Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 31, 2010 2:15 pm Hi Everyone,
I've decided to write this review because when i did a search for Fairhaven homes to see what other people's experiences have been like I didn't find much to go off. As building a new home is a fairly massive experience i thought this might help people make their decision in the future. 31/05/10 So my wife and I have decided to build our first home. After spending weeks looking at display homes and browsing different companies websites we walked into Fairhaven Homes, Barwon house in Cranbourne. The floor plan was open but very practical at the same time and fitted exactly what we were after. We sat down with their primary sales guy, Rod, and after a few discussions decided to go ahead. Rod was a nice guy without being over-the-top like some sales people tend to get. Was never pushy on anything and because of his many years of experience in the industry could answer most questions we had easily. The basic cost for the house at this stage was $219,000 plus any extras you want which includes tiles, floor boards and carpet. Because of the block we picked we had to alter the floor plan to accommodate for light and the driveway positioning. We ended up with a merging of the Barwon and Apollo which is called the Barollo. This was perfect for us because we weren't 100% happy with the front of the Barwon in the first place. The next step was to confirm the extras we wanted included with the house. They had a promotion running at the time which was spend $25,000 or more & save $12,500. Pricing on the standard list of extras seemed to be fairly close to quotes we received from other companies so with the special offer it was worthwhile to pick quite a few of the extras. I found that extra's not listed on the extras page could be quite expensive though so my recomendation would be to try and avoid this for now and deal with it yourself on completion of the house. Whilst we were finalising these details the basic cost of the house rose by $5000 which brought it up to $224,000. This was a little disappointing but there was nothing we could do about it. We were warned that if the house doesn't start construction for some time then this may happen again regardless of contracts being signed. With the extra cost we decided to remove a few of the extras not on the standard extras list to balance the cost out. After about 7 different versions of quotes and numerous vist's where we kept coming up with more ideas, we eventually signed off on the contract in mid March which equated to $260,450. This included additional doors, timber windows for the front of the house and a few other things. We placed a deposit of $2000 at this time and were told we should have prelimanary drawings done within 4-6 weeks with the interior decorating done prior to this. It's now the 31st of May and we're yet to hear from anyone at Fairhaven homes and the couple of emails we've sent in the mean time have had no responses. Our land will be ready to build on in November this year so hopefully this is only a small bump in the road and when i've got some more news i'll keep updating our story. 01/06/10 So we had a call from a nice guy at Fairhaven Homes last night just updating us on the situation and letting us know we should be contacted shortly by the colour consultant. We're looking forward to this part of the design and will update you once we've gotten into it. 09/06/2010 So, we had a call last night from the colour consultant and we've got an appointment booked for later this month. The consultant's only sub-contract for Fairhaven homes so they don't work over the weekend. We were told we need to select the bricks before this meeting and they've included another brick manafacturer you can select from now so PGH & Austral Bricks are both options. Looks like quite a good range. Also other good news is that the first home buyers grant has been extended and now grants you $20,000 for buying land and building a new home. This goes until June 2011. Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 2Jun 02, 2010 10:27 am Hi,
My husband and I are also building the Barwon with Fairhaven homes. We loved the floor plan, although their display is a bit boring. We have made quite a few changes to suit us. We paid our initial deposit July 2009, we didn’t sign final contract until February 2010. Although the process was a long one, they started building immediately! We were at lock up within about 11 weeks. Not without our fair share of issues I might add. We still have some issues which we are hoping will get sorted promptly. A new site supervisor was appointed to us and he seems to be on the ball. My advice to anyone building with them is go over your contract very carefully and make sure everything is in writing, and written on your specifications. We are currently at fit out, and this is when things seem to slow down. At this stage I don’t want to be negative towards them, because the quality of the home is great. Our biggest qualm is that emails don’t get any response, phone calls don’t get returned. You just have to hope that when you call, that your customer liaison answers. I will keep you updated as we go through the final stages of this journey. Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 3Jun 02, 2010 12:20 pm Hi Drover, we are also building the Barwon in Botanic Ridge... wow would be interested in seeing your plans, didnt realise you can intergrate houses together, we also liked the apollo but found the barwon floorplan better for us. We also dont really like the facade on the barwon, but we will put stack a stone on the ensuite wall.. hopefully this will make it look better!! I also would talk to Rod about the house pricing going up.. cause once you signed prelims.. you are looked in at the signed price.. should not be paying anymore.. we locked in when the house was at $209,950, but we didnt get any of the specials they are offering now. You also have to keep on their backs with calls and updates.. cause yes they dont seem to get back to you!!! But found this with everyone i have been dealing with not just Fairhaven... brb_645 .. yes the display is not that great.. but the floorplan is excellent!!! Were are you building?? We signed prelims in October 09, after 10 revisions we finally signed tender Feb, final contracts signed April... it is a long process!! Start date on land 19 May (Scrapped), and slab as of yesterday!!!!! YAY I will be starting a thread on our build shortly.. just have to get all info and pics together! will keep you guys updated on our proccess. Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 4Jun 03, 2010 11:23 am Hi Drover, When you go for your interior selection, I advise to do your homework first because you get 3 hours and that goes so quick. They should have given you a sheet with all their stockists, if not ask for one. At the very least choose your tiles, bricks, and tapware. There wasn't a big selection in the office when we went for ours. It's very exciting, hope you enjoy the process. Bellabelinda, Hi, congrats on your slab, you'll see your house up in no time. We are building in Heritage Springs Pakenham. We got to go for a walk through with our site supervisor this morning, it's so exciting, all cabinets are now in and have painter scheduled next week, yay. Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 5Jun 09, 2010 9:00 pm Hi fellow Fairhaven clients, We are building the Whistler, it has a been a verrrrrrryyyy lenghty process. We initially fell in love with the floorplan when the display openened well over 2 years ago but couldnt find land to fit it, in that time the price went up over $25,000. We signed up in August last year on the premise that our land wouldnt be ready till March 2010 and locked in a good price of which thankfully they honoured. The customer service was somewhat slow and lacking at the beginning but they now must have new systems in place and our rep is lovely, after many emails from me she finally got the ball rolling and we signed contracts two weeks ago and found out today our site scrape is booked in for end of the month - cant wait to see something happening. I think a part of the problem was that they were a small builder but their fantastic floorplans and quality of the homes really took off and maybe they are becoming quite big quite quickly. Anyway, I am sure that we will all end up with beautiful quality built homes to be proud of in the not to distant future and I look forward to sharing our builds. Building at Sierra Estate. Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 6Jun 09, 2010 9:14 pm kavother I think a part of the problem was that they were a small builder but their fantastic floorplans and quality of the homes really took off and maybe they are becoming quite big quite quickly. Anyway, I am sure that we will all end up with beautiful quality built homes to be proud of in the not to distant future and I look forward to sharing our builds. Kavother -- very true, think they have taken on too much too quick, although they aparently dont want to become a big builder, they might be becoming bigger than they anticipated as their designs and quality is exceptional. We are currently at slab stage, and cant wait for each process. I have started a build thread, we are building the barwon. Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 7Jun 09, 2010 9:49 pm Hi Drover,
Good to see they are keeping you informed, can be frustrating when your waiting. Hello Kavother, It's great to hear that you are also with Fairhaven, and i fell in love with the Whistler too, I think it was the colours, but the Barwon floorplan won us in the end, although I have used some of the colours from the Whistler Belinda you are so right about the quality, and I know first hand, as ours is coming along quite nicely. (i'm following your blog) Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 8Jun 09, 2010 9:57 pm I love the Barwon too, they didnt have that around when we first discovered Fairhaven and the Whistler just suited our lifestyle perfectly, we had to change suburbs and pay exorbident prices for land just to fit it with a 3 car garage so when I said to my husband and the sales consultant I think I like the Barwon more the answer was a definate NO. We'd put in so much work for the Whistler and have stuck with it but changed the facade (I really do not like the one on display).
Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 9Jul 06, 2010 4:22 pm Hi Drover, I was driving past Princess Hwy Narre Warren and was shocked to see a new building for Fairhaven's colour selection How lucky are you, we had a little room with not a lot in there. So have they set a date for you yet, have you even heard from them? Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 10Jul 06, 2010 6:09 pm We had out meeting on Monday last week actually. Meeting went really well and Wendy the colour consultant surpassed expectations. Lots of different samples in the show room to work with and lot's of great advice. We're very happy with how it turned out and now we just have to wait to hear from Fairhaven Homes on the final $$$$. Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 12Aug 04, 2010 5:36 pm We had the meeting for the preliminary estimate last week. Finally got the full drawings of the house and what it's going to look like. Had a few mistakes which needed to be cleared up but overall Andrew was friendly and helpful. Costs keep climbing every time we think about another thing we want included but what can you do?
Had a few bumps along the road so far in regards to a lack of options for a couple of the things we had selected. We had upgraded the cupboards to vinyl wrap but when we had the meeting to select options we didn't like any colours available. We ended up going for the no additional cost laminate because we prerefered the colour options which lowered the overall price which i wont complain about. The same thing then happened with the carpet options. Gold level carpet has patterns which are an aquired taste and silver level carpet which shined in the sunlight because of the nylon and had a short warranty period compared to most carpets these days. Now just need to sort out some of the final things like air conditioning, alarm system and so on and we should be right to go. Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 13Aug 08, 2010 9:06 pm Hi fellow Fairhaven people... some of you know me and some of u dont... My fiancee and I are building the BAROLLO( mix of Apollo and Barwon desings) @botanic Ridge. Our experience has been overall....FRUSTRATING!!! I think ours is the opposite to BRB and bellabelinda we have had excellent communication between ourselves and our CS but *** all work (putting it lightly!!!) She has answered every question by email within a few hours or returned my call the same day...a lovely girl who knows how frustrated I am..so understands my several emails per week. I will be beginning a thread very shortly which will go into detail the lengthy delays we have faced and how forgotten we feel..(we were told to expect to be in our house by August-we are only at frame stage now!!!) and although the experience is our first (we are FHO) we know that the process should be quicker than this.. their designs are fantastic and very well thought out as are there inclusions.(but its pointless if by the time you see this a newer better model has arrived) Rod was a fantastic salesman who answered every question and helped us along the way. our experience with the colour consultant was good..not many choices tho (although I think this has changed)..and only one appointment. We had an issue where our retaining wall cost blew out $4000 over budget (not there fault but was a nasty surprise!!) and then to top it off we had no work done to our site after it was cut, for more than two months!!!I was not happy!! I think the thing that annoyed me the most and no offense to Bellabelinda...but we first signed with Fairhaven back in October last year..and then our official contracts were done in December..we only had our slab laid in May!!!you guys have had so much more progress yet signed ur official contracts so much later..and then to see your workmen on site doing ur frame...and our site like a street in the desert with the haybail rolling (lol) made me really dissapointed. Because yours was coming along and I wished ours would too so that driving all the way there wasnt a waste of petrol..so instead we went and saw urs to feel uplifted to see how ours one day (in forty years) may progress.. anway im babbling but I do agree with the others i think they have taken on too much too quickly and clients have suffered! Goodluck with it all and Im sure if you do build with them it will be a good experience because there quality and designs are 110% and thats what you get when its all built! Em They say all good things come to those who wait...so I must be getting a Lamborghini Diablo for all my waiting!!! Building a Fairhaven BAROLLO @ Botanic Ridge https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37362 Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 14Aug 08, 2010 9:18 pm Em, when did the land settle where you are? Because we were originally going to buy a block @ the end of your street, but then we saw the block we are at now and bought that as it was already titled. B.T.W, who was and is your site supervisor? P.M me if you like :0) If you want a job done properly... Do it yourself! Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 15Aug 08, 2010 9:26 pm Hey pmd you They say all good things come to those who wait...so I must be getting a Lamborghini Diablo for all my waiting!!! Building a Fairhaven BAROLLO @ Botanic Ridge https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37362 Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 18Aug 31, 2010 9:29 pm Thanks everyone for your input into this thread. Hope everything goes well for everyone. I'll try to keep track as we are starting the process with Fairhaven also. Still early days for us, although we been in "discussions" for ages and had several prelims. Still waiting on land to title. Hope it's on time. Re: Fairhaven Homes Review - Ongoing 20Sep 01, 2010 6:20 pm We're at the same stage of getting ready to build our house. Just finalalising the prelim quotes and then waiting for the land to release around December - February. This has been delayed because of the rain we've been getting and i guess this would be the same for most people building around Melbourne.
I don't know how you've found this part of the process so far but apart from a misunderstanding by me the team at Fairhaven Homes have been excellent. We always get responses quickly to every email and i've had a few contacts with our CRM to update us on the situation and what to expect. 10/10 for customer service so far. We are looking to do a KDR with fairhaven homes, Have seen plenty of good reviews about them pre construction and plenty of negative reviews about them during contruction… 0 18039 i thought the flipped plan initially but bec i want narrow pathway from entry to dining (dont like bend), also cannot fit the… 7 17278 It is true that a builder can ignore your independent inspection report as it is not part of the contractual arrangement but that is stupid because he cannot avoid fixing… 9 46854 |