Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 02, 2013 2:09 pm i have had one meeting with one builder, plus another 2 setup for this week to get more info at a sitdown. everytime I think I really want something, something tells me to back off and keep looking. did you start out knowing whom you wanted to build with and then go from there? tell me this is normal? Re: how long did it take you to decide on a builder, plan, 2Feb 02, 2013 2:23 pm We looked around quite a few display homes, some for custom builders & some for project homes. We found a custom builder with a house we really liked & which we could mostly copy with a few changes to fit on our block, grabbed their details, and then both became busy at work & figured we'd put it off for 6 months or so. When we called & left messages 6 months later they didn't respond; Googled them & they were in receivership. So we looked around again and found some custom builders who seemed to understand what we were after; we got 95% towards a design with them, they costed it up, and the prediction came back at nearly $1.2m. So ... we started looking again. Probably 3 more weeks, of looking at project homes only. Nothing suited, but one project builder said they'd make some fairly hefty changes to a standard design which we liked; that one turned-out not to fit on the block, so 2 weeks later again we'd found another one of their designs that we liked & sketched-up a floorplan that we wanted them to provide a tender for. Now 5 months after that, with what seemed to be no progress on the fixes to the first (quite incorrect) tender we were given, we started looking around at other builders. Probably took us another 4 weeks to go through the designs of every project-home builder we could find, put-in for quotes on the most promising ones ... and now we're at a week over 8 months from that request for tender on the first project-home builder we thought we were going with. Hoping to get the first draft of the floorplan back on Monday, and only have to make a few relatively minor changes. So ... 18 months, give or take? Thus-far ... Re: how long did it take you to decide on a builder, plan, 3Feb 02, 2013 2:55 pm We started looking at various project builders plans in January last year and started to gather an idea of what we did and didn't like about each one. We then ventured out to some display homes from about July onwards to look at quality of builds, the layout and size of the rooms in "real life" and pricing. We decided on our builder because they would modify plans to suit what we wanted/needed (including adding 2m extra to the rear of the house) and they also dealt with custom designs so we could have just drawn a plan and taken it in. So far we are about at the end of making any more structural changes and after 4 months of thinking about our existing layout constantly I am quite relieved. Take your time - even cut out bits of plans you like and put them together in a layout to suit your block. Look into orientation of your block too as that was a big mistake my sister and her DH made in not doing that. Think about what you love/hate about your current place and places you've lived before. You are in a good position too to make builders work for your business so get some comparisons of costs for things and standard inclusions. Best of luck. Re: how long did it take you to decide on a builder, plan, 4Feb 02, 2013 3:12 pm How long did it take to decide on a builder or plan or how long did it take to find a builder that didn't fluck me around? Reasonably quick for the first question, around a month or so, but about 18 months for the second. In saying that I had been collecting ideas and floorplans and visiting display homes on the weekends for fun for about 10 years before. I would have happily built the first house with the first builder we chose, but after 7 or 8 contract appointments where everytime they had drawn THE WRONG HOUSE , we walked away. Moral of the story? Once you do decide on the dream house, don't be afraid to pull the pin if you are not getting the service you desire. In my case, I felt that if they couldn't draw the right house, they may have a little trouble building it. Go with your gut, it takes as long as it takes. Everyone will be different. Only proceed when you are comfortable. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: how long did it take you to decide on a builder, plan, 5Feb 02, 2013 3:13 pm We were looking for about three years once we had the house on the market we got serious! At one point we nearly signed with PD but glad we waited until we were ready, as our family got bigger in the mean time. We were finally able to shop around when our house was on the market. We saw a house on a few acres that was newly built and we went through it with the agent but it sold way out of our price range anyway.. We asked the agent who built it and then went to the builder DFH and here we are around 9 weeks off finished (I hope). Re: how long did it take you to decide on a builder, plan, 6Feb 02, 2013 3:30 pm We have had our block for just over 5 years now and during that time we have been looking around. We got serious with the looking, getting quotes etc approx January 2011. We found the builder we are using in June 2011. We chose them as they were extremely flexible, would allow us or our tradespeople on site to do work and came in at a decent price with good inclusions. We didn't proceed with them until July 2012 (as we had a specific timeframe in mind of when we wanted to build) which is when we paid for them to produce our custom floor plans. As we had a lot of changes etc we are only up to the contract signing stage now. So I suppose for us it was 4 years of homework followed by 6 solid months of searching for a builder. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: how long did it take you to decide on a builder, plan, 7Feb 02, 2013 3:33 pm we saw our block at the end of feb 2012, and then it took a till july 2012 to own it had a builder from end of feb to august but never seem to get anywhere with them. so looked at display home other builders etc. and finally left 1st builder 1 aug 2012 and started with the builder we have now 1 aug 2012 . they are custom building a house for us and we are now at bricking stage Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 20154 I thought this would be a popular question but I haven't been able to find any similar posts. Perhaps I'm wording my searches wrong? When you have car insurance and the… 0 6550 No the fireplace doesn’t work. It’s been enclosed. 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