Why choose a builder you know is bad?

I have built with the big M and if I were to start looking again now I would not be totally put off by what other people have said about them.

Each are have their own subbies and no-one is guaranteed to get a good batch or a bad batch.

I know that a bad experience will bring out 10 complaints and a good experience will bring out 1 recommendation.

I think that reading others problems gives us a clearer understanding of what to look for and makes us wiser in dealing with the builders. Knowing to hire an independant inspector for peace of mind and knowing that building can be hard can be stressful.

I am very happy with the way M built my house and it didn't fall down when the car ran into it . Any problems I have called them about have been fixed straight away.

If you look, you will find bad reports on any builder or company - there are alway people who are unhappy, and you don't always hear the stories about the happy people.

For any given builder, you need to talk to them and make your own decision - some people will go ahead with a builder who may not have a good reputation because of price, house design, timing, location or other reasons.

Dig deeper - is the bad reputation because of build quality? Customer Service? Follow up?

Certain things you may be able to live with, other things maybe not.
Cheers
Perry

I know that there is never going to be 100% satisfaction. Building is done by humans, humans make mistakes.
Every time we have told someone we are building with M, the response has always been "oh, they have a good reputation" - even from a family friend that has recently gone into building, and another that bricks for DFH.
We have no complaints so far. They may have been a little slow in getting us to contract stage, but we were in no hurry so it wasn't an issue. We were impressed that they would alter the floorplan to suit our needs, they went to the extra trouble of drawing up plans to submit to council, etc, etc when other builders flat out refused. The only hold up we have had was bricks being delivered, but that's hardly their fault - they weren't made! We have had to instigate some of the communication, but we have always known what was going on - they haven't tried to hide anything.
Fingers crossed the rest of our build goes smoothly.

Ray.

My sister and her husband built with the Big M and had a wonderful experience. Their house is beautiful. I think everyone's building experience is different but I do think you tend to hear more about the bad things than the good.

for us flexibility in modifying the design was the deciding factor. M was happy to add a shower to the powder room ($700 a real bargain!) unlike PD's Cremorne (no flexibility) and S!mmond's Toscana was far too lavish.. Also the house came with rumpus and alfresco which, in h@nley's Wilshire was extra 14 K. W e got the best deal with minimum changes. The sales guy was not impressive at all and at first instance we did not think we will go back ..

their paperwork intially took long time.. but I am happy as I got the chance to shop around and check the essestial upgrades and they accomodated our changes closer to final contract.
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Building M's Nolan-44 at slab stage- frame starts next Monday[/i]

metricon has some nice houses especially the grandview. would have built that if i hadnt saw PD first

You'd think the builder would quickly fix it up and remove the fence as quickly as humanly possible.