Hi everyone!
We are quite early in our building process (as in, just put down our 5k deposit with Stockland in Mernda) and awaiting financial approval. Since there are fewer Boutique people represented in this forum, I would like to see if our early experiences are normal since some of the cons has been quite discouraging.
We have started a blog for future Boutique people:
http://merndaboutique.blogspot.com.au/
So far, our pros:
Boutique homes, are by far , most solid in quality, great floor plans, especially after walking into so many display homes. More expensive base price but seems some of the inclusions Boutique offers were upgrades by others.
S, our sales does not push for upgrades and even tells us which of our wanted upgrades are not necessary, won't increase our resale value or less expensive to install post hand over. We appreciate this a lot as we are first time home buyers and very new to the game.
cons:
"clear and simple" was anything but! Perhaps because we are first time buyers, we needed more help but we felt the whole process leading up to signing the PWC was cloudy.
For our first meeting, we wanted:
Full inclusion list, full non inclusion list, full upgrades with prices.
With these information, we would be able to prioritize what we truly want when prices matter for some items. Plus, from reading other threads and blogs, items that we think should be standard may not be, so we wanted to know all this and not blow our budget.
What we got:
We asked for such lists but the advertised list that I showed him, he crumpled up. " You don't need this, just tell me what you want in your house and I'll put it on the PWC". S spent three hours showing us inclusions at the display rooms but these were items like tiles and bricks, of which is too early to think about. Yes, Boutique has some nice inclusions but are we missing anything? We don't know.
The week following, we came in and he prepared PWC for us to sign and initial floor plans and put in a deposit. He did show us a booklet of prices of everything Boutique offered, which we flicked over and really wished we had that booklet for a week to decide what we need and want. I also want to have that booklet and scan it and put it online so that this process can become more transparent. The booklet was taken away after we signed, I voiced that it would have been nice to be able to look through that last week.
Since then, we've emailed S and told him how disappointed we are with the foggy process and he called back the next day, offering to have a meeting with us to go over everything that is available. Even if it means our PWC would most probably remain the same but to sooth our nerves that we're not leaving anything out as we're about to enter the biggest debt of our lives.
What are everyone's thoughts on this?