Why I started Buildi

My journey with building a home started in 2016 when I learned firsthand how the process of building works in Australia, my wife and I purchased a renovator with the hope of making it our family home. We started the journey with the highest level of enthusiasm. We had this glossy vision of how we were going to drive up the value of this house with some minor renovations. Without any experience with construction we were in for a rude awakening.

What am I paying for and is it fair?

We started off with getting quotes on work that needed to be completed on the house. Like many people my first port of call was google. This gave me pages and pages of builders that only did new homes and didn’t want to help. After countless hours of filtering through builders we had 5 builders that were open to helping. We then organised for them to come out and give me quotes. 

We were given 5 quotes with 5 completely different prices and we had no idea on why there was such a huge difference. We then went through the quotes with a fine-tooth comb and still unable to understand why there was as much as a $30,000 price difference. We were concerned that if we chose the cheapest quote, would we be getting the right level of workmanship? Or are we paying too much for choosing a higher quote?

After many more hours of deliberation, we decided on 1 builder to proceed with the work. We then proceeded with the contract and finalising the initial deposit to begin the process.

With the builder lined up, we thought the worst had passed

We were sorely mistaken.

As we went through the building contract and were kept getting asked for clarification on our requirements. We very quickly realised that the quote we were given didn’t include half of what we needed, and this is where it started to snow ball. What we budgeted and what the actual final contract price ended up at, were miles apart.

With differing perspectives on what we wanted vs what we needed was taking a toll on my wife and I. Both of us leading busy corporate lives, we were time poor and didn’t want to go through the process of going to another builder. We felt stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Pattern

Working in the banking environment I started to see a pattern very similar to my own journey around construction. Aussies were feeling like they didn’t have options, they weren’t getting the right information. All my clients building terms were getting thrown around and ended up with a bill that was higher than initially agreed upon.

So, I set out to find a solution to this problem. The piece that is missing with building a home is customer centric processes. We want to put the control back into the hands of the consumer rather than the builders.

Buildi works for the consumer! We spend the time to fully understand your requirements and objectives. We then get a panel of builders to tender for your project. We have done our due diligence with the builders that sit on our panel which includes insolvency tests. We assist in educating our consumers, so when we get to the contract stage there are no surprises and we ensure we stay within the desired budget.