Is it better to secure land before finding a builder?

Sometimes purchasing a block of land without even having a conversation with the builder can end up actually costing you more money. Generally, if the block is purchased more economically than you had thought, generally it may have a few red flags. Talk to a builder to begin with. They may be able to indicate which blocks might be more suitable for you.

Hey guys, welcome to the Builder's Edge. I'm Norm Wales from Norm Wales Constructions. Now, for me, the whole purpose of this podcast here is to bring a little bit more awareness around the construction industry. I've been feeling for many, many years that there's not enough helpful information out there to support you guys to make the right choice. Now, we are a smaller family independent building company and we're not here to build everybody's home, but we would definitely love to be able to work with you to facilitate your dream home. But if we don't build your new home, we want you to be able to make the right decision in choosing the right builder for you. So hopefully the information that I'm able to provide through this podcast can be informative and helpful that you can now create your dream home. So I hope you enjoy and thanks for watching.

Norm, do you think it's better to secure a block of land before finding a builder?

Look, you can go two ways with this, really Honestly, it's no wrong or right answer to that there, to be honest with you.

Engaging a builder, and when I mean engaging, this is just early stage conversations prior to a block of land can be more beneficial at times than actually purchasing a block then coming to the builder. And the reason why that is there is people will just buy a block land, offer, you know, a bit of a map from a developer. And sometimes it hasn't been titled yet, so it's actually haven't even cited it properly and hadn't actually started thinking about the orientation of the home or where the sun sets and all these sorts of things there. So sometimes purchasing a block of land without even having a conversation with the builder, you know, can end up actually costing you more money. So, you know, really, if you want to start the process, talk to a builder to begin with there, tell them the estate that you're looking at, they should be able to give you some helpful, informative information. And, and if you've given them a bit of a guide on the scope of what you're expecting from the home, they may be able to indicate which blocks might be more suitable for you.

Yeah, so specifically on that, because homeowners might think, well, we'll get the land builders don't really know too much about that. They're the experts at building the home, but they're wrong. So, specifically, how can builders actually help homeowners choosing the right land for them?

Yeah, definitely. Like, so if it comes down to choosing the right block of land there, that's where it's going to come down to start actually getting some form of a concept together to what they're wanting in their home and then seeing if that actually fits the desired block. So if you're starting that process there early and working out what you're actually wanting in your home, a builder then would be able to help, you know, I guess, navigate and direct you on the Pacific blocks that are coming available. What would be a better fit to suit that home?

Would there be any sort of, I mean, red flags around choosing certain blocks? I mean, you know, blocks that might just be. Wow, that's a bargain.

Yeah, look, generally, if the block is purchased, I guess, more economically than you had thought, generally it may have a few red flags. You know, it may have an easement there. It may actually have, like a corner block, for example. People think they're purchasing a very large block, but you still got limited actual space to construct on because you've got setbacks from both side boundaries. So that can sometimes impede on the overall size of the home or the access, you know, to how you want to actually live in the actual property itself.

Yeah, yeah. We'll just talk quickly about the different types of blocks you've got. Obviously, you know, more narrow blocks or more, perhaps slope blocks. How much does that sort of affect the layout or the design of the home?

Yeah, definitely. Like, a flat site is obviously what you're ideally wanting with slight gradient, so you can break all the water away from the home. But, you know, if you start getting into sloping blocks, like, you're definitely going to start incurring more fees during the construction of stuff there. So you're either going to start putting a home on stumps, you either, you know, cutting and filling, and when it starts coming to narrow blocks and slope blocks and that there, you know, that they can start adding more degrees of difficulty to the construction, you know, which definitely are going to add cost to the overall build.

Yeah. Do you guys have any, or do you have any sort of perhaps success stories of meeting a homeowner in the early stages and they came to you guys?

Yeah, look, we've had many stores, I guess, there with customers purchasing blocks of land and they thought they might have been a great buy. And unfortunately, you know, They've bought an old know, session of farmland that's been subdivided off the thing and you know, you go to do a soil test on there and it comes up as a pea site or something, you know, and you know, it might have been used as old dumping ground and you know, there's been, you know, 44 gallon drums buried and car parts and you know, it becomes a very problematic site then and quite an expensive exercise to take that stuff away then bring good material in to just before you, then you can start, you know. So yeah, sometimes a cheap block isn't necessarily a cheap block and if you're going down that path and you are purchasing like a block of land and you haven't actually had a conversation with the builder, like, you know, an advice I can sort of give there is to, before you actually purchase a block, put into conditions to get a soil test done. So if you get a soil test done or you know, compassion test on the actual sort itself, there's, you can sort of see if it's actually going to be a problematic side or not.

What do you guys normally get? I mean, obviously, you know, you guys are building for, for families in Bundaberg. Do you find that more times than not people are coming to you, to you guys with an existing block of land or what's the sort of, what's the inquiry right there?

Look, it would be a bit of a 50, 50 sort of situation there. So there's no wrong or right reason, you know, to purchase a block prior to that. There's sometimes people just purchase a block and that's just what they want. And you know, we can still design things to make things work, you know, to their lifestyle there. But you know, it cost you nothing to start having an early conversation there with the building company, you know, just to ensure that you are going down the right path. Because we have had people in the past there purchase a block of land, come to us, start drawing concepts and things up there and what they are wanting, they've been very limited and they had to make, you know, some changes to be able to fit that actually on the block itself. Because they first thought that the block that they were purchasing would facilitate what they required. But it couldn't have been further from the truth there.

Wow. So what happens at that point?

Look, we've had in the past there that the customers have been lucky enough that they've been able to sell that block and purchase another one, had others there that I've been quite happy to sort of modify things and change stuff around and, and there's always means and ways of doing that though. But if you're building your forever home.

Yeah.

You want to make it perfect, you know, for the investment you're making.

So it sounds like. It sounds like, yeah, if you're looking at building your forever home, you like, that's the absolute foundation, right. Is starting right from there. So it's like.

You would say, I mean, in some instances it's actually faster, the process is faster engaging a builder right from the get go because it's going to mitigate a lot of the mishaps and wrong turns that you could potentially take. That does happen.

That's right. And you know, even if you start the research there and you go, look, you know, these are a couple of blocks of lands I'm looking at and have that conversation with the builder there, I said it costs you nothing to do that there. And then they can help you and guide you and give you some, I guess, more feedback that they can help you make a better informed decision. What's going to be the best choice for yourself?

Yeah, yeah, love it. So do you have any final, final tips or final advice there? If somebody's in that mind frame of going, oh, you know, we can see a couple of good blocks of land there that available, they're not too expensive, they're within a price range. What's your word of advice to them?

Look, the biggest thing is to, like I said, have a conversation with a builder about those blocks of land to begin with because, you know, the builders should be very knowledgeable about what's around the area. But look, the best thing and the best approach there for them would be to have a look at, you know, a bit of a chuck scratching what they've designed up. You know, do they feel there's limitations themselves within the actual design and will actually fit their block? And if they can bring that to a builder to discuss that a little bit further, that's definitely going to help them make a more informed decision. But the biggest thing is most people need to understand that they don't have to sit there and procrastinate about not being able to start the building process because they haven't got a block of land. Like really it's more about the sooner you do start having that conversation, working on some early concepts and that there to see if things are all going to line up the. That's going to help you further, you know, down the line, which will actually save you a lot of money as well.

Yeah, love it, love it. That's very practical advice there. So on that note, I'm going to jump into I get to know your Norm jar, and we're going to wrap this episode up.

All righty.

Jeez. These are really philosophical ones we're getting today. Okay, Norm, if you could send a message to the entire world in 30 seconds, what would you say?

A message to the world in 30.

Seconds, what would you say in 30 seconds? Or about.

Look, I think it'd be about just really reaching for the stars and doing what feels right in yourself and surrounding yourself with good people, sticking to, you know, what you believe in and never giving up.

I love that. That's probably the most important thing in life. Really?

I think so. I really do.

Yeah. Love it. On that note, thank you as always, Norm.

All right. Pleasure.

Cheers.