Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 01, 2016 7:46 pm Hello everyone, I am relatively new to the site and to home building and have made only two previous posts on the land thread. We are currently getting quotes off some of our favored builders and looking for advice. We've managed to compare a few quotes and are sitting on an Austart home of around 267sqm for $330k. When she advised us of the quote she asked us to compare it to competitors and come back to her and they would negotiate the price. She stated some benefits of upgrades for previous clients. Therefore we know there is room to manoevre, but we don't know how much or what to ask for. The home has almost everything we had asked for. Fly screens round an alfresco ($5k worth as they are almost invisible to the eye), stacking doors, 2.7m ceiling heights, stone worktops, built in outdoor alfresco etc.... Can anyone think of how to negotiate with the price or any upgrades we may not of considered? Thanks Re: Getting a good quote; 2Apr 01, 2016 8:09 pm Hi ? Not sure how far you can stretch it but my theory is you should go in asking for way more then you'd be happy to settle for. That way when they 'win' by declining some of your requests you'll hopefully end up with what you wanted anyway ? A few common upgrade things that you may be interested in: * Double glazed windows * Floor to ceiling tiling in bathrooms * Soft close drawers and doors to kitchen cupboards * external power points * natural gas point in alfresco for a BBQ (oh hang on, do you have natural gas where you are??) * square set cornice * upgraded carpets, tiles, bricks etc * render to brickwork * colour grout sealing (this has changed my life!) * upgraded front door * upgraded internal doors * upgraded kitchen cabinet/laminate finish * upgraded plumbing ie toilets, sink, taps, basins * upgraded kitchen appliances ie cooktop, oven, range hood * roof sarking * additional power points * additional lights or downlights * wall niches * feature walls * upgraded walk in robe fit out That's all off the top of my head. I'm sure I've missed lots of things. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Getting a good quote; 3Apr 01, 2016 8:21 pm Thankyou, that is a lot more than I could think of. We already have rendering here in Townsville, and double glazing is something we would never need... The gas point will cost £1100 extra but they did point out that it would be better to install a barbecue with a gas bottle and save that cost so we may negotiate with that. Soft drawers to the kitchen are a good point and we do want gloss white and natural feel wooden cabinets that will never be classed as standard. So that might help. Plus we did notice they didn't put enough power points or tv points in as we would have liked... Can I ask what colour grout sealing and square set cornices? The walk in wardrobe idea is fab as it is a huge walk behind wardrobe in the master. I would love somewhere that feels luxurious! Re: Getting a good quote; 4Apr 01, 2016 8:33 pm Grout sealing comes in many colours. Essentially it's a seal that is put on after the tiling and grouting is finished. The sealing guy will match the colour seal to your grout. We had our showers sealed which means no scrubbing of grout ? A simple wipe with a cloth and solution and the grout is clean. Because it's sealed it isn't porous so mould can't bury in there and grow. Square set cornice is where you don't have a cornice. Instead the wall meets with the ceiling. It's more expensive than regular cornice. Here I have square set cornice in my kitchen/family/meals area Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Getting a good quote; 5Apr 01, 2016 9:31 pm Thanks so much for explaining that... I do like those square set cornices! Hmmmm decisions Re: Getting a good quote; 6Apr 01, 2016 10:04 pm $1100 for a gas point! Mine is only $135 for a extra point. Another one is nicer power points in your kitchen. We upgraded ours to a fancy looking ones as they are on the splash back and sides of the kitchen island, so wanted something nicer than the standard power points. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Another is upgrade the carpet underlay - it shouldn't be to huge a cost. This will make it softer to walk on and get more years out of your carpet as well. I would look at a ceiling fan on your alfresco as then you can move air around on hot days when your doing a BBQ etc. Then there are things like outside lighting - we have sensors that then light up downlights in the eaves around the house. They are little dome type sensors so they don't stick out. Also then we have a main switch for them - so the switch is off the sensor goes into auto mode and works as a sensor light - turn the switch on and all the downlights come on - so good if your having a late night get together outside. Then its a matter of just switching the light switch off and its back to auto mode. We have this at our current house as well. We have also had power placed to the front boundary of our property, so it will make it easier to add front lighting down the path and driveway as the power box is on the other side of the driveway so we wouldn't be able to get power to that front part of the yard later on. Also we are having a hidden power point attached to it for christmas lights. I would also add the extra power points, lights, tv points etc that you want - we added an extra 10 lights, 8 power points and an extra tv point to the ones already standard on our house. Also ceiling fans. Do you get full insulation in the walls as well as the roof - many just do the roof but to get a better effect you should do the external walls as well. They are just some things on the top of my head. A good thread is the one on the first page - things to think of when building - it has some great advice in things you tend to forget and wish you added or did add. ~Shellby~ GJ Bridgewater 203 11/3/2016 - Site Work Started 29/9/2016 - Handover 142 Work Days 6 Work Days Over https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=80174 Re: Getting a good quote; 7Apr 02, 2016 7:54 am Thanks guys for all the good ideas so far! Loving them all. They go way above what we had thought of. We have looked at the quote that they gave initially and have realised that a house they claim costs £310k is actually more like $340k so a lot of extras added on such as driveway etc. So at the moment we either want a lot of other inclusions or the house is not for us. It's already $7k over our budget. Re: Getting a good quote; 8Apr 02, 2016 11:04 am If your already over budget and you haven't gone through the selection stage then I would look at another plan or builder as I find after selection you tend to add a couple extra thousand when they show you things you didn't think of etc. Our house was $247,000 and then we added another $6,500 in variations upgrades - then after cut we found out we needed a $5,300 retaining wall - so because we stayed on budget and stuck to it and a little under, we could squeeze ourselves to pay for that as well. ~Shellby~ GJ Bridgewater 203 11/3/2016 - Site Work Started 29/9/2016 - Handover 142 Work Days 6 Work Days Over https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=80174 Re: Getting a good quote; 9Apr 02, 2016 11:06 am shellby If your already over budget and you haven't gone through the selection stage then I would look at another plan or builder as I find after selection you tend to add a couple extra thousand when they show you things you didn't think of etc. Our house was $247,000 and then we added another $6,500 in variations upgrades - then after cut we found out we needed a $5,300 retaining wall - so because we stayed on budget and stuck to it and a little under, we could squeeze ourselves to pay for that as well. I agree. Never allow the house price to reach your budget. When it comes to selections you will add more on. Then there is the cost of everything once you move in ie. Letterbox, curtains/blinds, landscaping, furniture, appliances etc Re: Getting a good quote; 10Apr 02, 2016 3:46 pm shellby $1100 for a gas point! Mine is only $135 for a extra point. Another one is nicer power points in your kitchen. We upgraded ours to a fancy looking ones as they are on the splash back and sides of the kitchen island, so wanted something nicer than the standard power points. Another is upgrade the carpet underlay - it shouldn't be to huge a cost. This will make it softer to walk on and get more years out of your carpet as well. I would look at a ceiling fan on your alfresco as then you can move air around on hot days when your doing a BBQ etc. Then there are things like outside lighting - we have sensors that then light up downlights in the eaves around the house. They are little dome type sensors so they don't stick out. Also then we have a main switch for them - so the switch is off the sensor goes into auto mode and works as a sensor light - turn the switch on and all the downlights come on - so good if your having a late night get together outside. Then its a matter of just switching the light switch off and its back to auto mode. We have this at our current house as well. We have also had power placed to the front boundary of our property, so it will make it easier to add front lighting down the path and driveway as the power box is on the other side of the driveway so we wouldn't be able to get power to that front part of the yard later on. Also we are having a hidden power point attached to it for christmas lights. I would also add the extra power points, lights, tv points etc that you want - we added an extra 10 lights, 8 power points and an extra tv point to the ones already standard on our house. Also ceiling fans. Do you get full insulation in the walls as well as the roof - many just do the roof but to get a better effect you should do the external walls as well. They are just some things on the top of my head. A good thread is the one on the first page - things to think of when building - it has some great advice in things you tend to forget and wish you added or did add. Hi, just wondering how much was your upgrade to the nicer looking Clipsal PowerPoint? Re: Getting a good quote; 11Apr 02, 2016 5:47 pm HomeAngels shellby If your already over budget and you haven't gone through the selection stage then I would look at another plan or builder as I find after selection you tend to add a couple extra thousand when they show you things you didn't think of etc. Our house was $247,000 and then we added another $6,500 in variations upgrades - then after cut we found out we needed a $5,300 retaining wall - so because we stayed on budget and stuck to it and a little under, we could squeeze ourselves to pay for that as well. I agree. Never allow the house price to reach your budget. When it comes to selections you will add more on. Then there is the cost of everything once you move in ie. Letterbox, curtains/blinds, landscaping, furniture, appliances etc Iv already got them to add on the letterbox, landscaping, fencing etc in the quote. We only arrived in Australia 6 months ago so have the appliances we need (the ones that dont come with the house) so thats okay. We will need furniture and blinds however! We can go over if we find something we love but are not prepared to manoevre price wise at this point. Then if we fall in love with upgrades at a later date then we will 'choose' to go over. So I have let the builder know that it is currently sitting $6000 over budget and we were hoping that we would have had some room for manoevre with a few luxury upgrades too. So we will see where we go, she did state that she wants us to go get other quotes and negotiate on the price so there must easily be room for manoevre. We have also just seen the quote includes around $2000 for fencing that is existing, it is an end lot and one side and the rear fencing is already in situ. By the time we build we are hoping that the neighbour to our other side has also built fencing! We had costed for a 2m exterior alfresco barbecue area and a few other upgrades such as $6000 fly screen round the alfresco, however by removing these we can get the price down. By buying a bbq setting from Bunnings (or similar) then we can knock $10,000 off the price. However, these are things we have to decide how much we want! Us pommies are no good with flys and mosquito's. Re: Getting a good quote; 12Apr 02, 2016 6:07 pm Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ We have amended it to remove the broom cupboard, increasing the size of the pantry so the fridge is located in the pantry. The kitchen island will join up to the wall where the fridge used to be located. Where the broom cupboard used to be there will be a double door entry to the master bedroom. Re: Getting a good quote; 14Apr 05, 2016 1:20 pm Quote: Hi, just wondering how much was your upgrade to the nicer looking Clipsal PowerPoint? I think it was something like $20 a power point. So we just got the 4 in the kitchen done. ~Shellby~ GJ Bridgewater 203 11/3/2016 - Site Work Started 29/9/2016 - Handover 142 Work Days 6 Work Days Over https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=80174 Re: Getting a good quote; 15Apr 05, 2016 1:32 pm Given it's Townsville, you can't get your ceiling insulation upgraded beyond R3.5? Up to the limit of what will fit, it doesn't seem like insulation upgrades cost much. One other thought; consider cross breezes. Whichever way cool breezes come from, if there's any way to encourage those to flow through the house, it makes a nice difference. Rule of thumb says way wider openings where you want the breeze to exit the house, so if (for example) the front door faces the direction the breezes are coming from and your living areas are at the back of the house, then install a security screen so you can leave the front door open & have as tall/wide stackers/sliders/bifolds/whatever at the rear as possible. Also, wider eaves facing west? hey there! 😊 so, it’s kinda common for standard drawer depths to be around 500mm since most cabinets use this size to fit the usual runners… 3 20922 I was being kind to the builder. With the amount charged for the upgrade the builder is probably charging closer to 100% margin. There are a few variables as I… 5 14333 I had 28m2 of engineered pavers laid six months back and it was difficult to find someone not taking the pi$$. Internet suggested it should be $85-100/m2 to lay them.… 3 12413 |