Building the NBG Buckingham36 in Laurimar Doreen

Hi all,

Well this is my current situation. We initially found and fell in love with this house at the beginning of January 2009. After having a few inspections sitting down with a sales rep and looking at the price we decided that this was the house for us. It was the only house that we found where we didn't have to change much to incorporate all the restrictions up at Laurimar.

At the end of January we paid $1000 deposit to secure the packages and the price. It is now 5 months later and we are still waiting to sign our contracts. Last weekend we had a meeting, picked up our contracts on the Saturday and were meant to sign them and drop them back on Sunday. Much to our disgust and dissappointment the contracts were wrong. So now at this stage we are waiting (again) for them to fix up our contracts so that we can sign them.

If we didn't love this house so much we would definately not have dealt with them for this long, the office staff are just darn useless. Our sales rep is fantastic and works his but off to get things done for us and then the office staff take 3 weeks to enter some info into a bloody spreadsheet.

I will post some photos of our plans and our block on here soon.

Good luck with your build goondog.

We too are building with NBG in regional Vic and have had a great experience so far. We are on the home straight with about 4 weeks to go

Hi Goondog

Congratulations on choosing your new house. That's the unfortunate thing with this house though, is the waiting. It just seems like nothing is happening, then a lot in a couple of weeks, then nothing again......

We signed up in November 2007, expecting a Feb or March 2008 start. Site start didn't occur until August 08. Our contracts stated 305 days, but that expired at the end of May 09, and we are still at least 2-3 weeks away. Can't complain all that much though, as the build has been pretty smooth and the workmanship has been very good. No major issues to date and the house is pretty much finished. Just wished that the process didn't take so long. But you know what they say about good things taking time.........

You wouldn't have been assigned a builder yet, but when they do, insist on meeting him and making sure that you are 100% happy with his attitude. While you're still within your cooling off period, grab his mobile number and try getting in touch with him a few times and see if he is contactable. If he doesn't return your calls within 24 hours, get rid of him. No ifs, no buts. I've been really happy at being able to contact my builder, even on weekends. Nothing worse than discovering an issue and stewing over it for days while waiting for the builder to call you back.

That's all the advice I've got at this stage. Good luck

Em

I agree with mundie and mel and em and I've probably had the longest waiting time of all with NBG. We've been in our buckingham coming up a month and the wait was oh so worth it. I love our house!! And the builder is still answering his phone as we've got two things not finished which I'm confident will be.

I found the waiting around for tiny changes on the plans the most frustrating of all.

Which part of Laurimar are you building in? We're waiting to sign contracts too... was meant to happen intially on April 24... long story. Hopefully signing in the next week or two. Our next door neighbour is in Laurimar

Same here goondog, the waiting can drive even the most patient person insane. But I believe the end product would be totally worth it. Hang in there.

I am building in the briars, in Laurimar.

Our next saga just happened over the weekend. After stuffing our contracts they re-sent us our quotes through to approve and have randomly added on an extra $1500 for windows. I am not impressed and have now sent an extremely nast email to them. I think that this is uncalled for and to be frank just should NOT HAPPEN.

How frustrating Make sure they clarify what the $1500 was for. They cant just add amounts into the paperwork and hope you dont notice it! We have been so thorough with ours... as we noticed amounts creeping on there that were not there before! One amount was a typo, and that was fixed, the other... well apparently the cost of translucent glazed windows doubled, and there's nothing we can do about it. Just waiting on our contract (those prices were all the tender), then we can finally sign.

We're right next door to the Briars. I like this end of the estate the best I think (just a little biased...)

Yes I agree this end seems a little quieter, which is nice and they seem to have left a few trees in which gives things a little more privacy.

Have you been assigned a builder yet?

We're building the Henley Panorama, due to sign the contract in the next day or so

News to me... was that glass price or window price???

Ed

Hey Ed, the price is per window (two large windows - ensuite and bathroom)

They don't double in this climate... ask for a reason... A&L? Ask them too..

Hi Ed, just going through the info, it's not translucent, it's cathedral glass. I asked them to explain as below...

Windows/Doors: Point 15-7. White cathedral glass to bathroom & ensuite $230 on tender. Original price on quote $78 each - total $156, please confirm why difference in price? There has been a price increase in the white cathedral glass."

That's $37 each... not as bad as I thought. But white cathedral increase? Maybe... ?
Ed

Well people another whole week has gone by and I am still waiting for my final and complete contract, hopefully this time it will all be correct.

What dissappoints me is that I have had no apology at all. You would think that if it was an accident they would have said sorry, nope just oh well we can't sign we'll have to get new contracts.

I'm hoping that this will soon be sorted out. I has now been nearly 6 months and we still haven't signed our contracts.

They are lucky the first home buyers grant was extended because if I'd have missed out on that I would not have built with them.

hi goondog...the waiting can drive anyone insane...6 months just waiting for a contract is ridiculous. Have you tried going further up to the get the issue sorted. Not sure if it would help any especially with the increase in First Home Owners signing up etc. An apology is the least they could do which wouldn't cost them a cent....that's just plain rude

Well we have finally done it. After 6 and a bit months of waiting we have finally signed the contracts.

Can't believe it's actually taken this long but now hopefully it will all be good from here. We signed the contracts on Sunday and paid our initial deposit yesterday so I am hoping the final contracts will be drawn up pretty quick and then we can go in and have our colour appointment.

Anyone have any oppinions for standard colours from NGB. Don't mind for what, any opinions would be great.

I would try and drop something off to NBG and say you quickly want to wander around the showroom. It would help to have some ideas in your head. I had my paint picked out before we went and did a complete 360 on the day. When we went the inclusion was only two colours so if you want white roofs and a different colour"S" on your walls then expect to shell out more money. My husband and I weren't even on the same page when it cames to tiles so we split rooms up and each did our own.

One thing I'd change if I was in colourworld again - we chose "Savvy Chocolate" tiles for the kitchen/dining/foyer/powder/laundry floors. They are shocking to clean and show every every little drop of water. We have gloss black tiles in our upstairs ensuite and they always look clean. Explain that?

Our inclusions would be completely different to what you get now but if you pm me your email address I'll send you through our selections. The format will give you an idea of what to expect.

Goondog,

Congrats on signing your contracts... something which confused me abit... you mentioned you've sign the contract and are now waiting for the final contracts?

We are going in soon for our quotation estimate presentation with NBG (and keeping everything known to man crossed that the site costs come out reasonable.. ). We're wanting to build the Buckingham as well.

My understanding is that going forwards from the presentation (having paid $1K for soil tests etc..), if we agree and sign on, its a further $2K which will get us contracts drawn up. Then after signing the contract its 5% less monies already paid and the builder goes off to get permits etc... Is this how its happening for you guys?

Also, we would be demolishing our house, when do you guys reckon would be a good time to get quotes and organise demolitions?

Keep us up to date with your progress goondog...