The first in the list was Porter Davis. We really liked their plans specially Marriott 44, Waldorf 44, & Churchill 36. My wife always wanted 5 bedroom house and the 5 bedroom extension was coming up too expensive and way above our budget. Also, the 5 bedroom plans provided by Porter Davis didn't seem practical as in all of the plans had the master bedroom downstairs so they didn't suit our needs.
The second in the list was Metricon. A well established builder in Melbourne and the current house we are staying was built by Metricon. But we didn't have a good experience with them. The first visit to their display village in Point Cook wasn't good as we didn't get proper attention from any of the staff members. When I asked what type of brick is used in the display house, I was told that when we select the house and during our appointment with the consultant I should tell them the display village name and they will tell me the price and type of the brick. They don't keep this type of detail in the display village.
The next time we thought make an appointment with Metricon consultant and visit the Mernda display village as we liked the house plan called Franklin 40. The walk through in the house was good but the consultant didn't have any price details for the display house. We asked the question that can you tell us how much extra was spent on the display house or what is an extra in the display house and the price list for those extra's. I was told that she is not authorised to supply that information until we sign the contract. I was very amazed with the answer. Also, all the facade for the house were too expensive so the end price was coming up too high & more than our budget. so we dropped the idea of using Metricon for our next home.
The other house plans we really liked was Henley. There plans were practical and well presented. There was a big display village in Caroline Springs and the plan we liked was The Majestic Q1 44 sq. We were absolutely fell in love with the plan the moment we saw the display house.
Even though the house looked Grand & Majestic, after few visits we started to find the issues with the plan. The first issue was, I wasn't getting my theatre room (and the extension was 20K expensive). Also, my wife wasn't impressed as she wasn't getting WIP. so the plan to build The Majestic was scrapped...
We also visited a small builder called Formula Homes. They have display houses in Point Cook & Derrimut. We liked one of their double story houses in Derrimut. The moment we walked in the display house, the sales agent was so eager for us to sign the contract saying you won't get this offer if you don't sign by end of this month. We walked in the house and looked at all the things/changes we will need to make it. We asked for the quote with all the changes we wanted but the sales agent told that we need to sign the contract first before they can provide us the quote. We were very disappointment as we liked the plan but didn't want to sign it before we know the actual price. so I called up their CEO and told him the whole story. He was also surprised hearing this and called the sales agent's boss and asked him to talk to me and provide me the quote.Finally I endup getting the quote (without signing the contract). The initial house price was $282K but with the changes the final price was 400K. Don't ask!! they didn't actually have anything in the base price so most of the things were coming up as extra. As we really liked the plan (or I should say I liked the plan, as my wife wasn't happy with the company and the sales agent) we paid the deposit of $3000.00. We had 2 weeks to change our mind. We discussed & discussed at home but somehow we both were not sure if we should go ahead with the builder or not. At the end we decided to ask for our deposit back...the sales agent wasn't happy as you can say but they decided to refund the deposit after I sent a feedback email to the CEO and how they can improve the business.
Looks like they didn't read my email and in middle of 2011 I found out that the company went into public administration and they didn't finish many of the houses in Victoria. Thanks GOD we didn't go with them....what a luck :-)
We also spoke to the following builders:
BENTLEY FAMILY HOMES
DENNIS FAMILY HOMES
CLARENDON HOMES
CARLISLE HOMES
ORBIT HOMES
URBANEDGE HOMES
ASHFORD
SIMONDS
HENLEY
Now it was Jan 2011 and we still didn't have any plan finalized for our next home. We were getting constant updates from Featherbrook about the progress of land and also they were saying that they are running late and the land won't be released in May/June as promised previously.
We started our hunt for house aggressively and visited all the above builders again & again. The decision was finalized in March 2011 to build Porter Davis Churchill 36. Thanks to the Porter Davis Consultant Ewa StrzeleckaZajac for making it easy for us. She helped us deciding the plan and gave us pretty good deal which we couldn't refuse. Also, we loved her attitude, personal touch and smile ofcource. She knew our names, the type of plan we are looking, which gave the personalized feel. She gave us the best customer service experience amongst all the builders in Melbourne.
Here are the reasons why we choose Churchill 36
1) I was getting my theatre room :-) So it is the first good reason
2) Wife was getting the WIP and an extra cook top inside the pantry (so she was happy)
3) A separate study office
4) A games room for the kids
5) Big Alfresco (we extended the plan)
6) Floors covering included from the builder
7) Good promotion - 10K Include in the site cost.
8) We couldn't afford the double story and Churchill was the best option in our budget.
9) Decent house size with decent price (with all the added options we wanted)
Overall we really liked the staff at Porter Davis, they were very prompt to answer any of the queries we had and provided us all the price details even before we signed the contract. They didn't seem pushy or desperate for us to sign the contract.
So we paid our deposit in March 2011....Here is the floor plan we selected
We started our hunt for house aggressively and visited all the above builders again & again. The decision was finalized in March 2011 to build Porter Davis Churchill 36. Thanks to the Porter Davis Consultant Ewa StrzeleckaZajac for making it easy for us. She helped us deciding the plan and gave us pretty good deal which we couldn't refuse. Also, we loved her attitude, personal touch and smile ofcource. She knew our names, the type of plan we are looking, which gave the personalized feel. She gave us the best customer service experience amongst all the builders in Melbourne.
Here are the reasons why we choose Churchill 36
1) I was getting my theatre room :-) So it is the first good reason
2) Wife was getting the WIP and an extra cook top inside the pantry (so she was happy)
3) A separate study office
4) A games room for the kids
5) Big Alfresco (we extended the plan)
6) Floors covering included from the builder
7) Good promotion - 10K Include in the site cost.
8) We couldn't afford the double story and Churchill was the best option in our budget.
9) Decent house size with decent price (with all the added options we wanted)
Overall we really liked the staff at Porter Davis, they were very prompt to answer any of the queries we had and provided us all the price details even before we signed the contract. They didn't seem pushy or desperate for us to sign the contract.
So we paid our deposit in March 2011....Here is the floor plan we selected
