Welcome to Home Building Like a Boss, the podcast dedicated to helping first home buyers in Perth  build their dream home with ease and excitement.  I'm Jamie, your host and go to building broker.  Are you ready to feel empowered, in control and excited about your building journey? I'll help guide you with expert advice, insider tips and tricks and real life stories to help you navigate the confusing world of home building.

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OK, Maddy, let's chat about pre construction. Yeah.  So obviously you're our pre start guru and you support our clients through prepping for pre start and like why that's super important. But you also help out a lot. with supporting us on the back end and supporting clients and us meaning the brokers to help support our client.

We kind of all work together through the pre construction phase and there's a huge misconception on construction being the most important part.  And I mean, I personally think, and I think you'll also agree with me, pre construction is the most important part because that sets you up for a successful construction process.

How would you explain pre construction in a nutshell? Well, Jake actually explained it really well the other day. It's basically the instruction manual and everything in between from point A to point B to do with the actual construction of your home. Yeah. And I really love that analogy. Thank you. So, pre construction is everything from your T's and C's, your builder's timelines, your contracts, your addenda, all the little itty bitty things that make your house a home. 

In the construction phase. So it's the real nitty gritty stuff. Yeah, the instruction manual. Yeah, that was a good one by Jake. Instruction manual. So good. Yeah, well, yeah, it's all the paperwork, the bits, the decisions, the, the tiles, the colours. It's, it's the book. It is the foundations of construction. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And what do you think, I guess, like, there's obviously parts of pre construction that move really quickly, and there's parts of pre construction that move really slowly. Talk us through that. Well, it really is builder dependent and climate dependent, but a lot of the times you'll see a big wait time is actually after your pre start meeting has finished.

And then you're sort of just sitting there twiddling your thumbs going, you know, what's going on? Like, why haven't I heard from anyone? And the reason why that is, is because obviously there's lots of queues of work going on. You're the only client out there, but your drawings take quite a long time to be Finalize, especially if a lot of your stuff has been custom.

So you're getting a lot of custom quotes for a lot of suppliers. And then once that's done, the team actually have to go out and forward your plans and everything onto multiple different departments for approvals. So we're talking energy efficiency, engineering, getting the plan certified. Going to developers, getting them developer approved, going to the council, getting building approval.

There's a lot of different things that make up the whole process, a lot of cogs turning. And that's when it's not really your responsibility. You just have to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. It's all the behind the scenes stuff that the builder has to do in order to make your house happen. Yeah. And I, I mean, we find that in that early stage of the process, you find your block and you get your finance sorted and you do your design and you sign your PPA,  which is your.

Prelim agreement to go with your builder and then nothing, but it's like nothing for  you, the client to do, but the builder and the backend team are working on everything. So ebbs and flows of lots of different stages of the builder has to do things. And there's so many different parts and variables, but everyone works together to make that process move smoothly.

Step by step. How do you think? I don't know. Like, I mean, as a client, you can. Make your process go faster and you can also make your process go slower. What's some of the things that you see with clients or misconceptions in the industry with that? And in the sense of like, you know, I always give this example to clients.

If you take two weeks to send me or changes back on your sketch compared to two days, it's going to take a lot longer. Oh, I mean that's definitely a really big one. Another misconception is just constantly emailing your pre start consultant going on. Can we add this or can we take this out or this? So making constant changes after the meeting will definitely delay the process. 

Why does that delay the process for the people? Well, because every single time. You added change that your consultant and has to go and raise it on a variation, send that into the estimating department. So it heads into the estimating queue along with everybody else. And when you think about it, you're adding in just one item to be priced someone before you could have.

200 items to be priced there. Obviously you're heading in the queue. So guess what you're having to wait. Once that comes through the client liaison will then have to send it back to you. If you then take two weeks to respond and say, Hey, let's go ahead. She's going, okay, now I need to send it back into the drafting department to have that redone.

So I changed my mind and I also thought of something else in the last two weeks. Yeah. Let's go back in the queue. Yeah. So this is why, um, The industry have now adopted the admin fee, which got a lot of kick up initially from clients. And yes, I can see how that can happen. Um, because naturally sometimes you just can't do everything in one meeting.

I totally get that, but it's more about capturing these small repetitive changes every single week or every day, these sort of things that can inevitably really slow a client into progressing further into the construction. So making small changes. All the time? Big no no. Yeah, it's, and that, and I would say people do that all the time.

All the time. And it's like, yeah, in and out of drafting, in and out of estimating, but they don't have the education or the understanding of why that impacts their timeline. And then all of a sudden pre construction is blown out from six months to nine months because there was so much back and forth.

Exactly. And your client liaison or pre start consultant, she's handling other meetings. She's got 20 other clients. So there's a good, Possibility that she won't even get to your email that afternoon or that morning. She might have a six hour pre start. So  there's a lot of understanding that needs to come from the clients to go.

Okay, there's a lot of other wheels turning, there's a lot of other people going through this process as well, so that a lot of time is going to be spent trying to get you to go through the queue as required. But when you constantly, yeah, push yourself back in that queue because you haven't thought about something properly, or you're adding in a lots of these little itty bitty changes, yeah, that can really drastically hold you up and put you further back in terms of getting into construction.

What can clients do? to move through the process more efficiently and effectively and avoid those things that you just said. I mean, obviously there is an element of taking your time and making sure you've thought about things properly, but not taking two weeks. So when you get your variations. Have a really good sit down and think, okay, are we, one, able to afford this, two, is this going to be something that can be easily done later, three, okay, do I really want this?

Is it going to make a huge impact on my home? Is it functional? Is it versatile? Is it going to make a huge change in my life? Thinking about these things thoroughly will help to eliminate the back and forth when it comes to making lots of changes. Doing your research. So even before you get into the pre start meeting, you need to be able to.

So, I'm going to go in there with somewhat a clear direction. If you're going in there with nothing at all, you're going to find the process probably a little bit hard and very intimidating. That's when you can get you know, your path can stray or where you might be influenced by people to do certain things.

And so you hit multiple roadblocks in your own mind about going, okay, what do I actually want? So having a clear path, having clear budgets and being able to, okay, figure out. Do I really need this or want this now? To establish a quick turnover of variations is a really good way to sort of help the process be more streamlined.

And just obviously being confident within your own decisions and your own choices. Having, listening to your gut and not being influenced by your neighbors, your friends, your family, or even the pre start consultant themselves. Cause it's very easy to be swayed with their own opinions during pre start.

Keeping with what you are comfortable with. Then what you feel like you like is a really good way to sort of narrow down the path. Do you find clients come to you for your, our pre start prep meeting, which for anyone who doesn't know that we do a four hour consult with our clients to prep them before they go see their builder.

Do you find most clients? Come to that prepared or they come to that and they're overwhelmed and Like they're at that phase of like research and I'd say most of it would be Overwhelmed doing research or not entirely sure of their direction, which is fine That's why I'm here to help them with is to narrow it down for them So they haven't got 50 colors to choose from they've got four and it definitely just helps them in When it actually comes to the pre start, not having to spend four hours looking at bench colors and going, which one do I pick when they all look exactly the same.

So  it's being well adverse to what, okay, what's included, what can I upgrade? What do I need to upgrade now to have a good functional, versatile home? after handover, being able to steer them down a, a smaller path. I'm not, I'm not here to dictate you. I'm not here to tell you to do this or to do that. I'm here to sort of pick your brains and to go, Oh, I feel like you're heading into this direction.

Let's maintain this. So rather than being 50 different directions, we're reducing the load on this person. So when you did priests, like actual pre start meetings for the builder that you used to work with, how many people would How would people kind of walk into those meetings? Were people organized or prepared?

Do they have any idea? It really was client dependent, but I would say maybe three out of ten clients would be, well, like researched, knew where they were going, knew where they wanted to up. Um, and I can easily just guide them there. Whereas most people know it was very hard yet to do a lot of work to be able to get their selection sorted.

Yeah. I can imagine people would just walk in pretty, pretty blindly because they don't have the support there. Yeah. Let's talk about the other part of like finance approvals and bits and pieces that are happening. Behind the scenes in pre construction, that's also side by side with pre start. How do you find clients usually navigate that process? 

It's probably the most stressful part of the process, I would say. A lot of our clients, I mean any client, talking about money, going through the process of trying to finalize a loan, giving someone pay slips, it can be extremely daunting and you've been told, yep, you can borrow a million dollars, but why then is it so hard to obtain a 600, 000 loan?

Like the, the reasons as to why it can be very confusing and we don't. We're not taught this sort of stuff in school, so it can be hard to sort of follow down that process. And when everyone talks about money, you could be so well adversed with money and money talk and still feel nervous about it. So it definitely is a hard thing to navigate, especially with the finance side.

Settlement, I don't think, is too stressful. It's more just timing and Making sure that lines up well with finance and titles, but yeah, look, it can be hard, but making sure you've got open communication with your settlement agent, your mortgage broker. If you are dealing with a building broker or a sales consultant, make sure that everyone is on the same page.

If that means that you have to take a hold of that and email five people a bazillion different times a day, if that's what you need to do to make yourself feel better, you do it. You do anything in your power to make yourself feel better about these sort of situations and just keeping an open line of contact with everyone at that time is key. 

What do you wish people knew going into the building process or like pre construction? I mean, for me, it's more about the functionality of a home. So It's very easy to get swept up into the aesthetic sort of sides of things without thinking. Okay How does this war going to affect what I put on it later on or this sort of stuff?

So I I wish more people took a lot more notice as to their current living Arrangements and how that will impact them going into a new home and thinking about the future and I'm not talking about okay I might have children. It's okay If I do have children, they're going to be infants who then grow into young adults.

So I think people get quite stuck in, okay, this is my child who's four years old. So they're going to stay that way. That's like, no, they're going to grow. So your house should grow with you. It should be very functional through all stages of life. So I wish more people took that into consideration when designing their home.

And sometimes it's very easy to get influenced by what's out there on social media with other people's builds and that line of comparison. I feel like people need to draw back and go, you know what I apples and oranges, what you're seeing on your neighbor's house next door, he's getting built is not what's going to necessarily happen with yours.

There's a lot of different things going on in building lots of different wheels turning at the same time, and everyone's at different stages of their life. So  being forward thinking in your home design, and that does include your interiors, um, as I deal with, but then also  stop comparing yourself with other people and their journeys as well, and stick in your own lane and form your own path.

Because that ultimately will lead you to a more fulfilling and happy construction journey, rather than just going, okay, my next door started a month. after me but yeah, got handover before me, why is that?  They could have a concrete box. Like, they could have nothing included honey. So it's Comparison is a thief of joy.

It is! It kills happiness! So,  people I think fo especially in a construction A very hea heavily documented industry as construction and building is. It's everywhere. It's on your social media. There's multiple home building groups. It's very easy to get sucked into the negative and to do the comparison game.

I did it. When I started building, I was like, why is my house so slow? Or why didn't I think of this when I was doing this? It's very easy to think the why, why, why, and you have to pull back and go, you know what? This is an amazing thing that we're doing. We are building a home, which is very, very hard.

It's very expensive. And it's a great thing that not many people can do. So learning to not kill your own joy is I think a really wonderful thing. And how do you  Or how would people help plan, like how you mentioned before, for the future and like growing into the house? How do you help people do that?

But like, how could someone make sure they factor that into their build? And I mean, it's really, really personable. It's every individual be different. So as an example, when I built my home, I didn't think about  I didn't think about  my husband's gaming activities. And ultimately now we're at that stage where we have progress into the future.

And I'm here going, Oh my goodness, we've only got. I've got two bedrooms and one of those is now occupied by my husband's games room. And we've got a spare room, which then turns maybe into a nursery. Should that be where our future leads? Then where are people going to stay? Yeah. I've got no room in my house.

So it's about really thinking deep down into where you think your future is going to head in terms of if you are wanting to have children, if you're wanting. 5, 000 cats if you're wanting a cow, like these things will all lead you to think about, okay, how do I personally like living? What do I want to do with this space?

And will this suit if this happens in my future? I didn't think about the possibility of children. I didn't think about If I was to have people staying at my house, all I thought about was great. Had those bedrooms, the opposite end of my room. Fantastic. I didn't actually think about the logistics behind that.

So it's, it's to do with everything you can do with your career, whether or not you are working from home space, whether or not you own your own business. It could be, if you are a gym guru and love going to the sauna and having an outdoor gym, it could be. Absolutely. Anything to do with your hobbies, but just making sure you accommodate them.

Because then if you find that you don't, it becomes a strain and you tend to fall out of love with things that once gave you joy. So for example, like with Andrew thinking, my husband thinking that his room might have to be become another bedroom. And then I have to think about, oh, where's he going to put all of his stuff now?

There's no other room. Do I put him in the garage? And then I feel horrible that he's in the garage. So it's, you have to really deep dive into yourself and think, okay, what is it about my life that I loved and I've continued doing for the last couple of years that I see myself doing for the next couple of years and accommodating that.

Don't accommodate for the now, because that's. How your house will not grow or stay stagnant. Think about the future. And how do you think like on the other end of that, how do you navigate that having a tight budget and affordability, which is an issue, not an issue, but that is a common occurrence that is happening in the market at the moment.

Affordability is, um, lower because interest rates are higher, houses cost more. How do you navigate then being like, well, this is what I need.  Well this is what I want, but this is what I need, this is what I can have, and this is what my budget is. Yeah, I think it's about thinking deeply about design choices and that's at that stage where you're going to be going through it, the design of your home with your broker or with your consultant and not getting too caught up in, okay I want that really big walking rope, thinking about dead spaces, thinking about spaces that have no real value to your home.

So For example, I did walk in robes. I did walk in pantries, walk in linens. It is a dead space. This is space that I've could have used in a much better way in my home. I could have added in a third bedroom. Yeah. So I wouldn't have had that issue later on down the track with if I was to have a child or Andrew needing to expand. 

So a lot of people get caught up in the sculleries and, oh, I want this, um, activity space for my. You know, toddlers, and I'm here going, your toddlers aren't going to stay toddlers. Yeah. They're going to migrate into their bedrooms once they're a little bit older or into the family rooms. Um, and that space will become irrelevant or become a storage room essentially.

Could use it into a study. You definitely could. Um, so it's about forward thinking. in terms of the actual layout of your home and going, okay, what's going to be more beneficial to me, a bedroom or a big walking road. And, um, I sort of think really good spatial planning and spatial design will, you'll reap the benefits of later on in life when things do start to change and affordability in terms of, okay, sometimes you can't afford to have a fifth bedroom tacked onto your design, um, but making sure you've got flexible spacing.

So when I say flexible spacing, like as you just said, then turning in that. it's actually a multifaceted activity into a study, having a bit more fluidity when it comes to your, um, spaces. Not just going, okay, bedroom, bedroom, bedroom, and then a huge theatre, okay? Put a door in your theatre and that can turn into a fourth bedroom.

Yeah. Um, things like this, not only will that be more functional for you, it will actually increase the valuation of your home. So the equity portion of your loan will be better. Are there other things that you find people get fixated on, like all the walk in stuff that doesn't really add a lot of value into houses?

Yeah, especially sculleries. I think sculleries are a really big one that people get fixated on and to me, sculleries are just an extension of your kitchen. I would rather you spend the time, the money and the resources on a large kitchen space. Then having a tiny kitchen and putting everything behind it or into a separate room.

For me, I look at my home and I think, yeah, I've got a scullery. Do I just wish I had expanded my kitchen into that space? For sure. It's, sculleries do not add that much value onto your home. I do think they are a bit of waste of space if they are not actually what's going to be called a butler's pantry, which is essentially a second kitchen if you were to really get down to the nitty gritty of it.

Butler's pantries, they use for additional sinks. ovens, cooktops, things like that. It's essentially a space where you don't really do much prep or much cooking out to the kitchen. It's actually all in that space there, where you can hide it from your guests and from your family. So sculleries, I wish people would leave out.

It's a nice thing to have, but it is. It isn't necessarily functional. It's more to say that you've got one. Yeah. Yeah. And really depends on, yeah, what you have in your scullery and how you're using it. Definitely. I've seen some really great sculleries where they've got doors on them. They're big, they're beautiful.

Great. That is really good functional use of the scullery. But if it's at the compensation of your kitchen. Yeah. Your kitchen's now tiny because of it. You can only fit a 1. 5 metre island bench in your kitchen space. Not worth it. Yeah. Your kitchen's the heart of the home. It's something that brings in a lot of value to your property.

So to just to diminish that value so quickly by adding in a scullery doesn't seem worth it in my opinion. Yeah. To wrap up our chat today, what do you think the number one mindset shift would help people going through the process be? Help them stay in control and go through the process. Oh, I mean, definitely the comparison side of things.

It's, I think that's a really big part of the journey for people and to maintain happiness and fulfillment within your journey and to appreciate your journey and how far you've come across, I think. To cut the comparisons is a really good way to, to have a really good strong journey with you. It's, as we said before, comparisons are the killer of joy and you must, we're here to make you feel proud and celebrate all these milestones that journey, that the building journey will give you, um, but you can quickly destroy that by looking at somebody else.

So cut the comparison bullshit, just stop it. Yeah. Honestly, enjoy your journey. Enjoy it. Building is a hard thing. It's not an easy process as we all know. Um, we are all here behind you, but it can be the only, the only person that truly matters is yourself. The one who's going through it, um, building, I often say to people, it's like having another full time job.

So if you are constantly looking over the fence at something that may be greener, you're not going to actually see what's in front of you and you're doing a big, wonderful thing and you're hitting so many achievements. It would be such a horrible thing to look back on your journey and not notice that at the time.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I was doing that a bit when I was always looking. Into somebody else's house into somebody else's yard and going, Oh, I just wish I wish I wish I wish and now that it's built, it's done, I've had people come into my home and then they go, Oh, I wish I wish I wish I had this. I had that.

And I'm going, Oh, I didn't think of it that way. Yeah. So.  Somebody's going to look on your journey and wish they were there and wish that was them. So,  appreciate what you've got and what you've built and what you've spent so much time and money on and just reap the benefits of all that hard work.  That's good.

That's a lovely way to wrap it up. Oh, thanks. 

Thank you so much for tuning in to the home building like a boss podcast.  I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something new. Remember, you've got this and I've got your back until next time. Stay inspired, stay informed and stay confident on your building journey. I can't wait to chat with you on the next episode. 

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