Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Apr 18, 2013 7:50 pm Hi there, My fiance and I have always had plans to buy our own home someday, though after getting engaged and expecting our first child in 5 weeks plus the 2+ years of renting a 2 bedroom unit with no cooling in summer and a neighbor who is annoying and too close for comfort, we are just feeling like it is time to move on and have been looking at display homes in the new estate's Warralilly & Estuary in the Geelong, VIC area. Though the whole process of building feels daunting to us. Dan (my fiance) and I are both dreamers and though we would love the most grandest house with all of the furniture and interior designed rooms that is not financially possible. We are only at stage 1 the thinking stage i call it - we don't have fiance yet or much saved let alone know how much we would need to save,etc though we have an appointment with a Simmonds broker on Sunday to discuss our options though i am not sure if we should also consult someone at mortgage choice, do you think it would be best to talk to both? or just go see a mortgage choice person? ... I am a planning person and when it comes to money and big lots of money, i would like a budget and exact figures too, i am also not home loan smart, i don't know who is better than others,etc hence why i feel the need to consult someone who knows what they are talking about. We aren't sure 100% which builder we would choose to go with though Simmonds does seem to have what we are after and in our price range too, though i have gone through the inclusions list for all the builders we have looked at and a lot of them all seem to have the same basic list. Being a newbie, what other stuff is usually on the extra's list that i would need to consider for a build? and how much for each extra would that generally cost in Victoria? ... for example obviously a driveway isn't included. I am sure there is stuff on that extra's list that i would want and need and i want to be able to add that to my total estimate. Any help or advice would be appreciated Re: At stage 1, have questions, please help! 2Apr 18, 2013 8:19 pm alianddan i would like a budget and exact figures too To be honest, this is a good reason not to build. It will blow out and you will not have exact figures at any stage really. I can be very pedantic and have good attention to detail, and we went through every little detail in the contract. Our sales person probably hated us by the end, he was always joking about how much detail I went in to, but after obsessing about every detail of the house for a couple of months we had EVERYTHING covered (or so we thought) Anyway, final contract price ended up being more expensive than we initially expected, but we tried justifying it and we kept thinking that at least it will not blow out since we have added everything possible. Ended up right on the edge of what we can afford, and we definitely over extended ourselves more than we were comfortable with, but at least this is it we thought. Any extra cost will be extremely minimal. Another 30k later and we are freaking out. As excited as we are about the house coming together, technically it would have been much smarter for us to buy an existing house. Even if we had to spend 80k renovating some of the houses we looked at, it would have still been cheaper (and we would have gotten exactly what we wanted, as we have to compromise a lot with the builder due to their selection and costs). Not saying you shouldn't build, but in your situation (baby arriving in 5 weeks, wanting a fixed budget etc), you might want to take a step back and at least consider what the best choice for you is. Building can take a long time and is the most stressful thing I've done in my life. It is rewarding too of course (and as we haven't moved in yet, we still have more reward to reap ), but still. Sorry for not being more help. We went through a broker too, which was more useful than I thought, but I would probably pick an independent one and not use the builders. Re: At stage 1, have questions, please help! 3Apr 18, 2013 10:16 pm tompab alianddan i would like a budget and exact figures too To be honest, this is a good reason not to build. It will blow out and you will not have exact figures at any stage really. I can be very pedantic and have good attention to detail, and we went through every little detail in the contract. Our sales person probably hated us by the end, he was always joking about how much detail I went in to, but after obsessing about every detail of the house for a couple of months we had EVERYTHING covered (or so we thought) Anyway, final contract price ended up being more expensive than we initially expected, but we tried justifying it and we kept thinking that at least it will not blow out since we have added everything possible. Ended up right on the edge of what we can afford, and we definitely over extended ourselves more than we were comfortable with, but at least this is it we thought. Any extra cost will be extremely minimal. Another 30k later and we are freaking out. As excited as we are about the house coming together, technically it would have been much smarter for us to buy an existing house. Even if we had to spend 80k renovating some of the houses we looked at, it would have still been cheaper (and we would have gotten exactly what we wanted, as we have to compromise a lot with the builder due to their selection and costs). Not saying you shouldn't build, but in your situation (baby arriving in 5 weeks, wanting a fixed budget etc), you might want to take a step back and at least consider what the best choice for you is. Building can take a long time and is the most stressful thing I've done in my life. It is rewarding too of course (and as we haven't moved in yet, we still have more reward to reap ), but still. Sorry for not being more help. We went through a broker too, which was more useful than I thought, but I would probably pick an independent one and not use the builders. No need to be sorry, thank you for your response i value it and thank you for sharing your story with me. After some thinking to be honest it is prob all the added extra's and hidden costs that is making the thought of building a daunting thought for me as much as i would love to build my own house i do agree with you "is this the best choice", common sense says not really unless it was 100% fixed but at the same time there isn't a lot of existing homes that don't require any renovation work or minimal renovation work that will look as good as a brand new house for the same price in the area's i would like to live, making me wonder though renovation could work out cheaper, it is still the amount of work required and especially if we were to do some of it ourselves that could work out to be just as expensive, stressful and time consuming as building. After consideration, i do agree an independent broker would be best unless i was to go with those specific builders. Thanks again Tom. Re: At stage 1, have questions, please help! 4Apr 18, 2013 10:42 pm Hi there! So much to get your head around isn't there. Definitely speak to a broker, or a few even. Don't feel any pressure and ask a million questions if need be. When chatting to builders, try get a turn key price. Sure, could be some extras later, but you'll get a fair idea. Many builders have different ranges and I've found once you add your preferred upgrades to the basic, or middle range homes, you're fatten better off going with the premium range. To give you a idea, a house I got a quote on the ther day, was a base of 163000, land was 201000, but turn key price with upgrades I want is 465000. Bushfire levy is over 6000, so if possible get a block that doesn't require it. Yes, lots of upgrades, but incl in total price is bushfire levy, site costs of 16000 and OHS of 5000. Adds up quickly Good luck Building the Porter Davis Dunedin 29 maybe, thinking of forfeiting deposit and going with CH or UE Re: At stage 1, have questions, please help! 5Apr 19, 2013 1:07 am definately speak to a broker so they can tell you what you can afford but keep in mind it will change in 5 weeks time once bubs arrives. personally i dont think i would want to add the stress of building a house to the mix of a brand new bundle of joy, having a baby is stressful enough at times. we are building atm and have 2 little boys(3.5 and almost 1). it is a very stressful time and our physical building hasnt even started yet, just the finalisation of all the paperwork etc. we signed the original contract back at the beginning of november 2012 and it will most likely be the beginning of may before building on our land begins, so we have had 6mths of stressing about the build. good luck for your finance appt and arrival of your new baby Re: At stage 1, have questions, please help! 6Apr 19, 2013 8:03 am Even thought we had a fixed price tender when we signed our contract, we had a LOT of additional costs after that time. The display homes have a lot of upgrades that are not part of the basic price, so have a look at what is included and what type of upgrades you think you will need. Some of our upgrades were: Extra unexpected site costs $11k Electrical upgrades (builder only provides one light batton & one PowerPoint per room) $11k extra ( but we upgraded a lot here) Kitchen upgrades $10 k If you are close to bush, you have to cover brushfire requirements which can start at $8k We also had quite a few other upgrades as well. We had a budget to cover all of this except the additional site costs of $11k so that had to come out of our savings, which was to be used for landscaping. Then once you move in, you need to organise: Carpet & tiles ( if not provided by builder) Driveway Fences Window coverings Lights Fly screens & screen doors Letter box Clothes line Tv aerial Connection of power, water, gas, phone Landscaping ( most councils require this to be done before you are issued your occupancy certificate, but often you don't need to do this straight away) So you would need to budget for this as well. As for finance, you will most probably can only include one income if you are taking maternity leave. Maybe you can get around that somehow if you need two incomes. Another issue for us was that the bank undervalued our land by $30k. So if you want to borrow the maximum you can, the bank will only lend based on the valuation of the land, not the market value, you would have to cover the rest. If you are borrowing more than 80% then you maybe up for mortgage insurance. You will also need to pay stamp duty on the land cost. We are glad we built our house and had a lot of savings to enable us to do so to pay for upgrades but it all cost more than buying an established home. As said by others, it can be stressful building and if I had a new bub I wouldn't do it myself at that time. Sorry if this all sounds a bit negative, but building is a big investment and you need to ensure you can afford everything before going ahead, otherwise you will be stressed if costs blowout past your budget and the bank won't lend anymore money to cover unexpected items. If you can work out a realistic budget and allow extra for unexpected items and you can still afford to build, then go for it. Otherwise it might be safer to buy an established home. Good luck! We built the Wisdom Majestic 40 - moved in! Our blog - http://ourwisdommajestic40.blogspot.com.au/ Our H1 thread - viewtopic.php?t=54156 Re: At stage 1, have questions, please help! 7Apr 19, 2013 11:16 am I feel your pain... I am about to commence building my 2nd home, but built my first place 8/9 years ago as a bright eyed, excited, yet very naive young 19 year old girl, who fell desperately in love with the display homes and dreamed up how wonderful it would be to own one. 6 months later, some very scrappy saving and a bit of family help I was building, albeit on a shoestring budget with zero room for variations... I got slugged with a $25,000 variance on my siteworks! And found sewer/septic wasnt included... another $5,000 and just how little the house actually looks like the nice pretty finished display home! It was a shock... and a harsh, but valuable lesson. The display homes are cruel, they do exactly what they are designed to do - lure you in! Best advertising and marketing too! When my stupid ex and I broke up, we sold the house... mad a bit of money, not much but enough to pay the mortgage, joint debts and go our seperate ways. But, alas I was back at Square 1, no debt, but no house.... Cue 6 years later, i'm married, renting a house with my husband and have JUST saved the deposit required to get back in... He was eligible for the First Homeowners Grant (at the moment for buidling a house in SA it's $23,500 IN TOTAL!) but because we are married, he isn't now eligible We have a $8,500 construction grant we are eligible for up until June 30, but we've had to save the 5% deposit ourselves, whilst paying $400pw in rent. Every bank we went to wanted a minimum 5% of the total borrowing in genuine savings, plus enough for your fees/stamp duty etc. About $30,000 all up on a $370,000 build. We met the servicability requirements extrememely easily, but it does take a while when you are renting... as we pay nearly as much in rent as we will for our mortgage payments! Some builders do offer schemes with more minimal input upfront, and they kick in $$ for you with lending arrangements, but all of these things need to be looked into very carefully to make sure they are right for you. Certianly speak to a mortgage broker, see what grants you may be eligible for, get an idea of roughly how much you are looking to borrow (because that will determine what your deposit will be) and go from there. As everyone has said, building isn't "fixed" you need to have tolerance for cost changes, they are very likely to happen, even to the most prepared person. This site is invaluable to a new builder, i only wish it was around when I did it the first time! Don't give up on the dream! Building is incredibly exciting and gives you a great sense of satisfaction, but if you get a rush of blood to the head when you are ill prepared (as i was 9 years ago) It can fast become a very uncomfortable noose around your neck Save, save, save!! It never hurts Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=66299 Slab: 16/6/14 Frame: 4/7/14 Roof: 22/7/14 Lock Up: 20/8/14 Fixing: 26/8/14 PCI: 9/10/14 Handover: 20/10/14 Not unless you have managed to put it as a special condition into the contract somehow. 1 6150 The fastest thing a builder will do is bank your cheque, those systems work perfectly with lightning speed, everything else is slow burn. Just the way it is. 1 8702 1 4678 |