Best strategy for negotiating with new home building companies? Ie; Metricon, Carlisle, Burbank, Simonds etc.

goingDHfast on 03/06/2013 - 19:06

Hi All,

Recently I took the missus to check out some display homes. She loved them all and now wants to do a knock-down and rebuild.

Given the building industry is doing pretty badly from everything I've read, that should put us punters in a pretty good negotiating position. But it occurs to me that homes are a very custom and emotional purchase which I think probably detracts from our negotiating power.

So my question to OzBargain, what are some of your tips when negotiating with these builders? I was thinking along the lines of a reverse auction where we get 3-5 quotes we are happy with then ask them all to give us their best package price by a set date? Similar to the way people do with new cars and emailing dealers.

Thanks in advance.

GdhF

Home & Garden

Comments

  • bbqwer on 03/06/2013 - 20:21
    +1

    check with Rawson Homes. fixed price tender.

    quality with Raswon builder is very good too. Metricon is good, but pricey.

    • goingDHfast on 03/06/2013 - 20:28

      That's the kind of information I'm after, cheers.

      Anyone know of any builders with the fixed price tender option in Melbourne?

  • Geewhizz on 04/06/2013 - 07:03

    You would decide the builder for your home based on best price alone? You're very brave.

  • georgedeka on 04/06/2013 - 08:35

    Ask about if there will be site costs etc, they are often not included in the price quoted AFAIK.

    I have heard from others, you should try find some smaller builders and see what they can offer. I know of someone who went with metricon, they said they could change anything about the design, but once they started going down the path it was all no we can't do that, so they got out of it.

  • Buyer10987 on 04/06/2013 - 21:01
    +1

    We're almost at the stage of signing a contract for a new home ……….

    The number one thing that I've learnt from an independent consultant we've hired to assist us with the builder is that you want very few (if any) PC (Prime Cost) items in your contract and NO PS (Provisional Sum) items at all !!

    Instead of something like this …………

    Tiles in bathroom = $2,000 PS

    You want it written something like this….

    Supply and lay 10 M2 tiles in bathroom, tile allowance $50/M2 = $2,000

    The first way is the builder saying "We don't know what you want, so we've charged you $2,000, and if it's more that's your bad luck, just pay us whatever we charge"

    The second way is saying "We're going to lay tiles in your bathroom, and if you choose tiles that cost $50/M2 it'll cost you $2,000. If you choose different price tiles it'll be dearer or cheaper."

    You can make a decision whether you think the allowance of $50/M2 is fair or not, and when you go tile shopping you'll have a far better idea of what you're up for.

    YOU have all the power until you sign the contract, then you have NONE !!

    Get the contract right BEFORE you sign it !!

    I am not a lawyer :)

  • iampoor on 17/04/2019 - 14:01

    I wouldn't go with Burbank. Currently building with them, they have let go off quite a few back office people and consolidated the entire workload on less staff.

    Build has stalled for over a month now due to this as there are issues and they can't get their act together.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join