"Can we get a free quote?" is one of the first questions I hear. I understand the instinct — but in custom home building, the free quote is often the most expensive document you'll ever sign.
Here's why. A proper quote on a custom build isn't a paint-by-numbers exercise. It involves engaging a quantity surveyor or doing the equivalent in-house, going through every line item, costing every trade and every supplier, looking at site conditions, contours, services and soil — and putting together a bill of quantities so detailed that the final invoice barely moves from it. That takes weeks of work and real money.
When a builder offers all of that for nothing, they're either gambling — hoping to recoup the cost from the next ten clients who don't proceed — or they're not actually doing the work. They're using a rough square-metre rate, sprinkling in provisional sums and prime cost allowances to cover the unknowns, and praying that variations will cover them later. That's how you end up forty or fifty grand over budget halfway through your build, with no real recourse.
Paying for a proper preliminary service might cost you a few thousand dollars. In return, you get a real number — one you can take to your bank, plan against and live with. You also get an honest read on whether the home you've imagined can actually be built for the money you have. That is information worth paying for.
There's another angle most people don't think about. If a builder hands you a free bill of quantities and you shop it around to two other builders, you've effectively asked your builder to fund someone else's tender. They'll either bake that risk into the price, or they'll stop offering free quotes altogether. The best builders have already moved to paid preliminary services.
If you'd like a proper, honest preliminary on your custom new home, head to inh.com.au/Melbournewesternregion. As a Melbourne western region builder focused on family homes, I'd rather charge you a little upfront than mislead you into a budget that doesn't exist.
