Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Mar 16, 2014 4:07 pm Hi, My husband & I are very excited to be building our first home. We have bought a block of land in Meadows SA & can't wait to get started. We have fallen in love with the Vogue by Dechellis and after spending a lot of time changing things to suit our block we have made it work. However there is one issue, we are at our budget price already & we haven't even started yet. We are a bit worried of going forward as we know that the price is only going to go up from here. We are petrified that the footings cost is going to blow our budget out. Do builders usually get the footings cost reasonably close to the estimate or should we be worried about the cost dramatically increasing. We have been a little bit put off with the attitude of the sales agent too when I started talking about cutting back on the extra options we had looked at, is this normal too? We know he has spent a lot of time on preparing quotes for us but we thought that was his job? We don't want to commit to something that is way over our budget to start of with, as we are aware its only going to go up As we have been put off a little bit, I have had a look at Simonds homes today & I liked the Bolton design but I don't know much about Simonds, does anyone have any experience there? Sorry about all the questions but we are feeling very overwhelmed by the whole experience & would just like to hear someone else's experience to make sure we are doing the right thing Re: First Time home builders 2Mar 16, 2014 4:21 pm Builders normally give an initial quote for Class M (see http://www.anewhouse.com.au/2012/01/soi ... ification/) soils on a flat site with no fill. In my experiance very few sites are that good so you can probably expect to pay several thousand more than this. Sales Agents get paid commission so the more they can 'Upsell' the more money they make. 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: First Time home builders 3Mar 16, 2014 6:12 pm Our soil is H-E so we know we need extra footings & we have told the builder that so that can be taken into consideration so hopefully they have. As far as the upsell wouldn't you think they would want our business no matter what "upgrades" we want? I just don't know how it works I guess Re: First Time home builders 4Mar 16, 2014 6:55 pm mmorgz Our soil is H-E so we know we need extra footings & we have told the builder that so that can be taken into consideration so hopefully they have. Don't hope - check before you sign For some background on Builders Sales Agents see this thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=69975 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: First Time home builders 5Mar 18, 2014 12:28 pm Simonds in Victoria provide a fixed site cost, or they did for us at least, so we didn't have to worry. But your add ons, not matter who you go through will cost a lot. You've just got to be realistic. There were a lot of things we would have liked but couldn't have. Expect your amendments to the base price probably to be around $50k more. Re: First Time home builders 6Mar 18, 2014 12:37 pm We are building with Simonds in SA (Mt Barker) and I cannot recommend them highly enough... Everyone has been just wonderful, I never have to follow them up - they call me and are just "on it". All fixed price and no surprises. We are at council stage now. A stark contrast to my first build experience! We looked at Dechellis, love their homes too, but some of the estimations seemed a bit like they'd have potential to blow out and I couldnt really tell what the end price was going to be, plus the sales guy, Sebastian i think? Just never got back to us on the last enquiries we made, made it seem like he was super busy.. funnily enough, I got an email from him last week, following up on whether we were still interested… 9 months later. Uh no. 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 Re: First Time home builders 7Mar 18, 2014 10:30 pm Hi mmorgz We are building the Wild Orchid with Dechellis and haven't started yet. Our footings came in right on par at $25,000. Seems a lot but the soil was a type that can cause a bit of movement over time. Footings are one of the most important things about your home. Without good foundations, your home can have a lot of extra costs in the long run. I would say that the price that they have given you for this would be based on recommendations and similar builds that they may have done in the area. You won't get an exact idea until the report comes back. We looked at Simonds, but decided that their designs were too narrow for the width of our block. If it wasn't for that, we probably would have seriously looked into building with them. They are very good price wise and their homes have lovely, diverse finishes. Our sales rep is Sebastian and we have found him to be wonderful. I can email him at 11pm with questions or requests and he still returns my email within 30 minutes or the next day. There has never been a moment where he hasn't helped us make the right decisions and on many occasions gave us advice as he would do with friends rather than clients. My advice is, do your homework and read up on things and ask as many questions as you need in order to feel peace of mind. After all, it is a huge investment to make. If you have any other questions about Dechellis and learning about first builds, have a read of by thread. It's been a long journey for us. Wishing you all the very best with it all Keep calm and build a house Building a custom plan 'Wild Orchid' with Dechellis Homes at Mallala THIS IS OUR JOURNEY... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64597 Re: First Time home builders 8Mar 30, 2014 7:32 pm Thanks everyone I'm really starting to think that it is the sales rep that is putting me off Dechellis! Do you think it is possible to change reps? We love the Dechellis house but after meeting with a rep from simonds today it has shown me that the attitude of the sales rep for Dechellis is making me want to go somewhere else. We don't love the simonds home but the service we are getting is fantastic so it's making me second guess the whole thing. Feeling confused & overwhelmed!! Re: First Time home builders 9Mar 31, 2014 5:36 am i would ask to change reps. look at other design from other builders too. it is a big decision and you need to be happy. let them know hwere you stand. before i found the builder i used to build my home i had another builder. they took so long . first they were nice then when i asked for a fixed price they kept putting it off even after putting small deposit for soil report. after several months they said to me if i wanted the house i wanted it would have no cupboards or kitchen just a bare shell and were very rude. left them an hour later came across a wonderful sales rep who introduced me to the owners of the company who showed me around the display home. i said i wanted a custom design and within a couple of days had design and price. now i have my dream home and love it all within budget. so if you are not happy leave as it could get worse. Re: First Time home builders 11Sep 23, 2014 2:16 pm Hi mmorgz! Just wondering how you went with deciding on a builder? We are also building at Meadows and chose to go with Devine - their fixed price package was a big selling point! We were told that footings down at Mawson Green would be at least $35,000.... I've started a Mawson Green topic if you're still around I'd love some fellow posters to chat with about the development and our upcoming builds Our build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=77368 Re: First Time home builders 12Oct 05, 2014 8:29 pm Hi Mahalia27, Are you building in Mawson Green or another area of Meadows? Mmorgz, where are you up to so far? Re: First Time home builders 13Oct 10, 2014 10:39 am Many of Adelaide's builders especially at the sales villages offer PC sums or allowances only for foundations. Once the deposit has been paid, the builder will then organise the soil report. Once this has been completed, they will then work out the difference between the actual cost in the standard home and then the cost as per the engineers report and this will then be supplied to you as a variation. Of course the variation will only be the difference between the standard +PC sum and the actual cost. The one way you can check between builders is to organise your own preliminary soil report. Will cost you, but if you can give a copy of this to all the builders you are looking at, they will then be able to give you a closer cost rather than an educated guess which at the end of the day is just a figure that you are happy with at the time of signing. Ask yourself this. If one builder suggests an extra $15,000 and the other suggests an extra $10,000. Which one would you go with and then what happens if it is an extra $18,000? Re: First Time home builders 14Oct 12, 2014 12:30 pm Yes, we have a block in Stage 3 at Mawson Green mercury670 I've started a Mawson Green community thread here - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=73494&hilit=mawson+green Come and jion us! Our build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=77368 So it looks like we finally have some movement on site! Definitely later than expected, but I'll take any progress at this point. I'll drop by over the weekend to get… 5 27708 Can anyone give me any onfo on New Homes WA? Good or bad, hopefully good just need to know if my choice was good or not? Thanks ❤️ 0 8936 Hi All, we are starting to think of building with Masterpiece Builders in Victoria, has anyone had any feedback or experience with them 0 13588 |