Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 13, 2011 10:22 pm Hi all! My name is Carly and my boyfriend Dan and I have just put a deposit down on a block in Wellard, south of Perth. (Quite literally today... I'm still downing a celebratory bubbly!) Our next step is finding a builder. Our price range for the house is between 140k-180k (4x2). With the market as it is, everyone keeps telling us that we should have the builders right where we want them. The thing is, we're both first home buyers, and neither of us has any experience with building (our parents have bought established). What I'd like to know is what sort of things should we be looking for in a builder? We have an idea of what we want in a house, and have a couple of builders in mind, but we (along with the rest of the world) want to get the most bang for our buck. A lot of builders seem to be offering 'bonuses', some of which only apply to one design or are nothing we are interested in. We're not building our dream home... eventually this will become a rental, but it will be our home for a few years. Does anyone have any suggestions as to things to ask for from builders, or ways to get the best value for money? Also, does anyone have suggestions for mid-range building companies? Cheers, C. It does not surprise me to learn that he has taken exception to virtually the entire content of the lecture, for he and I have been disputing the utility of one another's views, in person and in print, for nearly a decade. L. Binford. Re: Building incentives 2Mar 13, 2011 10:58 pm Popular volume builders wouldn't build on my land, because I have a 3.5m fall across the building envelope, so I will be signing up with a 2nd tier volume builder. Here are a few existing threads on what to look for when choosing a builder : viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28571 viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17103 viewtopic.php?f=31&t=27856 You may also browse through ProductReview and NotGoodEnough : http://www.productreview.com.au/c/home-builders-wa.html http://www.notgoodenough.org/viewforum.php?f=39 Bear in mind that most people who post on ProductReview and NotGoodEnough are those who has had bad experiences with the builder, while those with good experiences tend to be less vocal. 13-08 Moved in 13-05 Build restart 13-04 VMIA compensation 12-08 Builder liquidation 12-03 Fixing 11-12 Lockup 11-11 Frame 11-09 Slab 11-09 Start 11-07 Contract 10-11 2K deposit 10-06 Titled land Re: Building incentives 3Mar 13, 2011 11:01 pm Hi minxy, My girlfriend and u are building in Aubin grove and it's our first place too. Finding a builder that will build a 4x2 for under 180k is not hard but there would be alot of compromises. Make sure you budgets for after build components - soakwells - fences - landscaping - crossover - clothesline, antenna - flooring - blinds - letterbox - gate Also remember site costs (~10k above build price). And prestart costs, cos you will undoubtably want to make a few upgrades. Have a look at: - new generationh homes - celebrations homes - easy start - commodore homes - impressions You have to realize, you get what you pay for as we have found out. If it's any help, we are very happy with our builder, new gen. Re: Building incentives 4Mar 14, 2011 7:19 am I would be looking for a base house cost of around $140,000 if I were you. By the time all the site costs garden, paths etc are finished you will be around $180,000. This link shows how costs can escalate, http://www.anewhouse.com.au/?p=6 Although its based on Victoria it won't be to much different in WA. Inclusions are a bit of a marketing tool. No one builds houses without a good profit margin and stays in business so you may get a better deal without the inclusions. Also if you think you will be renting out will there be any advantage in too flash finishes and cookers etc. Good Luck The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Building incentives 6Mar 15, 2011 8:22 am Thanks guys! Much appreciated. We're going to be building in Wellard, so fencing and front landscaping are being done by by the developers. I'll check out the sites you suggested zeitgeber. Realistically, we can allow our budget to blow out to 200k, but we figured 180 was a good limit to start out with. We've narrowed our choice of builders to celebrations, dale alcock, redink and ross north, so I guess now it's just a case of doing some research! Thanks for the list you posted wrexter, I hadn't even considered most of those! C. It does not surprise me to learn that he has taken exception to virtually the entire content of the lecture, for he and I have been disputing the utility of one another's views, in person and in print, for nearly a decade. L. Binford. Re: Building incentives 7Mar 15, 2011 10:41 am Hey Minxy, My fiance and I also bought some land and decided to build our first home. We will have the keys in about two weeks. Our budget was about $180k also, we found a design we liked which had an incentive/package that came with it - this included blinds, carpet, floor coverings throughout & shower screens. The house was advertised at $161k. This is our first home, but as you said, not our dream home. Although the fittings and fixtures throughout are fairly basic and it is not exactly the home we want, it is sufficient and we have fallen in love with it. Our site costs were $6k as the block was very flat and in a newly established estate. Our total invoice from the builders in the end was about $183k. So you can expect to add a fair bit to the original price. Our estate includes fencing & landscaping so this is not included. The extra $20k came from extending & raising the garage, upgrading floor tiles, adding more cabinets and our crossover. It certainly does add up. We have built with one of the big project builders in Perth - so far our experience has been horrible to tell you the truth! But you will hear horror stories from every project builder, but the positive stories certainly outweigh the negatives - so don't let it put you off! As someone said about, people are more inclined to report the bad experiences, not the good ones! PM me if you would like to know who we built with, it is one of the ones mentioned in an earlier post here Good luck! The road to success is always under construction House completed April 2011 - slowly making it a home... Re: Building incentives 8Jan 18, 2012 12:02 pm Hi everyone, My wife and I are looking into building in Aubin Grove WA. We are still in search for a builder too. However, we are looking at Dale, Impression,RossNorth, Homestart, redink, blueprint and celebration. First home owner, so no experience or whatsoever at all. Really find all your comments/feedbacks very useful. If you have any recommendation do please drop me a line or two or message me if you like. Thanks again! Re: Building incentives 9Jan 18, 2012 3:02 pm monstar Hi everyone, My wife and I are looking into building in Aubin Grove WA. We are still in search for a builder too. However, we are looking at Dale, Impression,RossNorth, Homestart, redink, blueprint and celebration. First home owner, so no experience or whatsoever at all. Really find all your comments/feedbacks very useful. If you have any recommendation do please drop me a line or two or message me if you like. Thanks again! We are building with Red Ink homes in Lake Coogee Estate in Munster... So far they have been great and we received heaps of extras for free like Reverse Cycle Air Con, Essa Stone B/tops, 900mm Appliances, 31C Ceilings, Solar hot water with gas booster etc. My advice is to shop around for what specials the builders have going as it can make a difference, If we did not get ours for free we would not have been able to afford straight away air con, stone bench tops etc Also with red ink they let you change anything and everything which also is great as you can really make the house more like your own design and what you really want. Enjoy it Re: Building incentives 10Jan 18, 2012 7:01 pm monstar Hi everyone, My wife and I are looking into building in Aubin Grove WA. We are still in search for a builder too. However, we are looking at Dale, Impression,RossNorth, Homestart, redink, blueprint and celebration. First home owner, so no experience or whatsoever at all. Really find all your comments/feedbacks very useful. If you have any recommendation do please drop me a line or two or message me if you like. Thanks again! Hi We built with Celebration and I would build with them again. I spent $62,000 at pre-start upgrading things however it was money well spent. I think you are better building one of their promo homes and upgrade them. We built a display and added a couple of rooms etc and for under $270K we got a great home. Their build quality was great and they are good to deal with. Re: Building incentives 11Jan 19, 2012 9:30 am Hi minxy, Congratulations on your purchase of land! All the builders you've mentioned build beautiful homes and are good operators. Sadly no matter the builder, you'll hear a bad story so as said above with sites such as product review, don't believe everything you read. Incentives are always a good bonus but don't rely too heavily on it to make your decision. If you pick a builder and don't happen to want the incentive, ask for a credit or see if you can have something else. You might not want a kitchen upgrade for free but perhaps would like more paving in your backyard. Best thing to do is ask. Worst case they'll say no. Jay Re: Building incentives 12Jan 19, 2012 10:08 am Thanks guys for all the advise both for me and minxy. They are so relevant. We had heard from a few builder, Impression drafted a design, one off, for us. Reason is because the land is in a weird/not retangular shape. Grateful for all the feedbacks and comments Thanks for your reply. I will just wait and see I guess. Trying to get some more information from our builder. 9 29919 go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 110214 |