20 Things to Look For When Visiting a Display Home

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It can be a roller coaster of emotions walking through and visiting a display home, from feelings of sheer awe to moments of complete disagreement, you’re certain to find something you love and something you just can’t stand.

What most don’t realise is that it’s easy to glide through a handful of display houses contained within a display village and not really be able to tell the difference between each of them by the end of your visit.

So how do we counter this and ensure we have a strategic way of comparing each home against one another?

What you need is a clear understanding of what to look for from the first moment each home appears within your line of sight.

Today, I’m going to discuss with you the 20 factors I’m on the lookout for while visiting display homes. These factors will enable you to see past the karate-chopped cushions and shiny finishings placed by the builders’ interior designers.

They’ll get you thinking about the important features that each home has incorporated into its actual design and floor plan. These are the features that add up to create a highly functional home for you to live in.

Essential Items to Bring When Visiting Display Villages

Before you leave your house you’ll want to ensure you’ve got just a couple of basic items on hand that will assist you as you’re exploring some of the many homes you’ll discover while visiting these display villages. The items are as follows:

• Tape measure
• Your phone (for taking notes and photos)
• A friend or partner (someone to bounce ideas off)
• Snacks and water to get you through the day

Well, I thought that list might be a little bigger but that’s about it to be honest.

The tape measure will come in handy for measuring hallway widths, furniture, and room dimensions.

With your phone, I recommend taking photos of any finishes, inclusions and features you love.

You can build an image stockpile of your favourite features and then have them incorporated into your new home once you’ve decided on who you’re building with. Think wallpaper, tiles, sinks, quirky features, benchtops, cabinetry finishes or anything else that catches your eye.

As for the friend, taking someone with you can turn exploring new homes into a bit of a fun day out. Your friend or partner is likely going to have different taste to you and will notice things that you might overlook, and just makes for a more enjoyable experience overall.

And whatever you do, don’t skip a home because it’s too large or too small. Don’t worry if any of the homes are outside of your budget. You’re just going for a walk-through to get those new home inspiration juices flowing.

If you’re worried about what to say to the salesperson sitting at the entry, just let them know you’re browsing and not ready to build just yet. They’re typically happy to just leave you be and let you wander through on your own and at your own pace.

The Impact of a Home’s Facade on Your Daily Life

When you approach each home within the display village you first of all need to decide if the front facade is something you would be happy looking at each day.

How does it make you feel, does it have soft lines with earthy tones that help you to wind down and feel relaxed or is it something bold with raw materials and strong lines that you desire, something that ignites your ambition and gets you fired up?

From heading out in the morning to returning home each evening, you’re going to be looking at the facade of your home a whole bunch, so it’s important to ensure you choose or design one that’s aesthetically pleasing to your eye.

Don’t worry too much about what other people think, you’re choosing the home that YOU want to live in, a home that makes you feel happy, safe, relaxed and comfortable.

There’s such a broad range of home facade designs to choose from and the beautiful thing about construction is that if a specific builder has a facade that you like but you don’t particularly like the builder offering it, you can always save an image of the specific facade you liked and keep it handy for when the right builder comes along.

Alternatively, you don’t even have to choose a facade from a builder’s standard offerings, you can literally just snap a photo of a house you love and take that to a builder and have them recreate it for you.

To assist in finding a facade style you might like, I created some facade inspiration boards on Pinterest just for you.

You can find them here:

• Queenslander
• Coastal & Hamptons
• Contemporary
• Mid-century Modern
• Modern Coastal
• Country SA (where I grew up)
• Federation
• Colonial
• French Provincial
• Mediterranean & Spanish
• Art Deco
• Victorian
• Industrial
• Scandinavian
• Skillion

I firmly hold the conviction that the facade of a home carries immense significance, a fact that is frequently underestimated. It’s not just a variable, but a pivotal element that demands our unwavering attention if you’re setting out to create a beautiful home inside and out.

I find that those about to build a new home are typically super focused on finding a floor plan that’s just right, and because of this, they end up discounting the effects that the perfect facade can have on your life.

The right facade for your home has the ability to empower you, providing a source of energy that you take with you throughout the day. Take your time to get it right, and you might just get a chance to see how it feels.

The First Impression: How Your New Home Greets You

As you walk through the front door to your new home how do you want to feel?

Are you amped to be home and ready to put some music on to jive to, or are you heading straight for the shower and looking forward to the moment you can put your PJs on before relaxing on the couch?

I’m sure it’s probably a combination of these examples and many others, depending on the day of the week. With this in mind, it’s important to take a moment to think about how those first few steps into each display home make you feel.

Some display houses walk you straight into a pretty generic hallway that’s hard to tell apart from 80% of the display homes built in Australia, while some host grand entries with a captivating feature that draws your eye.

Perhaps it’s a stunning concealed stringer staircase with frameless glass balustrades that leads the way to the master suite. Perhaps it’s the views from the front door, straight through the open plan living area, out the 6m wide stacker sliding doors into the backyard where the kids are playing.

Whatever it is that lights you up, it’s your duty, no wait, it’s your obligation to find it and make sure it’s included in your new home. 📷

We don’t want you building just another run-of-the-mill house here, let’s take the time to get it right and ensure the home you build is one you love and never want to let go of.

Planning Your New Home: Why It’s Crucial Before Approaching a Builder

Embarking on the quest for the ideal home builder in Queensland can be quite the endeavour.

If you’re wondering how to sift through the options and identify a builder with a skilled team, efficient building processes locked down, and provided at a fair rate, you’re in good company. This is a common challenge faced by many prospective homeowners.

What many don’t realize is that once you start discussions with a new home builder, their main aim is often to get you to commit as quickly as possible. This rushed pace can lead to stress, especially since it overlooks a critical aspect:

The planning phase.

If you’d rather take a comprehensive approach to planning your new home, and are interested in developing a clear vision for your home before diving into conversations with a builder, we have the perfect solution for you at Foresight Home Planning.

Our passion lies in helping to craft extraordinary homes. In fact, there’s nothing quite like taking a wander through a freshly completed, exceptionally designed home. So once yours is complete, don’t forget to send the invite!

At Foresight Home Planning, we’re committed to empowering you with the tools and insights needed to plan and then construct a home beyond your wildest dreams.

Let’s redefine the boundaries of home design together, and help raise the standard of the homes being built across this great country by adding a dash of your personality and a sprinkle of the latest innovations, ensuring your new home not only reflects your unique personality and lifestyle aspirations but also invites you into the future of sustainable and intelligent living.

Through our HomeVision program and with the assistance of our IdeaDrop web app, you can shape and refine your home concept gradually with no time restraints, until it reaches a point where you know it’s ready to come to life.

With this vision, we’ll assist you in finding a great builder to actualize your dream home, no matter where you want to build. Whether it’s somewhere around Brisbane, on the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast, or anywhere in Queensland as a whole, we love the hunt to find talented builders to help bring creative homes to life.

Our love for homes drives us at Foresight Home Planning. We’re devoted not just to ensuring you have an unforgettable experience but also to maintaining the highest standards for all homes planned and built. Witnessing the emergence of cutting-edge trends and unique designs in homes meticulously planned by their owners is our reward.

With our HomeVision program, rest assured that complete customer satisfaction is always included as standard.

Hit the learn more button below to see how we do it.

The Strategic Placement of Your Kitchen and Garage

Pretty straightforward one here for you but super easy to overlook if not prompted to consider.

We can save ourselves all a bunch of time and ongoing effort by taking a moment to consider how far the Kitchen is located from the Garage.

You’ll want to consider this one as it will make the once-a-week chore of carrying in your shopping just that little bit easier.

The ultimate design win in this instance is having your Walk-In Pantry (WIP) located directly behind the garage, this way you’ll just unload the car and only have to carry four bags on each arm a handful of steps.

Not too phased by this one I hear you say, what do you think 80-year-old you will have to say about that… 🤔

With modern technology and medicine progressing at such a fast rate, and depending on your current age and health, it’s not unrealistic to think that someone in their thirties today could live another hundred years.

So, playing the long game with your home planning is not only wise but may also play a role in the potential resale value if you’ve managed to choose a home design that’s functional and easy to live in for people of any age.

Navigating Narrow Hallways and Tight Corners in Home Designs

Typically, only an issue with smaller project-style homes. You’ll want to be on the lookout for narrow sections of the hallway, especially where the hallway changes direction.

These can be difficult to navigate furniture such as beds and couches through if needed.

With this in mind, if you do find a home design that appears to have a narrow hall and tight corner that might be next to impossible to manoeuvre furniture through, take a moment to see what furniture the builder’s interior designers have placed in the rooms beyond the tight passage spot.

You just might find that no large furniture can find its way past this narrow point within the home. Woopsie!

Also, bear in mind that any dysfunctional issues like this that you find in a display home are somewhat subliminal messages to you that the builder either isn’t observant enough to notice these kinds of issues themselves or didn’t put in the necessary time to review and iron out the issue with their plans before starting construction.

The right builder isn’t just someone who can take a set of construction plans and get it built on the building pad. It’s also someone with a keen eye for detail who knows how to identify issues with a set of construction plans before commencing work on the building site.

This way, these kinds of prickly issues don’t present themselves to you once the home is completed and you are moving in.

Considering Your Existing Furniture When Exploring Display Homes

Builders are rather excellent at having their interior designers either create or find furniture that’s perfect for the size of a given room i.e. Lounge, Dining, Study, Home Theatre etc.

However, this overlooks the variable that you may already have furniture that you will be bringing to your new home. So, you need to be considerate of this while exploring each display that you visit, ensuring that rooms are large enough to suit the furniture you wish to keep.

With this in mind, before you head off to the display home village, take some measurements of any furniture you plan on taking with you into your new home and save them into the notes on your mobile.

Then, when you’re wandering around each display home, you can reference these notes to gauge how each piece of your furniture will work in any given space.

Also, be mindful that you don’t want rooms to be cramped, nobody wants to be squeezing around furniture so keep this in mind as you explore each display home.

The Importance of Bedroom Size in Your Future Home

Many standard home designs offered by project builders throughout Australia incorporate bedrooms that are 3m wide x 3m wide.

In my personal opinion, a bedroom should never be this small. If it does have to be this small it should just be a spare room for guests or a room for you to use as storage, or something along these lines. Anything smaller than 3m x 3m is a definite no-no.

My preferred minimum bedroom size is around the 3.2m x 3.2m mark.

Ideally, for a master bedroom, I want something closer to 6m x 4m. This allows additional space for a couch and somewhat of a parents’ retreat to be incorporated into the Master Suite bedroom. More on Parents Retreats below.

You also need to bear in mind that robes are typically built within the room dimensions if there isn’t space for a separate walk-in robe. This further reduces the accessible space within the room.

Typically, you’ll find that the location of the wardrobe in relation to the bedroom door ends up limiting your options for bed placement in these smaller 3m x 3m rooms. Therefore, choosing the smallest bedroom size of 3.2m x 3.2m as an absolute minimum is a thoughtful decision on behalf of the future occupant of the bedroom.

The Key to a Functional Kitchen: Space and Flow

The ‘narrow never works’ old age rule applies here.

We don’t want a narrow entry, we don’t want a narrow island bench, and we certainly don’t want narrow passages around the island bench. When reviewing Kitchens in a display home, this is where bringing a friend along really comes in handy.

What you’re going to want to do is grab your friend and both enter the kitchen at the same time. Then, each of you will go through the motions of preparing some food for yourself.

Now ask yourself:

• How does this kitchen flow?
• Are we walking all over each other?
• Can you comfortably stand by the cooktop while your pal is accessing the dishwasher or getting cutlery?
• Is there bench space for the both of you to prepare food at the same time?
• Is the designated fridge space impacting the preparation areas?
• If the dishwasher door is open, is that creating access issues to surrounding cabinetry?
• Is there enough storage for all of your Tupperware, pots and pans, glassware etc?
• Would dirty dishes be an on-display eyesore? (funny how display homes never have these!)

With just a few simple questions we can really dig deep and discover if a display home’s Kitchen layout is suitable and practical for your needs.

Don’t let the charm of a beautiful colour scheme be the deciding factor for choosing your future kitchen layout. The layout and the finishing colour scheme are two individual variables that each need to be thought about separately.

Let’s find the practicality of the Kitchen layout first, then apply the stunning finishes second.

The Importance of Natural Light and Orientation in Your Future Home

Each to their own with this one but for me, there’s nothing worse than a dark and gloomy home.

Personally, I want rays of sunshine entering the living areas of my home, helping to wake me up and keep me energised. On the other hand, I want my bedroom pitch black through the night and a cool 22 degrees so I can get the best sleep possible.

As you walk through each display home take a moment to pause and take in the light, observe where the builder has amped up the downlights to counteract the limited natural light and consider if any of the windows could be increased in size and how that might change the look and feel of the home.

You’ll also need to consider what orientation your construction site has in relation to the sun and how this compares to each display home you enter.

It’s a bit of a tricky one to consider on the fly each time you enter a new display, but it will most certainly be a variable that does affect the lighting levels throughout your new home if the orientation is not the same as that of the display home, were you to build a direct copy of the display.

You can also consider adding skylights if certain areas within your new home won’t be getting as much light as you would like. But just be mindful that these come at an additional cost, and you will need to discuss locations with your builder because the truss layout for your roof can impact possible installation positions.

The Luxury of a Personal Retreat in Your Master Suite

It’s time to treat yourself!

Most homes you’ve ever stepped foot into have a lounge, dining and maybe a media or living room.

Today we’re going to be on the lookout for display homes that have a private lounge adjacent to, or within the master suite (Main bedroom).

This is a private retreat for you to relax in, away from the rest of your household. Somewhere you can escape to without having to jump into bed, your personal lounge away from the main lounge if you will.

There are a couple of ways you can go about incorporating this into your new home design.

You can either have a separate room that’s only accessible through your master suite, or you can increase the size of your master suite, allowing additional space for some comfortable seating and furniture that complements your bedroom suite.

From my experience working in the industry for several new home builders, not many standard home designs or floor plans have a Parents’ Retreat included as standard. However, this doesn’t mean that a home design can’t be structurally modified to allow for one.

If you find a home design you love and would like to incorporate a Parents Retreat, have a chat with your builder to see if they are willing to accommodate your wishes.

Discovering the Value of a Kids’ Retreat in Your Future Home

We might treat ourselves again here with this option.

Ever get even just a little bit frustrated with the kids leaving toys or wanting to watch their TV shows in the main living areas?

Boy, do I have a solution for you!

Much like the Parents’ Retreat mentioned above, the Kids’ Retreat should be a separate room outside of the children’s bedrooms. This is where they have stored and are allowed to play with their toys, can make a mess, and just be the good little rug rats that they are, right in their own space.

Throw a flat-screen up on the wall (for educational purposes only, of course 🤔) and you’re set.

This one little addition helps to keep any children-related clutter confined to their own designated area, allowing the rest of your new home to remain zen-like.

Keep an eye out for a Kids’ Retreat while exploring display homes. Gather some ideas from different builders 👷‍♂️, jot down some notes 📝, take some snaps 📷 and let’s save them in your IdeaDrop account. This way, you have the best features noted down in one place and ready to be discussed with whichever builder you decide to build your new home with.

The Appeal of Open-Plan Living

When you’re visiting a display home, one of the key features to look out for is open-plan living. This design choice can significantly enhance the sense of connection among all members in your home. It also facilitates the penetration of natural light deeper into your living space, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere.

As you explore each display home, take the time to experience the space. Imagine yourself living there. How does the layout feel? How does the light play across the room?

You might even like to test how sound travels through the home. Get your friend to go to one end or side of the home while you stand at the other. What’s it like to communicate with one another?

Now, think about the cost implications. Homes without an open plan layout can actually drive up the cost of the home. You end up spending more dollars on additional walls, which require timber or steel framing materials, plaster, and additional professional labour to install and finish.

However, open-plan living isn’t without its challenges. These expansive living areas can be more prone to noise easily spreading throughout the home. That’s why it’s always wise to consider having additional retreats for parents and/or kids. These spaces allow you to segregate the noise or yourself away from the hustle and bustle of your household’s daily activities.

Remember, visiting a display home is more than just a casual walk-through. It’s about envisioning your life within those walls. So, take your time, take notes, and most importantly, enjoy the process.

Creating the Perfect Home Theatre: Features to Look For

Love a good movie night?

Here’s a great excuse to have just one dark and gloomy room occupying your household!

Let’s keep an eye out for some well-designed home theatres while exploring these stunning new display homes.

Some features to be on the lookout for include:

• Raised platform floor elevating seating similar to a cinema,
• Built-in ceiling and wall-mounted speakers,
• Coffered ceilings with dimmable coloured LED lighting,
• Soundproof insulation batts within the walls and ceiling,
• Feature panels installed to the walls/ceiling,
• A solid core door between the home theatre and other living areas,
• Luxurious carpet.

Remember to take photos of everything you love, display homes are inspiration tools so let’s make the most of them.

If the display homes don’t cough up the goods for you, have a browse through my Home Theatre Pinterest board, if you find a pic you like in there, save it to your IdeaDrop so we can get it included in your new home.

Where Are You Saving Your New Home Inspo?

Looking for a place to organize and store the growing collection of notes and ideas that you have for your new home?

We got you.

Back when I was planning my first home I had the same problem, notes everywhere with no structure to keep track of them.

I was using Evernote, Excel, sheets of paper in my office and to-do list apps, but then I realised something, if I’m facing this problem then surely many others must be also. So I set out to build an online home planning service where you can create a vision for the new home you’re planning by storing all of your notes and inspiration in one easy-to-access place.

To achieve this I’ve developed a tool named IdeaDrop, which is available at no cost through this website.

It allows you to conveniently store all your notes and inspirational images for your new home in one conveniently categorised place. This way, everything is organized and easily accessible when it’s time to start discussions with your builder, ensuring all your ideas are neatly compiled and ready to go.

Curious to learn more about IdeaDrop?

This article digs into what it is and how it can help you visualise your dream home.

Balancing Bedrooms and Bathrooms: A Guide for Larger Homes

When visiting each display home, it’s important to be aware of the number of bathrooms & ensuites each home has in relation to the number of bedrooms.

Typically, it’s not an issue for 3 to 4 bedroom homes as long as the master bedroom has its own ensuite in addition to a main bathroom. We’re just looking to ensure that people aren’t having to climb over one another in the mornings when getting ready for the day ahead.

Issues however tend to arise as we approach the 5+ bedroom houses.

In this instance (if your block size and budget permit), you’ll want to ensure that the new home has one bathroom to service each 3 bedrooms, any time your home exceeds 3 bedrooms you should consider adding an additional wet area (bathroom or ensuite).

Any bedrooms that have their own private ensuite can be excluded from the thought experiment.

Planning for Ample Storage: The Importance of Robes in Bedrooms

First of all, every bedroom should have, at a minimum, a built-in robe with sliding doors for access.

If you come across a bedroom that doesn’t have one built-in, you’ll need to take a moment to think about why the builder hasn’t included it. Perhaps the room dimensions don’t permit it, and adding one effectively renders the room too small for the single bed they have featured, with not much else going on.

Built-in robes should never be smaller than 1600mm wide.

In my opinion, this is the absolute minimum. Also, if I’m being honest, I want all robes to be around the 2000mm mark. This takes into consideration the occupants’ growing wardrobe and helps prevent the need for an additional free-standing dresser to occupy space in a bedroom.

When it comes to the master suite, you’ve got various options that you can consider. However, you always need to be considerate that master bedrooms typically have two occupants, and women typically want a larger robe allowance than a man would require.

Your wife or partner will love the gesture if you point out that you think additional robe space, including shelving and built-in drawers, would be beneficial for their daily routine.

Back to the options:

• The first option is to provide two separate built-in robes at >2m wide each;
• The second option is to create a walk-in robe which can service both his and her requirements;
• The third option is to create two individual walk-in robes, one for each occupant.

Keep an eye out for these three different robe styles as you explore each display home.

Maximizing Bathroom Functionality in Small Spaces

Blocks of land are getting smaller and smaller these days, and newly built homes are along for the ride. As such, this is an important tip to pay attention to.

What you’re likely going to find while visiting display homes is that they are going to have small bathrooms and ensuites. Because of this, the builder has the rough task of figuring out how to cram everything into the confined space.

The biggest no-no, in my eyes, is having the toilet within the same room as your toothbrush and the towels you dry yourself with after a shower.

I’m always on the lookout for builders who find creative ways to either have the toilet enclosed adjacent to the bathroom, or they’ve found a way to enclose the toilet within the bathroom itself.

Also, what’s the go with bathrooms having one towel rail?

I don’t know about you, but I want his and hers towel rails in any Ensuite that I’m using regularly.

Sometimes, I like to shower twice a day. Due to this, I typically have two active showering towels at any one time, which allows me the benefit of a dry towel both morning and evening.

It is highly unlikely that you’ll come across a display home bathroom or ensuite with more than one towel rail. So, if this is something you feel would be beneficial for your new home, take the time to observe if the size of the bathrooms and ensuites you are visiting have sufficient space to house more than one towel rail.

If there is just no way around the limited space available, you can also consider installing several robe hooks to hang additional towels.

Storage Solutions: Accommodating Everyday Items in Your New Home

Such an easy oversight!

Does each display home have somewhere to store your vacuum, broom, linen & bed sheets, along with your hand tools & power tools for those DIY around-the-house projects?

How about all the gardening tools you have?

That lawn mower and whipper snipper take up a bit of space, is that going to be stored somewhere inside your home, or are you one of the lucky few that has a shed that can house these items?

It’s so easy to get caught up in a beautifully furnished and interior design finished home that we overlook the functional necessities for everyday life.

Here’s a quick checklist for you to copy-paste to your notes to ensure each display home you visit can accommodate these items:

• Vacuum,
• Broom,
• Mop and bucket,
• Car washing supplies,
• Lawn mower,
• Whipper snipper,
• Hedger,
• Hand tools,
• Power tools,
• Workbench,
• Bicycles,
• Skateboards,
• BBQ,
• Pool equipment & supplies,
• Home gym equipment,
• Office equipment (printers, PC’s, desks),
• Moving boxes,
• Suitcases,
• How about those items you like to hoard but should really just throw away?

Designing the Ideal Alfresco: Creating a Relaxing Outdoor Space

An outdoor Alfresco & Terrace should be a place you can furnish that can accommodate the whole family plus guests. Take a moment to consider how large the seating area is at each display home, and if the location of these areas within the overall design of the home could be expanded if need be.

Remember, just because a home design currently only has a small Alfresco, doesn’t mean you can’t discuss modifying the design with your builder to increase the roof coverage area. Note that these kinds of structural changes will impact the cost of the home.

You’ll also want to be on the lookout for Alfrescos that have built-in cabinetry, BBQ’s and sinks (maybe even a sneaky bar to indulge your cravings 😉).

An Alfresco done right is an opportunity to create an environment that encourages conversation, a place where you, your pals, friends, or family, can kick back and relax with a cold beverage and discuss the joys of life. So keep an eye out for the builders who understand this and have created outdoor settings that you’d love to kick back in.

Considering Land Use: How Your Home Design Fits on Your Block

The first step here is to understand how wide the building envelope is on the block of land you own or are looking at purchasing.

With this information, you can then find out how wide each display home is to determine how much of your building envelope will be consumed.

For example, if you have a 15m wide building envelope along the front of your property, the home that you build must be contained within this envelope.

If you also need a driveway to be installed to the rear, you’ll need to assess if there is room for the driveway outside of the envelope but still contained within your legal boundary. If not, a narrow driveway would end up consuming approximately 2.5m worth of your building envelope frontage, reducing your available building envelope to somewhere in the vicinity of 12.5m wide.

Don’t forget to ensure clearance so that large vehicles don’t hit any overhanging part of the home.

You also might like to think about the following:

• Will the floor plan accommodate side access for a concrete path?
• Is there enough room to track your lawn mower down the side of the home?
• What happens if you need some excavation work done at the rear of the property or intend on building a shed or swimming pool? Can a truck fit down the side of the house?

Just a couple quick points to consider that can help eliminate issues that might present post-construction commencement.

What are the Standard Inclusions for each display home?

Each new home builder typically has their own standard inclusions. These are the default fixtures, fittings, finishes and materials that the builder will include in the base price of your new home before you spend any money on modifications.

These standard inclusions can be quite difficult to identify when visiting a display home because new home builders are not obliged to build their displays to resemble what you actually get included as standard.

What you’re going to find is that there’s three categories of display homes:

• The home is built to the standard inclusion specifications – what you see is what’s included in the base house price (RARE).
• The home has some upgrades above the builder’s standard inclusions spec (COMMON).
• The home is extensively upgraded and the builder is showing off their capabilities rather than the standard inclusions that come with the home design (COMMON).

For context:
When I mention ‘Base House’ or ‘Base House Price,’ I’m referring to the unmodified home design offered by the builder and the inclusions that come with it.

‘Standard inclusions’ refer to the included materials & finishes that come with the base house at no additional cost.

Now that we understand that each builder has their own standard inclusions, it’s important to pay attention to this when visiting display homes as this is one way that builders catch many people off guard.

For any home that you find yourself interested in, ask the builder’s sales agent if you can have a copy of their standard inclusions for the specific home design. This is typically printed on A4 paper and will be between 1 & 5 pages long. You’ll want to take this home with you so that you can compare it against the standard inclusions offered by other home builders you are interested in.

The trick to reviewing a builder’s standard inclusions is to ensure that the builder you are considering includes as many of the basics that you desire as possible. This way, you don’t incur as many additional costs from having to upgrade every item.

With that said, I have a challenge for you. See if you can track down a builder that includes the old-school batten light points as a standard inclusion instead of downlights.…

Builders do this because it allows them to advertise their ‘base house price’ at a lower price point than other similarly sized homes. This can trick you into thinking that a home through this builder is more cost-effective than an alternative home by another builder. However, you’ll notice the price increases later on when you have to upgrade all those batten lights to downlights.

Sneaky sneaky!

This is just one example of manipulative pricing methods, please be aware of these tactics across the board when comparing new home builders and their standard inclusions against one another.

Attention to Detail Throughout Each Builders Display Home

As a carpenter by trade, this is a big one for me.

When I’m walking through a display home, I’m taking note of how the builder’s tradesmen have installed every material. I look at how neatly timber posts have been cut and notched to allow beams to run through, how straight the tiler’s cuts are against cabinetry, shower hobs, and walls, and how the roofers have installed flashings on external parapets and brickwork.

For the untrained eye, these aspects can be easy to overlook. However, with each installed material, the home offers some insight into the builders’ and their tradesmen’s workmanship standards. In most cases, builders have their absolute best tradespeople working on their display homes, so it can be a challenge to identify issues. But it’s a challenge I love.

If you spot something that could have been finished or installed better by the tradesman, you should know that not only did that tradesman give it their tick of approval before moving on to the next job, but so did the builder’s project supervisor and the construction manager

It’s highly likely that the entire builder’s admin team, their estimators, draftsman and even their accounts staff, have all walked through that display home and had a chance to point out any little issues that could have been rectified before opening day. So, just bear this in mind.

Minor imperfections in a display home can be telling indicators of the overall craftsmanship and quality you can expect from the builder. Builders ultimately know this so that’s why they put their best of the best tradies on their display homes and resolve 99% of issues before the homes open to the public.

If you really want to gain some insight into the quality of workmanship that a new home builder is producing, then you’ll ultimately want to visit some of their ‘for client homes’ that have reached practical completion and have been handed over to their clients. These homes aren’t typically completed under such sharp scrutiny and won’t typically get the builder’s best tradesmen unless the builder is top-notch.

Closing remarks

There you have it.

With these pointers, you’ll be ready to truly take in each display home you visit in a much more intimate way than you might have otherwise. You’ll allow yourself to see past the fancy finishings and really focus on the practicality of each home design while also taking note of each builder’s attention to detail.

Good luck in your hunt for a new home!

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