Browse Forums Buying Land 1 May 21, 2012 12:35 pm Hi guys and gals, I'm hoping you can all offer me some advice. My husband and I are currently looking for land, we want to buy in the Cameron Park area and due to demand they are selling lots off the plan. Flat land just really doesn't exist out here so the land is slopey but we can't tell how slopey because we cannot even get in to see the blocks (there's not even a road there, they are just building it now!) and we have a young family so we do have a budget we really need to stick to so we're not in a position to just sit and wait because we will have certainly missed out on the flattest best value blocks. We have our hearts set on building McDonald Jones, Monte Carlo and it's a fairly long home so I'm stressed to the max trying to look at the blasted contour maps to try and figure out which blocks within our budget would be suitable to get this house on. If we miss out on the land here our only other option is to move out further and I desperately don't want to do that as our travelling time to work etc would increase by alot! I honestly don't know what I'm really trying to ask here, it's got me so stressed that I can't even think straight! LOL I guess I was hoping someone here might have a bit of experience reading contour maps that could have a look at the contour survey for me and tell me if any of the blocks in our budget would be doable? I know it's a huge ask but I'm hoping someone might take pity on poor old stressed out me I'm just no good at this stuff or visualising just how bad and slopey these blocks might be. Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 2May 21, 2012 1:08 pm If you have a block in mind i would send it off to McDonald Jones and ask them. At the end of the day they will be the ones that will be building it for you and should know exactly what needs to be done to get your home on the block. I think most builders would be happy to chat to you about it and work with you to find a suitable block Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 3May 21, 2012 1:42 pm Hi Brad, I did ask them and they emailed me and told me to go in and have a look around and pick a block that looks the best and they'd play around with it for me. Unfortunately we can't get in for a look as there's no road and it's all fenced off Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 4May 21, 2012 1:56 pm We were able to get (at another development) a plan showing the final planned levels. Maybe you could ask the land sales agent for that information (the fall of the land for sure impacts the value and sale price of the land, so they should already know what it will be). Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 5May 21, 2012 2:54 pm They wont tell you what particular block to buy as you will need to give them a few to choose from. I guess you will need to try and envisage what your buying before you get in there to actually see it which i know is something i couldnt do Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 6May 21, 2012 3:23 pm Brad, it's ridiculously hard and to be honest quite bloody stupid! Wildewombat, they have given me a printout which shows the contour of all the blocks but you've got to be able to read it to work out how bad they are and how much fall is on them and problem is, I can't bloody read the stupid thing since I just don't understand about contour lines and what they mean/how they affect the land Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 7May 21, 2012 3:43 pm Are they not showing anything that has little numbers on it as well as contours? There should be survey plans or something. Go into the office and ask them to show you! A blog about our renovation http://notmynightmare.blogspot.com.au/ Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 9May 21, 2012 7:50 pm I know you want to buy in cameron park, but have you considered hidden waters - flecther. I was looking at some blocks there on the weekend. They have sloping blocks(current release) and still some flat blocks in the new release. Also consider costs in sloping block i.e retaining walls , site preparation costs. Regarding contour lines: Most contour lines are in 0.5m intervals. Count how many contour lines there are from the start to the end of the block and multiply by them 0.5 meters. Thats how much of a slope you have. The closer the contour line intervals the steeper the block. Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 10May 21, 2012 8:33 pm Squeeks Brad, it's ridiculously hard and to be honest quite bloody stupid! And thats why i said you need to speak to your builder about it. If they arent willing or able to help i would take my money elsewhere and find someone who is willing to help you. Your about to spend the most money you will ever spend when building a house and there are plenty of people out there who can, and will, help you Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 11May 22, 2012 10:40 am LOL...Yes Grom, I did do geography at school but I obviously didn't pay much attention! haha I have the contour map with the lines and numbers on it but I'm a very visual person and if I can't SEE it then the lines and numbers don't really mean very much to me *blush* I just don't know how 'bad' a block can be before it becomes far too difficult and expensive to build on. Sumur, I had considered Hidden Waters even though it's not really where we want to build but they seem to be more expensive? We can't afford flat land, it's just out of our price range We know we have to factor in that with slopey land we will need to retain etc but if we can keep the amount of money we have to borrow to the amount that we had planned then we can afford to do the retaining with our own money, but that means finding a block around $160-170K, which prices anything flat out of our budget unfortunately. If we have to borrow more money initially to get a flat block then it puts pressure on us financially if we decide to have another child and I'm off on maternity leave with no pay. We want to keep ourselves within a budget that allows us to comfortably live on one wage which unfortunately means a smaller block with a bit of slope. Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 12May 22, 2012 12:41 pm You need to consider the extra costs involved in the price of the house when building on a slopey block as well. I would have thought that the reduced costs of building a house on flat land would offset the costs of the flat block of land if you know what i mean lol Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 13May 23, 2012 9:49 am If we have to borrow a larger sum of money initially it will put more pressure on us over the longer term, if we buy something with a little bit of slope (Just a little, I'm not talking huge slope requiring special engineered retaining walls and what not!) then we can borrow less and not have that ongoing pressure on us mortgage wise and we'll be able to afford to do the things that need doing associated with buying a block with a little slope. Anyone that knows Cameron Park will also know that the area is quite hilly so flat land just doesn't really exist here and if you are lucky to come across a flat one then it's going to cost a bomb because it's so rare! To give you an idea, the home we've just sold is on a block that has a 6 mtr fall from back left hand corner to front right hand corner and it still cost us $220K! And our block was one of the ones with the least slope in the stage we bought in. I get what you're saying Brad, I really do, but I guess everyone has their budget. We made alot of stupid mistakes with our first build and added SO many extras that cost us a fortune, we now have 2 children and don't want to make the same mistake a second time and over extend ourselves. Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 14May 26, 2012 10:20 pm Squeeks we bought off the plan at cameron park late last year and our block is a bit slopy and we have ended up paying about 6000 in extra site costs. Your best bet is to pick a block and talk to mcdonald jones, thats what we did. Our land finally settles on monday after being supposed to be finished in february but due to weather has been put back a few months. Building the Lawson with Eden Brae in Cameron Park Re: I need some advice on land, please HELP! 15Jun 05, 2012 4:56 pm If you want to get on to the blocks just walk around/crawl under the fences - that's what we did! The latest release still has some flat blocks available - a bit more expensive but well worth it compared to site costs & retaining walls. Thank you so much for the effort. We will use it to talk with builder. We also had idea of building duplex instead and seeking suggest ions. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=106744 11 13830 Hi VK, I am now retired however I have stood beside over 300 owner builders in the past 18 years that have successfully built their own homes. First of all a building… 10 22663 Thank you @. Tried to play with the facade models but the exact colour is not matching up. 2 3258 |