Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 23, 2009 4:16 pm Hi,
Has anyone built with homebuyers centre before or currently building a house through them? I have signed the contract with them and is encountering a number of issues with my sales consultant and his recommended finance broker. Would like to have some feedback on them (though too late to backout but at least I can prepare myself for their next bombshell) Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 2Aug 23, 2009 4:24 pm Hi there! Welcome read all my posts! There are quite a few of us on here, care to share what your issues are? I am sure you will get great support in this forum. Building with Homebuyers Centre El Questro! My building thread..viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19421 Brickies started 5/10 Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 3Aug 23, 2009 5:10 pm Thanks lynnebin (hope I get your name correct) Had a chat with the sales consultant back in early March regarding their house & land packages in Ellenbrook. The first appointment was pushed back 2 weeks later as the sales consultant was sick. Was quoted a figure that was well within our budget and I was very happy about it. After that first appointment, received a call that the block of land last block of land within our tight budget was relunctany made available for HBC and we need to quickly make a trip down to the land sale centre to put a deposit to secure it to avoid it been given to any of the sales consultant's client. Had another appointment with the sales consultant and as usual was push back again as he was still sick. Sales consultant had done up a plan which includes things that we were after and the total quote (not written, verbal) was still within the budget. Still happy. He recommended his in-house broker for finance (quote: who works under him) as the mortgage broker I dealt with previously was not that helpful in getting pre-approval done. Met up with the broker and everything was going smoothly. Bombshell 1: Received a letter few weeks later from the sales consultant that the total quote has increase as they had to move the garage to the back and includes no garage doors, just 2 walls and had my alfesco area cut out. Budget went over his promise quote, which is way over our budget Bombshell 2: Received a call from his mortgage broker that the finance did not go through and they are opting for another which means we have to put up with more than budgeted deposits Bombshell 3: The bank rang and told me that the mortgage broker had the approval date (or whatever term they use) to be xx date which is after the required finance approval date for the land Bombshell 4: The mortgage broker and sales consultant was not even aware of the finance approval date for the land! Both promised to land agent to ask for extenstion. Rang the land agent a week after the expiry date and they did not hear from either of them! Bombshell 5: Tried to speak to the sales consultant, keep getting into his voice mail and left numerous messages for him to call back but no answer. Sent emails to both sales consultant and broker but only the broker replied. Took the sales consultants weeks to reply and finally manage to speak to him in person. Sales consultant was not aware of all this finance issue and was not aware that the roof was double charge. Meanwhile, the land was extended again and again until I've lost count. Probably 5 times now. Bombshell 6: Sales consultant has agreed to move parts to reduce the cost. And his variation report came back with adding more things in! I've signed off on it as well as the contract and he informed me that I should be hearing back from his broker end of that week that the finance has been confirmed. At the end of that week, the broker finally reply saying that there has been some delay and I will hear back from him within the next few days. 1 week has past from the deadine the sales consultant has given and its now heading into the second week. Still nothing Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 4Aug 23, 2009 5:23 pm Oh no! I have no words I thought I was the only one they have stuffed up. Garages seem to be their favourite thing to mislead you on. The only advice I can give is be very very careful when signing things. Read and reread everything and when you get your plans, study them really well. I was told I was getting a fully enclosed garage and ended up with a carport cost me $7150 extra plus over $3000 for a door. Nothing has gone right for me this whole time, just a lot of lost cash. I wish I had of known about this site beforehand as I now know soooo much regarding building. I guess you live and learn. Builders are very greedy and will say anything to get you to sign on the line. Read as much as you can on this site and learn from everyone. Are you a first home builder? I was also screwed over with one of their price rises! Watch out for that one...that cost me another $1000. They like to use the price rise line to bully you into signing. Siteworks is another one where they seem to sting people. Just be very careful and keep your eyes open and read all you can. Good luck! You will meet others from HBC too and some havent had problems . The more you read the more you learn and it awakens you to little tricks. Lynne Building with Homebuyers Centre El Questro! My building thread..viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19421 Brickies started 5/10 Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 5Aug 23, 2009 5:25 pm OHHHHH and get everything in writing! Building with Homebuyers Centre El Questro! My building thread..viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19421 Brickies started 5/10 Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 6Aug 23, 2009 5:49 pm They charged me $8500 to move a carport to the back and brick up only 2 walls and no garage door!!!!! When asked about reducing the amount, he removed my half alfesco area without consent asking me to sign off on the variation which removed his error of double charging of roof pitch!!!! I've specifically told him that I need a enclose garage as I have a dog and would probably have a pup next and I do not want my precious pets to be near any cars should the cars leak. And he told me he understand and will have it enclosed. And I need a sheltered outdoor area for my dog as he can't be wet in the rain due to his skin condition. That's the first meeting. Second meeting (oh another bombshell) the alfesco area will be cut in half next to the semi open semi enclose car garage due to the land size. Signed off on the handwritten variation with the garage variation amount not filled in as he doesn't know the cost. need to go through someone. Only after I've received the letter that I realised how much it cost. I was after the quote of it before making up my mind and he came back with this cost and wrote there (quote) garage door to be provided by buyer When I finally managed to track him down and get him to answer, he told me that was the normal price and it will cost me much more should they source it. Went to another builder (upfront cost cheaper but the ensuite bathroom is too small for my liking) and they told me garage doors are part of the package. Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 7Aug 23, 2009 5:52 pm Oh, yea. I'm a first homebuyer. And thought homebuyer centre will guide me through this lot easily as according to their advert Have not seen the $1000 increase yet. And if I do, I might ended up requiring anger managemet course. Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 8Aug 23, 2009 5:54 pm Hi I am with Homebuyers and haven't actually started the build yet that is next step. Just waiting on final plans and council developer approval etc. Yes you will find that there is always extra costs. We had garage issues. Said we wanted to change carport to garage so they add that in.. find out weeks later that it didn't include a door . Then we had to pay an extra $2,500 for crossover on top of the allowance of $2,700. OUr sales dude was pretty good at the start and we went with resolve who were pretty good at communicating and if not I would email or ring them.But basically we had filled in all the keystart forms and did most of everything for them so they just had to lodge it. Now I have no person to contact.. sales dude long gone. Prestart over and done with . Just waiting for next person CLO whomever they may be to contact me. It is a long drawn out process I can tell you that. Everything extra will cost. But thats par for the course with most builders. I am just hoping the build itself is a smooth process. Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 9Aug 23, 2009 6:01 pm As Lynne said, carefully read all of the documentation and plans in detail. Make sure you understand what is offered as the "standard inclusions" for the house. If all you have done is signed a preliminary agreement and paid a small deposit then you could still walk away if you're not satisfied with the service you have received. You'd lose the deposit, but it might save you in the long term. New beginnings. Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 10Aug 23, 2009 6:11 pm locus As Lynne said, carefully read all of the documentation and plans in detail. Make sure you understand what is offered as the "standard inclusions" for the house. If all you have done is signed a preliminary agreement and paid a small deposit then you could still walk away if you're not satisfied with the service you have received. You'd lose the deposit, but it might save you in the long term. Wished I've done that at the start but when I hinted this to the sales consultant that I will walk away and loose that deposit, he mentioned that I will have to pay a percentage of the house to walk away from them. Unfortunately, none of that standard inclusion was provided to me at the start after signing the preliminary document. For goodness sake, I didn't even receive the receipt of my deposit as it was done via electronic transfer. I had to chase it for months just to get it. I feel like I have been bullyed into signing all the contracts at times. Just signed the final contact about 2 weeks ago and I am still waiting for answers. Don't quite like where the sink and stove is placed. tried to get the sales consultant to change it but he told me that can only be done at pre-start. Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 11Aug 23, 2009 6:17 pm Qiao Ru locus As Lynne said, carefully read all of the documentation and plans in detail. Make sure you understand what is offered as the "standard inclusions" for the house. If all you have done is signed a preliminary agreement and paid a small deposit then you could still walk away if you're not satisfied with the service you have received. You'd lose the deposit, but it might save you in the long term. Wished I've done that at the start but when I hinted this to the sales consultant that I will walk away and loose that deposit, he mentioned that I will have to pay a percentage of the house to walk away from them. Unfortunately, none of that standard inclusion was provided to me at the start after signing the preliminary document. For goodness sake, I didn't even receive the receipt of my deposit as it was done via electronic transfer. I had to chase it for months just to get it. I feel like I have been bullyed into signing all the contracts at times. Just signed the final contact about 2 weeks ago and I am still waiting for answers. Don't quite like where the sink and stove is placed. tried to get the sales consultant to change it but he told me that can only be done at pre-start. Yeah you have to make those sort of changes at pre-start. I don't think you can make actual structural changes then but you can shift things around and change things. All at a hefty price of course. The thing is even with another builder you and we could of faced a lot of these issues. Though knowing what I know now I would put them all through their paces a bit more and make sure they were the right ones for us. Its soo frustrating though to know we paid the money yet they hold it over us by saying we signed a contract. Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 12Aug 23, 2009 6:23 pm I was not told about the additional cost of that. I am at the stage that I can't afford more changes as they have not got back to me on the amount required once the finance has been approved. I believe there will be structural change because of the exhaust for the stove. Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 13Aug 23, 2009 7:51 pm I had to get my whole kitchen redesigned as it was completely not what I asked for. This was all done at prestart. I have to wonder if it is their little trick witht he garage business. There seems to be too many of us that this has happened to . Hang in there, once prestart is over you will be assigned someone else! Bet we have the same salesguy Building with Homebuyers Centre El Questro! My building thread..viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19421 Brickies started 5/10 Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 14Aug 23, 2009 8:49 pm Same here. Got a feeling as well. I'm hanging on for the past 5 months now. Really hard, feels like one of those pictures where the cat is hanging on the washing line struggling to get up. Any ideas what more will happen? Thinking about removing all carpets into vinyl? Any comment? Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 15Aug 23, 2009 9:22 pm I went to HBC in March as well! Changing your carpets to vinyl will cost you more! For some silly reason vinyl costs more. I thought of that too but when I went to change to vinyl got told it would be more. Have you been told when prestart will be? You don't have a long time to get your FHOG! Have you got your plans drawn up yet? Building with Homebuyers Centre El Questro! My building thread..viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19421 Brickies started 5/10 Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 16Aug 23, 2009 9:46 pm I'm still waiting for prestart and they are waiting for final finance approval. Been given the prestart folder to look at tiles and laminates. Plans are up and I've receive a draft copy from the sales consultant after I insist again and again. and even drew up a not to scale plan. Time is ticking away and I need to know whether the finance goes through as if it doesn't I need plan B quickly. Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 17Aug 24, 2009 12:37 am In the interest of balance......I'm building through them at the moment and my sales guy has been quite good in keeping me in the loop. The only issue I've had with the whole thing so far was waiting on the land title to be issued (not happy as the agent had told me they had already been issued when i signed up). Mind you I've been quite direct with them (ie. warning them if they want to charge more than the listed average siteworks cost i will be demanding copies of the engineers report) and take notes at every meeting. My sales guy also appears to be running the building side of things parallel to the financing....had my prestart the other day even though the finance & land hasn't settled. Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 18Aug 24, 2009 12:57 am Hmm well it seems there are good and bad at HBC...I'm totally over all the crap and all I do now is laugh. Theres nothing left for me to be shocked at..theyve taken all my money, they pretty much knew how much I had to spend on extra furniture etc...they took it all! In an email to their big boss I told him how disgusted I was with my treatment and grossly inflated prices with siteworks, garage, everything I just want my house and for this nightmare to end Building with Homebuyers Centre El Questro! My building thread..viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19421 Brickies started 5/10 Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 19Aug 25, 2009 10:48 am I am trying to avoid them taking away what I've put aside for the basic furniture and electronics. So there is very miserable amount of saving that I did not informed them about for raining days. And seems like the raining days are here. I should have taken notes or at least bring in a voice recorder, at least everything will be recorded down and he can't back out. Silly me. Sales consultant, I do not like you a bit nor do I trust you. You should have been truthful to me from the start, keeping me in the loop not let me find out from a third party. Just received a return call from the broker and he told me that I should hear from the bank by thursday, hopefully that will be it. No more ******.... Re: Has anyone built with Homebuyers Centre in Perth? 20Aug 27, 2009 5:55 pm how did you go with the finance broker? Building with Homebuyers Centre El Questro! My building thread..viewtopic.php?f=31&t=19421 Brickies started 5/10 I havent, and i havent looked to much into it, but on face value its not the saviour its trying to make out to be. Shared equity in your home is never a good idea. The… 1 3958 My garage door has started playing up recently. Sometimes (and getting more frequent) when I press the button to open it, it wont. The motor is an ATA GD0-6V3. Red and… 0 2658 Being an owner builder is no walk in the park. It’s a challenging endeavour that requires dedication and hard… 0 9952 |