Ready built homes - Henley

Discussion in 'What to buy' started by danger163, 22nd Jun, 2017.

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  1. danger163

    danger163 New Member

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    22nd Jun, 2017
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    Melbourne
    I'm looking at opinions on Henley ready built homes. About me, FHB, OO.

    I have particularly liked a house in Craigieburn, 400sqm, 25sq house 4*2*2 for 570K. What's your thoughts about this?

    Henley Ready Built - New Homes for Sale | Henley
     
  2. werdna

    werdna Well-Known Member

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    Henley is a reputable builder. Pricing looks OK. Do your due diligence, read up on customer reviews, check out their display homes, pose the question as to how these ready-built homes will be different in spec and quality. Understand the process inside and out. Also would be a good idea to speak to a mortgage broker specialising in construction finance so that you can line all your ducks in a row from a valuations perspective - I know sometimes people run into issues with valuations on these kind of "off the plan" new homes and apartments.
     
  3. danger163

    danger163 New Member

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    Thanks @werdna for your thoughts on this.
    I will post questions to Henley about the quality and other stuff.

    The thing with these houses is I will not have any choice on color or any selection (which I think is a good (time consumption) and bad (no choice) in both ways). However, I had visited few of the ready built houses which are due for settlement and by the look of the color schemes and interior cupboards and stuff, I'm happy with what they are providing and matching my choices too.

    I have spoke with MB and he was like unless you have Occupancy Certificate, they can't valuate the house where as RE said they can valuate the house and provide a conditional approval of loan. House i'm after is at the moment 70%ish done.

    Any mortgage brokers here can help with valuation criteria?
     
  4. Lulu

    Lulu New Member

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    Hi Danger163, please let me know how you went with the Henley home? im thinking of doing the same in Craigieburn but a bit sceptical.....
     
  5. tobe

    tobe Well-Known Member

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    You need an occupancy certificate to settle. The lender can value the property from the plans and specs before or while it's being built and give you a loan approval.

    'Spec' homes like this, where you usually pay 10% down and the balance on completion are rare. Most builders don't want to commit their capital. They need to load their holding costs into the price. It's almost always cheaper to buy the land and do the construction yourself. Takes longer, but is cheaper.
     
    Tom Rivera likes this.
  6. Paul@PAS

    Paul@PAS Tax, Accounting + SMSF + All things Property Tax Business Plus Member

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    We bought our home OTP when it was 20% complete. Ours was through Clarendon homes.

    We were also told we could not change specs but they did allow minor fitout changes and choices from a limited choice. So we chose to have extra tiling that went through from front door to kitchen etc...Best idea ever !! Trivial extra costs too. The house came 99.99% complete. I joked to the supervisor that the only thing they forced me to do was install a TV antenna. But they wired the house up for it !! Blinds, carpet, alarms, basic light fittings, security doors, screen, AC, automated garage doors etc all included. And the handover was spotless.

    The larger project builders are like a sausage factory and provided you have a diligent supervisor cracking the quality whip you wont have dramas. The schedule stuff easily due to volume and hold the tradies ransom to that issue. The best evidence of their clout was two days prior to handover it looked like a three week finish. The last two days were insane and there really were 50+ tradies in the house installing everything and putting complete touches.

    Yeah we had a defects list but it wasnt major...No dramas and they had that done quickly too.

    IMO a large builder can do this stuff well BUT it does come down to the supervisor. These builders cant afford crappy supervisiors and thats their key to volume.

    We paid 10% (actually I think we paid $2k) and nothing more until we settled. These spec homes are much like an existing build as its their land. No progress dramas etc. Mind you we were in a new estate of 40+ homes and ours was second to complete. We then had 6 months of living surrounded by homes being built. Now its a nice area with similiar homes etc.....

    Downside is we had to pay full duty. But then we would have anyway as we never intended to buy a new house. We just couldnt find something that didnt need massive work done and that fell short of valuation because of it.....

    We did ask about having same house built on land we looked to buy. It was going to cost heaps more ($20K or more) as they didnt have the economies of scale they get with doing a 40 lot dev. We dropped the idea.
     
    New2prop likes this.
  7. Lulu

    Lulu New Member

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    hmm sounds like you got a really good deal Paul, the Henley ones don't come with cooling, blinds, the only appliances you get are rangehood and stovetop....