Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 13, 2009 11:33 pm Hi guys, our first post here, please take it easy on us We've got a piece of land, we are now in the builder selection stage. We've shortlisted a few, and about to start asking them for initial quotations. My question is, how far can you usually negotiate from the builder's initial quotation? They all have a "standard price list" based on existing plans/show houses. We of course want the best deal possible, but at the same time we don't want to offend the prospective builders by counter-offering what may be considered "too low a price". Thank you all in advance! Re: Newbie question: How far can you negotiate price? 2Aug 14, 2009 7:48 am From stories here previously it seems that project builders don't tend to negotiate that much. They tend to throw in things rather then decrease the price. Private builders seem to be more inclined to reduce prices. We are going with a small builder who we were able to negotiate with quite well. As well as reduction in price we were able to take out a few things from the contract to do ourselves - ie supply toilets / kitchen / laundry cabinetry etc. At the end of the negotiating day it can't help to try - just be prepared for the no / yes with a back up decision. Good luck with your adventure. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: Newbie question: How far can you negotiate price? 3Aug 14, 2009 8:17 pm Thanks for your comments. We are definitely going with a small/boutique builder (not sure which one yet) with a tentative per sqm cost of $1200 and up... hoping we can get some reduction in the price package. Re: Newbie question: How far can you negotiate price? 4Aug 14, 2009 9:23 pm Go as far as you like when negotiating, at the end of the day, if you don't ask you definitely won't get it - so whats the harm in asking? IMO smaller builders have more room to negotiate as they generally don't run from lists provided. ICK So glad the building is over, never again. Loooove our house, but still not quite sure it was worth all of the stress they put us through! Re: Newbie question: How far can you negotiate price? 5Aug 14, 2009 9:32 pm we managed to significantly negotiate the % of build paid at each stage. this might not seem like that good a deal but it worked out brilliantly for us as we didn't have to touch bank money until almost final payment. Meanwhile our savings continued to earn interest. we also had some unexpected additional site costs early on and were able to get the builder to reduce the price on this by almost 1/3. ( talking about 5-6 K of reduction here) Re: Newbie question: How far can you negotiate price? 6Aug 14, 2009 10:55 pm um.. when you ask / nego the price, by asking to include things into the price when do you suppose to ask for that ? (at what stage? is it when on contract, or when you got the first quote?) my experience was, i asked in the beginning, they said yes we'll include this and that When it comes to quote, they refused to acknowledge that they said it Final stage Re: Newbie question: How far can you negotiate price? 7Aug 15, 2009 9:32 am i have found homested in sa to pretty much not drop prices on anything... However.... Early in the piece i did manage to get them to throw in $2000 for brick piering in the alfresco.... i figure its nothing to them anyways, probably just left over bricks they can use for 6 piers.... did save us 2k though.... Thats pretty much all i got out of them..... The biggest scams are as follows: Lite mortar.... $950 White trims.... $855 ( all they do is order different colour,,,wtf!!!! ) Downlights.... $135 each Tiling upgrade....$2600 (same surface area, but ''labour'' costs...) Its all a scam lol.... like others have said, pick what u cant change later, set a FINAL budget and pick and delete options to that budget.... Re: Newbie question: How far can you negotiate price? 8Aug 15, 2009 11:49 pm hate scams ! i feel as first home buyer, i don't know what i will be expecting even when you buy land, it seems, you don't know if they are jacking up the price and don't know you can ask for cheaper price, depending on the correct "magic word" to say to the salesman. i wish there's a "black" book guide how to negotiate with builders ! that will help us all Final stage Re: Newbie question: How far can you negotiate price? 9Aug 15, 2009 11:57 pm Just be sure you don't negotiate the quality down... I feel that without the quality and products being known to both parties how do you negotiate the price down . onc_artisan Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Newbie question: How far can you negotiate price? 10Aug 16, 2009 1:02 am onc_artisan Just be sure you don't negotiate the quality down... I feel that without the quality and products being known to both parties how do you negotiate the price down . onc_artisan Exactly our sentiments; we've sort of narrowed it down to two builders now. One has a showhome, based on which we more or less know what to expect upfront. The other slightly dearer builder has a showhome as well but it is "out of this world" so realistically ours will be a freshly drawn plan. We want to go along with this builder but without a comparative showhome, we don't know how far they will compromise quality in order to meet our budget. Confused Re: Newbie question: How far can you negotiate price? 11Aug 23, 2009 11:22 pm true that how do we know ? i wish it works just like ombudsman, where's there is watchdog to ensure the quality it's good, so builders dont "bully" customer. onc_artisan Just be sure you don't negotiate the quality down... I feel that without the quality and products being known to both parties how do you negotiate the price down . onc_artisan Final stage The OP has gone The latch and striker are definitely not aligned but there was no point trying to help the OP understand that. Hence the reason they are no longer with us. 12 5678 a building inspector should be able to tell you about any major problems but we need a floor plan with dimensions to clarify options for extra bedrooms ... sometime an… 1 8718 2 10984 |