Building a home

[monty1104]

Hi all.

Hoping the collective wisdom of bigfooty can give me some advice here. I'm looking at building a home this year sometime. Can someone give me some advice on how to pick a builder? Living in Mildura there are precious few display homes so using them as a guide is pretty much out. So far I've been looking mostly at floor plans and using them as a guide as to which builders to have a chat with. That has narrowed it down to 3 builders.

Have I gone about this the right way so far? What should be my next step?

 

[revival_mode]

first off, id ask around people you know who have built or if you know any builders or anything like that, they should be able to give you some good advice re which companies are easy to deal with and reasonably priced.

floor plans are a good start, most builders have a range of plans very similar to each other. start by having an idea of what layout style and house size you want then you can go and get a basic quote from a couple of them.
note that the quotes will be for the absolute bare basics, so absolutely budget for higher than the quote as mostly everything you can think of will cost more money.

i'd now go and get quotes from the 3 you have narrowed it down to, find out from them about any extras you want included, alterations, building timeframes, etc

from then on whichever builder you pick will help guide you through the process


sorry if that was pretty basic, i built about a year and a half ago if you have any specific questions

 

[FreoGirl]

We have built three houses now, but in Western Australia.

Our first house was a small first home buyers home, but we used someone we felt had a good reputation. That was about 20 years ago, and they are still around (Dale Alcock) They were a little bit more expensive than others, but they had a bit more flexibility (we wanted our house to have a federation look with a different floor plan). They also allowed us to source our own tiles etc from whoever we wanted. A lot of builder will lock you in.

The second house was way more upmarket. We picked a smaller building company that allowed us to be more 'hands on'. We loved the result and found them hard to fault.

A few years later we wanted to move to a different area, but wanted to stick with a similar style home. We used the same builders again. Loved how they worked closely with us and how flexible they were - we felt like we were almost owner/building. They could do this because you were pretty much dealing directly with the owners of the company (Manor Homes).

Have a look at as many display homes as you can. See what kind of 'extras' come in the deal. These could include skirting boards, window sills, different quality in roof materials, fixtures and fittings. Ask to look at houses they are currently working on and perhaps take a friend with you who knows a bit about building - that way you can see the quality in the homes they are building for others and not just the display home.

 

[monty1104]

Thanks for the advice

The one builder I have met with has given me a booklet of all the inclusions in their price. I was quite surprised with their list tbh. Things like 3 coats of paint, air con (choice of reverse cycle or evap cooling/gas heating combo), video intercom system are all included. They also seem pretty good with changing designs and finishes. Essentially for things like floor coverings, carpet and tiles are included. I mentioned I was looking at laminate and they basically said that since they source their stuff from one supplier, just head down there and enquire. If the laminate is cheaper than carpet/tiles, they refund the difference. If laminate is more costly, I pay the difference. It seems like I basically have a budget and I can do what I want. If I go over the budget, I pay the difference. Same deal with fittings and fixtures. Also the same with the alfresco area. I said I wanted decking instead of the concrete slab. They said they'd deduct the cost of the concrete they aren't pouring and take that into account when charging for the decking.

Not sure if all builders are like this, but these guys seems really easy to deal with and are more than willing to make changes.

 

[FreoGirl]

When we first built a lot of these things were not included, but later builders started adding other "extras" (carpet etc). You still pay for them in the end, but they are woven in to the housing loan. You have to decide if you want to be paying interest on some of these items in 20 years time.

 

[Norwegian Blue]

When we were renovating (not quite a full knock-down-rebuild) a few years ago we drove around and looked at other homes the builders had done. We approached the owners and got their experience with the builders. You can't beat first hand experience.

 

[Scotland]

I get my building advice from someone who has worked with/for various builders.

If you know a carpenter, brickie etc. who has worked for a number of builders then pick their brain. Gives you an insight into how jobs were managed, what the quality control was like, whether the subcontractors were looked after (which influences how much they care about their work) etc.

 

[quickstraw]

Have I gone about this the right way so far? What should be my next step?

1. Ask each builder to provide addresses of places they have built

- Go visit the houses and knock on the door and ask the people who live there questions:
- How was the build? Any problems? Any leaky bathrooms, bodgy work etc?
- Did the builder finish within a reasonable time?
- how far over budget was he?
- Was he honest? Did he provide good advice?
- If something needed to be fixed after the build (under warranty) was he easy to contact and did he come and fix it?
- Would you build with him again


2. get quotes and try and compare apples to apples. This is still hard because they usually structure their quotes differently. I'd go fixed price over cost plus. Just make sure the builer explains what the prices are for (he may attribute $20k for floors. If you want floor boards rather than carpet ask him if $20k will cover it. Then also work out how much it costs by getting a price on raw timber, then a price to lay it, and a price to polich it etc

3. If you use a display home company make sure they explain all site costs etc because these aren't often quoted in the price. Also go to your local council and ask what fees you're up for.

4. If you use a private builder you need an architect or draftsman. Draftsmen are cheaper and generally have a better understanding of what builders can actually build. Architects may have better use of space but typically won't take into account the cost to get a builder to build it that way. Make sure this person is local to your council. Outsiders seem to get a raw deal.

5. Problems will occur during the build. Work with builder to solve problems rather than demand he no make any mistakes. Compromises have to be made.

6. If you have a lawn, get reticulation. You don't want to be dicking around watering your lawn every summer.

 

[Aussie Assault]

Fork out the money during the build and pay an independent building inspector to go over the different stages of the build. We're going thru the process of building now and get one done at lockup stage (including frame) and handover stage. $440 each down geelong way which is stuff all in the scheme of things.

Home One forums is an absolute treasure trove of ideas and information when it comes to all this info. Highly recommend getting lost in their threads taking it all in. Helped us immensely leading up to building.

 

[Dee Snider]

We have built two homes now and spent roughly $100k on extras over and above the standard cost of the home both times. You may not spend that much but do be prepared the standard inclusions and the displayed inclusions are very different no matter which builder you chose.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[monty1104]

We have built two homes now and spent roughly $100k on extras over and above the standard cost of the home both times. You may not spend that much but do be prepared the standard inclusions and the displayed inclusions are very different no matter which builder you chose.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

100k on extras!?!? What kind of things were they? Were they "necessary extras", or more like upgrades from the standard inclusions?

 

[Pykie]

Thanks for the advice

The one builder I have met with has given me a booklet of all the inclusions in their price. I was quite surprised with their list tbh. Things like 3 coats of paint, air con (choice of reverse cycle or evap cooling/gas heating combo), video intercom system are all included. They also seem pretty good with changing designs and finishes. Essentially for things like floor coverings, carpet and tiles are included. I mentioned I was looking at laminate and they basically said that since they source their stuff from one supplier, just head down there and enquire. If the laminate is cheaper than carpet/tiles, they refund the difference. If laminate is more costly, I pay the difference. It seems like I basically have a budget and I can do what I want. If I go over the budget, I pay the difference. Same deal with fittings and fixtures. Also the same with the alfresco area. I said I wanted decking instead of the concrete slab. They said they'd deduct the cost of the concrete they aren't pouring and take that into account when charging for the decking.

Not sure if all builders are like this, but these guys seems really easy to deal with and are more than willing to make changes.

It's because they are required by law to deduct it from the contract price, it's not just them being nice.

What you are referring too is provisional sum (PS) vs prime cost (pc) items. Have a read about it on the HIA or Master Builders website to give yourself an idea what you should and shouldn't be looking out for when signing a contract.

Some builders purposely under quote to beat competitors, with these quotes being particularly vague, they then make most of their profit off of variations.

Personal preference, I wouldn't go with a volume builder, because I like to build things that are unique, and aren't churned out by the 10,000's. They have had quantity surveyors go top to tail over these plans and they trim them back to the absolute bare minimum in quality and standard of what they have to put in.

What size house are you looking at building, what style etc? I have designed and built the full spectrum, I mainly deal in the absolute top end though, I hold a DBU and CBU in 3 different states. PM me if you like.

 

[Pykie]

100k on extras!?!? What kind of things were they? Were they "necessary extras", or more like upgrades from the standard inclusions?

100k in variations is nothing, I finished a job 6 months ago that had near on $600,000.....

 

[monty1104]

100k in variations is nothing, I finished a job 6 months ago that had near on $600,000.....

100k is a lot for me when I'm looking at a budget of 250k.

 

[revival_mode]

100k is a lot for me when I'm looking at a budget of 250k.

i think my variations were like 15k to 20k. you can absolutely still build a decent place on a budget. im only 23 and the build started when i was 21.

im just trying to say dont get freaked out by those figures in the above posts because you can definitely build a nice house at an affordable price

 

[monty1104]

i think my variations were like 15k to 20k. you can absolutely still build a decent place on a budget. im only 23 and the build started when i was 21.

im just trying to say dont get freaked out by those figures in the above posts because you can definitely build a nice house at an affordable price

Yeah thanks. I'm lucky land is so cheap here. Spoke to another builder and they basically said once the contract is signed, there would be no extra cost from their end. The only extra cost will come if I want something different.

 

[Pykie]

i think my variations were like 15k to 20k. you can absolutely still build a decent place on a budget. im only 23 and the build started when i was 21.

im just trying to say dont get freaked out by those figures in the above posts because you can definitely build a nice house at an affordable price

Absolutely you can.

The figures im talking about are for multiple development sites in the top end of Melbourne.