Two homeowners discuss building an extension with Enduro. The initial quote was higher than expected, but negotiations brought it close to the original estimate. They emphasize Enduro's reputation for hitting finish dates and the value of paying premium prices for quality work.
I just felt like it was going to work out because you'd said it was going to work out.
Oh yeah, I mean, I think the whole process was surprisingly relaxing for what people say is like the most stressful, one of the most stressful things you'll do. The first quote we got back from Enduro was, was a fair bit higher than what we had been expecting, and so that That led to some toing and froing over options for how we could possibly reduce that or just manage expectations. But once we'd agreed on that, really I think the final cost was pretty much the same. Yeah, so I studied renewable energy engineering at uni, and one of the courses I took there was around sustainable building design. And from that point, it's always been top of mind for me how poorly designed most of the building stock in Australia is. Australia is, and also knowing that it's not just an energy efficiency thing, it's a, it's a livability, and the quality of a house changes when you design it properly, when you've got natural light and you're getting sunlight into a room in winter. So that was sort of front of mind for us when, when we're looking at properties, was get the orientation of the block right, get the orientation of the house right, and then see what we can do in terms of the You put your, put your name on the line and said whatever date we give you, we're gonna, we're gonna hit it.
Um, so, um, I know we kept telling people that our builder had said he's never missed a finish date. They said there's no chance.
Like, we, we asked Brett at the beginning, what, what sort of premium are we paying? to go with Enduro versus another builder. And he said, look, they're definitely not, they're not the cheapest. You're going to be paying a premium, but like, you'll know what you're going to be paying and you'll get the best, the best outcome.
And every supplier that we went to when we had to go and pick things out, when they asked us, who is your builder? And we said Enduro, and they said, oh, we'd get Jackson to build our house. And that was really reassuring. It's like, okay, well, they see lots of houses being build, and if they'd recommend you, then we must be onto a good one.
And that wasn't just trades that Enduro had recommended either, like that was others, others out of the blue as well. So I think that was, that was a pretty good recommendation. And the trades that we spoke to were pretty clear that the standard is high, like even talking to the cleaners today and they were saying, look, It's the company you want doing your build. They're not always the easiest boss because they set a high standard, but as the customer, that's what you want, like, to know that someone's, someone's really pushing for that, pushing for that outcome. I thought it was— I mean, I think trust is the big thing. Like, you're putting up an awful lot of money for something on In an area that you don't have expertise, so the natural fear is, well, I'm going to get taken for a ride here. But I think from the outset there was— I had trust in the fact that we weren't getting screwed over. We were— a few frank and firm conversations, but like, in the end we walked away and Didn't have to worry about that. It was just, yeah, having trust that it was going to get, going to get sorted. That was a big thing. No, only, look, we really enjoyed the process. It's been far more enjoyable, I think, than I anticipated.
