When Comparing Home Builders…Realise we’re NOT All The Same!

Most builders are different – they give you glossy books and glossy brochures but… what are you really getting and how do you compare “like for like?” Who really offers the best value? Here are a few easy tips and things that you need to know. Firstly, when you are looking at the floor plan – what is the overall size? A lot of builders will include room sizes, but you will have no idea at the end of the day how big the house actually is. Sounds silly, but we see people fall victim to this ploy every day of the week. The floor plan looks good, but essentially, it’s a piece of paper – how can you start to compare pricing if you don’t know how big the house is? Our builder, Perry Homes floorplans always include overall house dimensions along with all individual room sizes.

1. Electricals - Electricity (Connection): Standard urban block up to 600m² lot including standard underground single-phase power connection within 6m of house entry point Circuit breakers and Earth Leakage Devices: Included in meter box for safety protection Light Points/Power Points (white): (internal & external) One (1) single power point to dishwasher provision One (1) single power point to refrigerator provision One (1) double power point to each bedroom One (1) additional double power point to bedroom 1 Two (2) double power points to kitchen Two (2) double power points to each living room One (1) LED globe and batten holder to each bedroom Two (2) LED globe and batten holders to each living room Two (2) external light points including a weatherproof bunker light fitting (builder’s range) Two (2) TV points One (1) telephone point prewired (internal only) Mains power photoelectric smoke detectors with battery backup NBN lead in conduit provision within 6m of house entry point including a double power point to garage and one (1) data point located as per plan Oven: Westinghouse WVE615 fan forced multi-function Cooktop: Westinghouse WHC642 ceramic glass Rangehood: Chef CRC612 (un-badged) recirculating canopy What type of lights are you getting? Are down lights extra – LED downlights are energy efficient and often NOT included in your base house price, you can find yourself paying as much as $125 for each downlight, but no one will tell you this until you’ve paid your deposit and are doing your colour selection – we include energy efficient LED downlights in the base house price.

3. Are you getting eaves on your new home? What? I hear you ask! Don’t assume that you are getting eaves, quite often eaves are an upgrade. No, I am not making this up believe it or not! At Perry Homes, 600mmeaves are standard unless we are building on a very narrow block and we are required to reduce the overall size (at which point they will become 450mm). Eaves are definitely included at Perry Homes.

4. What paint system is included in your base house price? We provide a Dulux three coat paint system as standard, this is not an upgrade – this is just our standard. All painters are Dulux trained in the product. Don’t wait till you get to the colour selection process to ask this question – it can add a huge sum to your overall build price – you need to know upfront.

5. How many bricks choices do I have? I know, another strange question but it’s an important one. Some builders will give you a choice of around six bricks, everything else is an upgrade, seriously! What does that actually mean? It means that if you don’t like one of those six, then guess what, yes, that’s yet another upgrade! When you build with us, there is a range of approximately 60 bricks (standard and upgrades) to choose from – because we believe in “over-delivery”.

6. Our builder Perry Homes also provide a 20 year structural guarantee – do other builders? We can go on and on but essentially, selecting a builder for your new home is a tricky business. It’s best to be armed with a list of the right questions because at the end of the day, it’s your money and you need to make sure that you are getting the best value for your hard earned $$$.

Please don’t hesitate to phone us - Noel Simmonds on 0418 169 800 because we are happy to answer your questions.