Tips for building a new home

Beware of the display home styling! Don't get lost in the styling of the display homes, most have hired furniture of the best quality and been styled by interior designers.  The real point to a display home is not the cushions and furniture but the quality of the build. The quality of the build can easily be covered up by the styling and you need to look passed all the removable contents. Once you peel away the contents you can have
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Beware of the display home hype! With so many display homes around it is very easy to get sucked into the hype associated with them. Most of the major builders don't have any smaller homes on display and are only able to show you through their 30 square singles plus massive double stories.  By having only larger homes for you to view it creates a false sense of what your smaller home is going to turnout like. It's an old sales
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With so many new home builders in the market, choosing your builder can be very difficult. The founder of Berstan Homes Stan Bryson built his first home in 1955 so as a company we have seen many changes in the home building industry. Stan has long since retired but still has a very active interest in the company. Brothers Mark and Paul Bryson are now running Berstan Homes and they are involved with every home built so our clients are
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With so many new estates around the outer suburbs there is plenty of competition between the land agents for your custom. This can lead to numerous problems due to many agents being focussed on their bottom line.  For example they may not mention factors like fill and the (fall) slope of the land which can add costs to your building project. When purchasing land I would strongly suggest getting your builder involved before you place any deposits. A builder will
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When looking for your builder, make sure you are not just dealing with a marketing company and they are real builders. Currently in Melbourne and around the country there are many marketing companies masquerading as builders. This is a major problem the industry has at the moment and the practice should be banned.  Ask to meet the builder before you sign anything and definitely before you part with any money. If meeting the builder is a problem at the start, imagine
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With so many new home builders out there how do you choose one? Well there are a few ways of selecting a good builder. Have a look at their work; when did they start building? When going into their display are you talking to the builder or just a sales person? It is very important to speak to a builder and not just the sales staff and it's not unreasonable to request to meet the actual builder that will build
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When looking for land let the builder do the work and get the builder to source your land.   This is a good idea because the builder knows where all the estates are and will be able to get you a better deal.  Developers give builders a better deal because they are securing land every day for their clients.   The builder will be able to work out many features of land that most would not know about and could
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One of the first mistakes first home buyers make is to search for the cheapest prices. This is certainly a sure way of getting into trouble with the cheapest price meaning just that. The cheapest builders use the cheapest products and trades on their projects meaning more problems for you the home buyer down the track. Most of these type of builders also cut corners and this leads to serious building faults in the future. Many would then say just
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With an increase of homes starting to all have the same look many of our clients are seeking a point of difference. The addition of a stone feature wall can add this to a home and create an outstanding look and a talking point for years to come.                             .
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A client came to me over the weekend and claimed a major new home builder in Melbourne was over charging for fly-screens.  On further investigation I found the claim had substance and the company was charging 700% over the cost of the fly-screens. An average home of 20 squares has a fly-screen cost of $280 dollars so the company concerned is certainly charging way over the costs it should be. Most building companies put a margin on their goods at
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