Cutting down or waiting to start build?

melobious · Jul 17, 2019 6:12 pm

So we have been given a final turn key price for the house. It is about $30,000 over what we were expecting not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things but still out of budget

We have two choices
A) Cut out a few things such as WIR fit out, built in cabinetry etc to get it down and start building then do these things later (which may take longer as we have to save while paying a bigger mortgage)

Or

B) Save for 6 months to get the extra cash and take the 1-2% price increase and move into a completed house?

I’m going for A but partner thinks B

What would you do and reasoning behind it?

IsabellaBoots · Jul 17, 2019 8:11 pm

for option B when you say 6 months to save, you can guarantee that the two of you can save 30k in 6 months? Because if you can, you could just go ahead with the full build at the current price. When building a house, they don't make you pay the full amount up front. You pay it in stages. Also it will usually take time to get council approval etc. Most house builds I've seen take around 5-6 months just for the build, plus whatever amount of time it takes them to get approval.

Steve4216 · Jul 17, 2019 8:43 pm

With Option A, if you remove those from the price and it is now a place where you're comfortable paying, do that, and if you save the money before the end of the build, just do it right after handover. No harm in waiting though, prices probably wont rise between now and the end of the year.

Neatep · Jul 17, 2019 11:40 pm

I would do A.

I know its not turnkey, but you could also remove driveway and flooring and you will likely save 10k by doing it yourself.

Most of the high level flooring options are ... low to mid from the flooring people + huge markup.

luxbuild · Jul 18, 2019 12:18 am

Another suggestion is to see what deal the builder may offer if you were sign now instead of deferring.

If you haven't signed a contract there is nothing stopping you from potentially going with another builder in 6 months time is there?

Forg · Jul 18, 2019 9:15 am

Neatep

I would do A.

I know its not turnkey, but you could also remove driveway and flooring and you will likely save 10k by doing it yourself.

Most of the high level flooring options are ... low to mid from the flooring people + huge markup.

Yes I agree with this. Obviously you need to do your research, but we found our builder's pricing was all over the place, some stuff was considerably cheaper than we could've achieved (eg. the tiling) and other stuff was super duper expensive by comparison (eg. WIR and built-in fit-out).

So you might not just be putting-off those costs until later, you might find you save money overall.

melobious · Jul 18, 2019 12:03 pm

luxbuild

Another suggestion is to see what deal the builder may offer if you were sign now instead of deferring.

If you haven't signed a contract there is nothing stopping you from potentially going with another builder in 6 months time is there?

We have signed .. we are happy with the builder so far just I think we have gotten a pretty good deal... I know we just have more expensive tastes than I thought hahs

melobious · Jul 18, 2019 12:15 pm

IsabellaBoots

for option B when you say 6 months to save, you can guarantee that the two of you can save 30k in 6 months? Because if you can, you could just go ahead with the full build at the current price. When building a house, they don't make you pay the full amount up front. You pay it in stages. Also it will usually take time to get council approval etc. Most house builds I've seen take around 5-6 months just for the build, plus whatever amount of time it takes them to get approval.

I didn’t think of the delayed payment as an argument thanks!!

Plans are approved with a start date planned for earlier next year! We are doing a knockdown rebuild so are currently living in the house once we move out we the saving may slow down due to rent having to be paid but I still think we can save a bit.

Thanks for the replyb

melobious · Jul 18, 2019 12:22 pm

Steve4216

With Option A, if you remove those from the price and it is now a place where you're comfortable paying, do that, and if you save the money before the end of the build, just do it right after handover. No harm in waiting though, prices probably wont rise between now and the end of the year.

It will more likely be delayed till mid to late next year (we are already saving to get a certain amount so we can start early next year snd now the extra money will delay it even further so we have already been told cost will more than likely increase

melobious · Jul 18, 2019 12:23 pm

Neatep

I would do A.

I know its not turnkey, but you could also remove driveway and flooring and you will likely save 10k by doing it yourself.

Most of the high level flooring options are ... low to mid from the flooring people + huge markup.

Will look into this too!

melobious · Jul 22, 2019 9:58 pm

We have decided to cut out the extras and build! Yay my (and your arguments win) haha