Negotiating with Porter Davis

ksutcliffe · Apr 27, 2008 2:31 pm

Has anyone had any success negotiating upgrades with Porter Davis? For example bulkhead entry, an extra $179, shower recess also an extra. do they have room to include it, and does it differ with different consultants?

Any feedback would be really appreciated

Cheers
Kat

Mozzie · Apr 27, 2008 4:24 pm

From what I've seen it is a case of take it or leave it. I can't imagine them negotiating with anything. I found their approach and their pricing to be about as rigid as you can imagine. My guess is if you really pushed it the CSC would ask the manager and about 3 weeks later you'd get an answer of 'no'. That said most of their upgrade prices seem quite reasonable after seeing prices from independant builders.

builda · Apr 27, 2008 6:21 pm

While it can be very frustrating negotiating extras with a project builder, we need to understand that the reason these project home builders exist is because they have a standard product on a flat block and that is it.

They can get you in a home for 40% - 60% less that what it would cost for a custom designed home from a smaller, non-display home type builder.

So if the negotiation is frustrating, just accept that it comes with the territory to some degree.

I know that doesn't help too much but I feel we do need to keep this stuff in perspective.

dancelisah · Apr 27, 2008 6:25 pm

I agree with Mozzie there is no negotiation you just have to budget for the prices as they are, I guess the only good thing about this is that you know other people are probably not getting a better deal than you just because they are better negotiators!

ksutcliffe · Apr 29, 2008 2:06 pm

Mozzie

From what I've seen it is a case of take it or leave it. I can't imagine them negotiating with anything. I found their approach and their pricing to be about as rigid as you can imagine. My guess is if you really pushed it the CSC would ask the manager and about 3 weeks later you'd get an answer of 'no'. That said most of their upgrade prices seem quite reasonable after seeing prices from independant builders.

Hi Mozzie,

Thanks for the reply

We kind of felt that there would be no room or allowances for that

But good to know that they are reasonable with other prices.

Thanks again
Cheers
Kat

ksutcliffe · Apr 29, 2008 2:12 pm

dancelisah

I agree with Mozzie there is no negotiation you just have to budget for the prices as they are, I guess the only good thing about this is that you know other people are probably not getting a better deal than you just because they are better negotiators!

Hi,

Thanks for the reply

Just aswell we're not getting a lot of upgrades. The promotion they have at the moment is quite good and we did think there would be so much more that wasnt included in the house. But there are only 5 or 6 things we'd like to upgrade for example the bulkhead entry, the shower recess, the tall entrance to the doorway of the ensuite, garage door and the internal doors. Not too bad we thought.

Cheers
Kat

vanderlay · Apr 29, 2008 2:14 pm

yep, we found it just about impossible to get anything extra out of them too! As Mozzie said, pretty much take or leave it!!

Some of their upgrades were reasonable, so were a shocker. Its a balancing act about being worth spending the extra so you dont have the hassle of organising it yourself later!

Rachelle · Apr 29, 2008 2:17 pm

$170 bulkhead entry? I was quoted over $1k!!! Different builder but still!!

ksutcliffe · Apr 29, 2008 2:18 pm

builda

While it can be very frustrating negotiating extras with a project builder, we need to understand that the reason these project home builders exist is because they have a standard product on a flat block and that is it.

They can get you in a home for 40% - 60% less that what it would cost for a custom designed home from a smaller, non-display home type builder.

So if the negotiation is frustrating, just accept that it comes with the territory to some degree.

I know that doesn't help too much but I feel we do need to keep this stuff in perspective.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply

Totally understand. We were just hoping they could throw in the bulkhead entry seing as its only $179, but there are probably no allowances for that. Nonetheless, their upgrade options are quite reasonable in price

Thanks again
Cheers
Kat

ksutcliffe · Apr 29, 2008 2:25 pm

vanderlay

yep, we found it just about impossible to get anything extra out of them too! As Mozzie said, pretty much take or leave it!!

Some of their upgrades were reasonable, so were a shocker. Its a balancing act about being worth spending the extra so you dont have the hassle of organising it yourself later!

yeh you'd think they would throw in some upgrades that only cost a few hundred dollars like the shower recess for $330, bulkhead $179. Not expecting them to do the tiling and wooden floors for nothing. But i did hear once that some consultants are "by the book" and some are willing to negotiate. We'll see how we go anyway!

Cheers
Kat

ksutcliffe · Apr 29, 2008 2:28 pm

Rachelle

$170 bulkhead entry? I was quoted over $1k!!! Different builder but still!!

ouch! that's a bit steep! what a big difference! we wouldnt have worried about it but the consultant said it wasn't that expensive and quoted us $179 actually!

rellie · Apr 29, 2008 4:35 pm

ksutcliffe

But i did hear once that some consultants are "by the book" and some are willing to negotiate. We'll see how we go anyway!

Cheers
Kat

The consultants don't have any room for 'negotiation' so I would be interested to hear otherwise

The reason being they don't want sales consultants undermining each other. Anything they want to do that is out of the ordinary has to be okayed by Managers.

dancelisah · Apr 29, 2008 4:53 pm

I was not able to negotiate on one single thing. I got one discount of $105 because the consultant said getting a fridge space would not cost anything but it was actually supposed to cost $105.

It is funny that when you buy a new fridge, TV or car you bargain with the sales rep but for a new house worth many times these items there is no room for negotiation at all!

Rodda · Apr 29, 2008 7:15 pm

In the end, they still build hundreds of houses a year with new customers lining up to get theirs - why should the big project builders change anything (their process, prices (except up), attitude towards customers, their whole approach...)?

ksutcliffe · Apr 30, 2008 1:20 pm

ksutcliffe

Rachelle

$170 bulkhead entry? I was quoted over $1k!!! Different builder but still!!

ouch! that's a bit steep! what a big difference! we wouldnt have worried about it but the consultant said it wasn't that expensive and quoted us $179 actually!

Hi Rachelle,

Hope we are talking about the same bulkhead entry. It's when you come in at the front door and the ceiling looks like its been cut out and there are down lights in there aswell. Otherwise it would just be levelled.

cheers
kat

ksutcliffe · Apr 30, 2008 1:23 pm

dancelisah

I was not able to negotiate on one single thing. I got one discount of $105 because the consultant said getting a fridge space would not cost anything but it was actually supposed to cost $105.

It is funny that when you buy a new fridge, TV or car you bargain with the sales rep but for a new house worth many times these items there is no room for negotiation at all!

Geez only $105

yeh totally agree with you there, you'd think for a bigger sale they'd be willing to throw in a few tid bits which cost a few hundred dollars. The house we are living in now they upgraded our hot water tank, pavement, garage door and even threw in a few plants for the garden!

Paula · Apr 30, 2008 1:26 pm

ksutcliffe

ksutcliffe wrote:
Rachelle wrote:
$170 bulkhead entry? I was quoted over $1k!!! Different builder but still!!

ouch! that's a bit steep! what a big difference! we wouldnt have worried about it but the consultant said it wasn't that expensive and quoted us $179 actually!

Hi Rachelle,

Hope we are talking about the same bulkhead entry. It's when you come in at the front door and the ceiling looks like its been cut out and there are down lights in there aswell. Otherwise it would just be levelled.

cheers
kat

Yes that is a bulkhead.

When we were talking to a custom builder and mentioned getting some of these, he said that they wont cost anything, as its just throw away wood they are using anyway!! I guess the cost is in the plaster it may be a bit more fiddly.

dancelisah · Apr 30, 2008 2:30 pm

We have had an issue with PD in the last few days about the height of a void, where the wording of the contract said one thing (not what we wanted) and the contract drawing was what we wanted and then the final drawing suddenly got changed to be not what we wanted and we signed it without noticing :oops:

. This was the perfect opportunity for them to be hard nosed and say bad luck to us but they actually came to the party and are giving us what we wanted! The carpenter even has to come back out especially (we are being charged a little bit for this but that is reasonable). It is nice to know we don't have to have something not how we wanted it because we did not notice it had been changed in the drawing

Mozzie · Apr 30, 2008 2:52 pm

You were lucky. A very similar thing happened to me when signing the tender (the drawings said one thing and the tender another). I ended up having to pay a post contract variation. They seem to value the written contract over the drawings every time - one would expect them to reflect the same thing!

I've had quotes from a smaller independent builder on a spec home and their costing was to charge 4.5k for raising the ceiling from 8' to 8.5'. Also a raised bulkdead in the entry was 1k. PD on the other hand charged 3k for that along with about 15k of other extras in their special offer. So it really depends on the builder but I wouldn't say PD are unreasonable in that regard. Sure a custom builder may throw it in for nothing but you are probably paying about 14k a square for the privilege

stonecutter1309 · Apr 30, 2008 3:07 pm

Quote:

Hope we are talking about the same bulkhead entry. It's when you come in at the front door and the ceiling looks like its been cut out and there are down lights in there aswell. Otherwise it would just be levelled.

I think this is technically termed a coffered ceiling