Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 02, 2009 6:56 pm We fall in love with Wisdom and EB floor plan but our budget is very tight ($300K). Can anyone help with the extras?
Basic price i.e $230K (around that price, it's not package price) Here comes our extra budget (draft only): Facade: $15K Carpet & tiling: DIY $15K Site cost : $20K???-- Not quite sure about it. The salesman told us that if it's H class then we only need to pay $3.9K for the site cost??? But other builders told me it's from $15K up to $35K. Not quite sure about it. We have an old house now and it's reasonably flat. I'll say it's only 1m from left to right. Knock down: $15K. --It's a fibro house so not sure if we can get it done cheaply or not Air-con provision: $3.5K --Tight budget so provision only Driveway: $5K--The area is around 80-100sqm. Don't know if we can DIY or ask someone else to do it. Kitchen upgrade promotion: $3.5K Other promotion: $3K. BASIX: $0--we have got a 5000L water tank. My hubby is a plumber so we want to install it by ourselves. Don't know if it's possible for us to do it. Lighting & Powerpoints & TV points & Electrician & Engineer: $10K ---------------------------------------------------------------------- $90K Total: $320K - $20K over our budget Fencing & landscaping is not urgent so we can do it later. As you can find that the items above are already in very low price. I'm not sure if we can build a 2 storey 37-39SQ (including double garage & Alfresco) house. The living area will be around 285sqm. Can anyone help me out? If we can do it within our budget?? BTW, do you think the builders will drop the price in the second half year due to financial crisis? Re: First home with a tight budget? 2Feb 02, 2009 7:08 pm Does that include your slush fund? I would advise having $25k.
While we have budgeted for what we believe to be everything, 2nd house and all that, we still have a slush fund of around $40k. Cheers, Teddy Bär Re: First home with a tight budget? 6Feb 02, 2009 8:21 pm ok180 You should add at least 100k to the base price. If your budget is that tight i would advise against building. I would also be interested as to why the figure of $100K? We're first home 'builders' and are certainly not experts so any feedback would be useful. Our base cost is approx $160K and we're budgeting $40K for extras. Even after we've made structural changes such changing a study to bedroom and adding an alfresco we still have $20K for extras such as additional upgrades of lighting etc... I think every home and builder will be different though. Our home is 23 squares so I couldn't imagine spending an extra $100K on extra upgrades (then again, never say never ) We have a house in Doreen. Built the PD Kensington 24 (with Alfresco & Rumpus option). We are in...Decorating in progress...pics to come soon... Re: First home with a tight budget? 7Feb 02, 2009 8:27 pm a slush fund is a contingency fund - emergency and unforseen costs/expenses. I'm not sure about $100K, but the rule of thumb is at least 10% of your overall cost of building - so in your case, $300K, slush fund of $30K. If you don't have this money in the bank, you may have to get a credit card to finish your home off, not such a great idea, but at least it's finished.
Annie A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Anyone got experience in building with tight budget-help 8Feb 02, 2009 10:31 pm reneegogh Site cost : $20K???-- Not quite sure about it. The salesman told us that if it's H class then we only need to pay $3.9K for the site cost??? But other builders told me it's from $15K up to $35K. Not quite sure about it. We have an old house now and it's reasonably flat. I'll say it's only 1m from left to right. $20k is about right. The $3.9k you were quoted is how much extra H Class will cost you. Our site is H Class and it cost an extra $1.9k with Wisdom. I believe Eden Brae charge a lot of money for it. Maybe go for the Impression 33mkII like I am and use the $3k promotion to make a proper alfresco out the back. 253sqm of living area, 313sqm gross floor space. It's about $20k cheaper than the Impression 38mkII, like what is on display at The Ponds. The only difference is you'll be missing that back leisure room. Personally we don't see the need for yet another leisure area. Stevep79 & Principessa Finished building Wisdom Homes Impression 33mkII in The Ponds, Sydney http://lilypadintheponds.blogspot.com Re: First home with a tight budget? 9Feb 03, 2009 8:11 am "Maybe go for the Impression 33mkII like I am and use the $3k promotion to make a proper alfresco out the back. "--Stevep79
Thanks everyone! Thanks Stevep79! That's a good idea! I did not compare Impression 33 & Impression 38 before because we are allowed to build up to 40SQ so we wanted to max the living area. But since the only difference is only the outdoor leisure and Leisure room I don't see why we can go for Impression 33! So the budget can be cut down to $300K but we will add $30K for the slush fund. The basic price is around $209K and the final budget is $330K, which is $110K over the basic. I'm not sure if this is enough? In EB, there is a promotion of $3K for extra 2SQ (around 18.58sqm). I wish Wisdom can have the same...getting greedy, isn't it? As to the site cost, how much roughly Wisdom charges for H class? Do they allow doing carpet & tiling by clients themselves? Re: First home with a tight budget? 10Feb 03, 2009 8:16 am Annietom a slush fund is a contingency fund - emergency and unforseen costs/expenses. I'm not sure about $100K, but the rule of thumb is at least 10% of your overall cost of building - so in your case, $300K, slush fund of $30K. If you don't have this money in the bank, you may have to get a credit card to finish your home off, not such a great idea, but at least it's finished. Annie Many thanks Annie! Yeah, I've added this slush fund into my budget. The reason why I have a tight budget is that I don't want to over-capitalise the house. My principle is to build a house at 50% of the land value so we can definately not have a budget over $350K. Not sure if my thought is right or not. Re: First home with a tight budget? 11Feb 03, 2009 11:23 am reneegogh - I think your budget is really good. It's also very similar to my own including our base price as well.
Our site costs were $0 from the builder as we were lucky to have a S-Class slab but I needed 40sqm of retaining wall on one side which was an unexpected cost and this was quoted from the builder at $20k+ which we of course politely declined and are doing it ourselves for under $3k. Slush fund is a good idea as you ALWAYS have unexpected costs or things that you wish you could upgrade to. The problem with building a house is that alot of them need to be done now rather than later to save you even more additional costs. So it's always better to go a bit all out now in your budget if possible Your water tank can definately be done on your own if you think you can do it - it's just a provision in your contract. Same with flooring. Put provisions in the contract to allow your own cabler for the TV/Network Points and Aircon if possible as well. Also think about whatever electrical work can be done AFTER handover so you dont have to get the builder to do as much. Other than that it looks like your on a good start! Re: First home with a tight budget? 12Feb 03, 2009 11:42 am reneegogh In EB, there is a promotion of $3K for extra 2SQ (around 18.58sqm). I wish Wisdom can have the same...getting greedy, isn't it? As to the site cost, how much roughly Wisdom charges for H class? Do they allow doing carpet & tiling by clients themselves? Wisdom have a promotion on their website to give you 10sqm for $3k, that's what I was suggesting for the outdoor living area extension (that's basically what we've done). Also check out their kitchen package. Wisdom include M Class in their normal site costs and charge $1.9k extra if the site is H Class. Wisdom will let you do the carpet and tiling yourself after they have handed over the keys. The tiling can only be done to the living areas, not the wet areas due to warranty issues with waterproofing. We have had a credit on our tender for the tiling in the house so we can do it later. Including all the site costs, extension, A/C, numerous upgrades, and builders package (BASIX, driveway, alarm and all that stuff), our total is $308k. Stevep79 & Principessa Finished building Wisdom Homes Impression 33mkII in The Ponds, Sydney http://lilypadintheponds.blogspot.com Re: First home with a tight budget? 13Feb 03, 2009 11:43 am We built our first house on a VERY tight budget and saved lots of $$$ by shopping around. For carpet - The Auctions are great to pick up left over carpet from hotel jobs etc... you can also get large lots of tiles really really cheap. You can get engineered timber flooring even cheaper sometimes at auction and the good thing about that is you can lay it yourself easier than tiles!!
We couldn't afford any extras at the time so we didn't get any promotions etc...We just go one reverse cycle air conditioner for our family room and batten lights - standard and no extra. We bought light fittings from Beacon as we could afford it and the lighting looked amazing when we were done!! Mu ch more character than the 500 downlights everyone else had. We got no upgrades at all. We got a standard concrete driveway and curtains ready made from freedom. We did the garden ourselves and my dad owns a nursery which helped. We used grass seed instead of turf as well. The house looked great when it was done and we fetched close to the same price when we sold as the other houses in the estate that optioned all sorts of extras. We actually made a lovely profit!! Re: First home with a tight budget? 14Feb 03, 2009 11:45 am cascre We bought light fittings from Beacon as we could afford it and the lighting looked amazing when we were done!! Mu ch more character than the 500 downlights everyone else had. I'm with you on that one. Our use of downlights is very very limited in our house, there are so many better options out there. Stevep79 & Principessa Finished building Wisdom Homes Impression 33mkII in The Ponds, Sydney http://lilypadintheponds.blogspot.com Re: First home with a tight budget? 15Feb 03, 2009 12:06 pm Sorry i am presuming you already have a house on your block so if i am wrong i apologise. Why dont you put the house up for sale for relocation (even for free). That way if someone wants it they have to remove it from you block and pay all the associated fees saving you the $$ it would cost to knock it down. Re: First home with a tight budget? 16Feb 03, 2009 12:41 pm We have also allowed about $100k for extra's on top
of $255k base price house + land. Good-Luck Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=13002 Site start: 8th July 2009 Handover: 11/12/2009! 5 months total build time. 40 sqs of luxuary...Bliss! Re: First home with a tight budget? 17Feb 03, 2009 1:38 pm Gester Our site costs were $0 from the builder as we were lucky to have a S-Class slab but I needed 40sqm of retaining wall on one side which was an unexpected cost and this was quoted from the builder at $20k+ which we of course politely declined and are doing it ourselves for under $3k. Your water tank can definately be done on your own if you think you can do it - it's just a provision in your contract. Same with flooring. Put provisions in the contract to allow your own cabler for the TV/Network Points and Aircon if possible as well. Also think about whatever electrical work can be done AFTER handover so you dont have to get the builder to do as much. Many thanks Gester!! Great idea! I have never ever thought that we can do our own site. It would be a massive saving! Will you explain a little bit more in details? Hubby is a licensed plumber and his uncle is a licensed electrician so I'm thinking if they two work together we can probably save $$. So happy to get a lot of good advice from this forum. Everyone is so nice! Re: First home with a tight budget? 18Feb 03, 2009 2:03 pm stevep79 Wisdom will let you do the carpet and tiling yourself after they have handed over the keys. The tiling can only be done to the living areas, not the wet areas due to warranty issues with waterproofing. We have had a credit on our tender for the tiling in the house so we can do it later. Including all the site costs, extension, A/C, numerous upgrades, and builders package (BASIX, driveway, alarm and all that stuff), our total is $308k. Thanks for sharing your experience! It seems Wisdom does allow a lot of freedom. Good to know I found the package is a little bit expensive. We can do the driveway $5K, alarm system $1K (which can be done later), BASIX (we can DIY) and then the site cost $15K-$25K. But the package price is normally $50K higher than the basic price. So it's better for us not to choose package. May I know how much is the A/C? I'm thinking putting A/C if it's not overly expensive. Re: First home with a tight budget? 19Feb 03, 2009 2:09 pm cascre We built our first house on a VERY tight budget and saved lots of $$$ by shopping around. For carpet - The Auctions are great to pick up left over carpet from hotel jobs etc... you can also get large lots of tiles really really cheap. You can get engineered timber flooring even cheaper sometimes at auction and the good thing about that is you can lay it yourself easier than tiles!! We couldn't afford any extras at the time so we didn't get any promotions etc...We just go one reverse cycle air conditioner for our family room and batten lights - standard and no extra. We bought light fittings from Beacon as we could afford it and the lighting looked amazing when we were done!! Mu ch more character than the 500 downlights everyone else had. We got no upgrades at all. We got a standard concrete driveway and curtains ready made from freedom. We did the garden ourselves and my dad owns a nursery which helped. We used grass seed instead of turf as well. The house looked great when it was done and we fetched close to the same price when we sold as the other houses in the estate that optioned all sorts of extras. We actually made a lovely profit!! Thanks cascre! Actually, I remember your post. And it's because of your post, I think I can DIY a lot of thing in order to save $$. I'll sure shop around and go for the auction if possible. I'm wondering if you are in SYD or not? If so, where do you think is the best place for auction? Never had any experience before but I do think it's a wonderful idea. Feel like it's already very complicated even it's just a draft. Hope I can "survive" and see our new house soon. Re: First home with a tight budget? 20Feb 03, 2009 2:39 pm stressed85 Sorry i am presuming you already have a house on your block so if i am wrong i apologise. Why dont you put the house up for sale for relocation (even for free). That way if someone wants it they have to remove it from you block and pay all the associated fees saving you the $$ it would cost to knock it down. We did think of this idea before. We would for sure give it away for free if anyone is interested in the old house (with 4 bedrooms and it's in reasonable good condition). But it's a fibro house not a brick house, I'm afraid no one will be interested. I did see someone putting their old house for sell on eBay but no one was interested. We will even pay the person, who is interested in relocating our old house, some money as long as he can do it before we decide to knock down the house. 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