Centurion

Ok we've been looking around at houses on Bayside Brisbane to the point if I here the term "this has bay views" (if you stand on the houses roof with a telescope and xray vision) again i will have to hurt the real estate agent. Anyway - point is we cant find anything we really like. Some nice properties about but frankly just not doing it for us so to speak.

So - building. We've found some land in an established area with a 20m frontage and 750msq. Easy connections to drainage and houses left and right to it so should not be a problem anywhere.

Well now the crunch point - I know the process of buying the land (14 day offer - settlement terms etc). Beyond that I'm a bit clueless and will probably end up getting a building company to do it from display spec adjusted to what we want. Alternatively find a decent architect and see where we end up, but rather not have to find trades myself and let the whole thing project managed by a company with a decent inclusions list.

Anyone offer some real sage advice on building or top tips please. Frankly I'm kinda excited and completely scared at the same time. But since we're going to be in it a while its going to be worth it, especially with the location we have in mind.

Ta in advance!

Daren

sunshinesarah

Hi Daren
We have just built up on Sunshine Coast and now plan to sell and do it all over again so it can't have been that bad! We chose to use a 'Project Builder' called Coral Homes - pretty big in QLD. We chose a project builder as they have many house plans to choose from, they can draw your house up on your block of land (no charge for this). They fix site costs and basically, they are good value.

As we were new to the country we wanted to use a large, established buidler, even if it meant the build would take a bit longer. We were worried about being fleeced or a building company going under (hear that's quite common).

Have no experience using an architect but supposed it would be good if block is not flat, or you are quite detailed about what house you want and the design of it.

Coral were very good and the finish is excellent compare to UK new homes I reckon. You can make changes with Coral to the house designs to make it a bit different or add your own touch. We added a couple of rooms, moved walls and things like that from the standard plan. If you add things, it costs, but moving things is just as 'repositioning' and general cost nothing or very little.

Do your research. it's worth going to a few display villages which are normally located on new developments. There you have many builders with display homes on show and you can walk through. An 'architect' designed home is considered far posher but you will pay more. Project builders often only build on flat blocks.

Good luck and let me know if you have any other q's
Sunshine Sarah

JaneandJim

Hi Daren,

You need to have lots of patience and be prepared to wait a while. It took us 14 months from buying the land to moving in to our new house.

Make sure you get a fixed price contract. Material costs went up 30% in between us signing our contract and the build starting.

When you build with a project builder, you get just the house. You have to do all the landscaping yourself, including driveway etc. We now have a beautiful house surrounded by dirt!

Like you, we couldn't find anything we liked within our budget, but of course, we went way over budget (30%) so be prepared for this.

Good luck,
Jane

Centurion

Stunning advice. Was scared that we may be taking the wrong approach by going to an established builder and taking a design we loved and mucking around with it just a little to make it perfect. Sounds as though you did exactly the same thing.

Definately doing it now since its the difference between us having a home we can live in and one we'll be very happy living in

Thank you - karma to you!

Daren

sunshinesarah

Another piece of advice - keep the tradies in beer and they'll do anything for you. we realised that the carpenter and painter for our house were the 2 most important people. Keep in with them. Although our build went pretty well overall, our site manager was crap but we found we didn't really need him and just dealt directly with the tradies.

Also, during the build, visit EVERY DAY.

Sarah

Centurion

In a nice rental at the moment so no real rush and in a good location so we have time. We are allowing a year for the project so that kinda fits in with your experience. We're allowing for a landscaping budget as well but certainly sage advice about the fixed contract - that I shall do! Thanks! Anymore advice gratefully received!

Wol

Very good advice!

We built in the US on very much the same basis as one does in Oz, about 8 years ago.

At the time we had a condo only a 5 minute cycle ride away from the site; Mrs Rog would go round every evening after the men had left and fill a clipboard with the things that were going wrong. She would sit down and fax the project manager that night; he would get in first thing and find a yard of fax paper waiting! In fact he was grateful: nothing is worse for the manager than all the little things building up over a month or two because the buyer isn't around, and then a thermonuclear bust-up occurring!

Buzzy--Bee

Can someone explain what the difference is between a project builder and one of the builders where you buy one of their homes off plan eg Porter Davis?

Thanks

marco121068

We are having a house built for us by a developer / building company. We've slightly modified the internal layout and are adding an extra room. Only additional cost really are the materials + a bit for labour ($1500) so not a huge amount.

Nothing has happened yet as we're still in the UK and we need to select roof tiles/bricks/tiles etc before the build starts. Just a small matter of selling a house here first.

Don't forget if you want those swish downlighters all over the place like they have in the show homes you'll have to pay extra for them. Oh, and air con / heating will be extra and it's probably worth upgrading the insulation they put in as from what I've seen most of them only include the very bare minimum as standard.

One of the show homes we saw but was way out of our budget had an ensuite double spa bath. The ensuite was the same size as our main bedroom in the UK. :scared:

lesleys

Visit display homes and always ask what 'this' house cost with all its extras - it'll be a lot more than their list price. Ask what they include as 'standard inclusions'. They vary enormously. Do go in all the display homes even if they look unappealing from outside - you get surprises and ideas (sometimes what not to have). Steel frames are not necessarily more expensive.

Also visit the Building Design Centre in Brisbane (Southbank and free).

Lesley

mand8002

There are lots of display homes at Thornlands.

cybie

Whats the average price of building a home and does it include services i.e. drainage etc.

Unycorne

haha it was thornlands that gave us the ideas to build - got so bored of looking at other peoples homes we went and had a look at a couple of the show homes, started to talk to people and it all went spiralling from there.

jonjon

Sorry if this seems like a bit of a daft question but is it cost effective to buy the land and build your own house on it.

Is it possible you could give me an idea of the cost of land in a nice area like bay side per SQ Meter and the cost of building say a 4 bed home in comparison to the UK prices

Many thanks

Regards

Jon

eintracht

Try this for land for sale, there are many other real estate websites in Australia advertising land.


http://www.realestateview.com.au/buy.html