Tag: Choosing a Builder

Show House Sales Tricks

The thing you need to remember when visiting a display house is it is not a real home, it’s more like a television set with tens of thousands of dollars of upgrades.

The builders want to show off their houses in the best light so you can’t blame them . . . but don’t forget you are buying your home.

Here are some of the tricks that big builders can use to make the house feel more desirable:

    • Internal doors removed to make it easier to walk around.
    • As much open plan as possible, but remember this won’t work as well when using it has a home. . . For example if someone wants peace and quiet while someone else wants to watch TV.
    • Higher than normal ceiling height.
    • Lots of mirrors and glass furniture.
    • Less furniture, for example just a bed and a bedside table in a bedroom.
    • If there are a couple of different sizes of the same model – the show house will be the bigger size.
    • Build on a larger than normal block to make it seem that there is more space around the house. . . or build two or more show houses with no fences between the houses.
    • Large windows to make the house seem light and airy. Remember the builder is happy to pay for higher heating and cooling bills for a year or so, if they get sales.
    • The minimum number of power sockets, remember the home entertainment units don’t have to work and nobody has to cook in the kitchen.

Some smaller builders may not even furnish the show house, which can make the rooms seem much bigger than they really are.

These are some of the things that you could see that won’t be in the standard package:

    • High quality kitchen and bathroom fittings.
    • Gas log fires
    • Expensive light fittings.
    • High quality tiles.
    • Landscaped gardens
    • High quality paving.
    • Water features
    • Fences.
    • Decks.

Other subtle tricks I have seen to make a show house more home like are are:

    • Coffee or baking smells to give a subtle message.
    • A few tins in the larder and cups in the cupboard but nowhere near how much you might need if you lived there.
    • A few clothes hung up in the Walk In Robe.
    • Toys in bedrooms.
    • A lace nightie laid across the bed in the master bedroom to make it more like a home.
    • One builder in the UK even paid someone to live in the house at the weekends, and show people round “our home”.

What things have you seen in show houses?

For similar posts see Starting Off

 

Big or Small Builder

At the end of the day what everybody wants is a quality house built at the right price.

So does the size of the builder matter?

Here is my experiences:

Small Builder

We had our first Australian house built by a small builder and we were very satisfied with the result.

One of the reasons for choosing the small builder was that we had just moved to a small country town.

We felt that the well established local builder we chose must be building to a good standard otherwise he wouldn’t be getting work.

Also in a small town it was reasonably easy to find people who could give you an independent view about the quality to expect.

As the nearest large builders base was in a town an hours drive from where we were planning to build we were concerned that travel costs would increase the overall costs.

Further advantages of the local builder were he was happy to build the house to our design, and that he promised, and delivered on the promise, to complete the house in five months.

In spite of me being about the most “hands on” clients that he had ever had we became long time friends with builder. A good result all round.

Large Builder

Our last house was built in Werribee, by one of Ausralias largest builders Metricon.

For this Melbourne Suburb we felt that it would be hard to get reliable references for a small builder.

We decided that a large builder would do a good job as they would be keen to maintain a good reputation.

Having had a look at a number of show houses we felt that one of Metricon’s standard designs was fairly close to what we wanted.

They  were also prepared to amend their design to meet the majority of our requirements.

For this house we were sure that travel costs weren’t an issue with several houses being built be this builder on the same estate.

One disadvantage with dealing with a larger builder is the whole process become more bureaucratic and it took a lot longer than five months to complete the house.

Overall we were happy with the house.

 

What made you choose a particular builder?

 

For similar posts see Starting Off

 

Understanding Builders

“The Builder is ripping me off!” and ‘The Builder is overcharging for upgrades!” are two comments I hear regularly. Some of these cries may be justified, but a lot are because the customer doesn’t understand the Builder.

Why A Builder Is The Same As Other Businesses

Profit

The aim of all businesses is to make a profit so don’t expect a builder to be any different. Its not that easy to achieve and if you follow the press you will see plenty of builders don’t, and go bust.

It is in your interest that the builder makes a profit. If the builder goes bust while building your house its likely to cost lots of money and cause major delays in completing your new house.

Marketing

Builders want to get customers in and then up-sell them. They do this by providing a keen initial price for a standard house. Once you have signed you find there are extra costs for: site works, nicer bricks, different roof tiles, trendy bathroom fittings, swish kitchens, etc,etc.

Of course the builders profit margins are higher on these extras. This is the builders cream. Make  sure you understand as much of the costs as possible before you sign.

For much more information on choosing upgrades from the standard see my  Selection Guide 

Outsourcing

You hear a lot about big business outsourcing and builders are no different

The majority of new house builders outsource most of their work to sub-contractors. This may be to either smaller specialist suppliers or individual tradies.  In some cases the sub-contractor may buy the materials then contract the actual work to a labour only subcontractor.

Why a Builder is Different to  Other Businesses

Extended Delivery

Nearly everything you buy is made when you buy it. If it’s a car, or electrical goods. and you know its been built in a factory under tight quality control measures. You know no matter how hard you bargain it won’t affect the quality of the item you buy.

But it can take a year or more to build your new house.  During that time the builder will make many decisions on who is employed during the build and what quality is expected.  If you bargained the price down heavily do you think the builder is going to pick the better tradies or the cheapest?

Unique Product

No house is the same. Even for the same house design all the following can affect the build:

  • The topography (shape of thesite)
  • The type of soil
  • The weather during the build
  • The individual fitments selected

All this means that there is a lot of risk  about the final cost of the build. To cover this risk the builder will want to ensure there is enough profit to cover any unforeseen circumstances, or have an out that allows extra costs to be charged to the home owner.

 

Have you had problems understanding your builder?

 

 

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