I just had my pre-start, at the end it turned out ok. The pre-start girl was good and we manage to do almost all things we wanted.
Obviously with extra cost.
From my recent experience I will leave here my advise and my approach if I was to build another house now.
1 - When you go on displays, find out what is standard and what is not.
2 - The things you like that are upgrades, get the sales rep to quote.
3 - Get you entire list wish list quoted from the builders you are considering.
4 - Compare the total cost of all upgrades and the base model with the pre-defined packages (Executive, Premium, whatever they call it). You may find a pre-defined package that has all you want cheaper of than going for the base model + add-ons.
It will save you time and avoid stress.
5 - If you remove things from your model YOU ARE ALREADY LOOSING. They will charge you RRP+Markup+Overhead, etc. But when you want to remove you will get a fraction back.
6 - Make up your mind and only sign when you know how much things cost and what the best option of package is.
Once you signed, that is it. You will loose on every move.
A quick example from my experience.
We had the standard Bath, with tiles all around.
So they were supplying
- Bath,
Tap,
Waste,
Plumber,
Tiles all around,
and Tiler
We then asked to remove the bath and we would install our own after handover.
They provided us a credit a credit of $469 to remove all the above list.
I got back to then and said, Can you keep the plumbing provision so we install our own later?
We got charged $438 for the plumbing provision. Which means, no tap, no waste and no bath. Oh, maybe the Bath cost only $30, the tap and waste just $1...???...
Take your own conclusions.
As a first home buyer entitled to the FHOG, I need to have a 'complete' house.
Financial institutions require the house to be 'Turn Key' so you get the grand. And in case the need to sell the house it is ready to go to the market.
This means there will be a number of things that you can't delete to do after handover. The only option left is to upgrade.
That is where Builders make the most of the opportunity.
They know you can't delete a lot of stuff you don't like. So the next option and only option is to upgrade to something rather pricey.
I know they have overheads, but some of the cost are unreasonable.
I was reading my contract which is very likely to be similar if not the same as your. (Building ACT 1991)
On that it states that the builder is not liable for supplied items. They only need to do the best they can to contact manufacturer for the warranty. You can get that from almost any store you buy things.
Anyway, do your research, compare prices, packages, builders and make sure it is clear what you can do and after you can't after the preliminary contracts.
Things turned up ok, I got most of the things I wanted but if I had gone for a package above or either the display package.
I wouldn't stress as much and maybe it would cost the same or cheaper at the end.