Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA?

Hey guys

Heard these guys only deal with first home buyers

What benefits do they provide us compared to other builders?

Why should I choose them?

Still looking for a builder

Hi Drekko - They don't "only deal" with first home buyers, but because of their connection with Resolve, sometimes the financing is more forgiving. I chose them because I liked the design of my house and a lot of what was standard for them was extra for others. I was also happy to see that their foreman & builders were the same ones Boutique Homes used. Good luck with your search!

Hey GG- how are you going in your new home? How is your cat?

We'll get there but I'll be honest - it's been very very difficult. I just got phone / internet last night. Foxtel on Friday. That's nearly 3 weeks without anything, as I am not able to tune in any free to air channels without an antenna. One fence is up but the other side still isn't finished - he's dragging with excuses like "well I don't make the colorbond so I had to order it". I'm usually pretty cruisey about those kind of things, but my dog's restricted to peeing outside on a leash, and having a foot wash when coming back in. But it will be good eventually.

How long have you been on now and what were your big challenges?

I know how you feel GG!!! our fencer was delay delay delay. took 5 weeks after we moved in to get the fencing up. I was just lucky my mum had a dog run we borrowed at week 3 and I put crushed rock compacted in it to stop the foot washes after every toilet trip. It was quite depressing at first we had this beautiful new house and the mud was making me crazy. loving the dry weather this month our dog can run in the yard and I don't have to mop 4 times a day it does get better

I hear ya ladies! I've been in my house 4 months yesterday. The first 2 months was very stressful.
Biggest challenges: the floors, internet connection, not receiving mail and trying to get dirt in.
We only just finished up getting enough dirt last weekend! The weather has made it very difficult. I don't really care about getting the back gardens sorted, it is more just wanting to get turf down so I can let all the cats outside. You all know my internet saga so I won't dig that up again but what I still find depressing is the care of the flooring and after you put in all the hard work- they still don't appear streak free.
What are you cleaning your floors with Ruby? Are you happy with the outcome? If so- what mop are you using?
Also- cracks are starting to appear between the walls/ceiling above the cornices and also the corners of window frames. I know this is due to the house settling but I still don't like seeing it! I hope they fix those things at the 12 month inspection!

Having streaks means the mop was not clean.... try to use flat microfibre mop and hot water with metho, squeeze the microfibre pad as dry as possible, I use hands, work for me...

New mops x11 trambay. I've tried everything including metho. These floors aren't the easiest to deal with unfortunately!

ive just given up trying to get them clean pooks, mine look good until the sun shines on them haha! we have one crack starting in the garage cornice. not looking forward to more :/ I think im most disappointed in my driveway! looks crap and hbc don't want to know about it. I should be thankful its not cracked I suppose our neighbours is cracked right through. Going to buy some concrete paint and give that a go!

Two questions:

1) Has anybody who's in had electrical problems? When we did our New Home Inspection, a few globes were burnt out. We figured it's because they use cheap ones. They were replaced and now work. I've been in for just over 2 weeks and I've blown 5 globes in my lamps. I returned one of the new ones to Coles. The others were used. Figured I got a faulty new one and the old ones had too much of a jiggle in the move. Foxtel guy came today, to install boxes in two rooms. He asked if I had a double adaptor for one room; in the other he used a power board. Both had been used in the old place. Neither worked here, but others finally did. Also been noticing dimming. Starting to get worried.

2) For anybody who got the landscape package, is there a trick to working the irrigation system? I emailed the office and the SS is willing to meet us on a weekday, but we work.

Side note: Two of my plants died immediately. I watered them all by hand. The others are ok. Let the office know that they were either a poor choice of plant, unwell plants, or put into soil that was not adequate. They won't replace. Didn't think they would but since I had no choice, I thought they should.

Speaking of! What kind of grass are you planning on laying?

Hi GG. Sorry to hear of those issues. No electrical problems here. Might be worth checking up in the man hole to make sure there is no roof leaks that might be contributing to the issue (I hope not!). i know nothing about electrics but could it be a power overload and the short circuit is blowing the globes?
As for the irrigation system, we had a leaflet left stuck to ours that said to turn the main tap on, turn the power switch on and it should be good to go.
Our plants have survived however we have ripped the gumtree out and chucked it as well as the stupid bulb plant that was planted in front of our taps. I'm slowly working my way through the rock garden pulling it all up, laying weed mat then putting the rocks back. I've only done a corner and it took forever. So disappointing that they just carelessly put a high maintenance garden on top of clay without weed mat or top soil. We are planning on laying Buffalo turf grass in our backyard.

Gaviscon - Our only electrical issues have been both toilets. The lights flicker, sometimes contanstly and others days not at all. We had our SS come through the other week, of course it doesn't do it when he is here! However he has organised a sparky to come out and have a look. Hopefully yours isn't too big of a fix.

I'm so over the floors as well. I was told I could vacuum them. You can. But I scratched them up. Even with the special brush. Oh well.

Sorry to hear about all your issues, but Speaking of issues!
I went past my block the had they have installed the windows and the two sliding doors that open up into our alfresco area.
I asked for sliding staker doors but the only installed standard sliding doors.
I rang my construction co ordinator in the office she said that they were what was in the contract.

I sent her the email of me asking my sales guy that I wanted to add sliding staker doors and he replied with a price so I said please add it to our contract and so the description he put down in the contract was the stacker doors. So when it was time to sign the final contracts I thought what we signed was the stacker doors, but what he put down wasn't stacker doors!

So they are now saying that coz we signed they contracts that they won't change them! They said they would give us the contact of their window manufactures and said we can change it after they finished if we wanted to. So I had a massive argument with her. Saying that they were meant to specialise in 1st home buyers homes, yet it's just been one issue after another. How am I meant to know what your sales consultant put down was incorrect, specially when I ask for something and they say this is what I want, so I trust you guys that you know what you are doing.
Then when something goes wrong even when their is evidence that I wanted the stacker doors and your sales consultant miss quoted what I wanted, it's all of a sudden my fault.

So long story short... Well not so short sorry. But really needed to vent! They said the state manager will look into it over the weekend and they will let me know. But it's not looking good.

Sorry to hear that Box27. It's true though, if you specialise in 1st Homebuyers then you need to explain everything clearly. They are so used to seeing their own "lingo" written in to contracts but how are we supposed to know what it means? I'm hoping for a good outcome for you.

Agreed 100% Box. I think they specialise in FINANCING first home buyers. It was all a bit blasé for us too.

To those whose houses have finished, have you had the chance to install your pendant light/chandeliers yet? How did you go about making it the centre of your dining table?



Sorry I know the photo is not clear but I hope I'm making sense. I know a sparky can move it but even that involves more money which we really have not a lot of nowadays...

Hi all

It's been a while so thought I'd give a quick update

Had my new home inspection yesterday and other then a few minor touch up paint spots everyone went well, am now waiting on the bank to hand over the funds before Livingston gets a new resident!

Still heaps to organise such as fences, letterbox etc but am super excited

Look forward to hopefully meeting a few of you around the estate

Congrats Solly! Hope everything goes smoothly for you.

Congrats Solly! Welcome to Livingston (nearly!)

Homebuyers have been absolutely fantastic, cant fault the service or the quality so far, obviously when I actually live in it will be the test, but so far so good

After doing the inspection it all feels very real now, so just cant wait to get in there.