Building with First Homebuyers Direct?

kristy00 · Mar 30, 2011 10:53 pm

Hi everyone!

I'm a newbie here and this is my very first post. Been visiting this forum since me & my hubby decided we want to build our first home. You guys are all fantastic!!!

We are planning to build in The Village at Wellard where we had a 450 sqm block reserved already. We are talking to someone from First Homebuyers Direct (FHBD) and found him very helpful and not pushy at all. Now my question is: does anyone know of someone who has built/is building/planning to build with FHBD? I haven't read any reviews for this builder so any information/insight/opinion you might want to share will be very much appreciated. Cheers!

tarynb · Apr 23, 2011 10:36 pm

Hiya,

I am also looking at signing with FHBD at the moment and i have the same question. Has anyone dealt with these guys before?

Have you found out any information so far Kristy00?

Taryn

lilizzy7 · Apr 26, 2011 8:30 pm

I haven't had any personal experience with them, but there is a house around the corner from our build that's being done by them and it seems to have gone up quite quickly

Had a bit of a snoop around on the weekend and the work looked good quality too, but then again I've never built before so that's just in my opinion :p

jbyway · Apr 26, 2011 8:53 pm

I was considering building with them but changed our mid at the end as their designs didn't quite match what we wanted. They tried hard and seemed like a good deal though but yeah also hadn't heard of them before so didn't want to risk it.

kristy00 · Apr 28, 2011 12:52 am

hi guys!

as an update, we decided to go with FHBD. so far, we are very happy with our decision. our sales consultant told us that yes, they are fairly new in the business, and that they want to be known for the quality of the houses they build and not quantity. i guess, one advantage i can think of building with a new player is exactly what he told me- quality of the house. since they are building a name, of course they would wanna make sure that they build good houses and offer better specs. but the downside is- we can't get any information or feedback regarding their build and customer service. but what the heck! we took the risk!

finger crossed everything will go well...

caz_770 · Dec 23, 2011 7:04 pm

Hi Kristy00,

I think I wrote on Taryn's thread a while ago.

I'm not building with FHBD, but as I mentioned in Taryn's thread, they were my 3rd choice. I actually think you have made a great choice and would love to hear how it all goes for you guys.

Congratulations!

Merry Christmas

Carol.

rick01 · Jan 06, 2012 11:52 pm

Hello Kristy00,

We are also thinking about signing with fhbd but are really unsure about it can you shed some light on how everything went for you.?? It would be much appreciated. It seems to be going really fast and we really dont seem to have found any info regarding the quality of their homes or their reputation

franky90 · Jan 11, 2012 12:11 am

hellp kristy

can you please let me know how your build with FHBD was? we are thinking of signing with them

thanks

nic-89 · Jul 29, 2012 10:49 pm

Hey All!

I know this is coming way after this conversation was started, but I thought I would provide you with some feedback about my experience with FHBD.

We started the process about 18 months ago and it took FOREVER to get our finance sorted out, I would recommend using your own finance broker, rather than the ones they provide. There was a lack of communication and it therefore made the process take a long time. We got our loan through Key Start, which probably didn't help (government agency!).

Once we got the finance and did our Pre-Start meeting where we got to choose everything (the fun part!) we then had to wait to get all of our council approval. Surprisingly, that only took about 8 weeks for everything, which is rather quick I've been told.

Now to the build...we are almost to hand over, A MONTH AND A HALF EARLY!! This is completely unheard-of in the building industry! I have to admit that whenever we noticed that something wasn't right, they were very quick to get it fixed. As an example, the tilers did the tiles wrong in both of our bathrooms, my fiancee and I went there on the sunday and they tilers were there when we noticed it, I e-mailed FHBD straight away and it was fixed by the Tuesday.

Overall, whilst we had a few problems starting out (we were also not told our block was a strata), they have certainly made up for themselves in the build. All the houses around us are at about the same stage as we had to wait for the titles anyway, so the delay in finance didn't end up hindering our build too much.

Loony crust · May 22, 2013 4:38 pm

Hello All,

My experience with this builder is not a good one. I have started with them (building process) September 2012 and up until now they only manage to do the slab down. When things get delayed it’s delayed in big time (2, 3 weeks) with these guys. I can guess with my experience with FHBD it will take more than a year to complete my house. My advice is please choose your builder carefully, don’t think about the couple of thousand dollars that you think you are saving at upfront.

Cheers!

Frustrated client · May 24, 2013 4:03 pm

Hello All,

Would definitely recommend that you skip this Builder. We have only jsut built our house with them and has been an absolute nightmare from Day 1. The house itself turned out average but the process has not been one bit fun! It's been 2 weeks since we got handed our keys and lets just say, only today they realise they missed something in the variation ( after us constantly harping at them about it) which is now going to take another 2 weeks to fix. This is only one of the few things. We signed up in June 2012. Took us till Nov 2012 for them to get the designs right, finances sorted, approvals etc. Slab went down in Nov 2012 and we just got our keys. Still a fews things to get right but we have no choice but to move in first. Overall, VERY UNHAPPY CLIENTS!

Firsthouse1 · Aug 05, 2013 6:10 pm

I really feel I need to post a review here because the experience I have had building my home with FHBD has been appalling

So many mistakes were made throughout pre-start, with items completely missed, the wrong information included or the Variations contract simply added up incorrectly on various occasions. Once built, the wrong hardware was installed and there were many items that were completely missed or done incorrectly. When I reached the PCI there were still so many unfinished items and when I reached the Handover stage, when all of these things were promised to be fixed/finished, the house was not even ready for someone to live. The shower heads were missing, the water disconnected, a door handle missing, cabinetry missing, painting unfinished and the list goes on (and on). No courtesy phone calls were made to let me know things wouldn't be done when promised, instead I showed up for inspections that couldn't really be completed.

Structurally everything seems sound enough and I think eventually (if they ever finish) I will be relatively happy with the house. I paid for an independent inspector and it was found there were a few things not up to standard: seals, joins, painting etc but nothing too major and they've promised these things have been resolved, though I'm not confident I can take their word for it and may get them re-checked by the inspector.

This whole process has been so stressful and so costly with me having to pay rent on top of my mortgage for about 6 more months than expected. When I signed up with FHBD there weren't any reviews but because they were a new company I thought they'd be trying to build a name for themselves in the market. I couldn't have been more wrong and now that I see all of the other negative reviews posted here I see that I am not alone in my experience. I know that people make mistakes, that's part of life, but it's how you go about resolving those mistakes that counts and no effort at all has been made in my situation and the number of mistakes made was so high.

If there is one piece of advise I can offer to you, regardless of who you choose to build with it is that you be extra diligent in making sure every detail of everything you request is communicated in written form because if/when they get the information wrong you will need to be able to prove exactly what it was that you requested or it will be you footing the bill or living with the mistake. I would also recommend paying for your own inspector once you reach PCI. It can be expensive but it's worth it, for your own peace of mind.

Good luck!

Mashuri13 · Oct 18, 2015 4:35 am

Firsthouse1

I really feel I need to post a review here because the experience I have had building my home with FHBD has been appalling

So many mistakes were made throughout pre-start, with items completely missed, the wrong information included or the Variations contract simply added up incorrectly on various occasions. Once built, the wrong hardware was installed and there were many items that were completely missed or done incorrectly. When I reached the PCI there were still so many unfinished items and when I reached the Handover stage, when all of these things were promised to be fixed/finished, the house was not even ready for someone to live. The shower heads were missing, the water disconnected, a door handle missing, cabinetry missing, painting unfinished and the list goes on (and on). No courtesy phone calls were made to let me know things wouldn't be done when promised, instead I showed up for inspections that couldn't really be completed.

Structurally everything seems sound enough and I think eventually (if they ever finish) I will be relatively happy with the house. I paid for an independent inspector and it was found there were a few things not up to standard: seals, joins, painting etc but nothing too major and they've promised these things have been resolved, though I'm not confident I can take their word for it and may get them re-checked by the inspector.

This whole process has been so stressful and so costly with me having to pay rent on top of my mortgage for about 6 more months than expected. When I signed up with FHBD there weren't any reviews but because they were a new company I thought they'd be trying to build a name for themselves in the market. I couldn't have been more wrong and now that I see all of the other negative reviews posted here I see that I am not alone in my experience. I know that people make mistakes, that's part of life, but it's how you go about resolving those mistakes that counts and no effort at all has been made in my situation and the number of mistakes made was so high.

If there is one piece of advise I can offer to you, regardless of who you choose to build with it is that you be extra diligent in making sure every detail of everything you request is communicated in written form because if/when they get the information wrong you will need to be able to prove exactly what it was that you requested or it will be you footing the bill or living with the mistake. I would also recommend paying for your own inspector once you reach PCI. It can be expensive but it's worth it, for your own peace of mind.

Good luck!

Agree with you, basically what happened to us. Nowadays they have a ratings on the other website but if you give them a bad one, not long after that they would put a good one to keep their ratings on 4 stars.
After their last big mistake, forgot to put smart wiring in the process of building. We had enough and downloaded a voice recorded on our phone, so it won't be just she said he said.
Their site supervisor offered us $300 cash for what happened but the company tried to make it $150 voucher, but we got $300 because we had all of it recorded.
Don't trust this whole sales thing unless it's recorded or written in contract.