Is anyone had experience : Homesnow&IKO3?

Hi,
Is anyone had experience build with them?
www.homesnow.com.au
They are part of National Builders.We had leave deposit a month ago and still waiting for someone comming to begin town planning.... Is it normal?
Thank you.

We are building with NBG and they are slow at every point. I still wouldn't change where I am but that part is frustrating. I find this with every part of the building process so far. The phone is my most valuable tool. I kept ringing NBG, I keep ringing my builder, I had to keep ringing council, I had to keep ringing the demolition company, and worst of all I had to keep ringing the ANZ. I love it when the builder beats me and rings me first to tell me what they are doing this week.

Ha ha ha, you sound exactly like me Brittany. NBG are slow, but workmanship is good.

My partner & I are about to commence building with HN / NBG. We initally started looking for a home to build in Nov 07. Our main complaints are lack of communication & the ammount of time taken to get things done!

We have a straightforward project, yet from getting from the $100 deposit to the building stage has taken until the end of Sep this year!

Issues we had include,
Changing the optional extra's pricelist every few days!
Plans going back & forth after setbacks werent fixed first time around
The standard inclusions list changed between our $100 deposit stage & quotation stage. I believe that now they don't even provide a concrete floor in the garage! (We are lucky I guess!)
Not telling us about the builders incidentals in the initial quote. (eg. temporary fencing, fall protection, bulk sand, concrete pump, etc.) We should have been told about these expenses before getting the offiicial quote. (Don't mind paying items if necessaryand if told about them, but I don't like being told a price, then, wait, theres more!)

Our Sales Rep also left towards the end of the paperwork stage which didn't help. He was fed up with HN & NBG!

To put it into perspective,
Our neighbors over the road settled on their land after us (March) & they moved into their Burbank Home 2 weeks ago! We are still waiting on the slab to be started!

Wouldn't recommend them as thy are very dis-organised & you fel like you are constantly chasing them for information, plans, etc. When it does get done, it is often not what was discussed, so has to go back which adds another week on!

Now we have the fun of dealing with the builder they nominated to us!

Hi James - we probably started about the same time and are at the same place. We have a garage floor too!!! I'd be *$(#(*$ off if I didn't. A lot of the delays we suffered were our own fault too. In our quote the concrete pump, fall protection et cetera it was all itemized. Was wondering how you are going with your builder. My only complaint so far is he is slow!! I don't think I'd use NBG again but I would use the builder they allocated me.

Hi Brittany, I hear you on having a slow builder. Not sure why they want to take their time with things but, anyways. Permits were issued on 12th Aug, we were told about it 2 weeks later & then our 5% deposit was paid very soon after, Our banks wouldn't approve drawdown until the permits were in place. Our builder took his full 3 weeks to commence the contract which started just under 4 weeks ago, and all that has been done in that time is the site cut, fencing & a toilet. I belive they are starting the foundation work next week. Fingers Crossed! We are building the Brookvale 27, Looking forward to moving in! Maybe by mid to end of Feb!

I have to say that we don't agree that they are slow so far. We are only up to the soil tests but we have already started organising the fittings etc All in the meantime of waiting for settlement on our land. They have been contacting us and trying to get us to move on to the next step so we don't miss out on the FHOG. So far we are very happy with their service and prices. Their design was the only one we liked as the base price is $124,900 for the Piccolo 22E a 22sq home http://www.homesnow.com.au/piccolo-22E.html included in price was travel costs as we are building in Outer suburbs.. All the other builders we looked at were this price or more for a small 14sq home and thats not including travel costs, so they wanted to added a extra $10,000 on top. So I think this is money very well spent.

Wow that is cheap. Do you get money for the first home owners grant off that as well? Have you got your site costs yet?

You can get the first home buyers grant off if you like but we are choosing to use this on other things for our house. Eg. Floor coverings (as they don't include this) . We haven't got our site costs yet we will get those in about 2 weeks.
Also what did you mean that you are waiting for some one to do town planning?