Display home options - know what's standard and know what's not!

Now, Metricon aren't the only builder to option up all their display homes - and most people who walk through a M display home are wowed by what's on show. But here's a tip - when you go into a Metricon display home, ask a sales consultant for a displayed options price list. It'll list each and every item which is nonstandard; for example, the big front door, french doors where you'd normally have a window, multiple ensuites etc.

Don't be surprised when a house base price is $250,000 and "as displayed" $400,000 or more - but certainly a lot of these display options you may choose to remove. Tina loved the cantilever stairs with glass, but that's a $17,000 option or so. We may go with the cantilevered stairs, no glass, and stainless steel balustrades, about $7,500.

Other typical display options that we noted include bifold doors to alfresco - they look beautiful, approx $6-9000 per bifold. Timber windows to the whole house, well around $1800 just for the facade on the Nolan 41. Anyway, ask your own questions when you get to the display homes. I do specifically recall one other customer in front of us asking a greeter "How much does it cost to get a home exactly as featured here" to which the greeter replied "Oh, we don't know!". Clearly, he did know but didn't want to put off the customer, which is kind of disappointing to me - I would prefer a full and frank disclosure so that the customer can make their own decisions as to how much they want an option, and how much they're willing to pay for it.

That said, some of the options are quite reasonable priced - a roller door to the rear of our garage is about $300, which is more than reasonable. Some others I believe are a little overpriced; however at the end of the day you've got to consider the overall package price. Give a little, take a little, and ultimately you want to be overall satisfied with your house!

I also had one reader ask about a $5500 ensuite upgrade (which we're not going with anymore), where the shower is located centrally in the ensuite with 2 doors opening to it. There's also a $7000 ensuite upgrade, where the toilet and shower locations are swapped, and a spa bath added. I would add photos to explain, but we're on holidays this week without a scanner.

This brings up one little issue with M - when we were looking at Henley, they have a HUGE book showing all the options for all their house designs, it's about 2" thick with proper drawings of all their standard options. Unfortunately M don't have the same kind of book, so you will have to ask your sales consultant if you're after a specific option. Here's a hint - grab the Henley book and maybe use that as a guide to what other project home builders can/should offer as options. Also, go to see all M display homes, as you can always ask a sales consultant whether an ensuite design from another house can be added to your planned house. One other option we asked M was to add some drawers to the ensuite vanity, which is about $180.

Also had another blog reader post a comment about their Nolan 45 build - thanks a lot for your comment, and how exciting to be nearly finished! Tina was very very keen on also relocating the laundry entrance to the powder room side rather than through the kitchen - can you leave me some contact details regarding the rough price on this upgrade, including the larger laundry cupboard? We also asked M about have a self contained powder room with toilet and sink in the one room.

We've yet to hear back from M regarding any further appointments (we expect colour and electrical next) and we've still got a few modifications to the quote that we want to make prior to prelim contract - we'll probably remove colorbond roof, sarking and bigger eaves, and try to add back in that alternate laundry layout, so we'll need to contact our sales consultant to figure out who we submit these requests to now.

We're currently in Mt Hotham, enjoying some fabulous snow - it's nice to have a week off, and remind myself of how I have to get fitter so I can snowboard more...

Tim & Tina