Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 441Nov 04, 2013 3:53 pm Build Permit-17/12/13 Earthworks-13/1/14 Slab-30/1/14 Frame-10/2/14 Lock Up-7/3/14 Fixing Stage Complete-20/3/14 New Home Presentation-6/5/14 Moved in 17/5/14! Blog: http://dandesbuild.blogspot.com.au Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 442Nov 04, 2013 9:06 pm bkoolrocks What kinda preparation s I should be doing? ? also can I get pre start appointment over the weekend? ?? pooks83 Glad you made it out alive and today went well. It sure is a whirl wind! I agree though, if you are prepared it's a much better day the laminate floors and all floor and wall tiles are through hynes group they are located in derrimut you can call to make an appointment to have a look at all the categories, just tell them who your building though and they can get a list of what us cat 1 and what is cat 2 through hb centre. Their number is 87429620 Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 443Nov 04, 2013 9:11 pm Hi guys! Sorry for not responding earlier re: contract concerns! Have had the craziest week!! We had our contract signing/colour selections appointment on Wednesday and boy oh boy is that a long 4 1/2 hours!! And I had to do night duty afterwards! All the concerns my lawyer friend had re the contract were explained to me during the appointment and we were happy with the explanations they gave and signed anyway... So no problems there! It was mainly to do with the wording and its vagueness re us having to get a planning permit if required etc etc but they assured me it was all good! It mostly went well with only one major hiccup and that was the data package. Our estate is fibre optic via opticomm not NBM, but they had our package included in the PWC as basic NBM at $785. WELL, when I said to Kristy our estate is opticomm not NBM she had to change our package to opticomm which was ~$2000!!! So that took up $1200 of our allowance after the difference! not happy jan!! But what can you do! I'm just glad we knew before we did all of our selections and spent the money! This way we weren't out of pocket anything.. So including that little (big) expense, we came to $4531 all up from our allowance plus we had a $944 credit so roughly $5400 worth of upgrades (inc data package though so not too over the top!) What we got: - Cat 2 bricks $512 extra for entire house - Timber look garage door $385 - Stained front entry door $190 for staining both sides - Cat 2 carpet $905 to bedrooms only (we had already changed hallway to laminate instead) - D Mould benchtops to bathroom and ensuite $180 - Kitchen splashback Clear glass $1040 (this was the splurge item!! lol) - Double towel rails in both bathrooms $30 total - 10 extra indoor double power points $590 plus 2 outdoor power points $200 - Outdoor floodlight $155 - Changed 2-way switch to 3-way switch $53 Things we will do after handover: - Glass shelves in both showers - Lighting (pendant lights!!!) - Landscaping as we deleted the landscaping pack and got kitchen one - Clotheline obviously - Letterbox with the number 11 on it apparently!! Colour scheme: - 'Homestead Mushroom' bricks with gunmetal grey roof, and 'Monument' gutters/ fascia/ windows, and 'Moonlight' driveway/porch - Dark grey matt tiles on floor and wall of shower, off white with grey speckles gloss feature tiles on wall behind bath and splashback - Dark grey benchtops and light grey cupboards in both bathrooms - White shimmer caesarstone benchtop with white underbench cupboards and lustrous elm ~ grey 'woodgrain' look overhead cupboards - Spotted gum floors - White walls - Dark grey Cat 2 plush carpet - Blockout blinds in 'whisper' which is light grey I so badly wanted the glass frameless sliding wardrobe doors but they were $485 EACH and we only had $496 left!! lol so we went with white and satin finish frame - can always replace them later! Or put mirrors up on the walls or something to make the rooms look bigger (thats what I loved about the mirrored doors!) Sorry for the massive post but I thought I'd get it all out in one go!! Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 444Nov 07, 2013 10:24 am Has anybody chosen a contrasting colour for "Internal Woodwork including doors (gloss enamel)"? I requested Solver Designer White and was told a contrasting colour would be an additional cost and also the colour I have requested requires a 3rd coat for even coverage which would be an upgrade. If you chose this, how much did you have to pay for the upgrade? 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: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 445Nov 07, 2013 9:19 pm Hi, I spent the last few hours reading this entire thread! All your experiences, information and tips have opened helped with my research. There was a bit of to and fro-ing at the start with a lot of questions as it was the first time we built. However the SC we dealt with was quite helpful and answered us to the best of his knowledge. We initially choose the Monarch 26 but the living area windows would be facing south which meant no sunlight in that area throughout the entire day. We had the option to flip the plans but the driveway would be on the wrong side and the estate/council had already set the crossover. So we went with the Indigo 25 as the living area faced north however we redesigned the kitchen/laundry to have everything the same as the Monarch 26. (it's got a walk in pantry/linen) To my surprise the cost of the redesigned kitchen was only $2450 This is what the redesigned floor plans looked like. https://www.dropbox.com/s/tmbhtdonj1er24i/SKMBT_C55413092012290.pdf When the PWC was getting written up additional costs kept popping up. IE - $2003 - Provide Telstra Velocity Package (Fibre Optic connections along with data points etc) - $1152 - Exposed Aggregate driveway (Estate guidlines) - $1352 - Provided Single colour external render to front bedroom and porch piers (This should of been included as the building package includes 1 facade, however when i questioned they said it's not included) - $1244 - 600mm Eaves (estate guidlines) Lets hope there is no more unsuspecting fees since the SC constantly reiterated that the prices are fixed and what you are quoted is all you pay.... That said, we signed the PWC and paid the 1500$ deposit. Since we signed the PWC i've thought about more changes i would like done, but i didn't ask the SC and i assume we could change it at the HIA building contract signing and colour selection. So tomorrow i will be heading in to sign the HIA building contract and won't be signing anything till they updated the contract with the changes i want. IE - Move the manhole from inside the house to the garage ceiling - Move the ducted heated Air Vent from the master bedroom WIR (what a waste of space) to the WIL We didnt like the flooring options they provided - Laminate floor = cheap stuff that doesn't last long - Carpet will get dusty and daughter which will not help my daughter has eczema So we are going to ask them not to install any flooring at all so we can supply and install ourselves to save his of coin. Excluding the wet areas because apparently this has to be done to receive cert of occupancy. We've recently went to the Grand Designs Live show at the Melbourne Convention Centre and saw these nice Wood Look Tiles. http://www.beaumont-tiles.com.au/TileInfo/Blog/tabid/87/ID/92/Wood-Look-Tiles.aspx The plan is the lay the wood look tiles in every room including all wet areas. We got a qoute from HBC to have wood look tiles and they said it would cost $26,000 with the deduction of the laminate and carpet factored in. When we went to Tile Factory outlet, to buy enough supply to cover the entire house was only 7000$ Lets hope we can supply the tiles for when they do the wetareas so it flows with the rest of the house. We also plant to paint the house ourselves. We know a few people who have build and when they asked for the painting not to be included they saved like $6000-$8000. So let's see if we can minus this from the building contract and get a substantial credit. Gather a few mates, fire up the barbie and crack a few cans of beer and you could paint the house yourself for less than $500 With the finance we went with Resolve/Blue Bay. We are still waiting for Pre-approval and Final Approval. However They said we should have Final Approval by end of next week even thought our application was lodged 2 weeks ago. Which led me to ask what happened with the Pre-Approval stage??... Let's hope we get approval else we are screwed. We are signing the land contract straight after our building contract signing. Once the land contract is signed we are required to pay the %5 land depoist within 2 weeks. After the deposit is paid we only have a 2 week period for the 'Subject to finance' condition and if Resolve can't get back to us in time with either an approval or decline, the land contract becomes unconditional. =O And if we don't get finance, we'll say bye bye to our 5% =[ However HBC has assured us that we will ok we will not miss the deadline. Fingers crossed on not missing the deadline and also getting the finance approved. Has anyone been in the situation before with regards to the finance and having a small window to acquire a final approval? I read that someone of yous, the finance took like 5 weeks to get an approval?? FK i hate these stupid estate rules and guidlines.... Sorry for the long post, there were more little details i could of posted, but i'll spare everybody the boring read. Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 446Nov 08, 2013 5:52 am Welcome, p0o! I didn't think they did colours/HIA before pre-approval, but every situation is a bit different. Where are you building? Good luck with the appointment today - bring a cut lunch! LOL! You won't know your name by the end of it. Let us know how you go. 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: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 447Nov 08, 2013 6:43 am Welcome P0o! Good luck with your contract signing today. Have you spoken to the land office about an extension to the subject to finance clause? I was able to extend mine from 2 weeks to 90 days as my finance took a long time due to bank backlog. I found HBC's laminate flooring to be good quality actually, after comparing and shopping around. Have Resolve/Bluebay confirmed that you could do your own flooring/painting as part of the arrangement? All the best! Build Permit-17/12/13 Earthworks-13/1/14 Slab-30/1/14 Frame-10/2/14 Lock Up-7/3/14 Fixing Stage Complete-20/3/14 New Home Presentation-6/5/14 Moved in 17/5/14! Blog: http://dandesbuild.blogspot.com.au Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 448Nov 08, 2013 4:15 pm Gaviscon Girl Welcome, p0o! I didn't think they did colours/HIA before pre-approval, but every situation is a bit different. Where are you building? Good luck with the appointment today - bring a cut lunch! LOL! You won't know your name by the end of it. Let us know how you go. Yea we still haven't got any approvals yet. however with the HIA contract done it will be easier for The resolve team to get final approval and skip pre-approval. we chose lot in Somerfield Keysborough. Yea we were starving. got there at 9 and finished at 1.30. we came fully prepared as well. already knew what colours we wanted for everything so we kinda rushed it and it still took ages.!!!>_< pooks83 Welcome P0o! Good luck with your contract signing today. Have you spoken to the land office about an extension to the subject to finance clause? I was able to extend mine from 2 weeks to 90 days as my finance took a long time due to bank backlog. I found HBC's laminate flooring to be good quality actually, after comparing and shopping around. Have Resolve/Bluebay confirmed that you could do your own flooring/painting as part of the arrangement? All the best! Well lets hope the finance gets approve so we don't have to extend it. i rather it be all done straight up then having to wait a month or 2 to find out about finance. The suspense is a killer! So we got back $3800 for deleting the Carpet and the Laminate. Not a bad return since sourcing tiles for the entire house will only cost us $6000. The only downstiar is that the wetarea flooring we were not able to do it ourselves so now it's going to be a mismatch =[ Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 449Nov 10, 2013 3:25 pm Went to visit our block today!! We finally have access to our street! Woohoo! Titles came through last week! Now just waiting on valuation from the bank and official formal approval (we have conditional formal!) then settlement on the land on the 20th!! Its all happening! Is it too much to ask for a quick build?! Cos I can't wait to be in our new house!! Building Abode 22 Cranbourne West Contract Signing 30/10/13 Land titled 31/10/13 Settlement on land due 20/11/13 Formal Approval 14/11/13 Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 450Nov 10, 2013 3:55 pm Congrats Hayles85 on your titles...it's nice when that is out of the way! Good luck with your valuation, although I font think you will need it because the assessments coming out of Cranbourne from what I have seen have been really good! As for a quick build...hmmm. I thought the same. I was told it would take 45 days from titles for HBC to get all of the necessary reports and approvals and it's been 48 days so far and not all reports are in, therefore developer approval hasn't been applied for yet. Be prepared for the continued wait (while paying mortgage!)...I just keep thinking of the end goal so I am still smiling Build Permit-17/12/13 Earthworks-13/1/14 Slab-30/1/14 Frame-10/2/14 Lock Up-7/3/14 Fixing Stage Complete-20/3/14 New Home Presentation-6/5/14 Moved in 17/5/14! Blog: http://dandesbuild.blogspot.com.au Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 451Nov 10, 2013 4:07 pm Congrats Hayles! How exciting I'm also back with good news. We have signed our PWC and paid the $1500. Our resolve broker is currently trying to process everything, shouldn't have any issues. He told us originally we could borrow waaaay to much than we wanted too. Also we've paid deposits on our land. Contracts signed. Now the juggling act starts between HBC, Conveyncer, Resolve and our estate. We are both pretty excited now we are thinking colours and upgrades... Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 452Nov 11, 2013 7:55 pm Congrats Niccles! It's exciting isn't it!!! Building Abode 22 Cranbourne West Contract Signing 30/10/13 Land titled 31/10/13 Settlement on land due 20/11/13 Formal Approval 14/11/13 Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 453Nov 12, 2013 1:54 pm Congrats hayles85 and Niccles! Things are about to really take off now. Guys, I've posted this on the main message board and I've asked here once before, but haven't really been answered. Surely not all of you chose to paint all of your woodwork, doors and walls the same colour. Tomorrow will mark a week since I've been waiting for the costing, so if I will be contacting them. In the meantime, forewarned is forearmed: Has anybody chosen a contrasting colour for "Internal Woodwork including doors (gloss enamel)"? I chose a light "greige" for my internal walls and requested Designer White for the skirting / door frames / doors. I was told a contrasting colour would be an additional cost and also the white requires a 3rd coat for even coverage which would be an upgrade. While they haven't gotten back to me on cost, I must admit - I think this is a shameless money grab. If you chose this, how much did you have to pay for the upgrade? 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: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 454Nov 12, 2013 4:18 pm Hi Gaviscon Girl, I chose the same colour so that was the reason I didn't respond to your original question. I made a conscious decision at the beginning that: anything that was in my control to source elsewhere at a cheaper cost without inconvenience, I was going to do after handover. Lucky for me I have friends in the trade so extras in painting and electrical were a no no for me. Sorry I can't be of any help. Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 455Nov 12, 2013 5:09 pm Fair enough, Pooks. Just frustrated, I guess. There have been a few things that seem to be straight out money grabs. This is one. Another one is carpet in the Theatre Room. The list of inclusions says "bedrooms and passageway". I really don't like carpet so at PWC, I had it deleted from the Master bedroom and paid extra for the laminate. Show up at Selections and point out there is carpet in the Theatre Room, which must be a mistake as it's only in bedrooms and the passageway. I was told it couldn't be listed in the inclusions as not all houses have a Theatre Room. So I was charged to remove it. Not cool - moving the goal posts here. 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: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 456Nov 12, 2013 6:10 pm Gaviscon Girl Fair enough, Pooks. Just frustrated, I guess. There have been a few things that seem to be straight out money grabs. This is one. Another one is carpet in the Theatre Room. The list of inclusions says "bedrooms and passageway". I really don't like carpet so at PWC, I had it deleted from the Master bedroom and paid extra for the laminate. Show up at Selections and point out there is carpet in the Theatre Room, which must be a mistake as it's only in bedrooms and the passageway. I was told it couldn't be listed in the inclusions as not all houses have a Theatre Room. So I was charged to remove it. Not cool - moving the goal posts here. Whilst I agree with you gaviscon girl that there are a fair few things that are money grabs I can see why it costs to change the theatre from carpet to hard flooring. They only agree to provide 'flooring' in general to the entire house, and yes although carpet is only specified in passageway and bedrooms on the standard inclusions, I can see their point that the theatre room doesn't come standard on every house therefore they cannot list what type of flooring this room will have on the standard inclusions. And as carpet costs less than the floorboards then of course they would choose this as their base inclusion. They do however provide detail of what room comes with what flooring at the pwc meeting and are upfront about it being an upgrade to change from carpet to hard floors. They are a volume builder after all and up until recently the floorboards didn't even come standard. I'm not trying to have a go I just think we have to be realistic about what we expect as standard from a volume builder with reasonable build costs. I do however agree with you on the paint situation! Although I personally couldn't justify the extra dosh on having different paint colours when we can do it after handover pretty cheap, I don't get why it costs them so much more to do different colours?? I know it means having to mix extra paint etc and maybe it's more delicate cos of the cutting in therefore takes more time but seriously, it shouldn't be a huge extra cost to have some alternative colours! I hope they get back to you soon with a reasonable quote! Building Abode 22 Cranbourne West Contract Signing 30/10/13 Land titled 31/10/13 Settlement on land due 20/11/13 Formal Approval 14/11/13 Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 457Nov 12, 2013 6:33 pm Interesting....as I had the same carpet situation as Gaviscon Girl where I deleted it in the hallway and second living area and I didn't have to pay anything to remove it. I had to pay $60 only to extend the hard flooring in place of these two carpeted areas. This is the beauty of this forum - learn from others experiences and compare! Build Permit-17/12/13 Earthworks-13/1/14 Slab-30/1/14 Frame-10/2/14 Lock Up-7/3/14 Fixing Stage Complete-20/3/14 New Home Presentation-6/5/14 Moved in 17/5/14! Blog: http://dandesbuild.blogspot.com.au Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 458Nov 12, 2013 6:35 pm 1) The carpet was not in the Theatre Room at PWC, but I was never given a copy of the PWC we initialed. 2) The walls are low sheen paint; the woodwork is enamel semi-gloss. They would have to change paints anyway. And as for needing a 3rd coat because of the colour I chose - the doors and MDF are primed white by the manufacturer! If anything, a 3rd coat would be needed for my greige. Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 459Nov 12, 2013 6:42 pm pooks83 Interesting....as I had the same carpet situation as Gaviscon Girl where I deleted it in the hallway and second living area and I didn't have to pay anything to remove it. I had to pay $60 only to extend the hard flooring in place of these two carpeted areas. This is the beauty of this forum - learn from others experiences and compare! Sorry - I didn't mean I had to pay anything to remove it. I meant to say I had to pay $223 to exchange it for the Category 1 floorboards. And the door you upgraded, which cost you $270 cost me $350. Re: Anyone building with Homebuyers Centre in VICTORIA? 460Nov 12, 2013 7:48 pm Gaviscon Girl pooks83 Interesting....as I had the same carpet situation as Gaviscon Girl where I deleted it in the hallway and second living area and I didn't have to pay anything to remove it. I had to pay $60 only to extend the hard flooring in place of these two carpeted areas. This is the beauty of this forum - learn from others experiences and compare! Sorry - I didn't mean I had to pay anything to remove it. I meant to say I had to pay $223 to exchange it for the Category 1 floorboards. And the door you upgraded, which cost you $270 cost me $350. I also had to pay a similar amount to you gaviscon girl in order to change from carpet in home theatre and hallway to hard floors. Weird that pooks's was so much cheaper... Good point about the paint! I didn't realise they were different anyway... So it doesn't really make sense. As for the pwc you initialed - how come you weren't given a copy? I requested plans that detailed the flooring so that I could check everything out before I signed the pwc as I wasn't sure what was standard etc and was so freaked at the beginning of the whole process so I just asked for everything lol! The main theme I am seeing from this forum is that everybody has paid slightly different prices for different things.. Whether this is due to different sized/designed houses or just different sales consultants or something I don't know...the fact is we can't change it... The only hope we have is to make sure we hassle the crap out of them and cover all our bases, which I for one think is much easier to do having this forum!! Building Abode 22 Cranbourne West Contract Signing 30/10/13 Land titled 31/10/13 Settlement on land due 20/11/13 Formal Approval 14/11/13 I havent, and i havent looked to much into it, but on face value its not the saviour its trying to make out to be. Shared equity in your home is never a good idea. The… 1 3959 Hi, have purchased a house with 2 single garage doors. The Centre pillar one side sits proud to the other. Can I change 2 doors into one. Please see picture. 0 6335 For reference, this is the Austlii reference. My take on this is, that they would be breaking the law denying access to a homeowner in Victoria, or their agent from having… 1 9070 |