Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 3Aug 28, 2013 11:55 am You will find most builder's aren't really giving a freebie, they make up for the cost somewhere else. For example, they say includes free painting. They will probably use cheaper quality paint than you would of used and use cheaper materials for something else in the build. It just depends what is important to you in a house. When we chose our builder we looked at all the included items, including the brands they use for things like kitchen appliances, whether colorbond was included, you could have 1c or 2c bricks, what flooring is the flooring that they say is included, and how much it would of cost to upgrade to something else etc. My sister went with the $55k free upgrades but she wouldn't have got half of the things if they weren't included in her package so it is a little bit of a waste. Look for builders with good reputations and good basic/standard inclusions then look at freebies, also things like costs for variations might be helpful in case you change your mind about something after pre-start. Alot of builders will offer freebies to get you to sign up so always ask for as much as you can before signing the contract Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 4Aug 28, 2013 1:02 pm Thanks for your responses! I see what you mean - I actually don't even know what i do or don't need so will have to really try to even understand what certain 'freebies' mean - as an example, I don't even know what the difference between an 'Essa' benchtop and a normal benchtop is.. and up until two days ago, I had no idea why consultants seem to always mention 9 inch?/mm? cooktops!! One of the builders did mention that they included into their price, the specific requirements for the estate (DAL and Soundproofing of windows) which we thought was beneficial to us so that we didn't have to factor extra costs associate with that on top of the quoted build price. All other builders mention it as something extra we'd have to factor in (with one builder even saying that she couldn't quote a price on that until she knew exactly which lot we've got) Anyway, as you can see, it looks like i have a LOT to learn!!! I should probably start a new thread for this question, but taking on a point above - any recommendations for builders in the =< $200K category would be great! We've checked out the following that seem to fit within our budget so far: Affordable Living Aussie Living Home Group WA Commodore Homes Complete Homes Ventura Homes Aveling Have read either negative (Affordable Living) reviews, or no reviews on some, and most display homes display larger homes than what we're after. It feels like we're wading through all of this a bit blindly!! My Build Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=74269 Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 5Aug 28, 2013 1:53 pm Essa benchtops are stone benchtops rather than laminate benchtops, this is one of the things we have in our contract, definitely a good (but expensive) upgrade if not already included. We are building with New Generation and our plan is under $200k (only just though! but it is a fairly big house, includes site works, air conditioning, blinds, stone benchtop in kitchen etc). I would say no for Ventura (but that is a personal opinion as we saw some houses being built by them and my fiance who is a roof carpenter was NOT happy with the quality of their builds). My sister is with Home Group WA and everything seems to be going well so far, her contract is about $200k as well, the contract also includes alot of things that ours dosn't but we will be doing after handover (her parnter isn't as handy as mine). They just had a really long paperwork period, but I have heard that before, and it isn't a big deal in the big scheme of things. Look at plans on offer, they will include the size and price for standard as well as what standard includes (these are usually available on their website). We printed out every single plan we liked the look of then went through each one for changes we would have to make or things we didn't like (every change is more money). Narrowed it down to a few from New Gen and couple others then met with sales consultants from the builders to dicsuss further. It is easiest if you have 2 or 3 main things you want in a plan, we wanted a rear master bedroom, open plan living/dining/kitchen, a theatre room away from bedrooms, and a bedroom we could make into a study if there wasn't already one. Everything else wasn't as important for us. Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 6Aug 28, 2013 3:44 pm Thanks for the info felicity01!! I have checked out New Generation, and their homes looks quite good - if you have a particular sales consultant that you could recommend that would be great! (They didn't have a display home at Honeywood). Glad also to hear that your sister is having a good experience with Home Group WA - my hubby and I are ideally looking as close to a turnkey property as possible (i.e. the less to do afterwards the better - more so we can be clear about how much we're going to spend), and the main things we want are quite similar to yours - high ceilings, open plan living area, and a decent sized master BR at the rear of the property, but other than that, we're easy! My Build Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=74269 Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 7Aug 28, 2013 3:54 pm I can forward our sales consultants details to you by pm, he was very helpful. He made us feel comfortable and seemed to understand the things we were after (my sisters seemed like a real stick in the mud haha). Also most builders offer referral bonuses, so if you know someone who has built with a builder all you have to do is say they referred you and you get a referral bonus (which is pretty helpful for not having to do anything I noticed New Gen's current range all include the flooring and painting and things like that (ours didn't when we singed up) so much less to do after handover. Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 8Aug 28, 2013 10:20 pm felicity01 You will find most builder's aren't really giving a freebie, they make up for the cost somewhere else. +1 felicity01 Look for builders with good reputations and good basic/standard inclusions then look at freebies +1 Spot on advice here - the big ticket "freebies" aren't actually freebies. The best option when trying to compare builders is looking at what the standard inclusions are - plus there are likely to be restrictions around what you can get (eg you might get more 'included' tiling but then can't choose the tiles you want). In terms of freebies that might be useful - we had 5 hours with an interior designer included that really helped cover off our colour schemes and those sort of choices. The notional value for that was $1000 and it's the sort of thing they won't be going hugely out of their way to claw back - just cost of sales. Demo + Build in Rivervale, Western Australia Moved in June 2014 http://rivervale.tumblr.com/ Building Thread Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 9Aug 29, 2013 8:55 am If you're picking a home and builder based on bonus' then youre doing it wrong... To be honest your first restriction should be price range, then layouts from the builders within that range, then the selection bonus'. It makes it a lot easier to select I think. Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 10Aug 29, 2013 11:19 am zaxon Spot on advice here - the big ticket "freebies" aren't actually freebies. The best option when trying to compare builders is looking at what the standard inclusions are - plus there are likely to be restrictions around what you can get (eg you might get more 'included' tiling but then can't choose the tiles you want). Good point! I can imagine that there would be some fair restrictions on anything on offer 'for free'! zaxon In terms of freebies that might be useful - we had 5 hours with an interior designer included that really helped cover off our colour schemes and those sort of choices. The notional value for that was $1000 and it's the sort of thing they won't be going hugely out of their way to claw back - just cost of sales. That's definitely something we'd love to have access to!! Metroid If you're picking a home and builder based on bonus' then youre doing it wrong... To be honest your first restriction should be price range, then layouts from the builders within that range, then the selection bonus'. It makes it a lot easier to select I think. I totally agree - We've got quite a stack of brochures, print-outs etc of plans from different builders and are quickly realising that for the budget and restrictions on land size that we have, most plans that fit are very similar (I suppose there's only so many ways to fit in a 3x2 on a budget!) So based on this, we thought maybe our next way to differentiate between the options might be what bonuses were on offer. But it sounds more like we should look at what the standard inclusions are and work our way from there! My Build Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=74269 Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 11Aug 29, 2013 11:50 am pzzldmind But it sounds more like we should look at what the standard inclusions are and work our way from there! Absolutely. Also focus on inclusions/upgrades you can't do later - for example increased ceiling height is not something that can be put in after handover Maybe you and your partner should sit down and do a list of "must have" factors for your house and another of things you "would like to have" and then see which builder ticks the most boxes for you. To be honest I have found that people's experience of a particular builder is very influenced by the staff they deal with at that organisation - and that's often not something you can control. You have to select a company that does what you want, for the price you want in a way that feels right and comfortable for you; it's the third factor that is the hardest to find. As you will see from reading posts on this forum there are few things more frustrating than a builder who doesn't explain things clearly, makes promises they can't keep, fobs you off and/or doesn't return your calls/emails in a reasonable period of time. So make a short list of builders that have the inclusions/floor plan you like and then go along and meet with them to try and get an idea if they are an organisation you can "work with". Good luck! Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 12Aug 29, 2013 11:59 am It might not be that important to you but when deciding on a builder, maybe visit some current builds? Not the display homes because they will always make that 'perfect'. Then you can see first hand things like build quality. Again, not everyone seems to care too much as long as it is in budget and the end product is good (I just have an OH who is will not accept substandard quality - lucky for our builder haha) It is definitely a big decision. TBH we chose our builder in under a week, it was a matter of finding a plan we liked, in the rough budget we had, with a sales consultant who made us feel comfortable and was more than happy to help us with everything. Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 13Aug 29, 2013 12:13 pm We didnt get any freebies LOL. One thing we did find is that we decided to build the home as displayed and not the cheaper, scaled down version. So instead of adding things we were taking things off. When we got to our final docs we found a few things that were in the display home that were not in our house. There was a set of built in shelves in our powder room, draws in our ensuite instead of cupboards, full height mirrors in all three bathrooms and the two powder rooms, double shelves and drawers in our walk-in not single. All of these were in the display home and not specified as excluded so they were all added back in. We took a lot of photos of inside the display so it was easy to re-check things. It is at Honeywood so not to far to visit and check too. Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 14Sep 03, 2013 2:19 am pzzldmind Thanks for your responses! I see what you mean - I actually don't even know what i do or don't need so will have to really try to even understand what certain 'freebies' mean - as an example, I don't even know what the difference between an 'Essa' benchtop and a normal benchtop is.. and up until two days ago, I had no idea why consultants seem to always mention 9 inch?/mm? cooktops!! One of the builders did mention that they included into their price, the specific requirements for the estate (DAL and Soundproofing of windows) which we thought was beneficial to us so that we didn't have to factor extra costs associate with that on top of the quoted build price. All other builders mention it as something extra we'd have to factor in (with one builder even saying that she couldn't quote a price on that until she knew exactly which lot we've got) Anyway, as you can see, it looks like i have a LOT to learn!!! I should probably start a new thread for this question, but taking on a point above - any recommendations for builders in the =< $200K category would be great! We've checked out the following that seem to fit within our budget so far: Affordable Living Aussie Living Home Group WA Commodore Homes Complete Homes Ventura Homes Aveling Have read either negative (Affordable Living) reviews, or no reviews on some, and most display homes display larger homes than what we're after. It feels like we're wading through all of this a bit blindly!! avoid affordable living, aussie living, commodore homes, ventura stick with home group wa, aveling are amazing, ross north, blueprint, celebrations Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 15Sep 03, 2013 10:16 am We've just finished our build with Aussie, while we've had a few issues I wouldn't outright say don't use them.one thing I still hunk is great is their display homes are built based on what their standard stuff is, usually they have non standard tiles and that's it.other builders you would be paying another 50% on the original price to get the house to look like the display! I'd go for the floor plan that fits your budget, that's the most important thing! Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 16Sep 03, 2013 10:37 am Have a look at some of Celebration's plans.. they might suit what you are after and be within your price range? Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 17Sep 03, 2013 11:28 am tsmith avoid affordable living, aussie living, commodore homes, ventura stick with home group wa, aveling are amazing, ross north, blueprint, celebrations If I've learnt anything from these forums, it's that it can be dependent upon who you get from office staff, to SS, to CL, to the various trades you get on site and just a bit of luck. I think trying to find threads on here for the various builders in the area that you are looking to build might provide a better idea. If you have the time/patience, I'd suggest investing it in looking around - we spent every Saturday/Sunday for a month visiting various locations before narrowing down our choices and continued on with a few options to get a basic PCQ done up. And even after that, I drove my wife bonkers by continuing to look around just to provide the peace of mind that we'd made the right decision and covered off everything that's important to us. Of course, it depends on your personalities as well - if you are likely to be indecisive and unable to make up your mind, looking around might not work the best for you Demo + Build in Rivervale, Western Australia Moved in June 2014 http://rivervale.tumblr.com/ Building Thread Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 18Sep 06, 2013 1:29 pm I have just been talking with a mate about... well not exactly freebies (which as everyone says is a bit of a misleading term)... but what matters for inclusions when the budget is tight. And let's face it, the budget is always tight because human nature is such that we tend to push the limits. The most important things, as per grom40, are the things that can't be easily added in later. Ceiling height, comfortable room dimensions, and above all in my book, double glazed windows because of the enormous advantage these will give a home in terms of comfort, reduced external noise, and ongoing costs of heating and cooling. The best option or price and function is hinged from the top, double glazed aluminium. Benchtops, tiles, fancy lighting and taps can all be added in down the road when you've saved up a bit of extra. Above all, make sure you trust your builder and that they are being transparent with costings, especially site costs and things like that which can add up to A LOT more than those "freebies." Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 19Sep 06, 2013 1:36 pm Thanks for the advice Mater! I've had a few people tell me the same. So quick update: I've since picked a home and land package where the priority was actually the land rather than the builder in the end(!). The builder that we have chosen seems so far to be, from what i've read/been told, good builders so fingers crossed! In terms of 'freebies', the package we got in the end will include pretty much everything except internal painting and landscaping out the back. We'll be looking to upgrade a few things but overall, we made our decision totally NOT on the freebies!! Matergabiae Above all, make sure you trust your builder and that they are being transparent with costings, especially site costs and things like that which can add up to A LOT more than those "freebies." - how does one (who is a total newbie and has no idea what constitutes as a fair price!) determine whether the builder is being transparent about the costings? I wouldn't say i trust my builder 100% yet at this stage and that's no reflection on them, more on my lack of knowledge making me not really wanting to trust anyone!! My Build Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=74269 Re: Builders and their freebies - which is best? 20Sep 17, 2013 2:03 pm There are a lot of good questions to ask your builder, which will educate you and also let them know that you are an informed client, and they will be able to communicate with you on that basis. Thoroughly acquaint yourself with your Land Contract/Section 32 which will give information on easements and other factors that influence where you can build and what the foundations will need to encompass (Do a bit of research on terms like easements and angle of repose and what are they) Ask some questions: -What initial deposit is required to start building? -Does this factor is as part of the price of the house? -At what point do I find out final site costs? -Does the initial estimate include: -Council building application and town planning fees -Site costs for earthworks, tree removal, retaining walls, foundations -drafting, structural variations, fittings upgrades -insurance, connection of services -How long does it take to get a final contract price? -When will contracts be ready for perusal and signature? -How long after contract signing can we expect construction to start? -What is the average construction time? By educating yourself on some of the basics and asking questions that require your builder to give you specific answers, you will begin to get an idea in regards to communication/transparency/trust. I have stone pavement (?) in my backyard around the pool. I have not tended to them and so there is moss growing on them. I intend to clean them but was wondering what the… 0 534 Thanks again Simeon for being so elaborate. Appreciate it. Its gives us a very idea. Kind Regards 4 3665 Hi, I'd like some advice on the best option please on the estimate options we've been provided from our builder. This is for the… 0 4066 |