OWNIT Homes - Any experience?

MM17 · May 31, 2020 10:00 am

Hi Everyone,

We are doing our very first knock down and rebuild.

We are leaning towards OWNIT as they seem to have some cool options that maximise our views (i.e. rooftop terrace, which is currently 50% off) and the house is seemingly fairly customisable without major additional costs (as per sales rep, lets see once the quote comes in).

My concern, is that for a company that has been around for 50 years, they have about 14 reviews on product review, none on Facebook and a couple from Houzz. It seems quite disproportionate to the number of years/houses they have built. I did ask this of the company sales rep, however the answer was a bit vague and didn't offer much insight.

Can I please ask anyones experience, knowledge or tips?

If you have built - were you happy with the final product, handover challenges? end result photos?

With such a big commitment, we definitely want to make sure that we are checking as much background info as we can.

Thanks everyone,
MM

Norfolk · May 31, 2020 10:28 am

MM17 do not believe any Builder’s anonymous 4 or 5 star reviews on product review. Be suspicious of comments on any anonymous forum. If you PM them ask to speak with them on a mobile or in person. Ask OWNIT to provide contact details of 5 past customers (with permissions of course) that you can speak with. Don’t accept any BS about privacy. If OWNIT Can’t or won’t provide such details, politely thank them for their time and find a more transparent builder that will.

MM17 · May 31, 2020 10:36 am

Thank you norfolk for your that information. I think I might need to ask this information more assertively.

Norfolk · May 31, 2020 12:02 pm

The reason most builders have many reviews is that these are not genuine. It’s simply their social marketing. They are motivated to commission non genuine 5 and 4 star reviews because most other builders do, given the power and ‘trust’ of social media in consumer decision making. The more 4&5 star reviews (proportionately) the more suspicious you should be. Less and more balanced reviews is better, unless you enjoy reading fluffy fiction! False representations are illegal but no one here has yet worked out how to effectively identify and prosecute an avatar, and product review’s processes facilitate and encourage such behaviour. Anonymous 4 and 5 star reviews are not an appropriate indication or method of research for a $400,000+ purchase! Take Care. This explains: https://traveladdicts.net/tripadvisor-fake-reviews/

mayurbvb · Jun 01, 2020 12:29 am

My friend has built with OwnIT in BNE and they like it.They do custom houses too without any extra charges. We initially went to them (with terrace in mind) but the price was coming on higher side after we included all our musts vs other builders. Also we researched and analysed terrace is not much practical with usability and might have future leakage issue.So we didn't proceed. With terms of reviews on product review i dont hold my breath as many people their will be writing their first review anyway!

alymei · Jun 01, 2020 6:36 am

A friend of mine built with ownit and would build with them again. This was in Dakabin