Why paying a builder to quote your new home is going to save you money in the long run…
Have you received a free formal quote or tender from a builder to build your new home? Are you confident that this quote is a true and accurate indication of how much it is going to cost to build your new home? If you thought yes, then think again….
When quoting a home there are so many things to factor into the final price. These items vary greatly depending on the location of the home, the type of home and the inclusions that you want to be put into your home.
Quoting a home involves a number of processes and the first of these should include a meeting with the builder and clients to determine what you would like to be included in your home. For example, are you after timber or aluminium windows, face brick or render, full height tiling in your wet areas, 20mm stone or 40mm stone bench tops in your kitchen, waterfall ends or overhung stone??? What about your main floor coverings, are you expecting solid hardwood timber flooring or oversized tiles…. All of these items require individual pricing and hence impacts on the overall price to build your dream home.
No use the builder providing a formal quote that includes an $8,000 kitchen allowance when you envisage polyurethane kitchen cupboards with soft close drawers and overhead feature glass cupboards with under cupboard strip lighting, stone bench tops with waterfall ends, mirrored glass splashback, high quality pull out sink mixer, butler’s pantry with sink, custom shelving and a nice wine rack….. $8,000 will certainly NOT get you what you were expecting. The builder needs to factor in your expectations into the formal quote. These tender meetings can take around 2 to 3 hours but are a vital part of the process to ensure that what you envisage to be included in your new home quote actually is.
The builder will also need to make a visit to the site where your home is going to be built. This is important to gauge the available access to the block, availability of utilities such as power and water, view and take measurements of the slope of the block which can impact on site costs. All of this takes time to accurately provide for in the formal quote.
To factor in accurate costs to your quote and to ensure that these are accounted for, the builder will need to send your plans to suppliers to have them quote various work. Such things as the manufacture of the frames and trusses and installation of gyprock are such big components of the home and an accurate cost needs to be considered.
Then there is working out the quantities of materials and applying all of the items that go into building your home, council fees and inspections, insurances, steel, concrete, termite protection, bricklaying, carpentry work, roof installation, insulation, appliances, painting, laying of tiles, plumbing and electrical just to name a few!
As you can imagine, it takes a whole lot of time to factor in these costs and apply them to each individual home. And if you are working with a custom home building specialist, chances are that he has not built the same home twice. So it is not a matter of cutting and pasting a previous quote.
When you add up the time that the builder spends on developing a formal quote for one individual home, 30 hours is an accurate reflection. Do you think a builder who puts this amount of time into quoting a home deserves to be reimbursed in some way? Would you work 30 hours for free??? You can be reassured that a builder who values his time in such a way will be one who values your time and will have processes in place to ensure things run efficiently throughout the entire quoting and building process.
Now consider this, do you think a builder who is providing free quotes is actually going to be spending 30 hours to accurately quote a home? The important word being accurately….. food for thought don’t you think!
So if you don’t want to be caught out along the way, and would like to be presented an accurate formal quote to build your new home, consider the value that you will receive in return when you pay the builder for your formal quote. A small price to pay for peace of mind.
