Building with Oakford Homes

Hi All,

Has anyone built with Oakford Homes?

I'm meeting the building consultant on Sunday to sign the contract.

Understand I have a long, long wait ahead of me until the keys are actually handed over - the consultant advised a safe estimate would be 18 months from signing. I'm choosing to look at it as more time to save, since I'm going through this process by myself.

The reason I chose Oakford was because they had a floorplan which I really liked and didn't want to make any amendments to (also was a display home which helped) but secondly they were the only builder who actually listened to what my budget was.

I had two consultations with a prominent steel-framed builder. Was very up front about what my budget was. They provided the quote for what their 'turn key package' was (which was roughly right where my budget was, but I said I didn't need a turn key package, so let's start from the ground up and let's include what I want to include (the design from this builder was coincidentally also a display home, with a few key features that I wanted included in my build.

The consultant is running through the list with me "do you want to add this?" repeat x50.

"I would like to, but I feel I've been saying yes to a few extra things so I probably shouldn't be adding this"

"Oh no honestly I think you're going to fit this in comfortably"

I end up walking out feeling good and feeling like what I wanted was achievable based on their attitude and words.... get the quote back.... over $50k more than what I told them my budget was.

On top of this they told me they'd send someone out to site to try and do what was required for the footings. "We tried to get access but they've put a fence around your block"

I'm thinking oh ok awesome there's some movement now on the land! (was meant to register in October/November 2021) This was a Thursday. I go to my land the Friday after work.... no fence..... exactly has it has been each time I've gone there.

Disgusting taste left in my mouth with that builder.

Then another two builders did the exact same thing - "oh this is what it will roughly be, with everything necessary included"..... the real quote comes back and they once again balloon past the budget.

Do they seriously think people are just going to respond "oh haha yeah let's proceed, I was only joking when I said my budget was $50k less"

My fingers are crossed it will be smoother sailing ahead now after Sunday.

Hi rocketfish11,
A bit of a late reply.

We have built with Oakford (a number of years ago now).
Our experience was good, our sales consultant was fantastic. Upfront about costs, and very quick to reply to any questions. Worked within out budget.

We are considering buying land/ building again and would go with Oakford again. Just not sure about how much prices have risen since we last built.

How are things progressing with you?

Hey rocketfish, how are things progressing with Oakford, I am looking at them at the moment. I've hard a lot of good things, waiting to get an early estimate from one of their consultants.

I have to say, the consultant is not the best salesman, as hes been quite standoffish with me and I seamt o have to press him for information. The opposite expereicne to what I have had talking with Metricon so far, but with all the metricon horror stories I am mindful that a good sales team member doesn't mean a good builder.

We have signed up to build with Oakford, we brought our own house design to them that would fit on our block.
Just finalised all the selections and ready to proceed.

Hi Paul,

How long has it taken you to get to this point (from bringing them a floor plan) and have they given you a guide on time to finish the build?

Original estimate to build was 9 months. I am expecting them to provide an updated timeline now we have final build spec.

With regards to how long has it taken to get to this point is probably not worth being used as an estimate as we started talking to them a few months before Covid hit the country and we were not in a rush to push the process through. We are interstate so all communications have been email or phone, but we insisted on completing the selections in person (hence the delay from covid).

Thanks Paul

Hi all,

After a few months of looking at other builders and getting estimates etc (we have our own plan from a previous attempt to build that didn't progress) and have just paid the preliminaries deposit with Oakford. Their quote was quite reasonable and the consultant was very helpful.

We are going to build at Mt Barker. I would be interested to hear of others experiences with Oakford, how close was the original quote to what the final contract price was, was the footings estimate accurate, and were you able to supply any items yourself e.g taps etc, or have other trades install things like air cond before handover?

Appreciate everyone's advise and insights, with costs going up and house prices potentially coming down any advise is appreciated.

Thanks

Matt

If you haven't had a soil and prelim engineers report then likely Oakford would have just quoted bare basic footings. So I'd prepare for an additional cost there (we're with a different builder and they've added 35k for example).

I would also guess that there will be additional things added once you sit down with them again and go through more details. Hopefully they're fairly genuine and this won't be significant though.

Thanks Stonesthrow,

Footings has been an interesting one, with estimates from other builders ranging up to $60k, Oakford estimate was $38k, didn't specify what soil type but was told they build a lot up at Mt barker and would have used an average.

Doing a lot after the build, landscaping, driveway and paths, flooring etc so will be watching overall cost closely, its a fairly large house and not a lot of comparable properties in the area, so will be watching valuations closely.

At the moment told from deposit to handover could be 22 months, I expect it wont be that long as the industry starts to get back to normal next year, i hope.

Matt

We also got told 22-24 months from start to finish. Our builder made up some rubbish justification (delays with getting quotes, council, materials, trades) but I am assuming they're still very overwhelmed from existing work that they're just stalling with new clients. We've been stuck in pretty much the same position since March/April (we've had all the prelim stuff done) and the builder pretty much never gets back to us with updates.

We would be fine to wait as long as they were just honest with us. I would ask Oakford to break down the estimated timing (clearly) so at least you're not in the dark like we are.

Yep definitely plan to ask for a more accurate estimate. The consultant did say that a lot of the backlog is starting to move through, combination of first homeowner grant builds and covid delays, allowing for a few months to get though the planning stages would like to think its going to ease up.

Who are you building with, i'm the same as long as they keep me informed thats all I ask, although we do settle on the land next month so would rather not have to keep it maintained for 18 months if possible,

Yeah that's what we thought Things might be getting better but very slowly.