First homebuyer - Impressions home builder

First I would like to say a big Hi to everyone. I am new to this forum and to the property game so please excuse my noobiness.

We are first home buyer, my partner and I have decided to build. We have narrow it down to HBC, impressions and cellarbrations but we're more leaning towards impressions because we really like their 263 and Soto house plan.

I did searched the forum but didnt find much information on impressions. I would kindly appreciate to hear any reviews, thoughts, opinions and experiences with impressions from anyone whom have built or currently building with them.

One last question I would like to ask is if it was possible to take a builder house's plan to another builder and get them to build it exactly as it is, in term of floor plan and front elevation?

Dan

From my limited experience most builders are very happy to use another builders floorplan but will often suggest an inconsequencial change to the plan to bypass any copywrite or patent issues.

Hi there,

Glad to see you are building with Impressions. Are you? Have you decided yet?. I have. I have started thread here under I think its titled Building a new Home in WA. I have wrote all that i have experienced since. Started from nov 2008, till now. Crazy long journey.. And now just waiting for my building contract to be done. Still long way to go. At which stage are you...

anyways hope to hear from you.

cheers

I doubt this very much - a builder is very unlikely to do this

do a search, there have been many previous discussions on this topic.

It is certainly not as simple as just takeing one builders floor plan to another one and getting them to do an 'inconsequential change'

As said many times on the forum - the 10% rule is a myth. You are violating copywright if you use one builders plans as a basis for anything - no matter how many changes are made.

The only way you can use one builder's plans with a different builder is if the first builder allows it (and if they do get it in writing!) otherwise the first builder can charge you without warning and/or you and the second builder can get a severe fine and/or they will even have the right to tear your house down.

Granted this is unlikely and if you don't tell anyone that the plans are from a different builder then who is to know - but the ball is in your court and you wear the risk!

I am building with Impressions!

Contracts signed....prestart done....now awaiting all the admin to finish prior to the clearing of the land!

Have had a bumpy road with them so far. Mostly with the sales rep at the start not returning calls, not being knowledgable in regards to their product and being rude to me personally at times!!

But I have ended up with a great floorplan and all within a great price!

I hope your journey is a fun one!

I have used the Soto design and have changed it up heaps to make it bigger on the inside and have flipped the front half of the house..

I tried that and NO builder in W.A. (and from what I was told all of Aus) will do it, not even with minor changes. Law states they can't touch it at all, period.

I'm afraid I have no dealing with impressions but can't say I've heard good or bad things about them. Reading this forum there seems to be a fair few disgruntled people with HBC, so much so that I personally would avoid them.

My wife and I are building with Celebration and can't speak highly enough so far.. but we still have a long way to go so time will tell.

I think you will find there's always a mixture of good and bad reviews with any builder. It's hard to choose.

So far I have been pretty happy with HBC. Yeah have a good ole whinge at times and not yet at the build stage so who knows. But so far minus a few issues our guys been pretty good.

The best thing to do if you have the time is get a list of inclusions and a costing of all the add ons you might want with each of them and see what the true bottom line value is.

Thanks everyone,

Your informations provided was very helpful. We are in a dilemma between the ABN group and impressions. ABN being the bigger mob whom are more experience, some of their standard spec are equals to those elite spec from impressions and most importantly for us are the peace of mind. On the other hand Impressions, a young company which have decent spec with reasonable add-ons with the near perfect house plan "263" which meet our wants & needs and fall within budget.
Like Chedasha had said, “there's always a mixture of good and bad reviews with any builder.” but with Impressions we haven’t been able to find a review base on home built by Impressions that are completed which gave us a sense of insecurity.

Ultimately my partner and I will have to choose one or the other, like everyone else let us hope that things go smoothly.

We will definately ask more questions.

Many thanks