Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 17, 2013 5:07 pm Hello, My partner and I have just started looking into the idea of building as we previously wanted to build. We are both 23 and obviously neither of us has any experience in buying land, building or buying a home at all. So we really dont know what to expect. So apologies but prepare for many 'silly' questions. 1. Would it be ok to make an offer on land (subject to council approvals) even though our pre approval was for a home loan and not a construction loan? We are currently watching some land and interested in putting an offer in. We have pre approval from our bank but this was pre approved when we initially wanted to build. 2. Is it a better option for us to buy our land and home separately instead of doing a house and land package? 3. What are your personal experience with the Home Buyers Centre? Would you recommend them or vote against? 4. If we wanted a 3x2 home on a 300sqm lot would we still be able to have a decent sized yard? It is hard for me to get an idea for land size when most people i know live in apartments or massive blocks! Also any info regarding your personal experience during the process of buying your land and construction would be great. I really have no idea how to begin this process but we are so keen to get onto to is as soon as we can. Thanks Note: We have an appointment tomorrow to discuss making an offer :S Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 2Mar 17, 2013 5:38 pm I think you would be difficult to fit a 3 bedroom home on a 300sqm block. Your living areas and bedrooms would end up being smallish. It may be okay if you have a single instead of a double garage and a small laundry. Many estates / councils have minimum requirements for private open space. A certain percentage of the land area needs to be private open space. Usually there are minimum length and width requirements for this space. Build thread: here Land Nov 12, Contract 6/07/13, Consent 15/08/13, Start 20/09/13, Slab 25/09/13, Frame 4/10/13, Brick 21/10/13, Roof 2/11/13, Lock-up 17/12/13, Handover 3/3/14 Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 3Mar 17, 2013 5:49 pm Thanks Maximus. Where would I find the requirements for the size of the open space? Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 4Mar 17, 2013 5:55 pm 1. Instead of an all in one house loan you will have a land loan and construction loan which will in the end amount to the same. 2. Separate is good if you want to save on stamp duty as you would only pay it on the block but since you are first home buyers, you won't pay anything under $500,000 for a whole package. I'm assuming your package would be under $500,000. 3. Home buyers centre, even though I have no direct experience, have seen other homes built by them. They are basically cheaper houses where the specs are low - just the basic features. And of course you pay less. The will build your house quick enough though. 4. If you want a 3x2 on a 300m2 block with a back yard, you will need to build a second story which will then cost a lot more. It would be the only way you would have a back yard at all. If you're happy with 1.5 setbacks around the boundary then you could build something sufficient. How many kids will you want? This will definitely be a temporary house for you. You'll run out of room quick with kids. Where do you start? Well I could write a book on that. Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 5Mar 17, 2013 6:06 pm Where in WA are you looking at land? Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 6Mar 17, 2013 6:16 pm Hi twiggens, SOR closer to Freo. Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 7Mar 17, 2013 6:17 pm Thanks rex777. what size house would would you recommend would fit well? This is a temporary home for us and we dont plan to have any children in the near future. We do have a medium-large dog so we would like a decent amount of room. Thanks Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 8Mar 17, 2013 6:22 pm Im building a 3x2 on a 300sq block. To give you an idea on backyard size, I will be left with about 8mx3.5m not including down the side of the house. Its good to see young people like myself are being realistic with what they can afford and its a first house so you dont need all the fancy stuff yet. I spoke to a broker through my builder and they helped my with everything. They helped me find my land and I put a deposit on that through the land devleoper. If the land is un titled you dont pay anything on it untill then. I also have 2 large dogs, a rotti and lab x. And in all honestly if you are a repsonsible pet owner (ie, walking and training daily) the amount of backyard space shouldnt be a problem. Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 9Mar 17, 2013 6:40 pm Echo2k3 Im building a 3x2 on a 300sq block. To give you an idea on backyard size, I will be left with about 8mx3.5m not including down the side of the house. Its good to see young people like myself are being realistic with what they can afford and its a first house so you dont need all the fancy stuff yet. I spoke to a broker through my builder and they helped my with everything. They helped me find my land and I put a deposit on that through the land devleoper. If the land is un titled you dont pay anything on it untill then. I also have 2 large dogs, a rotti and lab x. And in all honestly if you are a repsonsible pet owner (ie, walking and training daily) the amount of backyard space shouldnt be a problem. Thank you Echo2k3. I have seen a lot of 3x2's with tiny patios and that was my main concern. I didn't want it to feel crowded if we were all out there. The land is close to a park so it will be perfect for us. This gives me a realistic idea of how much space we will have . Thanks Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 10Mar 17, 2013 8:14 pm A pic of my floor plans may help a little. http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b319/Echo2k2/9549A8E3-1F3D-48F9-89A7-E60F277874BC-17142-000013BFF6B3DC69.jpg The master bedroom goes all the way to the boundary. And I also have a carport rather then a closed in garage. Saved me a couple $$ and it makes the backyard more open/bigger entertaining area. Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 11Mar 17, 2013 9:19 pm Cheers that's actually really helpful Having a carport over a garage would probably be better for us too. May I ask who you are building with and how your experience has been with them? Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 12Mar 17, 2013 9:20 pm We at also building a 3x2 on a 300m2 block. We don't have rear access so garage is out the front. We have an alfresco and we will also have 4m from the back of the house to the back of the block. Some of it will depend if you can build to the boundary, how wide the block is and the setbacks required. Our houseplans are on our thread if you want to see. We made the house 1m longer then the original plan. So if we hadn't extended it we would have had 5m of backyard. Our block is only 10m wide. Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 14Mar 17, 2013 9:30 pm Im building with WowHomes. Theyve been awesome so far. Im expecting a slab in the next few weeks. Its pretty dauntin at first, but theyve helped me really well and answer all my emails asap which is great! Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 15Mar 17, 2013 9:34 pm Thank you fmac. It's so relieving having somewhere to ask all these questions. Does anyone have any advice that they wish they got before they started shopping around for builders? Or just important info would be beneficial to know? Thanks again. I am so grateful for any help Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 16Mar 17, 2013 9:42 pm Know what you want and are looking for and most importantly budget. We didn't shop around enough. See what plans builders have, what they include in the cost and how easy it is to make changes. I have looked around since we signed and I think we have the best plan to suit our block and lifestyle. Ask questions and don't feel guilty about it, I wish we had made many more of our upgrades early on. Like pot draws in the kitchen, upgraded flooring etc. Also look into what you can possibly do afterwards cheaper, like flooring, paving and window coverings (though this also comes down to how ready you want the house to be when you get keys!) Re: Building our first home in WA!! Advice needed! 17Mar 17, 2013 10:26 pm Hi firsthomenewbie, There's a handy book you can download for free through iTunes called The Keys to Building a Home. Even though we have built before, you never stop learning and there was some good tips in the book. The link is below, if you can't find it on iTunes . http://www.glensmyth.com/ I agree with what Echo2k3 wrote. Build what you can afford and it's your first house, no doubt you will do it all again down the track. It's all about picking the right house design for your block. Once you have your land get the builders to draw the house you like on the block to give you an idea of how much yard you will have. Even if it takes several different designs from different builders to get the one that works best. Every good builder wants you to build their house so they will be happy to do this before you sign on the dotted line with them. I know your first home buyers and probably won't have to pay the stamp duty but just thought I'd mention even the house and land packages you still only pay stamp duty on the land itself, not the whole amount of the package. I always thought you paid it on the total amount like an established house, but no. Always learning......lol Good luck Hi All, I engaged a tradie to install concrete retaining wall 600-800mm high over 32 meters in Victoria. Sleepers are 200*75*2000 mm installed over 17 steel posts. I… 0 6917 Building Standards; Getting It Right! Don't think they are designed for double brick. WA has a particular way of building and unfortunately that's the way a large amount of sills are finished. 3 7012 So it looks like we finally have some movement on site! Definitely later than expected, but I'll take any progress at this point. I'll drop by over the weekend to get… 5 27737 |