Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 25, 2013 4:14 pm Hi all,
Today we signed the Preliminary agreement and Deposited $1750 for the Tender and Contract preparation with Coral Homes to build the Noosa 29 here in Brisbane (Qld). The Project Knock down rebuild with future subdivision 1012m2 block 16.7m frontage Target Budget $300k My plan is to maintain this thread as a sort of Blog documenting our building process and to pass on any tips / traps / pitfalls we encounter along the way that will assist future Homeone forum members with their build. The Homeone forum has been an invaluable tool in educating me on the build process so I only hope I can help others as well. Tips List Tips for Early Phase / Research / Displays / Designs / Pre-contract 1) Leave the kids at home - The first few display homes are exciting but after 5 or 6 even the most well behaved kids can get bored real quick. 2) Bring a woolies bag to carry all those heavy brochures you are bound to collect when viewing display homes. 3) When walking through Displays take the time to speak to the sales consultants about your plans / ideas. It may take some time upfront but this is a fast way to educate yourself and firm up what you really want in a house. 4) Do not feel obliged or pressured for a follow up meeting with a sales consultant - this is their tactic to hook you in. 5) Be nice to the sales consultant as you will more then likely be back through their displays many more times - don't expect to just view displays once, therefore back to tip 4 don't book a meeting and then cancel as you will likely meet or deal with them again and don't want it to be awkward. 6) No matter what they say there is no fixed price - as a minimum a soil test / contours site inspection needs to be done to firm up the site costs. 7) The sales consultants WILL lowball your site costs. They all want to be competitive with the other builders so they will always provide allowances on the low side. There maybe some honest sales consultants but they are hard to find. 8 ) There WILL be piering required almost all blocks need them but this is almost never included as standard - factor this into your site costs. 9) Sales consultants performance in the industry is measured by how many "deposits" they earn in a month remember this fact. Use it to your advantage. 10) Base price lists mean next to nothing - Do not cross off or compare builders based on their base price lists. We made this mistake only to have to go back to builders with higher base price as they were better value. 11) To compare builders quotes as a minimum you will need to sit down / book a meeting with a sales consultant and explain what your needs are before they will invest time in you to provide a quote. 12) Not all inclusions are the same - there is no way around this except getting into the detail and reading / comparing against prospective builders. Until you get into this detail there is no way you can compare one builders quote to another. However amongst the project builders the prices are competitive, if one is cheaper then the other ask yourself what has been excluded on the cheaper build or what extras you are paying for in the higher cost quote. 13) Know your setback requirements - don't rely on builders to provide the correct minimum lot width requirements, they often get this wrong or you will need to apply for council relaxations 14) After some research you will find that for a specific sized block, a lot of house design will share similarities. Write or copy what you like from particular designs. 15) After reviewing designs it is very unlikely you will find one design that has every single aspect that you like. This is where a pencil and eraser come in handy. 16) Don't be afraid to customize builders designs with your own pencil drawing very often internal changes to layouts will cost you very little. Use the base design to chop and change internals as much as you like. 17) Changing external walls - can also be done but this will cost you. As a rough rule of thumb moving walls so they are still under eaves is approx $500/m2. Extending walls outside of current eaves will cost approx $1000/m2. 18) For a basic level of finish with some upgrades and S slab an industry rule of thumb is a house costs $1000/m2 to build eg 200m2 house will cost $200k and a 300m2 will cost $300k. Keep this in mind when comparing houses as an extra 10m2 (small bedroom) costs approx $10k to add or if removed can save you $10k. 19) Base prices amongst all project builders never include facade options - this can be anywhere between $5k to $30k factor this in your budget 20) Know what aspect your block is before choosing a design - Maximise the Northerly aspect by having your main family and living areas on this side of the house. Also almost all builders will flip (mirror) a design at no cost so you can maximise the northerly aspect. Re: First time build with Coral Homes (QLD) - Noosa 29 2Sep 25, 2013 5:32 pm Some details about our project: About me: I work as a senior analyst - so i like to think that I am a detailed person - if this is not you then my blog may get too detailed (read dry) for some. I plan to be as detailed and as thorough as I can so other detailed people such as myself can get something out of this blog. The Project Knock down rebuild with future subdivision 1012m2 block 16.7m frontage Our Journey So far: 28 July 2013 - We woke up one day and decided we wanted to build a house ![]() 29 July 2013 - Now to make a dream a reality. Not knowing the feasibility of subdivision I contacted some Town Planners and Surveyors for some advice. Generally speaking most of those people that I contacted were happy to provide information on feasibility but wanted anywhere between $500 to $1000 to put a feasibility report together. Essentially all the report would contain was advice telling me that a subdivision was possible. So instead of putting this early money down I got down and dirty reading Brisbane City Council City Plan and Qld Building codes. I arrived at the same conclusion that the subdivision was "doable" under the City plan. What i was surprised about was the approximate cost of subdivision. Estimates for the complete subdivision with all council approval / titles drawn and water / sewer connections made was from $30k minimum up to $60k with the realistic amount somewhere in between. 5 August 2013 - Initial research stage - The internet is an invaluable tool for this stage. Our preference was to go with one of the volume project builders as they all provide detailed information online to allow an at home comparison without doing the walk/ring around. Smaller builders websites were lacking in detail especially concerning the level of inclusions. 10 August 2013 - We quickly found out that online research can only get you so far - quite a few Project builders did not list base prices on their website. I believe this is a specific ploy to get you to go to displays and talk to their sales consultants. So we set out to one of the many display centres in Brisbane. Our research showed that the Rochedale display world had the majority of builders we wanted to speak to. We spent the better part of a day at rochedale walking through all the display homes. 1st tip - Kids get real bored real quick - initially it is all exciting for the the first few homes you walk through but once you start going through the 5-6 home it all gets too much for them, so even the most well behaved kids I think you should send off to the grandparents or a friend to look after for the day. Overview of the display homes Metricon - Displays were heavily upgraded compared to the other project builders so naturally the building and finish was very nice. We hit them up for price lists and their two levels of inclusions "Love Value" (basic) and "Love Luxury" (some lux upgrades). They also provided very flash books containing colour photos of all their designs in both single storey and two storey. I pushed for a price for one of their display homes "as buillt / same spec" and the sales consultant was very reluctant to provide me with a price. What I thought was a simple question that they should know off hand they would not provide. I engaged in a bit of banter and eventually the sales lady admitted that the display in question contained at least $100k in upgrades above there "Love Luxury" inclusions level - Wow no wonder it looked so good. Plantation - Displays were the opposite to Metricon with the inclusions very close the the standard inclusions. At the time they only had one level of inclusions with all pricing available online. Their inclusions appeared to have a lot of options and choices which we saw as a plus. Their brochures were also very flash at this stage all the brochures and books were getting quite heavy so i recommend bringing a woolies green bag to carry all the paperwork. We wanted to chat to a salesman but both were busy so the sales assitant/ hostess took down our details for them to call back it took about one week before they made contact. Ausbuild - Had a very smooth talking salesman, we walked through, displays close to standard but with some upgrades. I asked the smooth talking salesman how much one of the displays was "as built/spec" to my surprise he pulled out a yellow sheet itemizing the full build cost of the display with all the upgrades. Needless to say this impressed me as this was the first transparent sales person i had spoken to, providing me with full build costs up front. You will be surprised at some of the upgrades that when when walking through you don't notice but they all add up. He also provided us with a price list that wasn't available online Claredon - Us being new to the process Claredon appeared cheaper then the other project builders with their base prices online undercutting other project builders. This is however largely due to what i perceive as a lower level of standard inclusions. If you are trying to get the largest house for your dollar they would probably be the cheapest if you are willing to forego on your level of finish. As I type this I am aware that Claredon appear to be reviewing their inclusions with new "Ruby" and "Saphire" level of inclusions. When I was looking at them these inclusion levels were not available - so it appears they are taking a step in the right direction. Claredon appeared to have a lot of standard designs (albiet some looked outdated) to choose from but not many displays to view. I also went through GJ Gardner / Mcarthy Homes / Orbit Homes / Nuvo Homes / Indigo homes Nuvo and Indigo appear to be smaller volume builders so we did not consider. GJ Gardner higher inital base prices put us off. Mcarthy appeared to be marketed for a higher class of clientele with larger blocks they did have a "budget" blueprint series of homes. Orbit - Designs appear to be slightly outdated from what I could see compared the other project builders. Re: Tips List - First time build - Coral Homes(QLD) - Noosa 3Oct 03, 2013 12:49 am Update 3/10/2013 Coral Homes have organised the soil tests from their subcontractor STA Consulting Engineers. STA Consulting Engineers requested that I provide Service Plans for Underground Power Underground phone line/cable Sewer Line Storm water Underground Gas Mains Water I thought STA Consulting as a usual course would gather these plans themselves but turns out as the owner I am supposed to provide this information to them. I wrongly assumed this would be part of any soil test performed. So I have since registered with dial a dig to request all these service plans. STA Consulting Engineers have also requested that I sign a waiver, making me liable for any damage caused by them when boring the site. I thought this waiver was particularly onerous on me but could do nothing else but to sign the document if i wanted a soil test to occur. I would of thought that these types of Companies would have insurance against such damages but it appears they do not. I then checked whether my current building insurance would cover any damage from the soil test boring but could not find anything specific to do with damage to underground services. Re: Tips List - First time build - Coral Homes(QLD) - Noosa 4Oct 03, 2013 5:43 am great tips. i wonder with soil test that different builders do it different ways with us our builder did everything 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 27738 Can anyone give me any onfo on New Homes WA? Good or bad, hopefully good just need to know if my choice was good or not? Thanks ❤️ 0 8950 Ask the council if there is a chance of getting build over easement exemption. Sometimes easements are unused and 24cm is not all that much. Good luck. And yes any builder… 2 13781 ![]() |