Tender Process with Rawson...

Hi, we are just starting this crazy journey of building our dream home. We have chosen Rawson's Edge 39 as a base and made a few changes for our block and what will better suit our lifestyles.

We have paid the $1200 and got the tender and plans drawn up and had a meeting with some guys at the Head office who went thru our plans. We are now at the tender acceptance step, in fact its due tomorrow, Friday. Along with 5k other wise we lose the envy pack upgrades.

There are a few things we asked for, eg:
doors on the WIR in the bedrooms, taller kitchen bench tops, and a few other things. We were told this can be done later. Having not been thru the process before I'm worried we won't be able to or it will be costly to change things after we sign the tender. Also the front door in the tender is not the one we asked for, we wanted a painted not stained. Again we were told these aren't locked and can be changed free later.

I would like to know from others who have gone thru this process with Rawson if is possible to make changes after the tender process is signed and was it easy or hard and did it cost anything? Its a big step and its stressing me out abit. Rawson seems to be too relaxed about the significance of the tender signing process.

Thanks
Bav and Shannon.

Hi Bav and Shannon,

Best of luck with your tender

Many of the things you've mentioned can be done at your internals but if you know what you want now it doesn't hurt to keep on asking for it to be put on the tender. Plus if they are saying things can be changed for free later, ask them to note it in the tender or get it in writing. I found Rawson to be quite honest but your file is going to be passed to different people along the way and you want to know what one person tells you will be followed through by the next.

Also if display home has doors to the WIR, the cost should be listed on the upgrade list as part of the display - ask the salesman for it. Same goes for the front door (regardless of what display home its on) although they should really be able to get this on the tender, we had it on ours. Personally for the doors on the WIR I would get this done after handover - maybe have a look at the Benham 33 thread, there's been some recent discussion on wardrobe fitouts and you may as well include the doors on this too.

If something is written down, they won't change it in future. If something is just word-of-mouth "yeah that can be changed for free later", then changing it is probably simplicity but it might not necessarily be free in future; people make mistakes, but they'll tend to stick by what's been written down.

The Edge is an awesomesauce house, I'd love to see a build-thread if you go ahead with it!
We'd probably have ended-up with one if our block had been even only 2m longer ...

We have had a similar experience with our builder. We were told that all structural items need to be finalised at the tender stage and any further changes may be subject to a variation fee. Any internal things like door type etc can change at any time so long as there are no structural changes.

I didn't have my structural changes finished by the tender. In fact I was making structural changes right until the last minute of the plans. But once I signed those plans, that was it.

We didn't have all our structural changes in the tender, but we had most.
Actually our tender included an extra $500 because we were going to need to have the plans re-drawn a 2nd time, as they knew we were going to make structural changes (window/door sizes etc).
However we had a LOT of other changes added afterwards, way into the 6-digit costs were added after the tender, and there was no contract variation fee charged. In fact, they told me they never charge a contract variation fee unless there's an extra cost to them than if they'd done it BEFORE you sign the contract; ie. if they've already ordered your insulation & you want it changed, they charge the variation fee, but if you tell them the day after you sign the contract you just pay the usual extra. Of course every variation costs them some admin time (and hence money), if you make too many changes they'll have to start charging.

Different builders obviously do it differently; my guess is that Shambini's builders have a process that makes it a really hassle for them if changes are made after the tender goes out (their estimators probably aren't usually involved after that, or some-such).

I got charge a contract variation fee when we simply changed the wall colour. Kind of regretting it now since the new colour has a purple tint in the dark. Look at my timeline and you'll see that variations can be raised nilly willy. What gets me is when they raise variations after contract we can't charge them but they aren't hesitant to charge us.

Thanks all for input and help. We signed on Friday after going in to the HQ and talking to Jeff, a manager at Rawsons. He was able to address all my concerns and explained the process far better than was explained previously, at the tender presentation meeting. We have our colours folder and now need to make external colour choices. I will start a new threat for the whole process and upload our plans.

Hi Bavshan,

We are having our tender presentation tomorrow. We've been advised the Envy package will be included in the tender for free if we accept the tender on the day. Did you also get package for included for no extra cost? and if so, did you have to accept at the tender presentation or did you have time to take it home to review?

How did you go with the tender, we are looking at the edge design as well. What is the width of your block?

Hi all We went well at the tender process. They gave us a week to accept the tender. you can still make changes post tender but they are priced up per change. Our land is 11.8m wide. Just be careful if you have under 12 meters CDC won't allow a double garage so we have to go thru council. Where are you building?

There are a few things that are pretty much free to do and they don't tell you. Ask for a taller garage door. Otherwise tailgate of the suv hits the garage door when you open it. And change the bath to notched bath instead. There is no drain for water sitting around the bathtub, sure it make look better but with kids splashing is a given. What design have you selected ?
What changes did you make to the edge? We made a few
We are at colours now and feeling very overwhelm. We have coffee coloured bamboo flooring and not sure what kitchen benchtop or cabinet colours to pick. Even wall colours. We are thinking of having a modern grey theme.

Hi! We're looking at the Edge as well. Our place is 12.1m wide. How did Rawson fit the Edge on to your block? Did they have to cut much? I was thinking that they could move the garage 'in' a bit to fit the block better. Would love to know how your plan looked. Thanks!

Hi bavshan

We are currently working through our selections with Rawson - would you mind telling me if, with the bamboo flooring, you will be having scotia around the kitchen island? We are hoping to get waterfall ends and I really think the scotia cheapens it

thanks!