After receiving a new home quote

Hi guys,

We have received our first quote on a new home build. As expected the price is a bit higher than we are planning to spend.

What is the best way to ask for a price breakdown on things so that we can begin to lower the price.
In the first quote we had things like semi glass shower screens, a fancy ficade, half tiled bathroom, not really even sure what appliances are in our quote as we only asked for 900mm appliances.

These guys seem a little reluctant to give you there full pricing list.

Any advice appreciate,
Cheers,

 

try to be as specific as possible in your first request for quotation so you are always comparing apples with apples. This includes what brand of appliances you want. If it’s not specified on the quote, you may end up with brands you aren’t happy with.

In this situation where you already have the quote, perhaps let them know you were ‘hoping to spend closer to x’ and if they can help with areas you might be able to save money.

Facade would be a good place to start, a traditional gable roofline can also help to save costs. You might also like to consider removing a bedroom or reducing its size to save costs.

 

Volume builder or custom build?

 

If it is a volume builder then they should have a list of standard inclusions specifying brand/make/model or allowances (eg for tiles a rate per sqm) for each item.

If you have requested any variation to a standard floor plan then that will be the most likely source of additional cost.

Ultimately you need to be sure your expectations are realistic ... how much do you need to reduce the cost by?

 

Volume builder

 

We are about to receive another quote from a volume builder. Albeit 20sqm smaller this quote is looking to come in well under 350k fixed price as the builder already knows the block we are looking to build on.
Our first quote on the 20sqm bigger house was over 100k more than that. Seems a massive difference but the cheaper builder has a lot more inclusions too ie ducted aircon fully tiled bathrooms, tiles throughout most of house. It feels as though there must be a catch that we are missing?
cheers,

 

Hard to say without looking at the tender etc but I've had some massive variations in tenders before for all sorts of reasons.

Most important is make sure your comparing apples with apples. I would not be accepting any quote without a detailed breakdown of the tender and exactly what's being quoted for.

Eg Knowing the size of an oven is not enough. You want to know the make etc. You want to know what allowances they have for tiles etc. If builders range, you want to know what's the range and know all price allocations for PC items. You also want to know if there are any PSs and for what and how much.

Otherwise come later you may not be happy with the crap they put in and want variations which are costly.

 

There are savings to be made if you are switching from a custom plan to one of the builder’s standard plans.

Volume builders make money by building from standardised plans - everything is already detailed down to the last item and you benefit from bulk buying. This is also why any variation to the standard plan is disproportionally expensive.