Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 16, 2013 11:32 am Hi, I am about to embark on my second house and land. First time round we went with a builder and signed on the dotted line, only to then read appalling reviews on the internet (productreview seems a good place for building reviews). That impacted big time my levels of concern when any of the issues I had read looked like they might appear on our build and it made for a stressful ride which otherwise might not have happened if I wasnt transfixed with the bad reviews. Just wondered if anyone on here has found a potential home, dealt with a nice sales team only to go away and read reviews and have second thoughts and go elsewhere. This time I am building from overseas so I wont have the level of governance I had last time, which tells me it may be better to go with the builders that have better reviews and of course using a building inspector. So on that note, I guess the question is, do these builders generally have better reviews because they are much better or do they just do a better job of getting people to write good stuff about them.. I mean, for example, if you went to productreview and chose based on reviews, surely Simonds Homes would have gone bankrupt by now and Carlisle would have a queue a mile long to build houses. Is it possible Simonds just have a poor marketing department that dont work on their online presence and Carlisle do, or is it a fair reflection of the differences in the quality of the two builders. Keen to know if anyone has any experience to share Re: Did you do your buy after reading online reviews? 2Sep 16, 2013 11:52 am I'm on my first build so I can't comment from personal experience about other builders, but I talked to a lot of people who used the local builders (there's only three builders who build out our way, and really only two....) and asked them pointy questions... and their experiences corroborated the online reviews so that half decided it for me. We then went to look at some of the actual builds (not display homes) and that really decided it - little things that bug me (like crappy one tile high splashbacks) and aren't 'standard' and other things like mistakes that were fixed badly (you could see things weren't right here and there) was the final deciding factor - and meant we chose to go with our current builder and not the big name in country building in WA who are known for expense, and seem to be short on quality. Re: Did you do your buy after reading online reviews? 3Sep 16, 2013 12:54 pm I think you need to take some reviews with a grain of salt be they good or bad. I use product reviews and forums a lot for any purchase over a few hundred dollars. I tend to rule out posts from people that only have one post and is flattering of the supplier. I also tend to read anything else the poster has reviewed and see if they have any capacity to be balanced. I think some people tend to just complain about any product and somehow just seem to be constant victims. Not trying to unfair here, just saying that I like to get reviews from people who can be aware of their own faults in a decision making process. Lastly and particularly with building there seems to a difference in how things go with your SS or availability of trades in your area etc so a review about a builder doing work 1000ks from you mightn't have the real info you need, be it a good or bad review. http://camdenbuild.blogspot.com.au/ by invite only please pm me Re: Did you do your buy after reading online reviews? 4Sep 16, 2013 1:30 pm Unless you're dealing with a very small builder who has the same person supervising each project and consistently uses the same tradies, then reviews of builders aren't worth a great deal. Firstly, people are more likely to go online and post a negative experience than a positive one. That goes for anything, not just builders. Then you need to consider the expense and level of personal investment in each build and the length of time it takes. Hiccups and dramas will happen in any project, so beware of reviews written before a project is completed because people are bound to vent frustrations that may not reflect on the bigger picture or the end product. Everyone wants their house to be the priority for their builder and want it done quickly and don't want to find mistakes having been made. Seeing mistakes or faults before the house is finished doesn't necessarily mean they wouldn't have been picked up and fixed through the builders normal quality control. Then consider that larger builders have multiple supervisors, office admin staff, and a multitude of tradies. Two different customers can have two very different experiences by virtue of one different supervisor, tradie, office administrator, or sales rep. A large volume of negative reviews may well constitute a worrying trend, however try and balance it out and consider how many happy customers there may be that don't bother telling the world about it. Completed a knock down and rebuild in northern Melbourne. Handover completed 27/09/2013 and now moved in. Re: Did you do your buy after reading online reviews? 5Sep 16, 2013 2:00 pm I have just built with Carlisle and I can tell you they are currently running a promotion to encourage people to put reviews up. I will be doing one shortly, however regardless of the promotion I can tell you we had a great experience with Carlisle and we are very happy with our House. One of the reasons we went with Carlisle were their 'good reviews', but the reviews we got were from builders and people in the industry. We didn't take people's personal reviews into account much at all. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65498 Deposit 17/02/13 Contract 12/04 Slab 17/05 Roof 06/06 Bricks, Lockup and Fixing 04/07 PCI 22/08 Handover 29/08 Moved in 07/09! Re: Did you do your buy after reading online reviews? 6Sep 16, 2013 2:14 pm sherro1 Just wondered if anyone on here has found a potential home, dealt with a nice sales team only to go away and read reviews and have second thoughts and go elsewhere. I mean, for example, if you went to productreview and chose based on reviews, surely Simonds Homes would have gone bankrupt by now and Carlisle would have a queue a mile long to build houses. Is it possible Simonds just have a poor marketing department that dont work on their online presence and Carlisle do, or is it a fair reflection of the differences in the quality of the two builders. Keen to know if anyone has any experience to share It was a factor/guide in our decision of who would be building our house. We had browsed lots of builders at their display homes, had made an appointment with one. Based on the reviews online it wasn't favorable at all, but we still went to see - but had additionally booked to see another builder that we also liked the design of and had favorable reviews. Basically we used it as a guide/heads up on what people had issues with - and asked questions/pushed those areas with the builders to test the weaknesses/problem areas. We also saw how much of the reviews held true for the positive aspects. We liked a design with Henley and proceeded to a sales quote - however the tactics and hidden costs and lack of features could be seen easily. They where not upfront about things, would not clarify inclusions and wanted deposit and finance yesterday. The review site just expedited getting to the bottom of things, in addition to word of mouth. We went to a Carlisle sales consultant and they where open about all processes/costs - an experience that people had reviewed. Their documents stated costs, openly showed plans and extras and were there if we needed them - no hard sales. This is what we had read/heard and were after. Speaking of Simonds, they have their market/tactics for who they get as customers (like any company). Our experience with them personally was: A hard sale, shoved down our threats when we walked in the door, of which the sales guy believed he owned all the land in Victoria - as he was that great. He refused to acknowledge and disrespected my partners existence (due to her being female) and would not allow questions - he told us what 'we wanted and have to have'... We browsed the display home just for the sake of it and the build quality was very poor in our view, and if your display home is poor, good luck with the real product / anecdotal accounts you hear about them. Everyone has their own approach to things and methods. I like to have researched things and if I'm paying big money for something, I want all my questions answered and things in writing. I'm also happy to pay the bit extra for quality and getting things done right the first time. Inclusions and fixed prices once agreed was also sought after. Reviews helped to gauge which company's offered and a guide to the company's attitude. This website is also invaluable for reading threads and people's blogs with their whole process of a build. End result is we are building with Carlisle and the reviews/quality has held true. So yes, we bought after reading a review site, but it was a factor and useful tool, not the decision maker. robbie55 ... Everything he said Carlisle Homes ~ Winslow 33 http://jm-winslow33.blogspot.com.au/ 04/7 - Site cut 22/8 - Base 28/8 - Frame 02/9 - Roof 15/9 Plumbing & Electrical 7/10 - Lockup November - Complete Re: Did you do your buy after reading online reviews? 7Sep 16, 2013 3:40 pm If you are building from overseas I'd make all your selections ahead of time, all your decisions, and get it in the contract. Use a building inspector and have them pop in at some additional points during the build. I'd also find some others who had used the same builder in the same area/suburb as you (most likely to be same team) and ask to actually see their homes and ask them about their experience - display homes are always going to be perfect, high spec (non standard) and have specially designed spaces to sell them - go to a real person's house and ask them face to face questions. Re: Did you do your buy after reading online reviews? 8Sep 16, 2013 4:30 pm Brilliant, thanks for all the really valuable feedback and advice, all makes total sense. Yes, will definitely use an independent inspector and as we have bought a plot that doesnt even title until October 2014. I did that deliberately so I can come back from Singapore and we could spend 4 or 5 days just visiting display homes, getting brochures and taking time thinking about it. Interesting to hear Carlisle have a promotion to push positive reviews, that makes total business sense, I actually spoke to the GM of Sales for Simonds (who I sort of know) and told her she really needs to get her house in order with regards to the online reviews because its the ones that are walking away and not bothering to consider them that are really hurting.... So use it as a guide, probably dont base your decision solely on it, but maybe raise some of the points as a concern and see what the kind of response you get back is. 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