Charleston Homes - anyone worked with them?

Page 5 of 5

Jan 29, 2021
2:54 pm

Ritz123

kanika90

Ritz123

Hi all,

This thread is really useful. Our land is due to register by December, so we have been looking at various builders and house designs. We have narrowed down to three: Somerset 51 by Metricon (Signature range), Waldorf 50 by Eden Brae and Mont Clair by Charleston Homes. We have made slight changes to the layout from their display home at Box Hill but so far, they are the most expensive, with Metricon close behind. We love the display home and are getting most of the inclusions (except flooring and staircase stone). The Charleston home is smaller than both Metricon and Eden Brae - its around 44sq.

Keen to follow this thread and learn from your experiences. We have gone for tender with both Metricon and Charleston and are expecting our drawings to come through in the next couple of weeks. We found Colin (sales guy at Box Hill) to be extremely patient with us and very helpful. But I believe we will be dealing with the builder directly from here on. Will share our experience.

Thanks.

Hi Ritz123,

We are also looking at the Mont Claire home by Charleston. We absolutely fell in love with the design and finishes of the house. We have also cut out all the heavy extras like flooring and staircase they have on display, marble in the bathrooms and the fireplace (amongst other little things). Are you planning on getting the alfresco built by them as well?

Despite all of this, we are coming over budget by about 60k-80k (depending on the final tender we get) and this is largely due to the Site costs & concrete piering which we were expecting to be much lower than they have quoted.
Most other builders (like project homes) have some of the regular site item costs included in the base price, so when they quote you site costs we can't really do a like for like comparison.

Do you know if after you put down the initial deposit of $8k, you get a better idea of the site costs or they really don't change?

Thanks, keen to share our experiences!

- Kani

Hi Kani,

We put down the intial $5k for them to do the survey and draw up the architectural drawings. The site cost will be confirmed once the survey and soil test has been completed. For us this hasn't happened yet as our land is in the process of being registered. The only caveat they put is if they hit rock than that might increase the cost but that cannot be confirmed till they start digging.
For the Alfresco, we will keep as part of the house build as for us there wasn't that much difference is pricing and it would be better for Charleston to pour the concrete regardless. However, you can save upto $10k depending on what type of alfresco you are wanting.

Cheers,
Ritz

Thanks so much Ritz for your thoughts. What do you mean about saving $10k depending on type of alfresco?
Are there any little extras you noticed / cut out that could help save a few k here or there?

Thanks again

Manishg

May 18, 2021
11:21 am

Kate97

Cbaby

dezza

Hello Folks. I am at very early stage of building with Charleston. Any feedback.. of any sort.

We are nearing the end of our charleston and it has been an up and down experience tbh. The variations we have requested at this stage is almost 300k and counting. For the first time home builder I think the processes could have been friendlier to make the whole experience more of a immersive experience rather then stressful

Hi, Just wondering how the building process with Charleston homes is proceeding.
We are extremely disappointed with the builder and his son and think that they are being dishonest by saying that they didn’t include what we asked for in the tender price.

Says that the information has not been delivered to them from the front designing person. But the the initial designer always confirmed that he has checked with the head office.

I feel that the builder is trying to add more than the tender and they have to have some sort of an explanation to do that as we haven’t changed anything and pretty much knew exactly what we wanted.

We will not go ahead with them, even though we like their finishes so much. Feel that they cannot be trusted

We have finished our build with Charleston and moved in a few months ago. We are extremely happy with what the result. I think as a first time builder we were taken back by the number of variations as well (we have several friends who built with different builders over the same time and this was consistent as they all experienced the same thing). if we were to summarise our experience build in 30-40% additional contingency on your tender price for variations...we never found Charleston owners or anyone in their team to be dishonest and if we went back to check our design in detail (there were some things we just missed or assumed...frustrating a little initially but the we found Charleston behaved consistently through the process which seemed fair). There were some items we decided we wanted to source ourselves and the credit was provided with no questions or issues. I also found Charleston to be very responsive with any issue and would get generally get a response straight away. 6 months in we have identified a couple of minor things (post the 90 day initial warranty period) but Charleston have jumped onto resolving that asap. You are right Kate97...the quality of finishes is really amazing and we have compared with other builds and it really stands out. Best of luck with your build though Kate97....hope you get a good outcome.

Francisx

Sep 06, 2021
12:50 pm

Hopefully you’re still enjoying your home.

agent0387

Oct 19, 2021
8:17 pm

Hi All,

I noticed you mentioned 30% builders margin, this seems very high, but given its a volume builder and Charleston are notorious for being overly expensive this I can see why.

Normally builders margin for custom homes can be around 10-15%.

Can everyone here who has built their home with charleston provide some better insight into actual total price of the build and what this included, excluded and what you paid extra for in variations?

I don't see anyone mentioning what they paid for their build but would love to know - I don't see any issue sharing that info as it benefits us owners and allows us to compare and ensure we aren't getting ripped.

Our House Build

Aug 22, 2022
3:24 pm

Hi all,

We are looking at building with Charleston Homes.

In your experience, how have you found them? So far I have only heard they are really expensive, variations come at a 30% builder's margin (very high) and that they aren't great communicators during the build process?

If you have built with them, can you please share your experience?

Thank you so much!

Sean-O

Feb 21, 2024
10:28 am

There have been a few questions lately asking about Charleston and working with them. I have also noticed that all of those reviews saying anything negative/facts about Charleston have been removed. These posts being removed isn't a coincidence, these were removed using sheer intimidation & yelling by Charleston

- All will be well till you pay the first or second deposit. It's all downhill from thereon be prepared to deal with sheer bluntness and rude behavior. Even the simplest of the asks is a BIG NO

- By the time the plans are done with CDC /DA approval the base price of the house price will go up SIGNIFICANTLY as they will find a reason to hike it up. After you pay the second deposit you're likely to just absorb this. (this second deposit is usually a large sum and paid prior to contract signing)

- Ask lots of questions about what each upgrade contains. No question is too small.

- Be prepared to get zero support if your site has complexity - you are left to deal with it on your own.

- Be aware and budget extra for all Provisional Allowance costs e.g. BASIX, Stormwater while also allowing extra monies to accommodate their insanely huge margins. Understand they aren't there for charity but some of it feels like daylight robbery

- Scaffolding. A previous post that was deleted did address this. Scaffolding is only included for a certain number of weeks in the contract, this is obviously not enough for a double storey house especially when there are labour shortages, material shortages, staff getting COVID etc. Be prepared to pay over $1,000 PER WEEK and assume scaffolding might require for the majority of the build.

(again when you receive initial tender you will not notice any of this, QUESTION everything that is Provisional Allowance or PA)

GO TO CHARLESTON WHEN YOU WANT TO BE TREATED POORLY AND BURN MONEY. I wish I can go with another builder

Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Donna-M

23/04/2024

Omaxe homes - Melbourne - anyone built with them?

Building A New House

I haven’t. But have a Lowe Design home. Not only did I find Matt Lowe patronising and a bully, but the home is NOT TO CODE. I have water coming through the bricks…

Akiko

13/02/2024

Safety screens! Worth them?

Safer Living

Hi everyone. I am a single mother with little daughter, living in a small tourist town in WA Australia. I am thinking to install security screens to all the doors and…

Love Zac

9/12/2023

Anyone building with Zac Homes?

Building A New House

Wish you all the best. Once you signed the contract, they will find millions excuses to charge you. And have seen their sites unfinished for a long time.