Time can fly when you’re lost in your favourite podcast, and we’re already at the halfway mark of our eight-part podcast series Building the Dream. Whether you’ve been tuning in while smashing out a workout or powering through some chores, our latest episode welcomes budding homebuilders to one of the most pivotal and exciting stages of the journey – choosing the right home and builder.
Let’s say you’ve crunched the numbers, calculated your costs and have worked out a realistic budget for your new home or investment property. With that figure in mind, you can start the process of selecting the home design you’d love to go with – and the right builder to bring your dream home to life.
It’s important to keep in mind that, as one of the biggest purchases you’ll make in your lifetime, choosing the right home design (and builder) are not decisions to be taken lightly. As Adrian Popple, Metricon’s Design Director, states in episode four: “It’s such a big decision and obviously one that you want to get right because it is such a big investment. There's lots of things to consider.”
Whether you’re looking to build in a booming regional area like first time builders Robyn and Shane or have your heart set on a suburb that’s closer to the action like customers Rachel and Nik, there’s an abundance of home designs you can peruse online (including virtual tours). It’s also a great idea to visit a range of display homes to get a real sense of how a specific design and layout looks and feels in the flesh. Plus, it gives you the opportunity to ask our friendly New Home Advisors questions along the way.
As Lisa Goodsall, Metricon’s National Display Home and Studio M Manager, says “As a human being, you can’t really understand what something's going to be like until you experience it. Whether it's the space, the texture, the colour, or the size, it's great that you can go through it online, and can start to get an idea. But I think unless you can actually use all of your senses to experience something, you can't really make a good decision.”
What to ask your builder
As you visit display homes and start to deliberate what you’d like your home to look like inside and out, the next big milestone you need to consider is finding a builder who can bring your ideas to life.
To help you navigate this process, we’ve created a comprehensive checklist of questions to ask your builder to ensure you get personalised service backed by an experienced team with the right credentials, including a lifetime structural guarantee, resulting in a place you’ll love to call home for a long time to come.
Where to build: choosing land
Locating the perfect block of land for your first home can be a project in itself. That said, we’re here to help make the process easy. As a starting point, there are four key things you need to consider:
Safety
Don’t judge a book by its cover or go solely by what you might read or see on the news about an area. Visit it for yourself, spend a bit of time there and talk to some locals if you can. And remember to trust your instincts.
Community
Consider the people you like to associate with. Is this an area you’d feel comfortable living? Could you easily make new connections? What type of neighbours would you have? Facebook Community Groups can also be a valuable source of local knowledge, insights and stories.
Amenities
From schools, parklands, transport hubs, shopping and more, does the area offer what you and your family need in close proximity?
Capital growth
No one wants to buy in an area that depreciates in value, so protect your investment by doing a bit of research into how the area has grown over time. Canstar’s Annual Property Market Report is a great resource for insights into annual price growth in each of the nation’s major property markets.
Find more tips for choosing land here or take a look at where we build here. If you’re considering building in a new estate, we can also help you understand specific development requirements or learn more about how home and land packages work here.
First impressions count: selecting the right façade
Whether you’re in love with the Hamptons-inspired look or prefer the streamlined aesthetic of a cubist style, you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to the façade of your dream home.
To help you make the right choice for your home, there are four main areas to consider when picking the perfect façade: street appeal, colours, materials and focal points.
Metricon’s unique ‘mix and match’ approach enables you to browse several different facades for most of our home designs. For example, our popular Artisan design is available with up to seven different facades, from the modern Pacific to the traditional Provincial.
Find out more about how to achieve the perfect facade for your home, and make sure to check out our facades masterclass.
Finding the right floorplan for your lifestyle
From pondering your favourite spaces to considering what the future may look like (is your family growing?), our customisable floorplans make it easy to create the zones you need to truly love where you live. Here are a few of the key things to consider when choosing a floorplan.
For more inspiration, you can also browse and download comprehensive Metricon design catalogues here or check out our Lookbook for even more design ideas.
You can listen to our Building the Dream podcast on all major apps, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.