Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Premier Builders Group 82Jun 06, 2012 4:49 pm Hi we have decided to go with Premier builders group, and after going through all of their displays because we loved the period style charm, we have ended up falling in love with the modern floorplan and are building the Glenburn.
Re: Premier Builders Group 83Jun 09, 2012 4:34 pm Hello, My partner and I are building with premier. We are building a varied version of the Sunderland in warragul. The sales consultant Wayne has been a god send. Communication has been excellent, easy to work with, accommodating and just fantastic. We made quite a few changes to the floor plan but it was never an effort or a challenge. We are yet to start building as land isn't titled until later this year so I'll be sure to keep you updated but do far absolutely fantastic. Btw - Kialla homes will be doing the actual building. Lot2528 Waterford Rise - Warragul. Titles due (at the earliest) November 15 2012! Re: Premier Builders Group 84Jun 13, 2012 4:43 pm We pulled away from that group earlier this year, due to very strange circumstances. Very unhappy with this mob and who they spring on you to build your choice of home the unknown builder who send you papers (Onley) & who dont supply any contact details. They lost all of our initial section 32 and orginal soil test report that we supplied to the group that came with our purchase outright of our block, premiers lost that when the sales guy left, before we started seeking what to build we were promised after the intial deposit and soil testing before any plans of the land if we dont proceed half that back AND we had a hell of a time getting back any sort of initial deposit we laid down with a house that we wanted and decided due to strange goings on we pulled out of, we had to engage a threat of a solicitor to get a lousy $200 back from the designated builder WHOOPIE WOO HOO after being told/promised, if we dont proceed from premiers we get at least half back. Lesson well learnt!! and glad we stopped with this group!!! ALAS so be it, things are meant to be, very happy with a new builder, just about to lock up stage on our new heritage home away from any of the above aquaintances and so glad we pulled the plug with them above and associates Re: Premier Builders Group 85Jun 18, 2012 4:57 pm Kpmum Hi we have decided to go with Premier builders group, and after going through all of their displays because we loved the period style charm, we have ended up falling in love with the modern floorplan and are building the Glenburn. I would like to hear our others have found the overall process, we have had a rough start. We paid our prelim deposit about four weeks ago, and was awaiting our PBAs when we received an email from the sales man who was working with us that we are now to deal with Dale and that he no longer works for Premier. After speaking with Dale I was reassured that all would be fine, but two weeks after being promised our revised PBAs for us to sign to proceed with the preliminary works we are still waiting. We are being slugged with a $6500 fee for building in the norther suburbs as apparently Romeo who used to build out here as pulled out of the area, so to get others across we have a surcharge, but is this the case for those building with ONLEY? I never knew ONLEY was associated with Premier and I have seen a lot of ONLEY homes getting build in our area, one in our street in fact, but we have only been told that our possible builders will be Roma, Prime or Construct all who we know nothing about. Any info would be much appreciated, I am very worried that if it takes four weeks to even get our PBAS what luck will we have with getting out house? Thanks Kris We have just built with Onley they took over Romeos work and we couldn't be happier, pretty sure there was a surcharge built into Romeo's price anyway. Re: Premier Builders Group 87Sep 30, 2012 10:32 pm We have just terminated our contract with Premier, we never even got to building stage, couldn't get past the Contract stage. We wanted to build the Hawthorn Attic with a few variations to the plan. One being putting the master bedroom upstairs and extending the family room out further. From the beginning the sales person had difficulties getting approximate costs on our changes from the builder Prime. Very frustrating! We signed our PBA documents in June and 18 weeks later still did not have completed drawings of the changes to the house, final costings for the amendments and only after complaining several times to head office about the blow out in the timeframes as outlined in their literature and threatening to end the contract did we get close to a final cost. This pricing still had several items that were to be advised. Not good enough. We had to chase our sales person constantly for updates on when we could expect to get costings from the Builder. We would get emails stating that he would have them to us that afternoon and days later still be waiting. This showed us that there was a serious lack of communication between sales staff and builder. Head Office had no idea of where our project was at, calls to them to point out what was or wasn't happening were met with surprised responses of "we thought you already had that." Even upon terminating the contract the Supervisor from Head Office told us that we were only days away from completed contracts despite having no completed drawings, unfinished costings and thousands in hidden costs that pushed the price up even further over our budget than we already were. This is our Second build so we were no strangers to the pitfalls but 18 weeks was just far to long. People have commented on here before about how slow they are with paperwork but it was ridiculous. In our termination letter to Premier I thanked them for making the start of our second building experience one that we will not forget for all the wrong reasons. When you spend that much money on a house you want to be made to feel important, this is something Premier need to learn. Re: Premier Builders Group 88Oct 07, 2012 9:51 am Glad to see you got wise too. We pulled the plug earlier this year for very much the same reasons. We lost money but hey in the long term of things it would of turned into a nightmare if the build proceeded and we didn't pull the plug. We never got too either an overall final contract cost after numerous requests and months going by (Thank goodness we did not sign the final BA). Would never deal with them ever again as there not upfront about anything and no one in the firm knows who the hell you are. Once committed you are passed onto a small builder and premier wipes there hands of you and really have no further interest in your build. The little no name builder you are there problem then. Found that out too. Premier is just a sales shop for builders who cant make it on there own. On a postive note our new heritage home with a great realiable building group (established since 1963) is nearly completed and after what we went through previously these people have made for us first time builders the whole process a joy to watch, totally kept up to date. Total accessability to them all the time. Many visits inside when we want a sticky and any hiccups fixed straight away. A dream so far and only about 2 -3 weeks off handover. Smart1 hope your build went well with onley I wish you the best of luck of the building process & dealing with them. Re: Premier Builders Group 89Oct 27, 2012 7:47 pm Hi lisafirsttimer & leamoss, Just read your posts, we have selected Romeo Homes via Premier Builders Group to build our new home, we signed our PBA at the end of July 2012 and it's now almost the end of October and we finally have a set of plans and a pre-lim estimate back but with many TBA's on specific costings. The plans need to be amended, we need more detail to be included in the specs and it is a frustratingly slow process to get to a final costing on the TBA's and anything else we might want to include now that we have seen the plans. So we continue to wait for feedback from Premier on the Pre-lim estimate and then apparently it is another 4 weeks to wait for the contract and final plans (but will it be longer?), then a wait until the permit is applied for and granted and then they have 21 days I believe in which to start. So basically with the builders break over xmas and Jan, it won't start until Feb 2013! That's a long time to wait and in the meantime a lot of dead money in rent. Further to this Romeo has a 330 build time built into the contract. We have been excited to build (not our first time), but feel a bit annoyed about the process so far. Who is to blame? Are both Premier and Romeo too under the pump / under staffed and the client just has to wear it? One thing I might add, our sales consultant has been briliant, but he appears incredibly busy right now so I hope his level of service doesn't drop off. Might need a back up plan, so lisafirsttimer do you mind telling me who you ended up going with as we are after a heritage style home also? leamoss have you chosen a new builder yet? What side of town are you both building on? Re: Premier Builders Group 90Oct 27, 2012 9:52 pm Hi joeyk9 Yes we have selected a new builder, we have gone with Botanic Homes in Hallam. We are building in Botanic Ridge, Cranbourne South. Botanic Homes do custom design and spec homes and I can't say enough about how different its been dealing with them compared to Premier. We had a house plan within a week and prelim costings two weeks later. Moving on now to final costings and contracts all in the space of a month. We are at the same point were at with Premier now and that took Premier and Prime 18 weeks. We figured if we were unhappy at 18 weeks down the track, what would it be like further on. Premier have lovely homes but no customer service to back it up. Changing was the best thing we did. Good luck if you stay with them. Re: Premier Builders Group 91Oct 28, 2012 1:23 pm Thanks for the info leamoss, much appreciated and we will keep it in mind!! As we have already paid a $2550 non-refundable deposit we hope that we can get it to all come together. It is rather surprising that they allow their time-frames to blow out so much, given we have not signed a contract as yet and therefore can and will walk away if we have to. Ours is a custom build from our own plan and Premier have been accomodating on that score but it is all just too slow! We are also concerned about the lengthy build time compared to other builders. Time that will cost us money. Hopefully a quality build will be the result! Re: Premier Builders Group 94Oct 28, 2012 3:32 pm It's a custom build and as I said before so far its been fantastic can't say enough good things about the service we have received. The problem I see with Premier is the sales front, dealing with a salesman instead of directly with the builder. To the builder your just a number until you get to the actual build stage they are insulated from you the person, they can drag it out as long as they want especially if they are really busy. Our builder took forever to get figures and information back to the sales guy who really is the meat in the sandwich he has no more control of the situation than we did. It wasn't the sales guy that was our problem it was the builder, the sales guy was trying to make up excuses and drag out things out to cover up for the lack of information. We waited 18 weeks to get a major cost on a change to the house. The pba had one costs when the builder finally did his costs it was totally different. This should have been made known to us from the beginning and I might add it wasn't through the lack of the sales guy trying to get an approximate cost from him. He just wouldn't respond. Watchout for the extra costs as they is were they burn you. Especially if you require changes for the Bushfire Assessment levey and energy rating. My parents built with Romeo before they became part of Premier and their house was completed in 6 months start to finish. You wouldn't get that from them now under the premier banner. Real shame. Re: Premier Builders Group 95Oct 28, 2012 4:10 pm I know what you mean by the hidden costs, the base price doesn't cover most of the extra nice features in the displays so we have added them on to the PBA and now that the pre-lim estimate is back the figure has gone up substantially from the original PBA. This was mostly due to the BAL = 12.5, 6 star energy rating, site costs and some errors in the original costings given to us on the PBA. We still have more item specific costings to come also. Were your parents happy with the quality of Romeo's build? They are very busy these days, have their own projects on also with 3 new display homes (one has just openened, two underway), so perhaps that is why they cover themselves with a 330 day build time (not including the paperwork time). 11 months is way over the average 6 months most people have their homes built in by other builders. We have some big decisions to make soon! Re: Premier Builders Group 97Oct 30, 2012 1:32 pm Hi joeyk99, on a side note we lost more then leamoss after signing the PBA to get an idea of site costs and if we did not proceed the sales rep said with the deposit at least half or more back, What a joke, a lousy $200 back after threatening legal action. Highview Homes heritage style Sea Change Cottage, but with alterations to original standard plan, split leveled and undercover verandahs running from the front down the entire side alfrescoe area to the back of the house. Makes the house under the roofline 30 sq's. We originally were going to build the delatite with premier, but just turning into a nightmare, read my post a few pages back. Yes we lost initial deposit money but I can say the new builders, set contract prices, nothing hidden, all upfront, added extras and many thousands and thousands of dollars difference to what premier were still not sure about in anysort of final pricing, we could not get an answer with premier to anything and some sort of set contracted price, even in the site costs that they maintain the soil testing was done!!!, Sheesh could not see any bore holes, when highview did the soil testing, 3 promonent bore holes on the block could be seen quite clearly, Premier also lost our Section 32 and original soil test info that came when we purchased the block months ealier. Premier were still working out any sort of set price for the build & site costs 4 months on, yes we struck the christmas/newyear break also but I also just got sick of chasing them up to find out what we were in for, with no one getting in contact with us and US having to chase them to find out WTF is going on???? I did notice with premier what is on display is not what you get, ceiling height more, door height more, heritage skirting boards more etc etc. Site costs for example Premiers came up with a Guestamit of $23,000 plus, Highwiew several thousdand dollars cheaper and that was the final cost for the site at the time of final signing to proceed, who knows with premier, it could of blown out to there discretion. Your in a pickle and not good enough, you should of been on your way with the build. Best wishes hope it all works out OK keeping fingers crossed for you. We blew money but after trying hard to get accurate costs and proceed with them, I have to say money well lost now, otherwise we would be still waiting for a start 12 plus months later and still a vacant block growing grass and no home started and with christmas new year on its way, well a picnic table and cold turkey on a vacant block if we proceeded with premier, still waiting I am sure of that.. Highview so far 7 months, after final signing they started 2 weeks later the excavation and build, and we are in next week and they accommadated the modified heritage cottage to suit our difficult sloping block and what we needed and wanted as extras, yes lots of extras and not anywhere near what we were up to and no final costing with premier . We brought the block on top of a hill 1 1/2 years ago for the views of melbourne and yarra ranges, we knew it was not an easy block to build on but highview has been upfront, wonderfull and cant be happier with the final result of our heritage looking home. Link http://www.highviewhomes.com.au/ If you read through this forum, premier, onley construction which is another small builder that premier fobs you off too and even in this thread Romeo mentioned too on this topic, makes one wonder.!! Just glad we changed Hope you sort everything out and end up in your dream home and started soon, personally I cant see even ground turned till feb next year!!!. Best Wishes with it all XX I hope it turns into a dream and not a nightmare dealing with them XX Re: Premier Builders Group 98Oct 30, 2012 8:22 pm Hi lisafirsttimer, Thanks so much for your reply, jusy had a look at the Highview website and have decided to check out some Highview display homes on the weekend and will also look at Botanic Homes recommended by leamoss. Might as well see whatelse is available just in case things do not progress with our current builder. Very glad to hear that both of you have had such a positive experience after walking away from Premier, makes us feel more confident if we decide to do the same. Take care. Re: Premier Builders Group 99Oct 31, 2012 8:01 am Best wishes with it all meant to answer your question on where we built, Doreen Re: Premier Builders Group and Romeo Homes 100Jul 29, 2013 5:21 pm Hi all, Thought I would give an update on our experience with Premier Builders Group and Romeo Homes. We decided to go ahead and build with Romeo Homes and it has been a good decision much to our relief!!! Our homestead style home is being built on an acre, is currently at lock-up stage and is due to finish by the end of October 2013 (though hubby thinks we will be in earlier due to the good progress made to date, here's hoping!!). Our house started at the end of February this year and so far it has been a smooth building process. We are more than happy with how it is looking, which is another relief as ours is a custom build, an adaptation of The Bradford Rancher so there was no display home to walk through, we just had to visualise it. It has been "tweaked" along the way to make it work better. That's where it really pays to go with a builder that is flexible and will do custom builds rather than a volume builder that is not interested in making changes. This also where Wayne our consultant at Premier Builders Group helped guide us, whilst it was a lengthy paperwork process we costed it from the ground up and went into a great deal of detail which has in turn flowed through to a smooth building process. It took around 18 weeks to get to contract stage which at the time did frustrate and concern us. Though I believe this is longer than the norm due to the nature of our custom build (we did not want any nasty surprises after signing so we were very thorough with the detail and costing, Wayne was very patient and helpful through this stage). Then it was a few more weeks for the building permit to come through and soil to be turned (we signed a week before xmas so there was a delay for the builders break). But once it started we haven't looked back!! Simon our supervisor at Romeo has been great, easy to talk to and keeps us informed and Brittney in the Romeo office is very helpful. So all in all I can say the experience is going well, I will give another update after handover. 4 14438 Look at your bill from the electricity company. It should detail the charges. You will need to do some estimating and some calculations. Then charge the… 8 4194 Site works are just about to start on our build with Blueprint in Midvale. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=106894 2 3946 |