Disappointed in marketing of Display Homes

Spent the weekend looking at display homes and are amazed at how confusing builders like to make the packaging/pricing of homes.

If you ask the base price for a display you have just viewed they can never give you a straight answer. Base price = starting price without all the optional extras.

One builder who I am very disappointed in is Plantat!on. After speaking to a number of sales reps and checking out there website they assured me the house we liked was available to build at $227k and on display at Northlakes in Brisbane.

When you walk in they have displayed on the wall ‘total price $227,000’. Looked like pretty good value, perfect design for us and in the right price range. However, things changed when we sat down after waiting 20 mins with the sales rep in the display. Brochure in hand with ‘227k’ price on the front….

Keeping in mind this builder prides themselves on ‘all our homes are the one luxury standard as we are sick of add on’s as much as you are’ . Not true, luxury standard is extra again.

Well, 227k doesn’t get you a lot (of course I don’t expect to have floor coverings, luxury finish, driveway and landscaping included) BUT the main features of the house was not included as advertised, the roof line at the rear that covers the entertaining area (that’s an extra $35,000), then the balcony of the main bedroom, that’s not included as well (extra $35,000), rendering to the front is not included (extra $40,000).. basically all the things that were an attraction to that particular design were ‘extras’.

I’m not expecting a lot, just some upfront marketing. Not to be mislead by walking into a house with the ‘total’ price advertised, then to be told you need to add another $110,000 onto that price to get it looking even some what like the display did…

After asking the sales person exactly how much for the display version the price was more like $350,000 not $227,000. And for $227,000 you don’t get what’s on front of the brochure or in the display, it’s remarkably different…

Why doesnt the sign in the display read $350,00 total price then? Would save us and the sales rep time as thats out of our range.

Do other experience this or is it just me?

I hear your pain....we had exactly the same experience with Boutique Homes in Melbourne.....$250k became $350k....pretty much put us off building!

Very annoying isnt it...

I can certainly echo your concerns that the display homes are far above the price in the catalog but I'd have expected that they at lease try and convey that somehow in their material. I suppose after reading on here before we headed out on our first day of display homes I suspect we had our eyes open enough to accept that's things were never going to be as they seem.

With PD I struck a cord with the sales guy out at South Morang and we got on like a house on fire, so he was more than fourth coming with the add-on's and prices where he knew them off the top of his head, even the ones he recommended we gave a miss!

After doing some research, I went with the rule of add 50% without site costs to be realistic.
So for base price 200k add 100k to have it fitted out to a high standard, (caeserstone, tile upgrades, carpet, structural changes, heating, cooling) then site costs on top of that.
That worked out pretty much spot on for me.

Jo

Thanks guys, I didnt ever think that I would get all the flash fittings and fixtures for $227k but I didnt think the structure as a whole would change, I was expecting to pay more for heating/air, carpets, bigger laundry, better kitchen etc etc but not have the whole design pretty much change. Well I suppose this is an educational process and next time I will work on the babsis of + $100,000 !

Yep I think they're all as bad as each other where this is concerned. We just went in knowing that X was the base price, and that we would be paying extra for anything that looked good..... The displays are all fully kitted out to tempt you - that's where they make their real profit!

I'm not surprised they haven't been taken to task over this by ACCC or Fair Trading - it certainly is misleading!

petal isnt that terrible but its so true.. I'll remember that. Anything that looks good will cost more. Including if you want a front door or not because that will be an extra soon too

So far I found only Allcastle homes to be reasonable in terms of base price. Their price include what ever you see on display (- coverings and lightings).

Still the cost is increased from 247K (base price) to 347K (tender price)

- devank

Thats the first builder I have seen include concrete to patio as an inclusion to base price. Shame they are not in Brisbane !

Funny you should say that - DH wanted a 2340mm timber & glass pivot door - NOT standard and cost us quite a bit As for our roof tiles......I've complained several times on here about those!!! The most annoying thing was that we saw them on a display, and they gave us a price for them, which we agreed to pay then PD said "Oh no - there 's also extra for sarking and, and.... - the price ended up being 3 times what they originally quoted us!!!!!!!!!

well I think it is about time the media got involved and exposed their little game because it is outright deception.

We had same thing when we first went to look at the Newhaven, slimy salesman said yes this is the house as built. says I so what is the total price and he kept going price is as sidplayed swhich could mean anything so after theis rubbish for acouple of minutes I corned him into admitting that the advertised price for was a very baqsic set of inclsusions and to get it to display standard add on about $2ooK.

Agree about time consumer afairs ripped into them. ACCC wont doing anything because it is not unfair competition.

Lets see hat tool in canberra earns his worth and do something, too busy strutting about like a stuffed turkey and wqving his hands in a grandiose manner.

Nope I'm not a fan of his.

Just found out wife has pneumonia! Great!!

I can understand that the builders want to show the house in the best way they can and maybe even give people ideas as to what is possible but it does get a bit beyond the joke. Some of the extras are so expensive no one would ever consider them.

I originally went through a smaller builder who display their homes basically at the standard configuration. The problem was I like the design but wanted to change the facade and some other things. It took me 5 weeks of going back and fourth with pricing to finally get a quote based on what I wanted. In the end it became too expensive for what it was due to the massive mark-ups with non standard extras.

P*D on the other hand had a standard price with a completely non standard display. The good thing though is they gave me a brochure with all their options and fixed prices with them. I had a walk through and every thing I asked about the sale sperson told me off the top of their head what wasn't standard and what the upgrade prices were. Same went for H3nley. The only things they couldn't price immediately were the site costs and things like tiles and bricks.

I personally don't care how they display the house as chances are I won't be buying it as per the display no matter what they show and in some ways it's good to be able to see the options for myself to decide whether they are worth the money. The only thing I don't like is not being able to get fixed prices.

personally (I just diskile the deceipt and huge markups when you want an option!

Like $4,500 price for double layer of boral soundstop gyprock to HT room, which is only on 2 walls and ceiuling. Mind you cost of material is about $800 tops

Got them to drop a grand but still working that excercise with them.

This is one of my main gripes about the big name builders, the display homes that don't resemble the base price. Big Name might have a base price on the No 27 Design of $190k and a displayed price of $310k. While Mid Range might sell something similar to the No 27 Design for a base price of $210k and a displayed price of $280k. Of course the Big Name No 27 looks better, because it's displayed to a higher level and the base price is lower, but the Mid Range equivalent to the No 27 Design includes more for the base price and the display is closer to what you get for the base price. Displaying a home 50% above base price is unacceptable and deceptive. Maybe 20% or 30% over might be somewhat representative, but 50% over base price is simply not representative of what you get for your money.

I found PD down here in Melbourne were at least upfront about their "extras". Their brochure had a print out of all the "extras" and how much it added up to "above" the standard cost. Of course that was still 70k in most cases!

We were SO annoyed with the display after display of misleading houses that we ready to tell them all to jam it. This is the main reason we ended up with Urbanedge... because the display IS what you get. All the stone bench tops, carpets, flyscreens, fancy ovens, high ceilings are all included in the price. Of course that makes the price a bit higher... but hey

which to heck there were in QLD toooooo

Many builders do this, i have been involved in supplying builders with their tapware and sanitary ware for a number of years and yes most choose to display their ultimate package, i think they find it easier to come down than up, but there are a few out there that display (what you see is what you get) and offer up to 3 upgrades. they are few and far between GL with the builder hunting.

I have to disagree (see my previous post) We are building with PD....in Melbourne.