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16 questions from our users

Armin R.

Armin R.asked

Smart Homes For Living

would like know if its within my budget? How much "SH35" with terrace approx?

1 answer
Smart Homes For Living
Smart H.Smart Homes For Living

Hi Armin,

Thank you for your question. We’d be happy to discuss any queries you may have, please reach out to us on 9241 1300.

We look forward to assisting you further.



Kind regards,
Smart Online Team.

Jake

Jakeasked

Smart Homes For Living

What's included in the Smart homes Ultimate spec? There isn't crap all information they provide!!

1 answer
Smart Homes For Living
Smart H.Smart Homes For Living

Hi Jake,

Thank you for your comment. The Ultimate includes the following inclusions:
- 30c ceilings through out
- EssaStone benchtops to your kitchen
- Luxury 600x600 tiling to living areas
- High quality carpet and underlay to the bedrooms and theatre
- Venetian blinds to windows
- Ducted reverse-cycle air-conditioning
- Internal wall painting Upgraded ensuite, bathroom and laundry
- Deluxe kitchen appliances



If please contact us on 92411 311 or via our website if you have any further questions, we would be happy to help. Kind regards, SMART Online Team.

Jay

Jayasked

Smart Homes For Living

Do you install the NBN connection facilities to newly build homes?

1 answer
Smart Homes For Living
Smart H.Smart Homes For Living

Hi Jay, thank you for your question. Smart Homes For Living specification includes a NBN ready pack – phone point, TV point and data point with
TV antenna if required. The home owner is required to liaise directly with their provider to facilitate their connection. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to get in contact. Kind regards, SMART online team.

Mumoftwo

Mumoftwoasked

Smart Homes For Living

Who is the person in charge of overall complaints? we now at the stage were we just regret ever choosing Smart Homes. Started process in April (14months) still dragging on - mistakes after mistakes causing delays after delays. Rude and incompetent staff. Never return calls. High staff turn over says it all...

6 answers
Cameron Fletcher
Cameron Fletcher

I would not know the person directly incharge of complaints as such any problems I had were dealt with immediately by my client liaison if she was unavailable by phone I always followed up with an email to which I got a response. fortunately I dealt with the same staff throughout the build process. My build did take a little longer then ancipated, but only because of issues I came across that required attention.

Mumoftwo
Mumoftwo

Done all that - now want someone at a higher level

Smart Homes For Living
Ventura H.Smart Homes For Living

Hi Mumoftwo, Please email us on our customer feedback line at [email protected] with your job number and we will look into this for you.

AJ

AJasked

Smart Homes For Living

Can somebody recommend a good building inspector? We are building with Smart Homes and reading the reviews, we think we need a building inspector. Thanks

10 answers
not happy !!!!!!
not happy !!!!!!

Cant recommend 1 but yes most definitely would get 1... dodgy work all round our house still not finished after slab going down 11 mths ago !!!!

Bubby
Bubby

best thing you can do is get all their dodgy work inspected along the way. not in a million years would I believe anything that this builder tells you.

Bubby
Bubby

yeh you pretty much need to go back in time ( if only I had a time machine) and not put pen to paper with the [inappropriate word removed] in the start. Anyone else reading this i would NOT recommend signing up with smart homes/Ventura homes (both part of the same company) and plenty other sister companies they have interests in. I no if I ever built again to try guarantee we have nothing to do with these [inappropriate word removed] I will make sure the housing company uses Midland Brick not BGC.

Bubby

Bubbyasked

Smart Homes For Living

Hi Gerard Malan, Are you able to give more information as to what is wrong with your slab? Our slab has some major cracking that has recently appeared which we are concerned about and we were wondering if you could advise how bad your's is? Thanks

1 answer
Gerard
Gerard

Hi Bubby, yes sure. The slab in the garage has got no proper level. The floor in the middle of the garage floor is lower- no plain surface throughout the whole area of the garage floor. As a result during rainy days water from outside is coming into inside.

jsmith

jsmithasked

Smart Homes For Living

Hi everyone,

My fiance and I are building with smart homes in eglinton. Land has just titled, pre start is done and sorting out all the final paperwork now. Has anyone else built with Smart Homes up that way? If so how long was your build time / were you happy with the end results???

One last thing is we are doing our own soakwells - does anyone know a good company who can do them at a decent price?

Thanks!

8 answers
Bubby
Bubby

Hi J Smith, we are not building up Eglinton way. We were told our house would be built in 22-26 weeks and it has gone passed that time frame now, if they get there stuff together we might have keys in the next 6 weeks?? We are not happy with a lot of things to do with the build, have given them sufficient time to respond but still no satisfactory outcome. so next step will be going to the relevant authorities to try get the issues sorted! We checked out product review before signing with Smart homes and there reviews seemed reasonable but obviously over the past 18 months or so something has happened as there seems to be a lot of negative reviews now, pity we couldn't have seen into the future! All I can say is good luck and hopefully you do not have the headaches we are having/had so far with our's. We would never build with them again or recommend them to anyone who is looking to build!

not happy !!!!!!
not happy !!!!!!

Also building with Smart Homes, would not recommend them !!!!! we to were told build would be 22 - 26 weeks and it has now been 28 weeks and so sign of it being finished this year, infact the build is going backwards, it took the tilers 5 weeks to tile wet areas and still not even grouted yet, YES 5 WEEKS !!!!! now we are told the waterproofing was not complete in the showers so now the tiles all have to be ripped up. in that 5 week period no other work has even been started. have had 3 different Liaison Officers and 3 different Supervisors. Have had nothing but problems since we sighned building contract last year Aug 2013 !!!

jsmith
jsmith

Eek doesnt sound good all around does it? Hopefully 2015 will be a better year for smart homes.. must say everything until now has been all good, we will be getting a building inspector for the build now after reading these bad reviews!! Hope things get better for you guys !

Sas

Sasasked

Smart Homes For Living

Can someone please tell me what a realistic time frame from signing contract to slab being poured to finished home? Thank you

9 answers
not happy !!!!!!
not happy !!!!!!

We signed our contract in Oct 2013, block wasn't titled till Nov 2013. Block settled in Jan 2015 and our slab went down in April, house still a few months off being complete :(

Sas
Sas

Thank you

not happy !!!!!!
not happy !!!!!!

We were told our build will take aprox 22-26 weeks. Aprox 38 weeks later house still not finished !!!

Firsttimebuilder

Firsttimebuilderasked

Smart Homes For Living

Just wondering if anyone is currently building with smart homes for living and experiencing long lead times for brickwork? I've heard everyone is struggling to get brickies at the moment but I just wanted to find out what the rough ETA was between slab being poured and brickwork commencing?

2 answers
Modified Success
Modified Success

Hi First time builder. It is disappointing I know when your very first build seems to be delayed. I started my home last January 2013 (been in since July 2013) My pad was down with the bricks sitting on and around it for 4 weeks before a bricklayer could get started. Even back then there was a shortage of labour due to lots going up North for bigger payouts. My supervisor told me he'd had an ad in the paper for weeks. He contacted a brickie who had worked for them before and was back from out of town. Once this guy started though he worked solid (sometimes without a labourer to help) and the finished job was very nice. I didn't realise that this situation is still ongoing. After that there were contractors following up all the time. The finish came well within 6 months so hope for you it's the same. Good Luck.

Firsttimebuilder
Firsttimebuilder

Thanks for the feedback.
Looks like everyone is in this situation at the moment. I've been waiting over two months for the brickwork to start so hopefully something will start happening soon before the bad weather comes in. I've spoken to a few people and they have said once the brickies had done their thing that there wasn't really any other delays with other trades and that everything went relatively smoothly (as smooth as it can go when building!) . I'll keep my fingers crossed!

MissLovebug

MissLovebugasked

Smart Homes For Living

Please help!! What are the top 5 things need to look at during prestart? I hear from previous comments that it's expensive to change things after prestart, so want to be as prepared as possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

5 answers
Angry Chic
Angry Chic

Extra power points, TV points, doors, wish I could have warned you not to sign with them.

Gerard
Gerard

Hi MissLovebug, If you have visited your future home at display village before and now you think what you saw is exactly what you want (your future house fits the land, indoor layout, finishing is what that you expect, etc) I would suggest to ask your builder to tell you (to specify) what things incl prices for (so called :) extras) (for example: down lightnings to the bathrooms, extra power points, higher ceilings to some rooms-garage and many, many more things) are NOT included to the house you chose and which they gave you a quote based on basic price. Than compare your house with the house which you saw on display. Usually display home (with extras) is more than 40% more expensive then the (the same house with basic finishing) which the builder offers you.

Gerard
Gerard

...There are not many extras offered by the builder in reasonable price, however some of them are needed to be chosen in early stage of the construction process (at prestart!) For further advice is good to ask somebody who has got a previous experience in that. Good luck :)

Tkent

Tkentasked

Smart Homes For Living

Like the promotion for november. Worry about hidden cost. Wonder siteswork included in the $199.990 Mayember price? (the answer)

2 answers
Modified Success
Modified Success

Sorry I have no idea on any recent promotions as I signed up July 2012 and been in my home 4 months now. However when I look at my records my price included any mentioned promotions at that time (stone benches for an extra $990) but the contract quotation then lists siteworks and the individual jobs like earthworks, sewer run in, underground power run in, water run in, council crossover and sub-base, . I had an extra $3500 there. They will also add on to your total a few PS amounts. These are provisional sums of money for " maybe" needed work. They came to $3000 but I did get some of it credited back before the final payment was due. You should allow at least an extra $1000 for the electrical plan as you will no doubt need a lot more plugs/lights etc. All this is standard practise throughout builders. I got a better deal on my air con through Smart Homes as that would have cost me a lot more had I installed it later. Hope this helps.

blocker
blocker

we are building that house atm, there was xtra costs as modified success says,
i saw the ad as well i am pretty sure u have to pay site work costs
mine came to about 11000 but i got a credit back on a few items
we are hoping to get the keys on friday this week
the company is very good .tradies very good only minimal problems during the build
go fo it tkent

A_dub89

A_dub89asked

Smart Homes For Living

Is anyone building/built the mentor and wouldn't mind sharing a photo of the front of your house? We are stuck on colours. Not sure if the colours we are thinking of will be too dark. Also does anyone know the price to upgrade to the timber look garage door? Thank you

2 answers
blocker64
blocker64

have u asked the prestart people they are very friendly
we are building the mentor in brabham if my memory serves me right we are doing a grey red front been 10 months since prestart.
roof going on this monday

blocker64
blocker64

we are now 5 weeks from moving in 3 weeks ahead of the date as stated
well done smart homes

A_dub89

A_dub89asked

Smart Homes For Living

Hi. We are looking at building with smart homes just wondering how long the building process was? Also what was the price on extras like power points and tv points? Thank you very excited!!

4 answers
Gerard
Gerard

Hi A_dub89, I paid $2000 deposit on 31-st of Jan, they purred slab down last week so it looks like the whole paper work process took them more then 5 months. My choice was "The Mentor ". The basic price of the house was $175k, but you need to add about 20% of that that price ($20k-$30k) for standard house finishing. Any extra double power point was $60 (each), TV point $170. Good luck. Gerard

Modified Success
Modified Success

The actual building process you asked about, mine took 6 months from the slab pour end January. I am moving in right now. But if you have December /January in your equation you will of course have to allow for the tradesmen's break and any suppliers also. The prices for extras are already answered above. All the best

Jo and Joan
Jo and Joan

Hi congratulations we were very happy building with Smart homes. Our building started in September and we were in by March. Extra power points and TV points are well worth the charge I can't remember the costings. Make sure you check where the doors are and add any that are missing like Laundry and linen cupboard. Good luck and enjoy your adventure

bobby bobson

bobby bobsonasked

Smart Homes For Living

i am thinking about building with smart homes but have heard they are apart of ventura homes and they have some terrible reviews.
I was just wondering if anyone has used these guys recently and would you reccomend them?

14 answers
Jo and Joan
Jo and Joan

Hi Bobby
We built with Smart Homes for Living signing the contract in March and building commenced in September and finished in March 2013.
We were very happy with this company and would thoroughly recommend them . We have been in our home for 3 months and have not encountered any maintenance problems. They followed through on any query we had and keep us in touch throughout the process. Good luck with your build and i'm sure you'll be very happy with the service you receive if you choose Smart Homes for Living.
Jo

bobby bobson
bobby bobson

thanks jo
building is a little scary, if they give us a great deal i think we might go with them

Modified Success
Modified Success

Hi Bobby
I am moving into my new home built by Smart Homes within the next few weeks. Yes they are part of the Ventura group building the middle of the range homes. Customer liason is very good and apart from a bricklayer shortage in the beginning there has not been many days that some one hasn't been there working on my house. Just make sure you make any requests and upgrades at your pre start as it is very expensive to change once the plans are drawn up. This is normal with all builders now. If you are in the Wanneroo area a visit to the show home in Sinagra to see Ashley would be a helpful way to start. Christine

DSM

DSMasked

Smart Homes For Living

Planning to build with Smart Homes, but the titles are expected to be released in Dec/Jan. was not sure if I should sign up with them now or wait for few months, any suggestions and also any feedback on there standard range of products carpets, tiles etc...?
It's my first home.

Thanks DSM

5 answers
Jo and Joan
Jo and Joan

We signed up for our home in March and didn't receive the title for our land until May. Nothing could be done to prepare for the building until title came through but at least we locked in the price. We have been in our house 2 months now and are very happy with all products supplied by smart homes they all seem to be of a high standard and have no issues with anything. the workmanship was exceptional also so I would thoroughly recommend this company for your build. We wish you all the very best in your venture it is an exciting process.

Modified Success
Modified Success

Last July I already had the land on hold for a small deposit, I also did the same with Smart Homes until I sold my exsisting home . So I also locked in that price and got the deals that applied right then.They were due to go up too so had I waited I would have paid more.A tip I saved on some of the stamp duty rate for the land by having the 2 in together at settlement. The quality of products is good. Plenty of tiles at their price allowance, all up to date fittings and the carpets/wood are from Trevors next door to their main office. Mine finishes in about 6 weeks . All the best. Have fun.

blocker64
blocker64

In my opinion wait till ur titles are close to settlement .as our land was promised by the developer early and ended costing us xtra money.
other wise smart homes is a very good company to deal with

Sarah A

Sarah Aasked

Smart Homes For Living

Thanks Blocker64. We went with Smart, but are not even at contract stage yet. So many questions! We'll get the extra power points. Did you spend a lot at prestart?

5 answers
blocker64
blocker64

no we didnt spend that much about $2500
i am doing the flooring and the soak wells ask around for a price on the soakwells we changed a few things we put a roller door in the garage to walk out the right side of the block as our block is 15 metres wide
double vanity in the ensuite
we did xtra tv points as well
it works out about the same price

Jo and Joan
Jo and Joan

Hi Sarah
Good luck with your build! we put in extra doors especially to Laundry and Linen cupboard, we also got extra power points and tv points and put cupboards in the laundry with a stainless steel sink which is great.We chose to do our internal painting ourselves. Apart from that we went with the standard contract and are very happy with the results.
cheers

Hi we spent a lot but only put things in that would cost a lot in time and effort once we were in eg painting great all done price was reasonable and no upheaval once u are in

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