Are these guys legit? Dual occ advisors

You doing 1500 p/m2 on single storey im guessing?

 

No the one I was commenting on above is actually $1550 for a double story.

 

1550 per m2 is good a price. I would actually think you would have to be quiet creative to achieve that price. Im assuming thats including builders margin

 

Considering them at the moment. Did you decide to go with them or someone else?

 

Haven’t decided yet, may get a few quotes

 

Yes including margin but there is definitely not a lot of it at that price

I would not do this long term, as soon as I can financially afford to develop I would not even waste my time with contracting for clients.

 

Hi , I am considering them too to build dual occ. Have you decided to go with them? Can I PM you to share info?

 

He’s right in that you can make some good profits on a dual occ. Unfortunately, most of these builders end up eating into most of it with loaded assumptions and contingency on their costs especially if they are running it for u end to end. Take my advice - find a site, do your feasibility study and manage it yourself rather than have a builder manage the whole thing for you.

 

If this guy was really so much better than the competition he would be just building and developing by himself making a huge profit per project rather than just peanuts on development advisory fees.

 

did you end up proceeding with these developers? if so, what was the experience?

 

All - for what its worth I signed a contract with Dual Occ Advisors (now known only as Masterpiece Dual Occupancy) for my duplex project and am approaching completion. Happy to assist or field any queries people may have

 

hey Bruce,

would like to find out your experience and feedback with dual occ.

 

Ask away !

 

Keen to find out:

- What's your overall experience? Positive?

- Did you have a lot of modification from any of the base build?

- Were they accommodating?

- During build phase, was there a lot of deviation?

- Any cost run outs?

- Did they complete within a year?

 

Experience: Overall, especially considering my build was directly amidst Covid and some of their competition was going bankrupt, positive

Modifications: Yes, note the base floorplan designs are very much a Glen Eira friendly design, I built in a different municipality and therefore had to modify the foorplans to suit. Additionally, i was after a higher spec finish, so upgrades to the 'base' specification was required. Yes ofcourse accommodating, it's no skin off their back, they want you to a) achieve plans and permits so they can build ASAP b) they make profit off upgrades

Deviation: Not sure what you mean by this, i.e. did they deviate from the specification? No, there were certainly delays, due to covid supply and trade shortages, however no request to modify the finishes were brought to me. I made some minor changes myself to electrical and fixings and they were quite accommodating.

Cost Run Outs: Its a fixed price lump sum contract so no cost run outs are permitted, unless ofcourse they're client led. There were a handful of provisional fees, and not all were drawn down on, quite an honest bulider in that regard. The project overall did experience cost run outs, however these were largely in response to scope of works not performed by them and those taken on by myself (i.e. landscaping, driveways, decking, fencing, retaining walls etc.) I budgeted for these prior to covid and saw a dramatic increase when post.

Complete within a year: Depends on your understanding of site start, so council plans and permits took over 15 months, this is beyond their remit, once permits were stamped however they were quite quick to get started. The build took just over a year, again due to covid and the melbourne shutdowns and restricted working conditions i'd say this was fair and reasonable (they initially quoted 9 months, however that was pre-covid). Overall the project took approx 2.5 years.

 

Thanks for the feedback Bruce36.

 

Hi all,

Looking to revive this thread. I am considering Masterpiece for a duplex development also.

My take and comparison of quotes is this:
- They only do duplexes (minor amount of single dwellings)
- They have essentially 2 set external floorplans (internal can be adjusted somewhat)
- The leverage the buying power of Simmonds (their parent company) to drive construction costs down

Their quote for a base spec 31sq (~285sqm), 4bed, 3.5 bath, 1 garage build was $1m. This is roofline only and has some allowances for site works, slab, drainage and traffic management.

I would assume you would need to allow an extra 30% on top of this for everything else (engineering and planning, upgrades, driveways/crossovers, landscaping etc).

So far, their quote has been significantly cheaper than anyone else I have found (min 20% below). It is hard to compare apples for apples, but this is a development for profit, so $$$ play a big part in my decision making. I have noticed a lot of their sites popping up through south/south east Melbourne (Beaumaris, Bentleigh, Ashburton etc).

My overall take is that there model suits driving costs down, but provides limited flexibility. If you are interested in producing a generic outcome at a competitive price, then it makes sense. If you want something unique, probably look elsewhere.

Interested if anyone has used them since the last post?

 

Bruce- did you go with the Masterpiece provided building inspector, or did you source and pay for your own? What was your experience whichever way you went?

Thanks for sharing.

 

I did both, appointed my own in addition to theirs, they had no objection to this approach.

 

Timely post. I am also looking to build in Mentone. Have approached Metricon and someone recommended me Masterpiece. Stephen rang me and sent me some brochures but haven't heard back from him since.
Looks like it is similar base price with Metricon. Please keep us up to date with your progress. Happy to chat via pm