Browse Forums Building A New House Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 24Apr 29, 2008 12:12 pm Cheers, Tim -------------------------------------------------------- Built 'Cremorne 41' with PD - Handover took place in Nov '08 http://homeforourcherubs.blogspot.com/ Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 29May 02, 2008 11:56 am ![]() I'm sure if the customer service reps at the displays made commission on the upgrade as well, instead of just the base price of the house then you would probably see them push customers on the upgrades. Personally i like the non invasive approach. Our CSR did suggest a few upgrades, although they were all fairly cheap things that would save us money having them done during construction instead of after. hi, yeh totally agree with you there. we were happy with the consultants honesty when she said not to get the flooring done with them because they're just not competitive enough. we went to hopetoun interiors and thought the standard options weren't too bad. For example the door handles on the interior doors we wont be upgrading. They looked nice the way they are. every little bit helps i guess. cheers kat Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 30May 02, 2008 2:48 pm We are building a Lifstyle Cremorne 41 at the moment, and have a unique perspective on PD in that we pulled the pin with them on the first build (which was a Hamilton 34), and then resigned with them a while later for a Lifestyle.
Second time around we are very happy with the relationship, and the work. My thoughts: - Upgrades cost a fortune, but some of them are difficult to do later. If you can add things later, then you'll save money. - So many homes built by other builder run over time (look at the experiences on this forum). PD seem to be able to bring theirs in on time, or even early. The reason is that they don't over-commit. As a result, your start date might be 6 months away from the sale date, but you know that when you sign with the sales rep. - There are good an bad customer service reps. We were unlucky first time around, lucky the second time around. Ours has been great, and nothing has been too much trouble. - This is a volume builder, and as such some changes may not be allowed. The lifestyle homes represent good value for money, which is one of the reasons we chose them - Check the details of the contracts, drawings and tender documents carefully. We didn't have a problem (that we know of yet!), but there is so much that it's easy to miss errors. Read the blogs, check the forums. No business is going to have 100% happy customers, but these guys seem to do ok on most things. Cheers Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 31May 02, 2008 3:09 pm ![]() We are building a Lifstyle Cremorne 41 at the moment, and have a unique perspective on PD in that we pulled the pin with them on the first build (which was a Hamilton 34), and then resigned with them a while later for a Lifestyle. Second time around we are very happy with the relationship, and the work. My thoughts: - Upgrades cost a fortune, but some of them are difficult to do later. If you can add things later, then you'll save money. - So many homes built by other builder run over time (look at the experiences on this forum). PD seem to be able to bring theirs in on time, or even early. The reason is that they don't over-commit. As a result, your start date might be 6 months away from the sale date, but you know that when you sign with the sales rep. - There are good an bad customer service reps. We were unlucky first time around, lucky the second time around. Ours has been great, and nothing has been too much trouble. - This is a volume builder, and as such some changes may not be allowed. The lifestyle homes represent good value for money, which is one of the reasons we chose them - Check the details of the contracts, drawings and tender documents carefully. We didn't have a problem (that we know of yet!), but there is so much that it's easy to miss errors. Read the blogs, check the forums. No business is going to have 100% happy customers, but these guys seem to do ok on most things. Cheers Thanks so much for the advice, really appreciate it ![]() Been reading up heaps on peoples different experiences and yes, not everyone is going to be happy. The sales rep we are dealing with now has been helpful. PD doesn't seem to be doing all that bad from what I have read. It was out of M3tricon and PD, but we just love PD's design/style better. Will read the contract thoroughly and look very carefully at the drawings. People seem to be telling me about those two important things. Thanking you again Cheers Kat Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 32Jun 06, 2008 12:10 am thanks for the advice perryr. i too am building with PD the Brookvale 50 and have just signed the sales quotation last week. i noticed on your last post in this discussion that you mentioned a start date of 6 months from sale date and reading thru other posts it seems to be the case. Despite asking many times "do we have enough time to get everything done for a Sept start?" he has assured me that yes no problems" it is even though i am not in any real hurry he suggested the start month. 10 miniutes after signing the sales quotation i asked the question again and his response was "well we might be pushing it, there may be some post contract variations because the office is really busy and they may not be able to squeeze you in and you may have to go on a waiting list if anyone cancels. i am available any time as i am self employed and i guess i feel that i have been misled until i signed the sales quotation just to be in a position to allow them to charge me for post contract variations.
does anyone else agree that the time timeline is tight or even imopossible?? thanks for any advice Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 33Jun 06, 2008 8:46 am ![]() thanks for the advice perryr. i too am building with PD the Brookvale 50 and have just signed the sales quotation last week. i noticed on your last post in this discussion that you mentioned a start date of 6 months from sale date and reading thru other posts it seems to be the case. does anyone else agree that the time timeline is tight or even imopossible?? thanks for any advice Where are you building? A lot of the time is taken up by estates and council approvals. Are there many covenants that PD have to adhere to? I do think a start date 3 months from signing is abitious, are you doing a house and land package in which case some of the leg work may have already been done? Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 34Jun 06, 2008 9:21 am We found the pre sales guys fantastic, I suppose thats their job, to get you in. We are building the Illoura 30 out near Hawkstowe Park Melbourne.
After reading these forums I have to agree there are soo many things that they just dont tell you about that would be in their best interests, upgrades, upgrades, upgrades! We haven't gone through tender just yet but are having trouble organising things remotly, we currently live in Canberra. We wanted to be able to do all the appointments before tender so we could get a price and decide there and then if we wanted to add/remove things. But they insist on doing electrical after the tender so if we were conservative on inclusions only to find out that we have an extra 20K to play with then we cant realy make another trip down to get it sorted. Fingers crossed we manage to sort out the options, upgrades and get a price then I can concentrate on selling our house up here and organising jobs and the move! eek! Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 35Jun 06, 2008 10:25 am Here's my two bobs worth....we are building Lifestyle Cremorne 41.......
- our sales guy at Mernda has been the best person by far that we have dealt with during this whole process. I still catch up with him once a week and nothing is a problem for him. I even rang him the other day and asked him to measure the couch in the rumpus room, I was at the shops and ordering our new one but needed to know if the length was okay. - we were lucky with our walk through as the Mernda display seems to have the least amount of upgrades but......like Tim pointed out in a earlier post other options weren't given to us i.e a longer bath - 20cm longer and upgrade cost $75. I found out this option from Perry's blog. It would have been nice to know ALL of the options and then work out what we would like/need - our first CSC was new to the company and was ummmmm ....hopeless. Our 2nd CSC was also new but she is really nice and gets back to me promptly. It's just the attention to detail that is missing - took a week for the right kitchen handle codes to be put into our PCV so that held us up by a week!! - our first start date was 26th May - missed it due to the above comment. Second start date was today 6th June, missed it again.......not sure what the next date is. - we were unlucky on the day at Hopetoun, our consultant didn't listen to what WE wanted and kept showing us pictures of "her favourite" or "the most popular". I said we'd like a white kitchen and she suggested Nocturne Oak which is dark and has a wood grain look. We left our 3.5 hour appt without selecting any cabinetry at all. The worse thing was we went into our appt with only having to select the kitchen and bathroom vanities - we had been in prior on weekends and selected everything else!!! - I found that if they don't want to do something then they make the price unrealistic to turn you off. We asked for Decorative Columns in our lounge room - like in the Prestige Range - we were advised at Contract that the price would be $1,000 each - yeah right.....to hard basket I say. - 20 or 30 week building time is only for a "standard" house. Our building contract is 254 days so 44 days over the 30 weeks. We have made no structural changes what-so-ever. We have added doors, made some windows bigger or smaller and deleted one. We added extra shelving to pantry and that's about it. We were told that five days were allocated for the downlights which are only in the family, meals, kitchen area - 11 in total........I hope they work quicker than that ![]() - be prepared for Tender, ask your sales consultant to add as much as you can think of so you have all the prices at tender and then you can work thorugh and delete what you don't need or keep what you want. - Persevere with things that are important to you!!!!! I had to fight tooth and nail to get the extra shelving in the pantry which only costed $300 because they (PD) thought it would look ugly with a support bracket. - I did our electricals with our sales guy a few days after we signed up. Then at tender we were given a copy of the electrical plan to take home and look over so we could make any changes before or at contract. - I also prefer to have Hopetoun and Tiles selections done before Tender so you know how much $$ you are up for. I would suggest seeing as many "Newsteads" as possible, you may find things that might appeal to you. Get everything in writing. We were underquoted for our 40mm apron to Island Bench, but they had to honour it due to me printing off all the emails to take to contract. Be sure to ask questions if you are not sure. We signed up mid March and settled our land mid April, if admin hadn't made so many typing mistakes then we would have been right to start today early June. And if our first CSC hadn't left the company with our file in a mess we probably would have started on 26th May so well under the six months from signed......under three months too! Sorry this is long, I could go on all day about it........feel free to PM me if you wish to ask anything else. Good luck! I could have quite easily walked away a couple of times but I try and think long term and am hoping for a nice, new, big home at the end of it. I hope we get a friendly experienced SS and that our house goes up without any more hassles. Toni Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 36Jun 06, 2008 5:34 pm Joeygbh, our land is located in Hawkestowe East, South Morang. we settle on this Friday. its not really a house and land package but the sales guy packaged in that way for us so that we can get the fixed price site costs.
mikkyG we could be neighbours, i'm on lot 55 which lot is yours? by the way how did you do electrical after tender, as you would not really know what it was going to cost you? lostie Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 37Jun 06, 2008 5:50 pm ![]() It would have been nice to know ALL of the options and then work out what we would like/need Agreed. Still spewing on not being able to have a niche in the ensuite shower, only to find that it can be donw.... ![]() - we were unlucky on the day at Hopetoun, our consultant didn't listen to what WE wanted and kept showing us pictures of "her favourite" or "the most popular". I said we'd like a white kitchen and she suggested Nocturne Oak which is dark and has a wood grain look. We left our 3.5 hour appt without selecting any cabinetry at all. The worse thing was we went into our appt with only having to select the kitchen and bathroom vanities - we had been in prior on weekends and selected everything else!!! When you go to Hopetoun, be prepared for the fact that the allocated time will not be enough. You may have to make another appointment to go back, or rush through things at the end. ![]() - be prepared for Tender, ask your sales consultant to add as much as you can think of so you have all the prices at tender and then you can work thorugh and delete what you don't need or keep what you want. Good advice! Read lots, look at lots of display homes, and ask lots of questions. ![]() - I did our electricals with our sales guy a few days after we signed up. Then at tender we were given a copy of the electrical plan to take home and look over so we could make any changes before or at contract. We did our electricals at home too, and then went in and put them in with the sales guy. With Prestige, you have a separate electrical appointment. Put in lots of power points, and think about things like where you will have the tv, lamps, and so on. I buggered up the placement of the ceiling power point for the home theatre projector, because there was so much to do - only now can I see that it's in the wrong spot. ![]() Lots of other good advice from Toni. Write a blog, and keep us informed! Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 38Jun 06, 2008 7:32 pm ![]() Joeygbh, our land is located in Hawkestowe East, South Morang. we settle on this Friday. its not really a house and land package but the sales guy packaged in that way for us so that we can get the fixed price site costs. mikkyG we could be neighbours, i'm on lot 55 which lot is yours? by the way how did you do electrical after tender, as you would not really know what it was going to cost you? lostie Our Lot is West in the Hawstowe release, we are lot 600 and something. We wont be far from one another thats for sure! Yeah exactly right on the electrical appointment, they said that the porch 'may' need to be altered for goverenance and because its a structural change they want to put the electrical off until they have the drawings ready? I think we are going to just tell them lets do the electricals off the standard drawings and if that needs to change due to some small change on the porch we'll deal with that as a PCV or pay for it seperate to the finance on the building. Seems like the way to go that involves the least 'risk'. Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 39Jun 20, 2008 10:10 am We are building the Windor 47, and our experience has been nothing but one disaster after another.
Bricks have chipped when washed Mortar wrong colour Niches in ensuites are uneven Cracks appearing at front of house (not even finished yet) Balcony coming away from house Wrong kitchen benchtop Wrong light switches Heating and cooling not installed as per plan They told us we would be finished end of Feb. The contract building period is now up, and still no house. We are very disappointed and have listed a complaint with consumer affairs to assist in resolving the issues. Very poor communication from PD We chose them because we thought they had a good reputation, a bit more expensive than other but should have been worth it. How wrong we were. Check every detail thoroughly and make sure that any agreement you have with them is in writing. Re: What can we expect from Porter Davis? 40Jun 20, 2008 10:22 am anderson1462, I am so sorry to hear about all your troubles. I hope things get resolved for you quickly. It must be very stressful and upsetting. Happy at Home Depends what you're current inclusions are, but we're not including wardrobes and will just use second hand ones until we can save later on to get them built. Also have a… 3 12859 I have a home gym at home. It weights 150KG including the weight stack. I'm a big boy, around 150KG myself. I was thinking about moving it up stairs to the second… 0 7676 Hey everyone Not for me or anyone I know, just generally interested. For a single allotment house, are you allowed to take the fence on both sides of your house and… 0 22649 |