Hometec and Carlisle Homes

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the quick advice and loving the links u posted! Carlisle Homes seem to be a great option for us at the moment! Your blog looks fantastic, I will be reading it all night long. Heeps of thanks and keep up the great work mate.

Rik

We were mostly attracted to the Hometec floor plans, the sales rep(Jack from Keysborough) was quite friendly on the day. We will be going to see Carlisle Homes sometimes soon.

We were going to build a home with Simonds Home before, but the sales rep was not of any help as well. I totally agree with you, more nice blokes would b great.

Thanks again Matt!

I can relate to what Matt is talking about - some sales people do make a difference initially, but let me tell you - at the end of the day that should NOT be the key factor.

Once you go down the road of building with a project home builder, the moment you are into your contract signing process you end up dealing with totally different people and the initial sales rep is soon forgotten.

So while good service is always important - all companies have good and bad sales people working for them. It is the suitability of the design to your needs, council regulations and then quality of the building process that matter at the end of the day.

My advice is if you do meet a narky salesman, before you give the company a flick, try and seek at least one other contact person.

I agree!

But, you never get a second chance to make a first impression and these guys should give 100% all the time.

I orignally went to the "other" Carlisle Homes display and basically decided on the Grande there and then. The "so called" agent there was so rude he almost turned me away from the company.

I asked when a suitable time would be to have someone walk us through the house and show me the standard inclusions. He responded by asking when was I bringing the wife down? When I said that I would be making the decisions he responded with a oh come back later, I will see what I can do...

SO I took my wife back on a Sunday morning at 9:30. The display opens ay 10:00....we waited until 10:10am for him to open the door whilst he drank his coffee and read the paper. When he opened the door and greeted us and another couple I politely asked if he could show us the house now? Response ..... get this "Are you crazy, this is my busiest day?" I politely responded that I need this in order to sign a contract to which he replied perhaps I could try next door (M3tric0n)

I walked out without another word.

My wife took some talking around and we went and saw the Cranbourne display where Warren took us around and showed us the display thoroughly.

I wonder who got the commission on this one?

Ewan,

I would be interested to hear about any issues you had with Carlisle Homes...

via PM if it makes you feel more comfortable

How is Clarendon going for you Vlad? I currently have them short-listed as our prospective builder so any feedback would be great.

Clarendon build in QLD,NSW and VIC. It is the one company so Im assuming it's employess operate to the same quality guidelines. But of course any feedback is just a guide - especially from across the border.

Thanks for your response, I appreciate it. I'll be watching your progress keenly. Can i ask what design you are building?

My brickwork issue was pretty major, the bricklayer gang was pretty poor.

There were major cracks in the mortar all throughout the entire house.

I asked them to remedy this issue, they first tried to cover up the cracks with additional mortar. It took them a week to do it, however the end product did not come out right, and ended up being patchy and looked worse.

Then they finally conceeded to render the house, after two weeks of back and forth. They were very apologetic about the incident. That was the only major problem i had with Carlisle. Other than that it was all good.

I'm pretty sure future or current clients of Carlisle will not experience this as they are no longer using the bricklayers.

I suggest getting professional home inspectors to monitor your building process if you are not confident in spotting the problems yourself.

Hmm, I am no bricklayer, but logic would suggest the issue was not caused by laying per say, but more by the way they mixed it. Maybe it was too dry or something like that.

I've been told by the bricklayers on my site that the brickwork should be judged around two weeks after it was done, and after the bricks have been washed. That way you can see the real mortar colour and are not blinded by dirt. We'll see, but so far I have no reason to think it won't turn out ok.