Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Confused - Simonds or GJ Gardner 21Mar 15, 2016 5:09 pm The under evaluation is usually the because of the bank, some banks under value land. To which you go and get a second opinion because usually they do it to get to to pay more money. Re: Confused - Simonds or GJ Gardner 22Mar 15, 2016 9:25 pm falcon86 Hi all, Going through everyone's experience and learning a lot. I really like Simonds designs but the only problem is as its a Volume builder, I don't know how will be the commitment from them in the area where I bought the land. I hardly see any construction under Simonds as land estate largely dominated by Metricon, Clarendon and Plantation Holmes. Simonds now is a lot different from Simonds from a few years ago. They used to have a pretty average reputation but they've really turned it around. To be honest I was SO against even walking into a Simonds display because I'd heard lots of bad things about them and didn't even want to give them a chance. When our first two choices fell through I was SO devastated and then we decided to look at Simonds (and the rest is history as they say ). One thing with a volume builder is that you can be reasonably certain they aren't going to go broke on you - there are two houses (units?) behind us that have been sitting there for 5 years (!!!!) because the builder went broke, a friend of ours is on his FOURTH builder because he keeps going with small, niche builders and they keep going broke. Sure they do pump out the houses but a lot of that - I think - has to do with how they schedule their trades. There was hardly a day that went by with our house that something wasn't happening. Sometimes it can be bad - like the time between our pre-plaster inspection and plaster going up was a day or two (so getting fixes done was a bit of a crunch) but I was definitely happy to not see my house sitting around for weeks with no action (the house next to us started 2? weeks after us and they only just had their tiles go in this weekend). Anyway, I wouldn't be scared off by the volume builder aspect. Sure you might read some bad reviews but really take a look at what the reviewer is complaining about - are they realistic complaints or does it sound like a review from a person that will find fault with everything? We built the Rathdowne with Simonds Express in Western Melbourne Site start Oct. 2015 Keys Jan. 25th, 2015 My build thread -here- Re: Confused - Simonds or GJ Gardner 23Mar 18, 2016 5:48 pm If you sign a contract pending finance with the builder then you don't need to worry about the valuation. viewtopic.php?t=81011 Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=81011 Re: Confused - Simonds or GJ Gardner 24Mar 18, 2016 9:07 pm Hi Matalee. Good luck with your build. We're going with Simonds too and also building the leon. Done gallery etc with contract singing in a month. Our fixed site costs are just over $17k! A few grand more than what appears to be the average for fixed site costs in our estate (Lara). We added in a study and extended the garage by .5 metre. So far Simonds have been really good to deal with. Re: Confused - Simonds or GJ Gardner 25Mar 22, 2016 10:52 pm Look at product review. It says it all. But what I can say is the two cant be compared! One is cheap for a reason the other focuses on not cutting corners. Our oldies are building a beautiful GJ Gardner home with no issues and we are building Hotondo and had no issues. Look at productreview Re: Confused - Simonds or GJ Gardner 26Mar 22, 2016 11:18 pm I don't take any notice of product review. It's FULL of questionable posts. This forum is a much better indicator. You can see how long people have been around here and follow what they've been posting to judge whether they're legit. Anyway. The OP has commissioned a builder so to tell him/her to choose someone else is a bit rude Re: Confused - Simonds or GJ Gardner 27Mar 23, 2016 10:53 am I disagree as well. Product review is full of disgruntled keyboard warriors. Look at what they are actually complaining about - usually small things blown up to be huge issues (like keys being presented in an envelope vs gold jewellery box. Yes, really). Not helpful at all. We built the Rathdowne with Simonds Express in Western Melbourne Site start Oct. 2015 Keys Jan. 25th, 2015 My build thread -here- Re: Confused - Simonds or GJ Gardner 28Mar 23, 2016 6:24 pm The builder is basically a project manager. They contract every trade out. The house is only as good as the trades but also their communication skills. At the end of the day it's a business to make money. The quicker the build the more money they have. May I ask why you chose not to use GJ Gardiner? I'm actually meeting with one of the sales guys tomorrow for an appointment. Definitely not signing anything yet… 3 13780 If this is a custom build then I would expect the builder to set out the door frame closer to the wall to avoid the gap between architrave and the wall and or specify… 9 8513 |