Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 23, 2011 10:00 am Hello, We have just purchased a block of land in south-east brisbane and are first time builders. Given the recent slowdown in house sales, is anyone aware if there is room to negotiate on the build price of various homes with builders such as Metricon, Plantation. Would they throw in free additions to win your business? As we are new to the building game, we are not sure if there is room to negotiate like there would be if you bought an existing home. Thank you! Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 2May 23, 2011 10:07 am wasn't a free addition, but in Perth I had our builder throw in ~$12 worth of Aircon and Solar Panels for $4k so that was a bargain. I'm sure their will be some movement with deals, especially towards the end of the month. Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 4May 23, 2011 11:27 am A little secret I worked out, was to get them to include discounted items or freebies. Then at final meeting, have them minused off the contract. For example. My house is 240sqm of living space. They were offering that I could buy a fully ducted reverse cycle aircon for $4,000 of which was to the value of $13,700. So on my contract, at my final interview I asked for it to be taken off. For which I received a variation for -$13,700 off my contract. So managed to reduce my over all contract by $10,000. Its a little **, but it worked. Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 5May 23, 2011 11:40 am 1stBuildFR A little secret I worked out, was to get them to include discounted items or freebies. Then at final meeting, have them minused off the contract. For example. My house is 240sqm of living space. They were offering that I could buy a fully ducted reverse cycle aircon for $4,000 of which was to the value of $13,700. So on my contract, at my final interview I asked for it to be taken off. For which I received a variation for -$13,700 off my contract. So managed to reduce my over all contract by $10,000. Its a little **, but it worked. Now thats #winning.. Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 6May 23, 2011 12:29 pm humble 1stBuildFR A little secret I worked out, was to get them to include discounted items or freebies. Then at final meeting, have them minused off the contract. For example. My house is 240sqm of living space. They were offering that I could buy a fully ducted reverse cycle aircon for $4,000 of which was to the value of $13,700. So on my contract, at my final interview I asked for it to be taken off. For which I received a variation for -$13,700 off my contract. So managed to reduce my over all contract by $10,000. Its a little **, but it worked. Now thats #winning.. If there was a neatest trick of the year award - this would win it. Well done. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 7May 23, 2011 1:35 pm Thanks surprisingly enough the tip came from the sales guy. He was like.. nowwwww I will give you this special, but if you know someone who can do it cheaper than we can. Which would probably be anyone/company. Then I suggest at the final builders interview you ask for the aircon to be rebated, and get the total value off the contract. My wife and I made him a gift basket with a nice bottle of red in it for the tip. However they did try to charge us for our garage twice lol. So thats probably where they thought they were going to catch up the 10k. Our double garage is included in the base house price, however they charged us an additional 11,880 for a double garage. Which I spotted after the builders interview. But still got another variation for that minus'd off. So as you can imagine we had one very confused bank manager Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 9May 23, 2011 2:34 pm Thanks for replies. At the moment they seem like they have reasonable deals. Ie they throw in afew freebies. We havent signed with anyone yet as our land wont be ready til june/july. Wonder if it will be worth holding off in the hope they improve their deals in a month or two. Surely they are under pressure at the moment with the decline in new house sales... Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 10May 23, 2011 3:32 pm I think you'll find their prices wont be going down any time soon. Companies in the building trade etc. Will just force people onto annual leave until business picks back up. I would have to say the longer you leave it, the more chances their prices will go up. For instance that same company I built with, I bought the land from it was by coincedence, no preplanning. The day I walked into sign the contract. They had to back date my contract by 3 days, because they changed their 'home and land package' discount from $2,000 to $1,000. Things like that happen all the time. The only advice I have to say is, if you are letting the dollar be your guide more so than the dream of building a home to your specs. I'd advise buying established. Because you're already going in with the wrong attitude. Building is stressful, very stressful. With surprise costs the whole journey. Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 12May 23, 2011 6:52 pm 1stBuildFR Companies in the building trade etc. Will just force people onto annual leave until business picks back up. How long can you force someone onto annual leave? 4 weeks, 8 weeks!!!! Hardly a long time before a price correction. The laws of supply and demand have not changed. If demand drops, prices will drop. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 13May 23, 2011 7:38 pm Casa2 How long can you force someone onto annual leave? 4 weeks, 8 weeks!!!! Hardly a long time before a price correction. The laws of supply and demand have not changed. If demand drops, prices will drop. Ha ha ha if you say so. You do realise the earth is running out of resources. Therefore you have forgot to factor in that as supply of timber decreases, demand and price increases. Therefore passing onto the building company and you. That alone shows that prices will not go down. Also the building companies arnt out there building your homes. They are contractors. Of which my brothers are some. In times like this, just like back in late 90's, the contractors force their employees to start working 25 hours weeks. And they just spread out their work etc. Until the government increases grants. Which increases people wanting to build, which increases demand and increases prices. So to summarise, the only way this current 'market' is going to make things cheaper, is if the gov't pumps in building bonus again. Which may or may not happen. Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 14May 23, 2011 7:41 pm ^^ sorry I disagree.. take PD or BigM there prices today are exactly the same as they were 2 years ago. How do I know this? I still have the brochures, we have been wanting to build for the last 24 months. Now, land.. thats a difference story. Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 15May 23, 2011 8:04 pm ^^Do you notice how new project builders designs give you more features for less money. This may give you a hint how project builders match prices to market forces without ever lowering prices! Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 16May 23, 2011 8:26 pm The building market is very, very depressed here, but the builders prices are not dropping at all. We had another local builder go bust two weeks ago and when I tried to negotiate with another of the local builders on their price they would not budge. So I walked. In the end we went with a volume builder - just before contract signing we hit them up for a discount - in the end they threw in around $5,000 worth of extras we'd added in for free. Better than nothing. ~ trying to build our dream home by the sea ~ Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 17May 23, 2011 9:00 pm I think the general summary we are all reaching is Price Budging - not really (Maybe a little). Freebies - Yes. When it comes down to it, they are a business. And doing things for a cheaper cost is going to make them not earn enough capital. Therefore they'll go under. If we end up with Less companies/builders. Then when this market low is over. Prices will boom because lack of competition. Freebies another story all together A lot of little freebies goes a long way. Thinks you may ask for and get for free -stainless steel appliance upgrades -upgrade exhaust fan to heating exhaust fan in bathrooms. -Maybe even push for a free upgrade from standard to panel lift roller door My rule of thumb is, if you don't ask. You don't get. But try to be friendly about it, the sales staff are people too. Majority of the time if your friendly they'll do more for you, than if you stand there yelling at them. Good luck to all Re: Is the price negotiable with volume builders? 18May 23, 2011 9:11 pm Its a interesting process, I think if you can get more on the freebies list your doing pretty well, I wouldnt expect them to budge with price overall, but a extension to some of the freebies would be nice. Electrical is my target. 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 110592 Hi, Seeking volume or semi-custom builder in victoria(east), which have existing double story wide floor plans. Seeking 18-20m wide homes with depth of 12-15m long. Or… 0 25171 i did click it, still couldnt make it out rofl. in any case, doesnt look like too extreme a slope, you may be in luck. Just shoot out some emails to volume builders in… 3 18575 |