Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 23, 2009 8:42 pm Hello everyone. We are almost ready to put down our first few dollars and have negotiated with National builders group and with master*line homes.
the latter is building a larger house with fewer inclusions. the former offers a 2.5 sq smaller house with all sorts of luxury inclusions. any advice or RECENT experience with either of hthese builders is appreciated. thank you. Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 2Jan 23, 2009 8:47 pm you know you should search NBG in the search option (top right corner of this web page) because a couple of forum guys were bagging NGB pretty badly the other night - might be a good read for you or PM them for more info.
I don't have experience with either, but I didn't find NBG good value for money for exactly the reason you say, more inclusions, less building!!! You got it in one. work out which is more important to you and let that be a guide (amongst other considerations of course!) good luck let us know which way you go! A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 3Jan 23, 2009 10:48 pm I'm building with NBG and I think your experience is really based upon which builder you get assigned and I have no idea how you guarantee that you get a good one. My decision to build was made more upon getting the floor plan that I wanted than inclusions. Saying that I'm having so far a fairly stressfree build - my main complaint being time. Fi has moved in!! Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 4Jan 24, 2009 5:43 am Has anyone built with master_line homes or they're also known as in-style living. its a builder from mornington?
another question I have is: are we given a set of keys for the site fencing to have access to the house while construction is happening? Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 5Jan 24, 2009 8:56 am Our site fencing has never been locked. We would be lucky if they close the gates and tie it with a bit of wire but most of the time one of the gates is left half open. Fi has moved in!! Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 6Jan 24, 2009 10:01 am Hi guys,
We have signed with NBG. We found them to be much better value than a lot of other companies and we are on a pretty tight budget, some of the other main companies were way out of our reach. The houses seem to be finished to a high standard with good inclusions so we didn't need to upgrade on anything that we would have had to with some of the others. However, it is all down to personal choice about floor plans etc. So far, have been very happy with our dealings with NBG. The sales person we delt with was great, and our liasons with the head office have also been really good. Our build hasn't started yet, so that remains to be seen! but we have had to speak to the builder and we have spoken to him a couple of times now and are confident with him. Good luck Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 7Jan 24, 2009 9:18 pm we're building with NBG at the moment- we picked them as that was the house we wanted...
our builder runs a bit hot and cold- sometimes things are great- it took 2 months from start to lockup- but now we are facing some probs and its as if he doesn't really care... he's got 90% of our money so I guess we're not a priority anymore! send me any questions if you want anthea Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 8Jan 25, 2009 6:49 am We attended a meeting with NBG yesterday and since have decided not to build with them.
They sent in the sales reps' boss to discuss our plans (maybe cause the sales rep couldn't handle all the questions that i had?) and his customer service was atrocious. And most of all, he had absolutely no idea what he was talking about re: soil tests. He was really pushy and basically said if you don't give us $1000, we're not going to deal with you anymore. I said fine. The End. PS. I have since talked to two customers of Master_line homes who now have just finished building and have settled into their new homes. They are more than happy enough to even build more investment homes with the same builder. We have decided to contract with Master_line homes and I will keep you guys informed regarding the stage to stage outcome. PPS. If you are building with NBG, make sure you get an independent assessment of site costs. They will charge you an arm and a leg for site costs in order to cover their fancy inclusions they throw in. Don't fall for this and think the house is cheap, they may charge you over 200% profit margin on the site costs. How do i know this? I am an engineer and have already obtained site costs before discussing with NBG. We are on dead flat land that has been filled to A. Standards3798. Our site costs shouldn't exceed $1000 if that. NBG said it may cost up to $40,000. Go figure... good luck with building everyone. but just remember....every big builder has a trap and nothing comes for free.... Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 9Jan 25, 2009 3:10 pm Hi,
We too had the same experience with NBG. We went to tender stage with them and the site costs were astronomical - approx 34000. When we went later to M3tricon the site costs reduced to about 16000. There is no doubt that NBG tries to recoup some of their cheap price by inflating the site costs. Our tender presenter also made glaring errors with calculations and it took days for them to admit they were wrong. By then we had completely lost faith and had moved on. Dale. Building the Monaco 32 with Carlisle Homes Check out our blog for photos and progress reports: http://www.beigefreehouse.blogspot.com . Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 10Jan 25, 2009 6:52 pm It will be interesting to see what they say
about our block, as our land is very much like what T-FBuilder has described. I am nervous to say the least about signing with them. Arrrgghhhh we are running out of time and don't have many other builders willing to build in our area. Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 11Jan 26, 2009 4:21 am Be very careful if decide to build with NBG, We are in the process of building through their HN division, and got allocated a builder who;
Delayed our project by at least 2 months, Doesn't communicate, Isn't too fond of independant inspectors going through, and the list goes on. We also weren't impressed that he wanted to put a phone conduit in for a substantial extra amount even though we were told our fixed price contract includes all service connections. (Apparantly a phone isn't considered an essential service) We found out Telstra puts the conduit in for free so long as the trench is there, so I'll dig my own trench out after handover. When I quizzed him on where the conduit would go, the answer was in the electric trench in its own conduit! So was trying to double dip!! He had to dig the trench anyway, and wanted extra $$$ for a bit of pipe which Telstra put in for free! (The cheeky bugger!) Plans were back and forth about 6 times (All NBG's stuff-ups) before the permits were issued etc. After all the issues we've had, we wouldn't recommend them at all, and we only went with them in the first place as the floorplan really suited what we were after. so please be careful if you do choose them. Re: National Builders Group or Master_line homes? 12Apr 03, 2009 10:32 pm We too are building with NBG, As per previous poster, please do you research on the assigned builder as NBG assigns an independent builder to do the job and your contract will be with the builder and not NBG. Ask for a list of previously built homes. Ensure he has built the design you're wanting in the past. Document every single issue which arises no matter how small as you go along as evidence just in case. All the best! I would never build with Fowler homes. I built with them in 2021 and till date maintenance issues are pending. All their existing trades and businesses don't work with… 14 105557 4 14463 First time poster long story short we are planning knocking down rebuilding a house in Wavell Heights We are thinking to go with Omni built homes as they are but flexible… 0 16278 |