Porter Davis homes

Hi Stewie

You have come to the right place. Lots of active Porter Davies customers on this feed.
My husband and I are just about to start breaking ground as our build is meant to start on site this week.

Every build has its up's and down's, don't let the negative posts put you off, we chose PD as we believe they have the best floor plans and house types and do the best builds and finishings, and at the end of the day - that's what you want in a house. You forget about the small frustrations along the way and come out of it with a beautiful home.

What house are you looking at building?

Cheers
Charlotte

Hi Stewie

You have come to the right place. Lots of active Porter Davies customers on this feed.
My husband and I are just about to start breaking ground as our build is meant to start on site this week.

Every build has its up's and down's, don't let the negative posts put you off, we chose PD as we believe they have the best floor plans and house types and do the best builds and finishings, and at the end of the day - that's what you want in a house. You forget about the small frustrations along the way and come out of it with a beautiful home.

What house are you looking at building?

Cheers
Charlotte

Hi Kenshi,

Following are my 2c advises

- Have certain budget in mind, they give you some price indications.
- Know your inclusions well, re-visit your quote and any inclusions/promo list. If not sure, ask for it. Dont assume anything. You may miss a few items which you can get for free.
- To control the cost, better to exclude items on that day itself which you think you will delete in coming days
- Electrical pricing is upfront, but you will be surprised how the numbers add up so quickly
- Ask for a meeting with Brivis consultant to know different brivis products and choose whats best.
- If you are on budget, Avoid Birk consultant meeting and save time.
- Have your final list of colors ready else high chance of getting into confusions there

HTH.

OK Team

They are coming thick and fast. I have published another post on my blog. This one is about getting the structure right.
It covers Liveability Consultant, sisalation, sarking, insulation, termite protection, double glazing and a touch of pricing along with a sideswipe or two at Porter Davis.

https://forsyth35blog.wordpress.com/201 ... %8B-right/

https://forsyth35blog.wordpress.com

Let me know if you like it and want to know more about other areas of the house.

Cheers
Charlotte

Man I thought we were well prepared compared to most people for building a house but you and Dave are just next level. I really wish your blog had been around before we started! We are lucky in some sense because we do have the sarking and such forth being in a BAL area, although I was less than happy about the $6k extra cost at the time! We also managed to get sound insulation for our theatre room but as you say it wasn't as easy as it should have been!

I suspect the Liveability Consultant may be a new position, it wasn't even mentioned to us when we were going through WoS early in 2017. Same with the Brivis consultant, I don't recall ever seeing that space. Which is annoying as hell because had we known more about it we almost certainly would have upgraded the insulation as a bare minimum, and probably a bunch of other stuff as well such as double glazing and the Brivis system. PD are leaving money on the table by not telling people about this stuff. I'd like to see them run once a month or once a quarter all day seminars on all the different aspects of building a house that covers all of this sort of stuff because as you say plenty of people are first time builders and have no idea about any of it, and I think it would probably actually be the same even with people who have built before.

Remember the words "builders choice" as this will save you thousands.

We also told our sales consultants at WOS (and remember they are there to sell you things not to give you advice) that if an upgrade was > $400 then we woudnt do it and many upgrades came in just below $400...

There are a few things you can do post handover if you feel confident enough.

Flooring.
We are getting spotted gum solid floorboards for $105/m2 and high quality carpet and underlay for $40/m2.
This is significantly below the upgrade cost of PD and we recieved a $60/m2 credit for not doing flooring through PD

Front door.
A 2340 x 1200 pivot door through PD was around $5k. Post build we will remove the front door frame and for under $2k install a pivot door.

Cooking appliances
We had a bosch oven as were doing a KDRB so we removed the fisher and pikel oven and cooktop recieved a $1k credit that paid for a 900mm bosch induction cooktop through good guys. (The same top through PD was $3.5k)

Curtains
Quote through WOS $17k. Same curtains through local company $8k.

Electrical.
Fans through PD around $300 each. Purchased on sale at beacon same fan for $90 plus $70 install fee. As we are getting post handover electrician to install split systems so is not a problem while hes there

Security
Were getting PD to run cat 6 cables for cameras. PD wanted around $3k for security system on top of this. We can get one for about $600 POE fully installed.

The thing to remember is PD are one of many choices out there. Its good to know the costs of the majour items you want before going to WOS so you can compare.

see more at
hoffmangoldwithporterdavis.wordpress.com

That was a very entertaining read. I had a good chuckle to myself.

I wish we were offered sarking (also colourbond roof and hebel) and a second whirlybird. I would have happily paid for the upgrade.

Thankfully we have a friend in the pest control business so we knew our stuff there and managed to get the physical barrier from PD at no extra cost. We read in the contract PD said physical or chemical barrier. So we held them to that.

Thanks for the kind words, I never know if anyone is going to read my blogs but it sounds like its helping others.

Metricon does a 2-hour seminar that takes you through the steps of the building process with their team. Dave and I went to one and it was good to get an overview of what to expect even if they are different Companies.
Now I know that you start with a Sales Consultant, then are handed to a Tender Presenter, a Building Coordinator, a Contract Presenter and then a Site Supervisor - the folder moving from one desk to the nest. It gave you an overview of what the next step would be so you were not stumbling in the dark and wondering why you are being passed around.
Dave jokes that we should run a seminar on what to expect, how to get the most of bang for your buck and what are the traps and pitfalls.

C.

I think a seminar would be massively helpful for pretty much anyone. I definitely know a lot more about building a house than when we started but there are a fair few things I would have done differently if I'd known they were an option, and undoubtedly there are things that I don't know that I don't know about.

The main thing though is that I think PD (and probably most/all building companies) don't do is educate customers about all of the options that they can have. We didn't even know that you can extend your garage (which I kinda wish we had done) or change a bunch of other stuff, and the whole way through there was no mention of things like insulation, sarking, anything which reduces your power bill etc. They seem to expect you to know all of their processes and what's available instead of educating you about these things.

Finally have our gas abolished!! Everything has been held up by this one thing.

Will be able to give the demolition company the go ahead to knock down the house early next week, which will probably take 2 weeks from then for them to start.

Woohoo, great news!

Hopefully it all goes smoothly for you from now on!

If I understand the PD process at all, I think the Sales Consultant is supposed to be the one that knows about these things and should be offering them/assisting you to understand the options when you sit down with them during the sales process. Then once you are handed over to the Building Coordinator, they are then supposed to help you with any further options should you change your mind or find out something new that you hadn't been offer previously.

In our experience however, the Sales Consultant just took our order. Added in the structural upgrades for our chosen house design, which we had become aware of through the website or their glossy house brochures. Then added in a few promotional packages and a few allowances for things like electrical and Colourtec finishes to the kitchen.

He never told us about the Hebel promotion, he never told us about the Colourbond promotion, he never got us an accurate cost for double glasing when we enquired about it. He never indicated that we could install a solar option to reduce our energy footprint and create a greener house.
When we did ask him to added in the Colourbond Promo once we had discovered it for ourselves, he never told us we should get sarking or that we should get an extra whirlybird because we have such a large roof area.

I think their focus is to get as many quotes accepted and signed off as possible. They work on a commission and that commission is paid out on the value of the Base house they sell. Anything you add to the house does not increase their commission, so they have no financial incentive to spend more time with you to educate you on what things you might consider doing to your house to make it your dream home.

He didn't even seem to have a good understanding of how much things would costs at World of Style, as the allowances he added to our quote were no where near accurate.
He initially added $3,000 for electrical allowance and when we told him we wanted to Colourtec our Kitchen, Galley, Laundry & all 4 bathroom cabinets, he added in a $4,000 allowance
We spent over $20,000 on electrical and the cost to Colourtec everything was $18,000

Don't get me wrong, not all Sales Consultants are like this, there are some genuine people who do give a toss and will go above and beyond. This is just our experience.

I think, to have a good experience with PD, it really comes down to your Sales Consultant. If you get a great one then you're set up well to have a smooth run through the PD system.

Our SC couldn't wait to hand us onto our BC and don't get me started on our BCFH!!! (BC from hell)

I really think, in the early stages, we would have benefited hugely from a few seminars that would step you through the basics, like the one Metricon do which outlines the processes and who you will be dealing with as you move along the journey and pass from person to person. But it should go further and they should have someone tell you about all the modifications you can make that can improve your home, the things you can add that aren't in the "Standard inclusions", but are available so you can improve the quality of your dream home. There a a lot of things you can add that are not on display at WOS, there is more to building a good house than nice kitchen cabinets and stone benchtops. We just need some help to understand these things at the beginning of our journey, not 8 or 9 months down the line.

OK, that's enough ranting from me for today.

Have a great day

Lots of great hints and tips - thank you everyone.
I don’t think you can ever be done with upgrades/changes to be honest. There’s always something else that you can add or change.
I agree that a seminar/webinar would be a great idea for prospective customers. It would only further line PD’s pockets in the end.

Short sighted dysfunctional business that is blind to opportunities. Churn and burn. Too many chiefs (top heavy) and deep cultural problems that will prevent them from being a great organisation. However, there have been a few capable individuals, those are the exception.

Educate yourself before signing and pay attention to the details, as that's where the devil lays. Afford yourself the time required to review documentation, as the pressure to sign will lock you into errors you will either have to live with, or alternatively pay to have rectified (revenue strategy).

Hi Team, another blog posting.

This one is all about staircases, I surprised myself with how much information I have learnt about PD's Staircases and wonder if I will ever need it again after this build.

Check it out at:
https://forsyth35blog.wordpress.com/201 ... ase-leads/

Cheers
C.

Again a great read, thanks for writing it very detailed. I can relate myself been gone through some of the pain points while discussing the staircase with PD, i wish i had this much wisdom on staircases before.

Btw i guess you are doing flooring post handover, do you mind sharing the details of what have you finalized.

Thanks.

Our laminate flooring is in. I’m happy with the colour....but not with these tiny sections of quad at each of the pillars with metal strips in between. Any suggestions on what would make this look better. We are going to speak to our site supervisor about it.

Hi

Thanks and yes we are doing it post hand over. I can make that my next blog.
When I start out writing a blog I think, oh I'll write about this subjet and then it goes off on such a long winded tangent that its already a full blog about somthing I never ment to write about lol
Hope you dont mind I stole your staircase photo

Ta C.

Love the floors and the walls Not sure what you could do about that, hopefully your SS will have a solution if it’s an issue he has seen before.

You could try removing the quad and silver strips and cork around the pillars.