Brisbane Builders...are they ok?

[craig73]

If people stop to have a look, the bathroom and kitchen in comfort is actually nicer than the next level up.

The only thing I ever upgrade internally is the doors. Stamford doors looks much better than flush.

It's actually what you do extra to the house once it's finished that adds value. Nice tiles, nice lighting, 3 in 1 bathroom light and exhaust, feature walls, chrome fans, air conditioning, crimsafe security, wooden blinds, nice garden area etc

We are thinking of doing our first spec home through Tamawood. Being new to this, I assumed we would have to get the "Habitat" spec in order to sell it as 'turn key'.

Your advice is excellent - especially since we are building in an estate with spec homes done by other builders.

I am just wondering - when you go for the "Comfort" spec. do you then get the nicer tiles, lights, gardens etc done by several other (independent) tradesmen that you organise yourself?

 

[redsquash]

Just bumping this thread along as I am still looking for a builder to construct a 2 storey house at warner Lakes.
Several builders mentioned in this thread have no interest in doing business without face to face contact

 

[touchstone]

Has anyone ever had a home built by Sun Dream Homes who are in the Scarborough/Redcliffe area?

 

[Nousha]

Has anyone used Mancorp? What do you think of them?

 

[Sailesh Channan]

Generally speaking there should not be a lot of difference between one builder to the next as we all tap into the same pool of suppliers and contractors.

However the differences lie in the management and company culture. The majority of big builders rely on constant marketing to find new clients, this is in the form of media and display homes. This can lead some companies to ignore customer concerns as they are more focused on getting new customers.

As mentioned before the company culture also has a lot to do with the quality of your home. I hear a lot of reports from various subcontractors on how they are treated by some of the larger companies. A lot of subcontractors feel trapped as they are owed large sums of money or they are not confident of breaking ties with some of the larger companies due to the promise of volume. I have heard of concretors not getting paid until the property has been handed over. Some of the more ruthless companies will pay peanuts therefore, the contractor has to finish the job within a certain period to make a profit. If mistakes are made then delays occur as these contractors are not too keen to come back as they will be loosing money on the job.

A lot of companies will overload supervisors with work which means the job is poorly supervised, this can lead to mistakes going unnoticed.

Some large companies have got all the ingredients right while others rely totally on supervisors to get things right.

Most customers will have no idea of what goes on behind the well kept facade of the display homes.

However, now is a good time to build as most builders are keen to do the right thing and will cut prices to stay in business. This practice can also work against the builder as it can lead to losses for the builder if the market does not pick up.

Good luck with choosing who to use.

 

[willair]

Maybe it's just a sign of the market that is out there,and the margins in development depending on if it is a mortgage starved invironment then
they may be very low,but i know from talking to various Plumbers who still employ above ten people that their business has fallen back 30%
and they are staying away from Builders 90 day payment are not the way to run a Business,..

 

[redsquash]

Having gone with a small builder I received poor unprofessional service.
I
Would a large building company be more organised and more professional with more overheads? I dont know but definetly more expensive.
The person supervising the build needs to be on the ball so I would next time find ouit how long has the supervisor been with the company.

 

[Judyand Carl]

CIVIC STEEL HOMES

thought it might be nice to put up a good story rather than some of the bad ones.
we are like a lot of people I think in that we thought we had only 2 choices with building.
1/ you pick a plan from a project builder from a display village
2/ get a plan done by an architect.

I spent weeks and week dragging my kids around to displays and was very disappointed on my options. There were some that looked ok (Metricon present well) , but was nothing like the prices they represented when pushed to give prices "as displayed". half the time they didnt even know...(or wouldnt tell me)

When i thought about getting a plan drawn I was quickly told not to do this by a friend that lost a lot of money because they didnt know what the house price was until they had spent over $30k with an architect firm.They ended up so far out of budget they couldnt build it.

Thats when i was reccomended Civic steel homes by someone else that had built with them.
We had a challenging site but civic have a very cool process. They meet on site and from all the other designs they have done they can normally find something to show. They designed something for us with their inhouse architect that we are very happy with. What i liked the best was as I added things (as us girls tend to do!) they were able to give me pricing on the items as we went. That way I always knew where we were within our budget.
Shane , who was the guy looking after us (think he was the project manager) would continually find other options for us when something was going to blow the budget.
It only cost us $4900 to get all the design work done and that still came off the contract price. (others quoted me over $20k for t he same thing , but couldnt guarantee the final price)

we have built an inner city architectural home that is one off and something we are very proud of. (and while more in cost than a boring project home, not nearly as expensive as some so-called "arcitectural" builders)

Civic Steel homes were genuinely unique in their "design and build" approach .
I cant reccommend them highly enough

 

[chindonly]

Anybody have experience with Mancorp??

Looking at them now for an NRAS property....

 

[lura]

Brisbane Builders - more info

Hi all, it's great redsquash' thread is still running. Many investors in here will provide you with their experiences.

I will convey to you my professional position as a property manager. I also provide a service to all my clients to monitor their investments during construction and definitely some builders are better than others at complying. Again, this comes down to the knowledge of the building/construction supervisors.

I have been specialising in this field of property management for a long time and so have experienced most builders - some good some bad.

Whoever you choose to build your next investment property - make sure you get the appropriate information about what you can expect.

Mancorp - I have heard of them but not interacted with them so I cannot advise.

I will keep my thoughts in NRAS to myself as I do have a very strong opinion

Keep an eye on the construction if you can. If there are any concerns - do raise them. Keep a photo log - handy down the track. For example, there was a constant leak after construction and this was from the adjoining property on the high side, our builders advised it wasn't at fault - and this was confirmed to be the responsibility of the builders on the other property because my hundreds of photos around construction showed constant moisture. Funny, something you don't think about at the time but it was handy in hindsight...issue resolved.

Practical Completion Inspections - make sure you get a professional to do this. Someone I have used over and over again and I get all my clients to use is Geoff Schmidt from A1 Building Services - he is great and will make sure the builder complies with everything they need to.

I wish he did the inspection on the most recent townhouse that was completed.
The full list not completed and this builder wants to wait until the 6 month maintenance period. Which is stupid for items like paint and plaster work.

I had a very long debate with this builder and he became very frustrated with me - but I guarantee that everything I asked for will be done and completed. not the same for the other owners that I don't look after....For example, builder wanted to do repaint of defective areas in 6 months time...no you won't, you'll do it before our tenants move in...what is the point of coming in when tenants have all their possessions about and what's to say you would contest if the defects were tenant caused, not only that, if you were to touch up these areas around high traffic...not only will you not able able to colour match, the walls will be used and will need to be cleaned prior to painting and when painted, if the walls are even marginally smudged...it will stand out even more!!! Stupid idea - paint it now.

Linen shelves that still had gaps...that is as good as it gets...me: no it's not, you will get your guy to come back and fill in the gaps, paint the areas that are not painted. Builder: people will put their linen in and you would never see it...I don't care, stuff can get caught in there causing more mess for our team to deal with at vacates ... you will fix it.

spots on carpet - not dirt...our cleaners have been through - I said - hey, if you want to replace the carpet in 6 months time, I'll let you! If you want to get a carpet cleaner in 6 months time, I'll let you also but you will be cleaning the tenants wear and tear as well...

You get the drift...this went on for about 2 1/2 hours yesterday...I'm like a dog on a bone.

 

[critterjg]

Specific advice?

Hi I am currently looking to build in Brisbane and would love some first hand advice on the companies we have narrowed it down to. Currently we are looking at:

- PJ Burns
- BMW
- House and Land Design/Adenbrook
- Alliance
- PlanBuild
- Hotondo

We are looking to build in the $300K-$350K price range and will be building from interstate so reliability is fairly important for us. Any thoughts?

 

[annac]

am looking for a builder in the Blackwater area in QLD

Hi, thanks so much for this thread, very useful information here

am looking for a builder around the Blackwater QLD area, any suggestions on a good, reputable and affordable one?

please contact me urgently..

Thank you!!
regards
AnnaC