Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 15Feb 25, 2016 11:30 am 1stTimeBuild 16 Thanks for the reply Lewiston2015. Im guessing by your title your building at Lewiston? What size house are you building eg is it two stories and the square metres? The allowance for the footings is fairly lean but we had already had engineering reports done before we engaged in a builder so they looked at those reports to give us more of an idea. "Mentally" we have allowed for the fact that they may go up but that was one of the issues to do with the other builder. They were trying to charge us for footings for a house being built in a suburb like Athelstone or ingle farm and our soil is pretty good in our area. We have building approval from the council so are a few steps in the process already. We have heard horror stories from people about the footings and although I agree with you that we cant control I do know for a fact that some builders will take advantage of that when pricing you up. Your price is great...usually ppl say to allow for a thousand dollars per square metre so you have done really well. We have decided to do some of the turnkey options ourselves. Our house is small and I have already received a few quotes for things like aircon that have come in over a thousand cheaper than what the builder would charge. I am super excited about selections but also worried because It will just be my luck that the things I want are not included in the standard! How exciting about your process. Not long now! Hi 1stTimeBuild 16, yep we're building at Lewiston. This is our second home but first build and we are building a 370m2 single story home including garage and alfresco. That's great you already have council approval and should hopefully mean that they can start on your build pretty quickly. Having a good sales person is fantastic but I will warn you once you sign up with them the contact with the sales person then is very limited and you start to deal with head office. You mentioned about things you want that may not be standard and my biggest piece of advice would be to get them to quote on those items you want now before you sign. Don't be afraid to do this, we basically got our sales person to quote about 4 different times before we signed. It also gave our sales person a really good understanding of what we were trying to achieve and they suggested things that we hadn't thought of. No matter how small you think the cost would be for example upgrading doors and door handles talk to your sales person about them now as you will find that these costs add up quickly. Basically we started the quote with everything we needed, wanted and wished for and then took things out from there until we were at a price we were comfortable with.There were still things that were added at the final interview such as brick upgrade and garage door upgrade but at final interview we were only about $5k over the original quoted price and about $1800 of this was due to the footings increase. When we were signing up they had a promotion for free evaporative air and we chose to upgrade to reverse cycle but we received a $4500 credit back for not taking up the aircon promo so don't be afraid to ask your sales person for credits back. I agree 100% with Bobbin about there being no open communication in regards to pricing, I especially remember having this conversation with hubby after our selections appointment at Direct Interiors as I found them the worst at this and it will leave you feeling frustrated. But Supreme Kitchens are fantastic as is Clipsal if you choose to do an electrical plan with them. Good luck again and look forward to seeing your build progress Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 16Feb 25, 2016 8:38 pm Slaters how are you getting on at Seaford Meadows? We are currently building there at the moment and are moving from the west side of the city. Other than the awesome beaches and the nice views we are unfamiliar with the area to an extent. Is it a good community to live in? Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 17Feb 25, 2016 9:02 pm We are loving it The expressway is good Shopping is great Woolies so close can walk to grab things Walk to train station All of our neighbours are nice Loving our new house Life is a beach. Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 18Feb 25, 2016 9:36 pm Sounds fantastic Slaters that is exactly what I wanted to hear. The expressway really sold us also. We are very much looking forward to adding to those list of nice neighbours. Thanks! Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 19Feb 25, 2016 9:43 pm Im currently building right at the end of the freeway at huntsfield heights and while its good it wont be that way forever the more they build out this way the more traffic that will clog it up that being said a co-worker of mine built a huge house in seaford meadows with fairmont homes last year and his process was relatively painless like the old saying goes happy customer say nothing the angry ones make a big racket. I choose sterling homes as another co-work built with them and her house was issue free there head office also around the corner from work so i can pop in anytime i want to bust there balls if need be which is a big plus for me. Re: Is or has anyone built with Fairmont Homes SA? 20Feb 25, 2016 9:52 pm Hey 1stTimeBuild 16 , we are also building with fairmont out north in adelaide. I agree with the others, sales people are amazing , definately don't be frightened to keep quoting and making all the changes you want as later it can't be done without paying a price. We just had our slab laid and what I can say is there is a clause in the contract that basically says even after you sign your footings variation you can still be hit with more site costs if they encounter difficulties, we received a letter saying to expect an invoice due to digging issues extending site works out by a day which we are liable for. Was disappointed this wasn't pointed out more obviously earlier but something to be mindful of, really read the contract and ask questions! Also depending on your block it may pay you to have it levelled prior to footings as fairmont will only cut and fill the parcel they are building on, we are on a 656sqm block and building the baxter 300m2 house so we have some serious land to level now which so far has cost 1000 and that was luck finding someone so cheap. Also, if you have purple water and want any mains water that is an extra charge around 300 and then 17 per metre from nearest mains water, power point to Island bench is extra, lights on brick piers there is a surcharge, heaps of upgrading to lights and power points, if you want termite protection to the whole house that's an upgrade and for us was 1500. I trust they will build a good home but I feel they are missing an after sales area, the ladies in the office are nice but not the ones in construction dept. footings was our biggest concern too they originally allowed 22 we were worried so it went up to 24, or variation was for 27800 so it went up and now we potentially have more due to issues digging trenches. One of those things I guess. I hope you enjoy selections, make sure your bathroom is bug enough to take a bigger bath should you not like the standard 1500 one, I regret not checking that one! Hope thus helps you while you are in quoting, I feel like we are safe with fairmont just wish communication was better, take care Hi we are looking to talk to people who have built with them recently. We have signed mid range built contract but identified that a lot of things are not included.… 0 1121 Hi All, we are starting to think of building with Masterpiece Builders in Victoria, has anyone had any feedback or experience with them 0 14092 I haven’t. But have a Lowe Design home. Not only did I find Matt Lowe patronising and a bully, but the home is NOT TO CODE. I have water coming through the bricks… 1 15061 |