Would You Recommand Metricon for Building Your First House in Regional Victoria ( Wallan )

Hello PropertyChat people,

First home buyer here. I am planning to build my home sometime early next year. Land is titling in April 2019 so have some decent time for a good builder. The building location is in Wallan, Victoria. Just north of Melbourne. Land size is 18*32 and it has about 1.6m fall.

I have gone and seen many displays by big builder such as Metricon, Henley, Carlise etc. And most of them were amazing.

Currently, Wife's set on Glendale 34 from Metricon (Double Storey) and they seem to have some promotion going for that design as well. Our max budget is 350K. We were happy until i decided to do a quick search about Metricon quality. Found out that lots people have problem with their house built by Metricon and some cases against the builder.

Has anyone here every built with Metricon before? Would you recommend Metricon for a first home buyer?

or are there any other better builders out there that we are missing?
What should we look out for while on our hunt for a builder?
And what precautions/actions to take before/after the build contract has been signed?

Any other tips/advice for first home buyers?

 

The big guys have buying power and large teams incl supervisors etc. They also sub out loads of work so quality is only as good as the supervisor assigned. When you build a lot in a sausage factory people will complain but its more about what they whinge about. It is structural or a paint defect ?? Or just an unrealistic view that on day one the place will be perfectly defect free. It will NEVER be.

The big guys offer longer structural warranties, inclusions, upgrades for free or little extra etc. I recently had a pergola pillar show movement after 15 years and my (Clarendon) builder fixed it under warranty. No argument at all. They just said we will drop by and have a look. That evening I came home to a note under the door and pillar was fixed, re-rendered and a few days later they painted it.

Tip - The big guys HATE variations. They charge a lot cause they do involve a lot of extra work incl mods to plans and specs. Plan a variation free build to avoid a blow out in cost. eg downlights will cost $6K or more v's bayonet fittings. How they work variations is they will give you a allowance for what was included and it wont be much and then charge you a hefty fee for the changes. They will try hard to upsell you on everything and just bear in mind that if you bought a property completed it wouldnt have any choice and then just say no to the lot and consider the cost of making changes slowly later if you care. The big guys sometime skimp on things like a extra power supply to exterior etc. So when you add a pool later its a huge job to add a circuit and a cable all the way from board at front side of house (up and over the top) to the rear if you later want a pool, split system, spa etc. Carefully walk through the display and check what is actually included vs what you see. Project displays are often NOT representative of what they will build.

 

Awesome post Paul.

I have 2 clients currently building with Metricon in Sydney and I have had 2 takeaways. Firstly the price is very competitive for what you get provided as Paul said there are no variations. Their house plans are probably one of the better ones in the project home category.

Secondly, I have been gobsmacked on how quickly they have done the build. They are super quick which is great (provided the quality isn't impacted).

They are a well oiled machine due to their processes so their only "problem" is their inflexibility on certain things.

 

Check that they can cope with the 1.6m fall and how much extra they’ll charge for it.

You may need a sloping block specialist...

 

thank you Paul, this is very insightful.

 

sure, I have a meeting with a consultant coming Saturday, it should give an idea about feasibility and cost.

 

One of the issues with buying land is you cant see what a builder or engineer will test for. A site can have fall, or be unstable or have rock or fill (or just be unstable) or any number of issues which can impact costs and until they start to cut its not always determined. I love the story of our pool. They quoted rock - If they hit it. Damned excavator did first scrape and the whole frigging yard is a block of stone. They then spent fours days chipping a 2.6m deep hole in it.

Better to sometimes get a engineer to do a site inspect before you buy land. Or buy a house + land from Metricon (or ???) if they are doing a local project. May even get a fixed price that way. We did that. Our house was 30% built and we werent allowed to vary jack. Fixed price, all inclusions except TV antenna. I stumbled on it after two months of looking. Project builders often do house and land in new release areas that can avoid loads of problems. And for finance it easy as its one contract not a building project

 

Does the "34" stand for 34 squares? I doubt that your budget would stretch far enough for a house of that size with a project builder.
If you're going with a project builder choose one with a fixed price contract. Otherwise it's very easy for a builder to add variations and you just have to pay them.

 

Yes it is 34 squares. So the current promotional price for the house is 272K with the same build plan we want without any structural changes. With all the upgrades plus site cost do you think additional 50K is reasonable price?

PS: we aren't very picky with upgrades. There won't be many. And we are going with the standard facade.

 

Hard to say. Write a list of all the upgrades and see what it adds up to.

 

They are very quick, I would recommend them. I have used mycompletepackage / escape homes to build a 17sq house on a 262 m2 lot. Lot next to me, same size, similar house, titled at the same time, went with Metricon. Metricon started in Feb, finished at the start of June. Mine started in Feb and I still don`t see the light. Quality wise they are good. I was on site every week and took the chance to have a look at it. I now gave up with the site inspections as I get depressed overtime I go there ahahah When you compare apple per apple, make sure you account for construction time too. Delay is money (rent & interests). Also few friends went with them, all happy.

 

Thanks, Luca. This puts me at ease. and hope your house get built soon. Good luck.

 

272 k for 34 squares means $8k per square

Are you sure you have got the figures right ?

The minimum construction cost you can get is $15k per square in today’s market as far as I know
So you would be looking at 500k for the construction alone

Cheers

 

Hi James, that is only the base price. After adding site cost and few upgrades we are bumped to 355K right now.

 

Even at 10.5k per square it’s a steal

I will take the deal with my eyes closed if I have to construct a house

I am assuming that this covers most of the house essentials to live, which are generally in the builders scope

Cheers

 

Yes, this is with the Grandeur package which gives more luxury upgrades. The most expensive cost so far is our site cost which is at 21K. it also includes a 5000L rainwater tank as per estate's guidelines.

We will be doing sales paper sign up this weekend to lock in the price and land is titling next April (2019)

 

Sounds good price

When I got them to quote my 3 townhouse deve they were way too expensive

Clearly different product, perhaps market also softened
Boom time when they quoted