Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 23, 2008 12:24 pm Hi all,
I just found this site and I have to say its a great help, but it has also turned me off the idea of building, I didn't realise so many things could go wrong, and how long the actual process takes, its not like they tell you that at the sales office. I have been around display villages and found 3 builders that have the house design im after, 1 Simonds 2 Av Jennings 3 Burbank Problem is during my research on this site they have all suffered a hell of alot of bad reviews.. so I have a few questions that I thought I might ask and get your input on.. 1) In general what is the average time frame to build a new house and land package, I mean from the moment you hand over your small deposit and agree to go to the next stage, before contracts and the like, with added extras but no design changes. 2) do all house and land packages require progress payments, or are there some builders that say take a 10% deposit and require the rest at completion 3) what builders would you recommend based on your own experiences. The time factor is important, as the house im living in will have to be sold. IE put on the market and sold around the same time, or atleast a few weeks after the new house is finished. thanks Re: New to site, confused now, to build or not. 2Nov 23, 2008 12:31 pm Welcome!
fully I just found this site and I have to say its a great help, but it has also turned me off the idea of building, I didn't realise so many things could go wrong, and how long the actual process takes, its not like they tell you that at the sales office. But remember if you buy an established house - things could go wrong behind the walls. Or if you renovate! Quote: 1) In general what is the average time frame to build a new house and land package, I mean from the moment you hand over your small deposit and agree to go to the next stage, before contracts and the like, with added extras but no design changes. Tricky - assuming you can get your plans approved by your local council (without hassles) - I'd say 9-12 months. Quote: 2) do all house and land packages require progress payments, or are there some builders that say take a 10% deposit and require the rest at completion All require progress payments - no builder I've ever heard of would allow you to pay 90% on completion - they need cash to pay carpenters, electricians etc - and if you don't make progress payments - they don't have the cash to pay tradespeople. Quote: 3) what builders would you recommend based on your own experiences. I'm in NSW so I can't help too much - we don't have Simonds or Burbank. Porter Davis appear to have a good reputation down your way.[/quote] After 4 years - we're in! Re: New to site, confused now, to build or not. 3Nov 23, 2008 1:09 pm Quote: 2) do all house and land packages require progress payments, or are there some builders that say take a 10% deposit and require the rest at completion Yes, that is a possibility, and we bought our first home that way. They're called "spec" homes. The builder contracts to buy land from a developer and speculates that he can build a house and sell it before he's required to hand over anything much in the way of cash for the land purchase.... The big builders don't do it though, and you'd be taking pot luck as far as designs go. You'd also have far less say in colour schemes, upgrades and the like, especially if you buy when construction is well underway. If you buy "off the plan", before any work starts, you might get quite a bit of choice. Your best bet is to check the local paper for the area you want to live in, and do the rounds of the real estate agents as well. Look for ads for new homes with something along the lines of "Buy now and save on stamp duty". Or just drive around new estates and look for homes under construction with For Sale signs in the front yard. You might not find exactly what you want, but spec homes can be good value. Just like building or buying an established home though, you need to do your research and know the market, plus get a bit of background on the builder - you don't want to be dealing with the ******* Brothers. Some will throw in floor coverings, driveways and fencing too, so that's something to look for. One other plus is that these homes tend to be completed quickly, since the builder is keen to get hold of your cash. I've seen speccies around my way go from bare dirt to owners moving in within 4 months - and the initial deposit is usually paid somewhere inside that timeframe. My own experience with one of these homes was that the quality of the build was pretty crap and we got no nice little extras. But that was over 20 years ago - the ones I've seen these days are a whole other story.[/i] Re: New to site, confused now, to build or not. 4Nov 23, 2008 3:07 pm I think there are a lot of people who use this forum to learn lots of information but you don't see them posting much once their houses are on their way unless they have problems. In other words this forum may present more of the bad than the good. Fi has moved in!! Re: New to site, confused now, to build or not. 5Nov 23, 2008 8:46 pm Hi, fully.
Go ahead and build. Thousands of people do it every year; if you wait another 12 months then all you will be doing is getting older living in your present house! You obviously want to build, so why delay? Don't let other peoples disappointments scare you. The bad experiences you read about on Homeone give you ammunition to know what to look out for. If the timing is a factor, and you're worried about being homeless before your new house is completed, consider selling your house now and renting it back from the buyer. If settlement is early enough and you put the money in an online savings account then the interest you will earn from it should pay for the rent. Take the plunge. Come on in, the water's fine! Re: New to site, confused now, to build or not. 6Nov 23, 2008 9:03 pm Welcome!
Well things can go wrong when people rush without much knowledge...so better to spend time understanding the process and different builders . 1. Within a year(assuming the land is ready to build) like 5 to 7 months depending on the builder and the house(obviously a big house will take longer to build) 2. Yes progress payments at the completion of each stage including a small deposit at the start(we paid 5%) 3. Im not sure where you are living other than in Australia...but Porter Davis is very good, Simonds and Burbank are also good..ever heard of M3tricon? or Henley? check them out too if you havent. Re: New to site, confused now, to build or not. 7Nov 23, 2008 9:23 pm One factor which I see coming up again and again on this forum is that of time. Towards the end of a build many people seem to be desperate to move in and that dramatically weakens their negotiating strength and above all their resolve to get things fixed before handover.
It may be because the build has already run way over time, or that they need to give notice on a rental, or just the continuing costs and inconvenience. Whatever the reason, if you can engineer it so that you're not in a hurry it may give you a much greater chance to ensure everything is done right. Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves. - Dale Carnegie Re: New to site, confused now, to build or not. 8Nov 24, 2008 12:58 am Hey thanks everyone for your replies, its help heaps, its funny how little most people know at the start of this process, all i have seen is ads like, move into your new home in 20weeks etc, im guessing thats once they actually start the process
By the way im in Melbourne i forgot to add that and planning on building in williams landing or close to it. One other question i forgot to ask and its a biggy lol , Neg' price, how does it work when it comes to house and land packages??? I have no idea, is it anything like buying a new car? cause I tend to be really good at that, years of practice..Or are the packages pretty firm price wise, im sure there is money in it, just wondering how you going about striking a deal with the extras you want, I would love to hear your experiences.. Thanks again first home advice, home loan advice, construction loan 9Nov 24, 2008 2:20 am fully I didn't realise so many things could go wrong, and how long the actual process takes, its not like they tell you that at the sales office. I gather you are not a first home buyer as you haven't mentioned the $24,000 First Home Owners Grant. Some people here won't like me saying this but you pay a lot of interest if you are starting your construction project by buying land with a small deposit and settling before construction starts. If you don't have a large contribution in terms of equity in your current home or saved deposit, think hard whether it will drain your finances. Take into account the rent you have to pay (during construction) as well if you are going to sell your current home to buy the land. In terms of negotiation, my customers find that they can negotiate extra inclusions rather than on price. A developer in Western Sydney is also offering not to invoice progress payments (saving you interest on your construction loan) until project completion rather than the "free" inclusions package. Re: New to site, confused now, to build or not. 10Nov 24, 2008 9:07 am YOu will find there's not much room for negotiation in house & land packages especially whe it's been fixed (ie. fixed price).
Watch out for the builders who want to offer you 'freebies' to get you in the front door and all of a sudden you're paying through the nose for site costs. At the end of the day you will be borrowing money to pay for the free stuff so it's not worth it. Keep an eye out for builders who are selling fixed price house & land. Don't fall for the "Freebies" scam Re: New to site, confused now, to build or not. 11Nov 24, 2008 10:24 am fully so I have a few questions that I thought I might ask and get your input on.. 1) In general what is the average time frame to build a new house and land package, I mean from the moment you hand over your small deposit and agree to go to the next stage, before contracts and the like, with added extras but no design changes. 2) do all house and land packages require progress payments, or are there some builders that say take a 10% deposit and require the rest at completion 3) what builders would you recommend based on your own experiences. The time factor is important, as the house im living in will have to be sold. IE put on the market and sold around the same time, or atleast a few weeks after the new house is finished. thanks 1. Depending on if the land is ready to be title, ours timeline, we signed up January 26th, very aussie things to do land settled 23rd May, house started 30th June, now about 21weeks later we are in the final (annoying!) stage of little things to complete before settlement! i was told by our CSO that on avg a single story house should be able to get built within 20 weeks quicker if you have no delays! BUT what l didnt know till i built, your house may be finishes within this time you need to allow for your PCI and those things to be fixed, your Certificate of Occupancy, arrangment of settlement, l'd say adds an extra month onto the process!!! 2. As far as i know they do, they will do draw downs through with the completion of each stage, we build with $imonds thats how they did it, but its not too bad, helps you get into the feel of paying the loan, the depressing bit, nothing comes off it cause its 'interest' only! 3. im one of the lucky ones who didnt have too many big problems with $imonds, based on my experience i would recommend them, others here wouldnt, l think you'll find with a lot of the 'big' boys you'll have your fair share of good experiences and bad as well, they would all build endless number of houses each year some will be good and some will be bad (l know around my area there is about 10 $imonds homes, thats in one stage of one estate!). Communication wasnt the best for us like others with $imonds BUT also it wasnt as bad as others, 9 times out of 10 got a call back, and never really had to chase things too much! would have been nice if they called us, but we tended to do the calls. lve read some of the stories here l really do feel for them, thats what makes me realise even more we were lucky! (mind you still havent finished just yet) so l should say so far we have been quite lucky!! Few little things here and there their nothing compared to others experiences! The quality of the workmanship, so far we are happy, our PCI we picked up on 8 really little things, for us cost was a big deal, and we found $imonds VERY affordable, first home we didnt want a huge mortgage, they have a few extras that other builders charge for as standard, little things but in the long run has saved us more cause we would have had to do it ourselves or we would have upgraded to it! l think you need to decide what house you like, sit down with a sale consultant, see what each one is offering and what suits your needs and your budget every ones experience is different Re: New to site, confused now, to build or not. 12Nov 25, 2008 8:42 am Land title is probably the single most likely delay. Your build contract will be fixed length (somewhere between 7 and 9 months), but your little patch of land may not title for anywhere up to 2 years after you've bought it.
Most builders will follow the standard progress payments, as has been mentioned before. You won't get a custom house built without progress payments. You could get the same result by buying a display home perhaps? We built with urbanedge and couldn't possibly be any happier... I couldn't recommend them enough (although their designs certainly do not suit all tastes!) It is also highly unlikely that you'll be able to negotiate on price. The best you can hope for is to get discounted upgrades or something... but they're usually already in set packages anyway. Alan and Thuy in Melbourne Building a second time! 9 24643 For reference, this is the Austlii reference. My take on this is, that they would be breaking the law denying access to a homeowner in Victoria, or their agent from having… 1 9067 If this is a custom build then I would expect the builder to set out the door frame closer to the wall to avoid the gap between architrave and the wall and or specify… 9 8287 |