Anyone use a building broker?

Albert142 · Aug 26, 2020 11:35 pm

Hi, we have started planning to build our new house and we came across a building broker who said its free of charge for us as they get paid by the builder as a commission. Does anyone have any experience using a building broker? Is it worth hiring them? Any suggestions would be really helpful

StructuralBIMGuy · Aug 27, 2020 9:58 am

Hey Albert142 Welcome to the forum
I think you'll find brokers will be replaced by autodesk 3D Bim technology. ie, virtual homes, zen desks, cloud services,etc
Unfortunately the same problem occurs with brokers, they are independent salesman that design and basically work for several builders on high commissions, problems still occur with cost blowouts and engineering once you sign up, it get's even worse once you are on site
OT they may tell you that you own copyright and the design, but you don't own the variations, engineering and data.
The kings of commissions are architects, even they are getting squeezed down by builders, engineers and autodesk.. interesting times ahead for engineers who incidentally are Trusted and Licensed
Best to pay up front and know what you're getting, than cop it at the rear..so much for a free service

Regards
Chris

Albert142 · Aug 29, 2020 11:36 pm

Hi @Chris thank you for the reply. Yes even we thought it was not really a free service. The builder increases the base price of the house in order to cover the commission for the broker. So we decided against hiring one and dealing with the builders ourselves.

StructuralBIMGuy · Aug 30, 2020 11:10 am

So you're locked in with the broker and the Builder?
BTW Builders honour sales commissions to Brokers all they require is a client lead ie name ,contact
Don't get me wrong if they improve on what they do and offered a more transparent, complete service, which includes Engineering, Data/proofs,Costs,etc (upfront) the battlers and punters might trust them.
my2c, Covid has offered up unemployment, mistrust and a reassessment of a decadent building industry
OT I often get asked why my complete services are cheap my reply is, " Its a fair price for the times we live in"
ie, referencing engineering BIM, technology and automation
Cheers

Albert142 · Aug 30, 2020 11:46 am

No, we decided to deal with the builder directly. We asked for a quote from a builder through the broker and it was almost $15k more expensive than the quote we got from the builder directly.

So we decided we don't want any mediator in between us and the builder, which will be expensive as there will be another mouth to feed. We save money directly dealing with the builder.

StructuralBIMGuy · Aug 30, 2020 12:02 pm

Albert142

So we decided we don't want any mediator in between us and the builder

LOL, The govt and legislators fail to mediate between builders and owners...Brokers have no show whatsoever

Albert142

which will be expensive as there will be another mouth to feed. We save money directly dealing with the builder.

100%.. agreed
Cheers
Chris