building about two suburbs over from you - on the same street and adjacent street meters there's two Hénley and three Métricon builds (including my own), all have different supervisors and slight different schedules. In terms of actual suburbs, you really need to be on your own on that one, because everyones experiences, opinions and needs differ. For me, the advantage of Greenvale over Craigieburn would be purely that a) It's about 6km closer to the city and b) The houses are going to be slightly more expensive, lavish etc, so the demographic of people you'll get will be slightly different. That also means the crims will travel to there for their break-ins Schools, aged care centers... they make no difference to me, so they're not a selling point. Sporting fields... yeah, not really useful unless they're going to let me train on my cyclocross bike, and pretty sure they wouldn't appreciate that As for the competition... What a con of a promo. Cheapest marketing they'll ever do - $500 outlay buys them positive comments to award them $200-300,000 contracts. Massive win for them, of course. Building a Delta 21 at Craigieburn - http://homeofzero.blogspot.com.au/ Deposit: 26/02. Contract: 22/05. Settlement: 29/05. Site start: 18/10. Hi VK, I am now retired however I have stood beside over 300 owner builders in the past 18 years that have successfully built their own homes. First of all a building… 10 22569 Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 20353 |