Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 31, 2009 9:01 pm Dear all,
After shopping for a builder for a while, I've talked to some BIG builders like NBG, BurBank, M3tricon, H3nley, Sim0nds, AV Jennings, etc ... Also some smaller builders like Boutique, Mega Homes, Nava Homes, Urban Edge, etc ... For those who is about to put down a deposit or already put down a deposit after your careful comparison, which builders would you recommend for maybe VALUE or FLEXIBILITY?? eg. M3tricon's Milano 30 (30sq) has the base price of $175K, with their kick start promotion, they cut that $175K by $16K ==> $159K for 30sq House. But then again, they start to charge almost everything like site cost, carpet & tiles, driveway, high ceiling, stone benchtop, overhead cupboards, etc etc ... So looking at the base price alone (ie. $159K for 30sq) is not bad, then once you add up the bits & pieces, the final cost will start to become expensive ~ On the other spectrum, Nava Homes' base price for a 27sq house is around $190K, but then they give away 2.7m high ceiling, including H-Class, termite protection, driveway, carpet & tiles ... etc ... So basically after you compare Apple to Apple, which builder (s) will you recommended for Reasonable Quotation or Best Value? Thanks for shaing as I am about to put down a deposit in the next 3 days, just want to make sure I didn't miss any good builder when I do my home work. Cheers Wallace Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 2Jan 31, 2009 10:07 pm Hi again Wallace
you are just like me, a diligent buyer! yaay to us. I did heaps of research like you have, and you know I went with N3va, so I don't need to go on about that. But really, for me, it came down to what the builder offered that I did or didn't want. For example, if Builder A is offering free ducted cooling, but I'm a greeny, then I probably wouldn't value that freebie. But if Builder B is offering free landscaping, and I have to have that, then I would take Building B over Building A in this example. Every builder, I found, tended to offer something different, and it was a matter of finding out what they did before I would know if they could offer me the best value for money. Being able to change/personalise the floorplan was compulsory for me, so that ruled out the big builders (who I think rip you off with their (some necessary) upgrades and indeterminable at the time of signing their contract - site costs). That left me with a bunch of middle to smaller builders, to choose from. I listed what I wanted in my new home - and rang around to get some idea of prices. That's how I ended up where I am - and I'm really happy so far. The last thing is word of mouth (regarding quality/service). Always search the forum for comments about building companies to see if they are getting good feedback or bad - and why. GOOD LUCK CHIEF! I'm dying to hear who you pick - and which design! Annie A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 3Jan 31, 2009 10:18 pm the other thing that was important to us was actual start dates, we finalised our floorplans on Friday, and we are signing contracts this Monday! We expect a start date of about 6wks from now. most of the big builders would not be able to do this. A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 4Feb 01, 2009 12:28 am Wallace,
I know you've mentioned you've looked at quite a few builders, have a quick look at builder "Frenken". They're not a small builder, nor a large builder; however, from what I have seen they've got some nice floor plans and their display homes are exactly what you get (so no furniture scattered throughout the house). I'm not entirely sure on your location, but Frenken are in Melbourne. They've got a couple of display homes in Pakenham. Their website is http://www.frenkenhomes.com.au Kind regards, Big Red Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 5Feb 01, 2009 12:42 am Thanks Annie for your feedback, I've done lots of homework between the BIG Builders ~ But for smaller builder, I feel like it's not enough ~ I am quite familar with the way M3tricon, Henley or PD charges on most of the items I want ~
But for smaller builders, so far Nava is a good one. But there might be other builders similar or even better than Nava. So I think it's not complete to compare smaller builder vs BIG builders ~ It will be better to compare Nava (in this case) with a similar size builder who offers good value & being flexible ~ then if I still choose Nava at the end, it will make my day There are a few things I don't quite like about Nava so far are ~ 1). the sales consultant himself has NO EMAIL address whatsoever so you couldn't communicate with him or email him the floor plans (and vice versa), end up he has to fax me the quotation, etc ... I just couldn't really accept any sales consultant has NO EMAIL in 2009 And he doesn't seem to be able to email me at home too, so all the time he tries to convince me to see him on display house (face to face communication only) which is quite a pain for me (as my car is half damaged) ~ For me if a sales consultant has no Internet at home or he doesn't want to email his client from home (walk that extra mile), that triggers an alarm of me ~ as I do believe Internet access from display house is a minimum investment for any builder (and virtually ANY business). So if they are cutting the cost of Internet on display house (which is only less than $60 a month), then what else can they cut when building your home? 2). Their own floor plans are NOT detailed enough ~ while they are in great colour and there is descriptions of the total area in living, garage, etc ... There are no dimensions whatsoever in their floor plans so you could only guess but cannot be sure how big is each room exactly ~ It will give you a rough idea but make it impossible to compare the size of the room (especially bedrooms) when looking at their floor plans 3). There are certain cost which should be pretty much fixed, as the house goes bigger, usually the "Cost Per Square" should drop down quite dramatically ~ I am not comparing Nava with PD or Henley, but trying to compare their own 22sq house to their 32sq house, but I find that the Cost Per Square only drops from $7000/sq to $6800/sq ~ 4). While I do think their inclusion lists are impressive, but the base price for their 27sq house is around $190K, so once you take out those site cost, driveway, high ceiling, etc ... (the value is around $30K), that leaves them the base price for a 27sq house at $160K which could be more expensive compared to BigM's Milano 30 (30 sq) at $159 (after u took out the $16K kick start promotion) ~ So if comparing Nava (and most builders) in that way, their value starts to drop as well ~ And so far it doesn't seem you and me are happy with their own floor plans (that also say something about them). For me to consider them, the biggest and only selling point will be their flexibility in building and customise your own floor plans, that's the biggest attraction I would agree Apart from that, I am not really impressed with their display houses (and that does worry me) ~ Not sure if anyone has finished a house with Nava has something to say about the overall quality and maybe how professional their Supervisor really is ~ But it will be great if you could share the builders that you think offer good value (eg. Nava, etc), so we get to compare Apple with Apple ~ time to sleep as tomorrow need to check Quantum Homes in Tainet Nite Nite folks ... Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 6Feb 01, 2009 12:45 am bigred Wallace, I know you've mentioned you've looked at quite a few builders, have a quick look at builder "Frenken". They're not a small builder, nor a large builder; however, from what I have seen they've got some nice floor plans and their display homes are exactly what you get (so no furniture scattered throughout the house). I'm not entirely sure on your location, but Frenken are in Melbourne. They've got a couple of display homes in Pakenham. Their website is http://www.frenkenhomes.com.au Kind regards, Big Red Thank you for sharing ~ Yes, I am in Melbourne and my land is in Kurunjang (Melton - 40km North West of Melbourne) ~ It's great to see a display house with some "honesty" as so many builders have tried to impress the buyers with $50 to $100K EXTRA inclusion ~ so end up I have to use my imagination to strip everything (plus the furnitures/landscaping/facade) off the house to see what I will get and what I am paying for in real Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 7Feb 01, 2009 6:34 am I absolutely agree with everything you say Wallace, I still found Nava best for me (so far!!!)
If you are checking out Quantum Homes, aren't they in the Rise, check out Sheridan Homes while you are there... Annie A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 8Feb 01, 2009 7:27 am Good luck on your adventure.
Cant wait to see who you picked. As For us we are in Sydney so i don't think our info would help you. But good luck any ways John, Tarin and the Kids Built and moving in to the Regent Grande with Masterton homes http://thebrownsaremovingtothecountry.blogspot.com Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 9Feb 01, 2009 4:19 pm wallacetai Thank you for sharing ~ Yes, I am in Melbourne and my land is in Kurunjang (Melton - 40km North West of Melbourne) ~ It's great to see a display house with some "honesty" as so many builders have tried to impress the buyers with $50 to $100K EXTRA inclusion ~ so end up I have to use my imagination to strip everything (plus the furnitures/landscaping/facade) off the house to see what I will get and what I am paying for in real Yeah, display homes like that really irritate me to be honest. I know they're trying to showcase what your house could be like, but I really haven't found any display home I've liked. Tend to find a lot of them are terribly disgusting in colour choice, dark lighting (downlights are horrible if you ask me), terrible use of cinema rooms, rumpus rooms with pool tables that won't allow you to fit anything other than 7 foot table in (although that's more related to floor plan). Even worse is when they've got a living room with a 50" plastic plasma, but the seating is too close for proper viewing of the screen. Small things like that really bug me when I look at the display homes. Probably why I decided to buy a house with no display home for it! Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 11Mar 05, 2009 9:50 pm Wallace, which house and builder did you finally choose? Long time no see. Built the Atlantique 37 Mk2 with Carlisle Homes - WE'RE IN!! Building thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=14413 ATLANTIQUE 37 MK2 PHOTOS THREAD - updated 22nd August '09 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=22399 Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 12Jul 13, 2009 12:15 pm Nava homes. Great that you can modify their designs. The negative side of it was it took well half a year to even have the contract drawn and plans done correctly, each time went back to Architect they modified incorrectly, the home was not what we asked for and they didn't correct what was needed. Upgrades were not looked into , it took months to gather information, delays after delays. Emails sent were not responded or acted upon, phone calls to them were not always answered and dealt with appropriately. The home is satisfactory, The stress and headaches we had gone through to have the home we wanted and were paying big bucks for was far less than satisfactory. They were happy to point out you needed to pay upfront payments to move along, but moving along like a snail is what they did. People skills and communication between themselves was shocking, actually they lacked communication and made mistake after mistake causing unnecessary delays on our part. Starting from sales people to the office people. As it is a family business, their jobs are secure so what the heck, who wants to chase things up and do what the customers wants, so as a builder whom encourages to alter designs and customer comes up with own and they build it, they are NOT what you call bright enough nor professional enough to follow things through and do what they need to do efficiently. Also who gives a damn would be an appropriate motto for this company. As they cant see outside the square and modification are too much work for them. So if you want to build their standard home go for it, I am sure they will muck that up too. Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 13Jul 13, 2009 12:43 pm We are looking at signing with Places Homes. Have found their prices and inclusions to be great. Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 14Jul 13, 2009 12:57 pm You know Places were my first choice until I slipped onto Nava, I should have followed my Gut Instinct when i noticed all the delays and errors and should have gone back to Places and built the Glendale which was a nice looking comfortable home. Good luck and all the best on your choice.. Re: Reasonable Quotations & Best Value Builders, WHO? 15Jul 13, 2009 1:46 pm mia_casa You know Places were my first choice until I slipped onto Nava, I should have followed my Gut Instinct when i noticed all the delays and errors and should have gone back to Places and built the Glendale which was a nice looking comfortable home. Good luck and all the best on your choice.. hi mia - I find your post amusing, our journey with nava has been the complete opposite to what you describe, who did you deal with a Nava??? A thankful person is a happy person. 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