Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 16, 2013 10:54 am Our build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=69984 If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. Re: How did you decide?? 3Oct 16, 2013 12:09 pm Our build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=69984 If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. Re: How did you decide?? 4Oct 16, 2013 12:23 pm It is difficult. In the end we chose on- - floorplan/home design - inclusions vs price (eg a cheaper builder may not include something you consider essential, once you add in everything you want they may be more expensive) - flexibility of builder (eg volume builder may not be happy to make changes, or may charge you through the nose) - reputation of builder- living a regional town certain builders get a good or bad reputation - recs from friends and colleagues who built - service from the builder - eg friendliness/helpfullness of sales staff, did they pressure you to sign etc Re: How did you decide?? 5Oct 16, 2013 12:46 pm Ours was based 90% on design and price. And by price I mean was it within our budget. I found the inclusions a little confusing as well as most of it is in builder language I didn't understand. Also I found most builders we were looking at had relatively similar inclusions anyway. The only other thing we really considered is the quality of the display homes. We figured if a display home was as perfect as the builder was going to get. So if their display home looked like poor quality I didn't want to see the quality they would do on an everyday home. In regards to reviews, I took these with a grain of salt. You will always hear more reviews about things going wrong than things going right. Because lets face it if you had a great build you are probably too busy enjoying your new home to write a lengthy review. But if you aren't happy you are going to let everyone know. Re: How did you decide?? 6Oct 16, 2013 1:10 pm Yes, some good points! I was also thinking that reviews/testimonials on the builder's website are probably going to be glowing as they probably don't publish the critical reviews!! I do live in a rural town and we are looking at builders from nearby regional centres so I will try asking around some friends who have built recently. It's hard though as a lot of ppl have only built once and so have nothing to compare it to. I also find comparing inclusions hard as I don't know what a certain inclusion upgrade would be worth. So for example if one builder says a particular type of window finish is included and another says a different type, it's hard to know what this is worth! I guess in the end it is always going to come down to a combination of factors and a 'fry feeling'. Thanks for all your responses. Our build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=69984 If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. Re: How did you decide?? 7Oct 16, 2013 1:12 pm Lol, that is meant to be 'gut feeling', not fry Our build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=69984 If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. Re: How did you decide?? 8Oct 16, 2013 2:11 pm Welcome - we are newbies to building too. CountryHome Was it just a matter of falling in love with a design? We fell in love (or at least very strong like) with about five designs (our basic minimum requirements were two-storey 4x2 with master bedroom upstairs), all with pros/cons - so we got quotes on each of them. Decision came down to a combination of price and overall layout. Similar to you, I wouldn't have a clue about some of the inclusions and based upon what we saw at the display homes they were all about the same finish to us. CountryHome Did you go to a gazillion display homes and base it on that? Yes, absolutely, I cannot recommend this highly enough. However, it needs to be tempered based upon your personality - my wife got a little burnt out visiting display homes all the time since she likes to have one direction agreed on and just stick to that. I prefer to have lots of ideas bubbling around and be flexible about choices. CountryHome Was it reviews you read online? You are here now - this site was invaluable for covering off questions I should be asking, or thinking about, even if it doesn't always have specific reviews of the builders are you are considering. CountryHome Was it a matter of sitting down and carefully comparing inclusions? As noted, we weren't great on the brand name inclusions so for us it was much more about comparing the price and layouts of the house and at a high level what was included with each option (eg one included tiling through living areas, another included air-con, etc). The key for us to narrowing it down was then just doing a preference based elimination of plans - I took what I thought were our two least favourite and compared them with my wife, the loser got discarded, and repeated until we had our favourite two options. Another visit to both of the display homes back to back then made a decision from there. There is no right way to decide, so whatever works for you - gut feeling might play a big part but it is better to feel comfortable about things. If you have the option of meeting your potential site supervisor in advance to determine if you think you'll get along well with them, then I think that would contribute hugely to how your going to feel about your build as it goes along - but I'm not sure how realistic an option that is. Demo + Build in Rivervale, Western Australia Moved in June 2014 http://rivervale.tumblr.com/ Building Thread Re: How did you decide?? 9Oct 16, 2013 2:59 pm I have a pretty strict budget, so was searching for a home and land package in a few locations! I ended up going with a company that has been around for only ~2 years (previously building investment properties only and commercial developments) and they are yet to have a display home anywhere. I lived on realestate.com.au, searched for home and land packages within my budget, looked for locations within 20-25 of the CBD... and sent many email enquiries! Next time I build, I think I would go about things differently... my priority when searching was just to get into the market! I think it all depends on your circumstances Good luck! Re: How did you decide?? 10Oct 16, 2013 4:48 pm Our decision to use a project home builder was based on the fact that the custom designs we had roughly prices came back close to double what we expected. Having been through the project-home process I'm not sure that our problem there wasn't in choosing the wrong custom builders ... So having come to the project home option, we had a few requirements that weren't standard in any project home & weren't offered as options either. In the end, despite there being dozens & dozens of builders, only maybe three or four would do what we wanted. Of those, we could really only find information on one, and the problems they seemed to have (according to what we could find online) appeared to be related to the sales process rather than the end-result. In short ... our decision was made by the fact that nobody else would build what we wanted. Re: How did you decide?? 11Oct 16, 2013 5:40 pm If you can, speak to someone who has built with them. Nothing like first hand experience. Other factors may come in as well if you have a sloping block or anything like that, it rules out some options. We wanted a classic home and most builders only do modern these days, so that factored into our choice too. My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: How did you decide?? 12Oct 16, 2013 7:29 pm We went to a gazillion display homes, only to realise they're mostly much of a muchness. I found a 3 bedroom plan with the master behind the garage (I didn't want it up front, so that ruled out most of them) and had an included Al Fresco. I bonded well with the Sales Consultant - he wasn't giving me a sales pitch and believed in his product. The price was reasonable and people here seemed happy with them. A lot of gut instinct. You'll know. 19.03.14 - Land Settlement 15.04.14 - Building Permit 28.04.14 - Earthworks 14.05.14 - Slab Stage 20.05.14 - Frame Stage 11.06.14 - Lock Up Stage 03.07.14 - Fix Stage 15.08.14 - New Home Presentation Re: How did you decide?? 13Oct 16, 2013 7:44 pm Went through every display home between Cranbourne and Traralgon, probably over 150 homes and my wife walked into the home we selected and loved everything about it. Job done. I thought this would be a popular question but I haven't been able to find any similar posts. Perhaps I'm wording my searches wrong? When you have car insurance and the… 0 6745 No the fireplace doesn’t work. 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