Building a new house

[Panda]

Hi all,
Any pointers on getting a house built. This is the first time that I have ever done this and was wondering if anyone might have some advice or things to look out for.

I have already had a talk to the town planner and I understand what the pocesses is. I went and spoke to a guy at a Cavalier display home and he is assisting me with some plans and providing a quote. If the numbers work, and they look ok at this stage I will build a small 3 bedroom house on the block for rental purposes. The block is flat and poses no special building problems as far as I can see.

Any input would be appreciated.


Cheers,
Panda

 

[beech]

Hi Panda

My tip would be that every time you think of something in particular that you would like to add to your property or delete i suppose,have a list handy and write it down.

Because come contract time things you have spoken about adding/deleting to the sales agent or the building job coordinator in the office will be missed or forgotten about.

Once contracts are signed it might be not possible to change no matter how small a change you think it may be.

Unless you have a good building supervisor who allows the change.

Good luck

 

[TerryG]

Hi Panda, am currently doing a knock-down rebuild on a dead flat block. In hindsight I would get an independent engineer's assesment done before signing any contracts. We have just added >20K to our costs because the soil is too soft for standard slab construction and requires sub-slab pierwork = $$. This is a standard inner-city block in a well-established area - sometimes you just can't tell ...
Cheers, Terry

 

[pjb89]

Hiya

We have built a number of houses over the years and (touch wood) have never had any problems with any of the builders tasked with the building works. However, I would recommend that you take cognizance of the fact that nowadays a lot of the builders are building to "price" and not necessarily the "finished product". By this I mean little things that you might not initially consider are even missing, like TV antenae, clothes line, etc etc. I personally believe that the main drivers for this tye of pricing is that the cost of building materials and trademen have increased, plus buyers generally get interested in the price first and this is what they (the builders) use to draw you in, then when they have you in front of them, they will try to stitch you up on the base specification so that if you want a pantry (because it is not shown in the drawing)...oh that will be another $500....and the freizes in the kitchen, laundry and bathroom...oh that should be another $X and so on. I'm not suggesting that all builders are bodgy - far from it, I am only suggesting that if this is your first building experience, you should definitely consider having someone (a friend) with the experience or a third party review the specification and PC amounts etc. Another one to be a little careful of are the PC items for tiling, kitchen, carpets etc as these can also sometimes be on the low side requiring you to dip into your pocket even further.

As you are proposing to rent the property out it should be pretty straight forward - but just make sure that depending on exactly what you want at the end (fully complete including curtains, security screen, extra phone/internet points & double power points,dishwasher tap and point, gardens, fencing, driveways etc, or just a finished house where you can add all of the external features plus some internal ones also at your leisure) that you don't unecessarily add things along the way as this will add up VERY quickly.

OK that's my rant....

Pedro

 

[Panda]

Thanks all very good points. How many quotes do others get? Im not sure if I should go hunting hard for a bargain or go with a larger franchise type building group. I was tending towards the larger franchise types as its a systematised process.

Can you get bargains when building a house. Does low price = bad work.

 

[lizzie]

i agree with pedro that, if not careful, you can be always dipping in the pocket. we are currently building an ip and the basic quote is for a very basic fitout, ie, one bayonet light fitting per room (including a large lounge), standard carpet, verticals etc. we have choosen to upgrade most of the fittings - multiple dowlights, self-organised carpet, upgraded blinds, alarm system etc - mainly because we are going to sell once finished and are aiming for a higher end of the market.

the basic quote also didn't include things like insulation, clothesline, driveway or any landscaping work ... but as we compared apples to apples the one we chose still turned out to be the best deal and we have factored all these additional costs into our budget. the spec home builder should be able to give you a comprehensive list of what is included and quote on all the upgrades before contracts are signed - but you'll probably have to do your own homework for yard items.

i do know a spec home builder in the hunter valley who does all the landscaping stuff as well, but they only build single story and i'm after double so haven't approached them - although i hear they are pretty good.

lizzie
all comments are my opinion only

 

[beech]

Hi again,

i would go with the larger builder because they can build cheaper.

Also what i would also do identify other houses being built in the area and ask of their experience with that particular builder.
Because if the building supervisor is ordinary for that area so will his tradesman and so will the house.

A good supervisor wont tolerate poor work.