Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 10, 2013 7:36 pm Hi, My wife and I have been looking to build our new house with a bulk home builder but we have both gotten tired of the answer being "we can't do that" or the cost of doing it being a rip off, example charging $80 to change a $10 light switch to a $40 light switch or charging $500 to change an internal door which only costs $150 from the local hardware store, enough of being grumpy. Based on the above I have been thinking of taking all our ideas that we have liked so far and finding another builder that will build our house the way we want it. So my question is what are some good builders that service the outer south east of Melbourne that a) have as good a build quality as the better looking bulk builders appear to have, b) can take the building ideas we like, both structural and fittings and then build the house the way we would like it, c) are comparable in price, doesn't have to be the same, but not way over budget, overall we might save by not having to pay all the outrages upgrade costs. Thanks Kenneth Re: Looking for a more flexible builder 2Dec 13, 2013 6:35 am I think unless you are going for lockup builds and finish the house yourself (if you are handy with it or know tradies to finish it off) You will find that most flexible builder will cost you more but you get what you want at the end. Re: Looking for a more flexible builder 3Dec 13, 2013 7:55 am I guess what we are looking for is a builder that allows us to supply an idea for the floor plan and then have them build and fit out the house. As long as we can choose the items that we like, we should be happy. Part of the problem we have been having is finding things we like from that the builder supplies, if they have had nothing that we like they haven't been willing to use ones we have found ourselves. Re: Looking for a more flexible builder 4Dec 13, 2013 8:19 am I don't think you are going to find a good builder to do what you are asking for. Any builder that will do custom changes is going to charge through the roof. Accept what they give you and get the doors and light switches changed after handover. Save yourself the headache. Re: Looking for a more flexible builder 5Dec 13, 2013 8:32 am The problem you're going to have is in the price. To summarise why the volume builders are cheaper, it's because they've negotiated deals with suppliers on bulk purchases, and it's because they've done the same house many times before so there's not a lot involved in planning of the design or the building stage. There's enough variance in shape & size of blocks, council rules etc that they do need to make small structural changes all the time, but with modern software they can design & price those changes pretty quickly - as long as the changes aren't large. As soon as you start making bigger changes than that, it costs them the same as it'd cost a custom builder who'd be doing it on a one-off basis. Except that the original price on the volume builder's price-list has assumed a discount they now can't get; and additionally they now have to spend EXTRA time doing planning which they assumed they didn't need to do with the price-list pricing; they end-up even needing to do more planning work (because this is now a special case) as well as needing to charge extra to make-up for the discount they're now not getting. This is why volume builder prices look extortionate; sometimes of course they're a rip off & are priced to discourage you, but a lot of the time it's just because that planning costs time (and wages are a huge part of the cost of building a house!). In short - if you change a volume builder design enough, they have no choice but to charge you at least as much as a custom builder would charge - and possibly more. So I think you'll have to do what everyone else does; either accept the higher cost of a custom build, or compromise as best you can by finding a volume house design that's as close as possible to what you want. Of course there are things you'll never get a volume builder to do; if you want any of those, custom is the only choice. Having said all of that ... there is the occasional volume builder that's set-up for custom stuff. With the recent boom in building I've noticed a lot of Sydney boutiquey-ish volume builders are no longer offering this; but some of them do have custom-build sections. It was probably over a year ago now & things may have changed with them too, but I do know that Jandson Homes (probably Sydney only) had a custom-build section, and they estimated a 10% increase in cost over a same-spec 'standard' home built with them. Except, of course, you could kinda go crazy with the custom one if you wanted. Re: Looking for a more flexible builder 6Dec 13, 2013 8:38 am There has to be a builder that will at least put the walls in the area we want them ( Doesn't have to be exact), make the rooms the size we want (once again doesn't have to be exact), I'm not so worried about the doors, light and switches, those can be changed after, it's more the fixed items that can't be easily changed that we want to get right. The bulk builders we have been dealing with are too worried about there copyrights on their designs and therefor don't want to change the plans to suit our needs, at the end of the day it's our house not theirs and we have to live in it not them. The builder that will be getting our money will be building the house the way we want them to. Based on this can anybody recommend some good custom builders in the Cranbourne-Pakenham area of Melbourne for us to speak with and see how they compare for price and quality. Re: Looking for a more flexible builder 7Dec 13, 2013 5:01 pm I agree with Forg. You can either go with volume builder and pay the high cost for upgrades if they allow, or go with custom builder and pay the high cost upfront. My build is exactly the kind you are looking for with the plan custom designed and I can supply most of the things including switches, tapware etc. and door upgrade is only the price difference for the different doors. It sounds good right? But the cost needs to go somewhere which in my case is the actual building cost. If you are looking for flexibility, you still need to pay for it and that is not cheap compare to volume builders. But at the end you will have what you want in exactly the place you want. ie: hydronic heating and cooling, whatever brand of appliance you want etc. Do you have any idea of what kind of budget you are looking at? May be I can give you some suggestion as I have been looking at custom builders for quite some time. Re: Looking for a more flexible builder 8Dec 13, 2013 7:01 pm Have you tried using a building broker? I am using one, but over here in perth, for exactly the reasons you stated. My block falls 4m over build envelope and is in fire zone too. Hi team, Im looking for a second hand sd4b monitor preferably white. 0 8923 Really tight at the top of the stairs- how to get furniture into those rooms? Study books - does anyone really use them these days? Large storage closet would be more functional. 2 6884 Hi, I am looking into doing a KDR in Melbourne and am contemplating using Kialla Homes. I am looking for feedback on them from others who have built with them. 0 13444 |