ramblings of a wandering nerdan aimless amble on a winding road

So after the disappointment and annoyance of the Simonds debacle, we have engaged another builder. Like a child burnt by a hotplate, we are anxious and approaching with extreme caution.

This particular builder does about 400 homes a year, which is considerably less than the 1500+ Simonds does. We’re hoping this will provide a more personal experience. Apparently there is limited backoffice work done, with most of it occuring with the Salesman.

From the Salesmans point of view, it’s better for them because they have more control over their commission. Simonds sales guys do the hard sell, then send it off at which point, due to the extreme incompetence of their backoffice admin staff, th deals sometimes don’t get done, costing the sales guys their commission.

This doesn’t happen with the new builder, which should for us, lead to an overall better result. Admin staff afterall don’t get paid by commission so have very little reason to perform well. Incompetance we know, is rarely a fireable offence these days.

So on Monday I sent an email around midday and it was responded to by the time I got home at about 4:30 that afternoon. Impressive.

On Tuesday I sent through some marked up plans with the expectation of getting a quote by the end of this weekend. I got an email last night appologising and stating I’ll have it by Tuesday or Wednesday. This was a pleasent change. I don’t mind that things don’t get done, I just object to not being told.

So to date, and it is only early days, this builder has two ticks.

Their base prices are higher, but I received confirmation during the week that 2700mm ceilings and eaves are included in the base price (amongst a whole series of things) which is great.

One thing all the volume builders do is keep the price as low as possible by leaving out pretty much everything you need to have a house you could actually live in. It’s basically the same as the airlines advertising airfares without taxes. We know we have to pay them so be honest at the onset. Of course with houses, it’s not always obvious that the simplest of things are no included.

So we sit patiently and wait for the price. There is definitely a better vibe about this builder!

Oh, and we added another person to the ‘Not going to build a Simonds home” campaign. Yah, two more to go.. If it looks like it’s going to be too easy to reach 5, maybe I’ll set my sights on 10.!