all that is extra, unless it is not included in the display spec plan (which is mostly not).

floor tiling, electrical (extra stuff), landscaping, painting etc etc extra (unless not included as part of contract).

Thanks...have you been looking at the display homes in ellenbrook?

whats some good builders to look into? i have had a chat with one of the reps from Dale alcock they seem to be quite good.

Whats a decent price to pay for a quality built home offcourse it depends on what you want from the home but just an average cost thats not pricey and is some what quality.

__________________
[ESTEYE]

What ever you do don't go with the above builder. Have only heard problems and have dealt with them before.

My opinion is no matter what builder you use there will be problems and they all will stuff up at some point of time. Its more about how they will fix it. Impressions are a good reliable builder as is Metro Style. both are good 1st/2nd home builders.

Its hard dude, At the end of the day problems can be had with any builder as its the trades that fuck shit up generally. But then its how professional the building Company fix's, and deals with the problem.

I wouldnt stress to much man generally when somebody complains you hear about it thats what the internet is for. But there would have been 1000's of people who didnt complain either. I built with In-vouge great builder I didnt have any problems with there service and quality at all. How ever ask somebody else they could say otherwise.

at the end of the day just dont go with any reallly reallly cheap spec homes. and you should be sweet.

Most important thing is to visit the site every couple days and monitor everything they do. and have an idea of what should be happening as you can see if its right.

visit the display home and then visit your site again. I did find couple things that weren't right but they fixed them right away as soon as i called up.


and yes metro styles are great they are actually a offshoot from in-vogue they do the single story stuff. where in-vogue just does 2 story.

Pretty much all project builders will let you only nominate one trade that you can get done, however finishing trades like tilers, carpet layers and painters etc are exempt, you can get those things done yourself. As far as the Kitchen and bathroom go you'd be hard pressed to find a builder that'll let you get these done yourself cause they're real money makers for them. Only alternative is to find a smaller non project builder however from my experience it'll end up costing just as much if not more once all your plans are drawn up and the estimation done. Project builders have homes predesigned so you save on that factor. I think best value for money currently would be through Celebration homes. Their houses are big they use quality materials and the designs are nice.

haha nice

Builders are like automotive workshops, everyone has a story to tell. I know gino who owns Content Living is a pedantic man. Tode, the market is in your favour, book as many meetings as you can, chat with as many as you can as it'll provide insight into the process and help you make up your mind and your 'gut feeling'.

__________________
www.racewars.com.au

A few things to look out for:

1) If you are not overly experienced at the building industry take one of your relo's down there on a weekend and make a list of stuff that is wrong as you want / need changed. Something that looks perfectly acceptable to you might not be structually safe etc and someone in the building industry will pick it up in a second.

2) Slip your site supervisor $1000 cash when he gets allocated to your job. They usually have about 30 houses to look after and the extra cash will make sure yours is on top of the list. Human nature suggests if you get your supervisor offside your job will go overtime etc.

3) Getting family / friends to do the other trades is opening a can of worms imho. What happens if there is a big chip out of a wall and you ring them up and tell them to replace it. They come and look at it and promptly blame your uncle who was dragging the kitchen in. No doubt it was not your family member but it does give the builder a way out.

I dont think that you will ever find a builder that has never had a problem. Also one that was great when your mate built with them 5 years ago might have changed all their staff by now for the better or worse. I agree with what jamie said about gut feel but you will need to be your own quality manager to a large degree. If you dont like something tell them (in writing / email) and take pictures. It will make it a lot easier for the guys in the office if they have pictures because they are used to the owners tellling them one thing and the sueprvisor telling them something totally different.

Personally, I would build myself everytime but I deal with Sub contractors everyday so should have some idea how they work.

Brendon

__________________
Losing is worse than death. You have to live with losing....

I wouldn't pay ya supervisor nothing specially $1000, damn. I had a good supervisor anyway but you be good to them dont hassle them out they generally helpful.

My sup let me on site during the whole process even let me wire up security , cctv, tv , phones all during build process.

cheers boys,

I have been through the whole owner builder process already, with my parent's home, so i kinda have a clue of whats involved and what to look out for when building.

However, for the sake of not stressing myself out and getting the job done - i'd rather get a company to build it.

I agree that it depends on the tradies at the time of how its built, supervisers etc - So i guess all you can do is hope for the best once you sign that contract.

It sucks hpw they will only allow 1 trade to be private, if that.
For the money they want to charge me for building their own spec kitchen - and the kitchen I know i can get built for that money - is a huge difference.

I like the idea of bribing the superviser lol