Negotiating with a Building Company

Sassy · Feb 23, 2007 3:36 pm

Hi all. I am looking to build with a Melbourne building company on my own land. The list price is around $230k plus I'll be adding about $90 worth of options which gets me to around the as-displayed price.

My question is: Is there much room for negotiation on either the list price or options and to a greater extent, where can savings be negotiated, pre signing up and after. Thanks

First_Timer_Ray · Feb 23, 2007 3:48 pm

I think it's pretty much a matter of if you want it through them, you pay their price. If you can do some of the things yourself (not as in "doing" them but organising - like we will organise our own tiling and carpets) you'll often get better quality for the same price - or even less than what the builder will charge.
It pays to shop around - you can save a few grand (and get EXACTLY what you want) and we have found that our builder is pretty flexible with taking stuff out if we wanted. Granted they won't refund the entire cost they would charge to include it, but in some cases it still works out cheaper.

Ray.

P.S in our initial agreement (with the deposit to fix the price) it states that if contracts aren't signed within 150 days they will add 1% of the total price per month after this, and after 12 months they will review the current price and increase it accordingly. I don't think building materials will ever get cheaper, and I think labour costs will go up too.

rellie · Feb 23, 2007 6:18 pm

We are just going through the contract stage with our builder and have saved $6k by getting our floorboards and carpets through someone else. We were also quoted $150 per wall for feature walls. We could do these ourselves for approx $30 per wall.

I suggest you ask your builder what items you can do yourself and then get quotes.

Casa · Feb 23, 2007 8:47 pm

This is the way I see it,

If you live in WA, the prices are going up and expediency is important

If you life in NSW, the prices are dropping, there is no hurry (lowest building starts in23 years!)

Other places are somewhere in-between.

Sassy · Feb 28, 2007 4:03 pm

Henley (Melbourne) prices are going up March 1, so I guess the poll is right!

Vlad76 · Feb 28, 2007 5:34 pm

The cost of building is definitely going up, That's no rocket science. But as far as negotiating with companies goes, from my experience it's not possible. You can, as some have mentioned, exclude some items from the contact altogether, and supply them yourself. However, the items the builder supplies are priced by them in advance and are done on the take it or leave it basis.