Printable View
I have finally found the style of house that i want here, and we have narrowed down the suburb that we would like to live in and we know how much money we have to work with, so now what?? What do we do next?
Has anyone built and can offer guidance? Is it worth the hassle?
Have u found a builder who builds tht kind of house yet?
If u havent, sorce one and pic the exact house u want to u know how big and how wide the block needs to be
Hmmm, is it a spec home or just a style you like?
Need to get plans before you get a builder, no plans, no quotes.
Can you ask the owners of the house you like who built it?
Thats what I would do...
ETA, its a total PITA!! but worth it to get what you want.
Its very stressful though, and have some backup cash, you always need more LOL!
We built our last house and will be building again in about 18 months. Both times, we have bought the blocks then decided on a house to fit the block. We built with a builder last time (our house was a one-off design though) and we will do the same this time only this time we've found a display home that, with a few small changes, is exactly what we want.
My advice would be to buy a block first then go from there. It's not always easy to find a block to suit a house you've found as you need to take into consideration the size of the block, the slope, if the block requires any retaining or filling, etc. Also, some councils have set rules on what you can and can't build. For example, our last house had to have a certain looking gate at the entrance plus a turning bay in our front yard. Council would not approve our plans unless these specifications were met. Thankfully, the builders we built with had a lot of experience with our local council so they ensured our house design met all of the council's requirements.
We visit a lot of display homes to get an idea of what we like and then we come up with a 'Needs & Desires' list. This is brilliant for builders who will do a one off design. Maybe visit some display villages and see who's style you like then speak to those builders about one off designs. They can't copy other builders plans but they can often design something new based on the plan you like.
Visiting display villages/display homes is a good way to see what does and doesn't work in a house too. What looks good on paper sometimes isn't that practical to actually live in.
You can always speak to an architect as well however friends have done this in the past and it's a pretty pricey exercise.
As for building being a hassel, I don't think it is. We loved our first experience and we're already enjoying the planning stages for our next house too. It's time consuming and a bit confusing at times but it's very rewarding and if you find a good, reputable builder, they will make the whole experience a lot easier.
We have built recently too. Although I do have experience in a similar industry, which helped a lot.
You could go either way, with trying to find a block to fit your house or vice versa. What is it about this house that you like? Have you actually been through it? Is it the exterior facade, the outdoor part, the furnishings or the house plan itself?
For us, we couldn't find a "spec home" plan that was just right for us. We did find something similar and made a lot of modifications both to suit our block and to suit our tastes. We found a spec home that we loved the look of the exterior for and went through a number of display homes for ideas on the interiors. This mish mash of ideas became our house.
Once you have sorted out a rough house plan that you want, you can either choose to have it drawn up by a building designer (or architect ($$)) or you can find a spec builder who will do one off designs. We found that many will not (one wouldn't even make a simple modification to their plan, when we were looking earlier on). We got a bit disheartened and thought we had to go with a building designer. However, I was quoted a price for our plans that I found too expensive, given that I am able to produce a reasonably polished plan myself. We then persisted with the spec builder option and found one of a quality I was happy with who would do our plans. As I said they needed little modification, but we did get some good suggestions from their staff building designer.
Either way you will now have a nice plan that you can use to get a budget quote on for the building. With a building designer's plan you can shop it around several builders to get the best price and you will be able to use some of the smaller builders. If you've had it drawn up by the spec builder, you can probably only go with them, although if it comes out above budget, they will be able to tell you where you can cut costs.
From there you can sign a contract and get on with the fun stuff (like selections, lol!)
As for hassles, there were some things, but in the end we got exactly the house that we wanted, so they were relatively minor. However, I do think it was fortunate that I worked in the industry, could ask people for guidance and was able to understand enough to be asking the right questions of the builder. Because we lived close to the site, we visited every day to check on progress and make sure everything was as we had planned. This really paid off when one day they installed the flooring, which was not what we had ordered. Because we could get onto the supervisor straight away, they held off laying the rest of the floor, which saved them some money and us some time. Make sure you get the construction access key and don't let go of it (even if it's the builder's policy that you only keep it a day or a week). It's your property and you should keep an eye on it.
My advice is to be careful about what a lot of builders quote for footings - quite often it is the bare minimum and when they get the soil report back, they up the quote significantly. This can make some people's budget be right off. Find out about footing costs per square metre for houses in a similar area.
Ok, I could go on and on..... sorry! Hope this helps a bit.
Thanks everyone! That is awesome info! It does sound like its going to be complicated, i might start by checking out some display homes and seeing if i can find anything in the style that i like, i don't think we can stretch our budget to afford architects or even building designers, we need to build for under $300,000 as our block is going to be quite exxy.
A very rough guide when starting out is to leave at least $1000 per square metre of area floor plan, but I would make sure you have a little more than that.