Surprise Email Today!

To my surprise I received an email from Mcdonald Jones Senior Management today (Hi Phil!!) in regards to my questions over the last few weeks, and to clarify the position Mcdonald Jones takes on certain area's of the contract process.

What I can clearly say with-out a doubt is the initial communication wasn't as transparent at the beginning which certainly lead to expectations which didn't meet my understanding until today and commitments a House and Land Package offers, compared to a stand-alone House contract, (You already own the land)

Lesson here, Ask better Questions....so my mistake as well.

The biggest difference here, and what I'de like to share with anyone heading into buying and building, is that a House and Land package (Depending on Builder I guess) is a Fixed price contract, with the only pricing that's visible to you, being additional variations you add to this contract ie:- Spa-Bath, Fireplace, Upgraded carpets (the additional cost)

So for my issue, it was based around carpets and tiling, where these are included into the fixed price contract but the actual money assigned to these were not visible. And yes some helpful advise from Brett@MJH who in my eye's was being Honest/Truthful/Transparent and really painting a picture that would better help me budget and decide if going with MJH was the right choice.

Let's be very clear here, I rate doing business on winning partnerships, and a win win! And with the information I got from my Sales contact at the start of this process made me feel comfortable I was making the right choice.

Needless to say, if your heading into this be prepared to understand that a Package is a package, and you generally don't get the visibility to each line item, where-as if you buy just the construction part, you get the visibility into all line items ie:- Basix/Site Costs/Carpets/Tiling etc etc.

Another learning curve in this process, and I do appreciate (Phil@MJH) reaching out to answer my questions.

We are still going ahead with the build with MJH, and there are only 2 things left to cover off in the final contract. That's insuring the $5k deposit is deducted off the Final contract, compared to the consolidated tender value, and also allocating the variation amount for the Electrical into the final contract.

So we wait until next week now to receive the final contract amount, hopefully it's fairly close to what I have budgeted for, add the Variation for the Electrical and then it's off to the Conveyancer and Bank to start the final steps to lock this deal in.

BTW, Hi Bill!