Need help choosing Builder!!

Hi fellas,

I have recently bought a land in Jubile, Wyndham Vale.

Can you please rate the builders among (Carlisle, Metricon, Henley, Hotondo and Burbank) primarily in terms of 3 parameters (in order of priority)-

1) Customer service (includes willingness to do fixes during build)
2) Quality of finished house
3) Value for money

Personal experience with these builders would be greatly appreciated. TIA

Go2force,

My advise out of these options is as follows.

1. Metricon
2.Henley
3. Hotondo
4. Carlsile
5. Burbank.

However if you are building in the west you cannot go past Homebuyers at the moment as they are building a very good home.

Small Minds.

Thanks for the inputs Small Minds. I will have a look at them as well! BTW do you know how is Homebuyers with modifications? Cheers

Don't go with metricon if you want customer service. I have a lot of friends who have built with them and they are the worst. Their admin is really bad. I have heard from other small builders that they will not match metricon prices as they use substandard materials.

I am also planning to get a land and start building but eliminated metricon as the reviews were very bad.

Consider Carlisle or Dennis Family

Hey go2force - since you are building in Melbourne, any particular reason why you are not considering Porter Davis ?

Didn't like any floor plan. Secondly, have heard a lot of awful stories for PD! Has your experience been any better?

Hey Currypot - where are you planning to buy land (city/state)?

What is the reason that you will be choosing Carlisle or DennisFamily ? Currently am looking to build in Melbourne so wanted to ask. Also what have you heard about PorterDavis and Burbank and Henley and Hotondo and Homebuyer that you care to share?

First time land buyer and builder, so have been looking at PD but have not committed to them yet (eg: have not signed any paperwork). We had to go thru a lot of PD floor plans as we don't want the main bedroom & ensuite to be located as you enter from the front door, was very hard to find a PD that matched

I personally found Carlisle's Langholm and Henley's Amalfi best suited to my needs. Their inclusions are pretty good as well

They both look real good, and single storey like we are looking for.

Noticed that both above are in the $275,000 to $299,000 range - is there any reason why that is when there are builds for low $200,000? Do the cheaper $200,000 to $215,000 builds have a lot of things missing and hence its better to straight away go for the $275,000 - $299,000 build, also thinking of long-term?

If you look at Carlisle and Henley's inclusions, you won't probably need to add much after this unless you want crazy upgrades. I requested Metricon a quote for their floorplan Hayman 29 with changes that are included in Carlisle/Henley and the price I got was 290k. Still the Metricon quote lacked few things. FYI, Metricon's based price for Hayman 29 was 226k, Btw where are you building?

Thanks for that go2force, very informative. So did you have to sit and go thru and see what each one was offering and compare? Would have taken a lot of time (but well worth it). Looking to build in Donnybrook (but also look in as a possible backup: Wollert and Mickleham) as we want to spend < $299,000 on the land, to build a single-storey 4-bed 2-garage 2-toilet 2-shower

As at right now what is your personal order of preference of the 5 builders you listed (Hotondo , Carlisle , Henley , Metricon , Burbank)? After reading your posts we are now looking at Carlisle and Hotondo and Henley and DennisFamily (after Currypot recommended them)

Yes TeslaCyberTruck, going through the list of inclusions is a must. That's the only way you can compare value for money with each volume builder. I have heard Hotondo allows modifications if you're after some.

I am leaning towards Carlisle and Henley, so my likely order right now Carlisle, Henley, Hotondo, Metricon and Burbank. May change once I drill down into further details. Also, considering Arden at this stage but they are a tad expensive.

Spoke with Hotondo (South Morang) yesterday and their sales agent was really good, now just waiting to hear back from them via email with some more details. Had not heard of Arden until you mentioned and their houses look good but looks like (price-wise) they are next level up from Carlisle / Henley / Hotondo

Do keep us all posted and up-to-date as to who you go with in the end

I would suggest that you stay well away from all mentioned in your post other than Hotondo. Also look at Homebuyers and Dennis. These guys build good homes and welcome private inspectors.

Small Minds

Thanks Small Minds, will keep everyone posted of the progress

Consider Hotondo Homes business model. They are brand franchise business, not a builder. The registered builders are different, and independent in each location therefore only the franchise driven marketing and sales processes will be consistent.

Thanks Norfolk, we have been in contact with Hotondo South Morang and Hotondo Wallan. Bit hard to get to a Hotondo display home though as they are pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Did notice the sales staff at Hotondo are much more calmer and relaxed. How are the quality and look of Hotondo homes in the $200,000 - $275,000 range (compared to DennisFamily / Carlisle / Henley)?

Are DennisFamily homes (price wise) in the same range as Hotondo? Or more in the next level up like Arden?

I built with Metricon in NSW in 2017 their business model and processes are consistent across Australia. Based on my experience I would not recommend them. Most volume builders would use the same pool of available low cost contractors operating in the area and national suppliers, as well as residential building project management software. Their marketing and display homes may be different but the end product and its quality pretty much the same. Most have no meaningful quality assurance processes for during the build phase. Such a process requires skilled labour which is too expensive for their business model. This is up to you. Some customers will notice poor workmanship but many won't, or won't care. Ask the builders salesperson to detail their build phase quality assurance process in writing to back up any broad statements they make about this.

Thanks Norfolk. Re: 'residential building project management software' is that a bad thing? Have no idea what this software you mention is. What does a builder like Hotondo use instead of that software? Also guessing that Hotondo would have their set crew who work on their homes unlike volume builders who use random use local low cost contractors as you mentioned

Will ask the salesperson to 'detail their build phase quality assurance process in writing' as you recommended

You make a great point about people (clients) not caring once they move in (or use it as an investment property) and the volume builder build has defects, as they would not want to mention it to others out of shame (eg: people telling them "ha! told you not to use a volume builder, and I told you to use Hotondo / HomeBuyer instead!")