- Don't fall in love with a design
- Negotiate extras before handing over ANY money
- Get everything right before you sign a contract
C1's salesperson was very professional. He guided us to make specific decisions up front before we paid an initial deposit. I disagreed with a few of his recommendations and I don't think he was up-front with reasons for making them, but he was pleasant and responsive to all our questions. I sent him a request of changes by email and when we arrived to get his price indication he had everything accurately drawn up ready to go.
C2's salesperson had been in the job six months and I got a gut feeling that this guy could be a problem. He didn't guide us at all and he could hardly answer any of my questions. He said some really weird things about being a good salesman and that having a good salesperson was the most important thing about building a home. We managed to get a price indication from him, as well as some roughly sketched drawings, but it was no where near as smooth or professional as with C1.
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| Mathias Erhart (CC BY-SA 2.0) |
I drew up an Analytic Hierarchy Process (a spreadsheet) to help wifey and I decide between the two. C2 came out on top. They were a definite winner with my wife, but only by a nose with me. My experience with the sales consultant had brought their marks down quite considerably but not enough to make them lose out to C1.
The reality was, we had fallen in love with C2's design. Now, anything else we looked at would not work for us.
The first rule was broken.
And, in quick succession, the second rule was broken.
Excited by our new love interest, we paid the initial deposit to C2, without negotiating hard enough on extras. We really should have played C1 and C2 off each other a little more. Paying this initial deposit made us more committed to C2 but by no means wedded to the decision. The amount paid was small enough that if we wanted to go back to C2 we could call the expense "research".
After this point our sales consultant's performance deteriorated further. He was never clear about the process, he gave us strange unnecessary forms to fill in and sign, and he really couldn't manage the extra changes I wanted to make to the windows. In the end, I did all the sketches myself and held his hand while he punched the list of changes into his computer system. I (with limited assistance from the sales guy) got everything perfect and he submitted a tender request for us. He said he had been aiming to get the price indication to be around the same or more than the tender.
Two weeks later, the tender came back and the site costs had doubled. $16k more than what he had estimated. A very large sum to swallow. Our block was still not clear (and it still isn't) and I figured we had time to start the process again. I reconsidered C1, and also a looked more seriously at a third builder. I realised the deal we had with C2 was still going to be the best value for money and we should stick with the devil we know.... nah that's BS... We were still in love with the design.
The C2 sales consultant was pressuring us to go to contract. If we wanted the price on any further changes we were going to have go straight to contract.
Then we broke the third rule.
Our block is still not ready to build on, but we've ordered a contract, which will be subject to another soil test and survey.
The contract has arrived I've nearly had a mental breakdown stressing out about it. The next post will be entitled "Get the Vaseline ready!"
