Browse Forums Building A New House Re: anyone built/building with *? 2May 13, 2009 11:15 pm Hi Cheetah I am building with * in the Bunbury area. My slab went down on the 19th of November and I shall be getting the keys to my house tomorrow afternoon, yay! I have not had any problems at all; the office staff have been good and my site supervisor great. I did make some changes of the original plan but went with the standard tiles and appliances. I did not receive an account for the different stages until at least a few days after they had been completed and the next stage started so never felt pressured for payment. I do not know what the Perth branch is like but the Bunbury branch has been very good. It is the first time that I have built; I am on my own (female) and could have had all sorts of problems. Feel free to message me if you have any queries, I kept a diary throughout the build. Re: anyone built/building with *? 3May 13, 2009 11:29 pm Woohoo Falconbrook. Great news. Hope it all goes well for you tomorrow. Post some piccies. Re: anyone built/building with *? 5May 14, 2009 12:03 am I went with the Fleetwood. The promotion at that time was $7000 of upgrades or air conditioning, I took the upgrade. Had the garage instead of carport, extended the front bedroom, deleted the 4th bedroom and made the third bedroom longer this also made the alfresco longer. I had deleted the games room. Flipped the bathroom so that it became an en-suite for family and guests in the 3rd bedroom. I am not saying that all of this was done under the promotion but it helped a lot. Re: anyone built/building with *? 8Jun 21, 2009 11:24 pm I have just signed a building contract with * after doing quite a few comparisons between builders especially in relation to flexibility in changing designs and costs of upgrades. (I am an accountant so are a bit pedantic re this!!) In the end * were a clear winner. The final design of the house I am building is 330 square metres (total area) and the cost is $232,000 (incl $12k siteworks due to coastal location). Included in this cost is 31 course ceilings to all areas apart from bed 2,3 & 4. Stone top kitchen benchtop with waterfall edge. 900mm stainless steel westinghouse oven, cooktop and rangehood. Westinghouse s/s double fridge freezer. Fisher & paykel s/s double drawer dishwasher, Built in Blanco Coffee Machine & AEG Microwave. Glass splashback. French doors to study & home theatre.Double doors to bed 1. Upgrade double entry doors and handles. Upgraded door levers throughout. Upgraded basins and mixer taps. Pivot doors to showers. Plus numerous other upgrades. After my research I reckon if I had got the same house and inclusions from other Perth builders the cost would have been at least 20k-40k higher. Another thing * do which I think is very ethical is you do not sign your building contract until after pre start when you know all the costs. Therefore they cannot rip you off because you have already signed the final contract. Also I think they are about the only Perth builder left who gives a lifetime structural warranty. Overall I am very impressed so far. Re: anyone built/building with *? 9Jul 09, 2009 3:50 pm We are building with * (CL) - Alberta. The pad went down 2 weeks ago. Bricks,frames and sand are ready to be put through their paces. The weather hasn't been kind. We also decided, this being our first build we will employ the services of a qualified building inspector. Best $250 spent. We will continue to use the inspector through every stage. CL has taken notice of the report and recified the issues raised in the report. So at Stage 1 is to our satisfactory. Re: anyone built/building with *? 10Jul 09, 2009 6:12 pm I decided not to build with them, was told by my sales consultant build time is 5-6 months, then when I get my contract it says 350 working days to build, when i asked them they said it was a standard HIA contract, bullcrap that build time for a standard single story is crap. So now Im out $1500!!! Re: anyone built/building with *? 11Jul 09, 2009 6:39 pm SKYBLUE I have just signed a building contract with * after doing quite a few comparisons between builders especially in relation to flexibility in changing designs and costs of upgrades. (I am an accountant so are a bit pedantic re this!!) hehe im an accountant too SKYBLUE, i think its in my nature to be very particular and picky lol Re: anyone built/building with *? 12Jul 09, 2009 7:59 pm Yes we did too, no probs at all, built in great time and easy to deal with. Just what I had hoped for as a nervous first timer. The only problems I have with the house now a year after we moved in are related to things I wish I had changed on the plan. bigger laundry, eaves...etc...well it'll have to wait for the next build. Re: anyone built/building with *? 13Apr 08, 2010 4:27 pm i have just signed on with content too and i'm having doubts. The sales guy won't even show me what the prices of various upgrades are. also been looking around. Most builders charge about 160k for the structure itself and finishing can be up to 20-40k easy. abit worried about content now..... Re: anyone built/building with *? 15Apr 11, 2010 11:50 pm Don't quite follow - the amount of days to build on your contract doesn't mean that's how long it will actually take to build. It's actually quite rare for a builder to go beyond that time, and if they do they start paying you money for every working day they go over. cheetah I decided not to build with them, was told by my sales consultant build time is 5-6 months, then when I get my contract it says 350 working days to build, when i asked them they said it was a standard HIA contract, bullcrap that build time for a standard single story is crap. So now Im out $1500!!! Re: anyone built/building with *? 17Apr 12, 2010 12:40 am Fair enough. Keep in mind most builders operate under this contract and that same number of days. But each to their own. From a builders perspective, I've always found it interesting that if we go over the contracted time we pay liquidated damages, but we don't receive any monetary fee if we come in under it by a number of days? Re: anyone built/building with *? 18Apr 12, 2010 12:59 am jayw Don't quite follow - the amount of days to build on your contract doesn't mean that's how long it will actually take to build. It's actually quite rare for a builder to go beyond that time, and if they do they start paying you money for every working day they go over. not every contract has a penalty clause. Our builder refused to allow a contract with a penalty - if you want to build a house with them you don't get the penalty clause. Our contract has a 240 day build time (this ends in about 26 days). We're still a good 8 weeks from completion, I'd say. If the SS has problems getting the subbies in on time we could be significantly more. I've heard that our builder pretty consistently takes about a year for completion of a house - all with no penalties. I wish to god we had more incentive to make them finish our house sooner, but we don't. Most builders who do have a penalty payment clause like to add a significant buffer just in case they go over. Re: anyone built/building with *? 19Apr 12, 2010 10:25 am Bit of a sidetrack, but just wanted to say in our case the contract stated 365 working days (2 storey home, with project builder). We questioned the length of time, but were verbally assured it would not take anywhere near this length of time, blah, blah, blah. We are just about at the end of this time now .. they are probably going to go over. I can't believe how slow our build has been. Weeks, and at the beginning even months went by with no action, and we have built during one of the quietest building times, so the "building boom" excuse goes out the window. So in Cheetah's defence, I too wished we had questioned this time frame a lot more and got the verbal assurances in writing or at least in to the contract. We have just been so fortunate to have a very understanding landlord. One big learning curve for us. Re: anyone built/building with *? 20Apr 12, 2010 11:17 am Some interesting feedback - which I will definitely look at putting into good practice with my business. We tend to see a lot of people sign the contract but not actually read it or understand just exactly what it means. Though we prepare it, I see the contract as a two way agreement on building a home. The same way you would negotiate anything - for example you have a kid come around to do some gardening. You have the conversation about what they will do for you, and what you will do for them - from there you have an agreement. The same can be applied to a building contract. When you come to us to build your home, we see it as two people deciding on what each person will do for each other. In this case, we say we will build you this home at this place in x amount of time. If we do that, you will pay us x amount when we reach these various stages. In the 2 years I have been managing this building company, i've seen about three homes go over out of around 90 homes built. The reasons we went over were more or less from having issues on site where something wasn't done right, so we had to spend time undoing and fixing it. For all of them we have paid liquidated damages and in one case, paid for someone's moving costs as a good will gesture. Also be aware that as a builder, we can send out a letter requesting an extension of the contract. A lot of people won't think about it when they receive this but it allows the builder to extend the contracted time to build without paying any penalties. To be blatantly honest, whilst I think items such as Liquidated Damages are a good idea, I think it's also worth looking at replacing these with upgrades. For instance the price a builder pays for paving is less than retail, so if they say they will pave your alfresco instead of paying you this, I think it's a much better deal. Hi All, we are starting to think of building with Masterpiece Builders in Victoria, has anyone had any feedback or experience with them 0 14025 I haven’t. But have a Lowe Design home. Not only did I find Matt Lowe patronising and a bully, but the home is NOT TO CODE. I have water coming through the bricks… 1 14782 Hi we are looking to talk to people who have built with them recently. We have signed mid range built contract but identified that a lot of things are not included.… 0 924 |