Fuzzy Duck

We have several appointments with house builders over the coming Weekend and have a few questions to ask and things we want to sort out but we know there must be more to building a house than just the basic questions we have.

All you that have gone before us can help, what would you of asked or done in a different way? Would you of managed the build yourself or gone with an established firm?

We have already bought a block of land and are happy with the location so that is squared away.

Over to you guy's.

jad n rich

I know what my builder would say, dont believe one word of the price until your engineering (soil tests) comes back, fully costed on your land, can add tens of thousands. Oh and check the builders record with the relevant licencing body.

And you get exactly what you pay for, building costs now are very high, cheap quotes will come back to haunt you.

Fuzzy Duck

This is basically what we thought and good advice.

We we're just wondering if anyone had any thing to offer that we might of overlooked?

pompeywill

Quite right:
The price you decide on when you pay the deposit is not necessarily the actual price you end up paying. In fact the quotation is worthless (as we found).
The final price is decided when you sign the buildings contract which is just before they start to build (in some cases a year later). Even then there are clauses in which they can increase the price.

On the positive side the land values will have increased which in some way off sets the price increase on the house build.

markeh

Hiya pompeywill,

I'm a little bit worried by your avatar.

Is that what building a house makes you feel like

Bye
Mark

surfdude

All of the above is relevant. Our main concern was not to talk to as many builders - they just try to beat each other in a silly price war, the figure of which never appears on the contract !

Remember who ever you pay to do your soil test will effectively be taking you down their contract road. When the soil tests are back and the real 'build costs' are revealed, the soil test (here in Qld) is only applicable to the builder who ordered it. If you decided to go to another builder at that stage - you will have to pay again for thier soil test. When we bought our land a respected soil testing company quoted M class soil - the builder we have chosen insisted for them to build they would (once retested) only class as H soil, which funnily enough costs more to build on !

Most license builders offer the standard 7 year structural guarantee, we have specifically paid more to go with a builder (very large) who offers 25 year structrual guarantee (hence H class soil !). The reasons for this choice are two fold, we noticed here in Qld that once you come to sell your property, the name of the builder can decrease or dramatically increase your asking price, the same obvioulsy goes for the length of the guarantee. We noticed many people selling their homes after about 5 years (so they could say some guarantee was left to run)and building a new property. It is very rare to find a house for sale which has been built by our building company.

Good luck.

Ceri

"lock up stage" - Ask them if they will allow you in at lock up stage - own key.
you'll want to keep an eye on their work, many builders don't allow this, but some do. I'd recommend you go with a builder that allows you this.
That way you'll spot any faults before they they can cover anything up, which you would be none the wiser about these probs if they get covered up , that is until years down the track.

Believe me I had them ripping down internal walls and starting again when I was building, to name but one There was one in the laundry room where I spotted a leaking connection , they had put the wall over it the next day lol - not on your nelly. Down it came. I would have been none the wiser about many of the faults ( until years later) they were trying to cover up if I had not been allowed in with my own key during "lock up" stage

cheers