If you’re looking into building a home, you’ve probably heard the phrase time is money more than once. But what does it actually mean? In the building industry, this concept applies from both the consumer and builder’s perspective. Understanding how timing impacts cost can help you make smarter decisions and avoid unnecessary expenses.
Right now, the property market is constantly shifting. Build prices are increasing, interest rates are fluctuating, and borrowing capacities are changing. Delaying your decision can cost you in more ways than one.
Rising Build Costs
If you wait six months before locking in a builder, the same house could cost significantly more. Builders adjust pricing based on material costs, trade rates and demand. A quote you receive today might be thousands higher just a few months from now.
Interest Rate Increases
Waiting too long puts you at risk of rising interest rates. Higher rates reduce your borrowing power, which could mean missing out on the home you originally wanted.
Land Price Increases
Land is also becoming more expensive. A block that costs $250,000 today could jump to $270,000 with the next estate release. Waiting could mean paying more for the exact same lot.
The takeaway: The best time to enter the market is when you are financially ready. You can’t perfectly time the market, but you can act efficiently once your finances are in order.
For builders, time is money is just as important. They need to keep jobs moving through their pipeline to stay efficient, manage costs and maintain trade availability. If a project sits in pre-construction for too long, it causes knock-on effects.
Material Price Increases
Suppliers regularly review and update their pricing. Delays can result in price hikes, which may be passed on to the client.
Trade Cost Fluctuations
Labour costs shift with demand. If your build is delayed, you may face higher trade costs later on.
Project Scheduling Delays
Builders have a limited number of build slots. If your job is pushed back, it may delay your overall build start and completion date.
This is why builders encourage clients to make decisions efficiently. But that doesn’t mean rushing.
There is a big difference between efficient decision-making and rushed decision-making.
Far too often, people feel pressured to sign paperwork quickly, only to realise later they didn’t fully understand what they agreed to. For example, I recently spoke with a couple who signed a contract and paid a deposit within one week of meeting a builder, without owning land or finalising their floor plan. This kind of haste often leads to costly variations later.
Find the balance:
To navigate the home-building process with confidence:
1. Know Your Financial Position
Understand your borrowing power, budget and deposit. Once you’re financially ready, act.
2. Be Efficient, Not Impulsive
Gather the right information before committing. But if you’re ready, don’t sit on it for months, delays can cost you.
3. Get Professional Help
Work with a broker or industry expert who can streamline the process, cut through the noise and help you make decisions with confidence.
In the building world, time really is money. Acting too fast can lead to mistakes. Waiting too long can mean higher costs. The sweet spot is making smart decisions at the right time, with the right support behind you.
If you’re unsure where to begin, or you want help making those key decisions without the pressure, book a free discovery call. We’re here to help you build like a boss without wasting time or money.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the podcast this week. I’m going to be chatting to you about the term time is money, and the way it’s broken down, or like viewed as a consumer and the way as a builder on time is money. So you can get both aspects of what that means, and you would hear it a lot
if you’re looking at building or maybe chatting to builders and consultants, and especially in this market at the moment, time is money. So what does that mean? Essentially, when you break it down
at the moment, because everything is increasing in price, interest rates are going up, borrowing capacities are going down. There’s a few things going on in the market that if you don’t make a move or you get in quickly and you’re waiting, that can cost you money. Example, a either
waiting and getting into the market six months later, building costs have gone up, therefore waiting six months has now cost you money an increase on building prices. Example B is the interest rates have gone up and your borrowing capacity has now dropped. Therefore waiting that amount of time costed you that amount of money that you lost off your borrowing capacity. So this is super important to understand this in the building world, and like when you’re looking at getting in in property and looking at building time, does cost money, so you want to make decisions that are effective and efficient, and you’re moving through the process at a time that you are ready. And this links back to, you know, my episode, one of the very first episodes that I did, is, when is the best time to buy and the best time to build or buy is when you are ready. You can’t time the property market. The right time is when you are ready. You
now looking at this from a builder’s point of view,
time is money
in that sense as well. So,
so now looking at this from a builder’s point of view,
the term time is money is also very relevant on that side of the building thing. So as a builder, you obviously want to move jobs and clients through the system efficiently and quickly to get them to site, to therefore get them through progress payments, to get paid. But also, you know, when things are delayed, or they sit in pre construction too long, or things are taking time. Prices are increasing in the background. Therefore, you know, you’ve quoted a job in, let’s say, now in February, and then it gets delayed till September. That’s a huge price gap and a difference in price where the price is moved to. So, you know, trades are charging different rates. At certain times, suppliers are charging different rates. So you know,
builders need clients to move through the system efficiently and effectively to be able to guarantee those fixed price building contracts, and also to ensure
they are delivering on what they promised.
Now, when you are looking at when,
when you’re looking at building, and you’re going display shopping, talking to builders, talking to consultants, this can be very tricky to manage, especially in the initial stages of your build. I met with a couple last week. And, you know, I met I spoke with them on the phone a week beforehand. And in between the week that I spoke with them on the phone and the week that we caught up for an info session, they’d signed up with a builder, paid a PPA deposit. They don’t have a block of land. They have a sketch and a quote, but they’re not quite sure they’ve paid a deposit, they don’t really know what’s going on. And that there is, like a great example of how a sales consultant can create that urgency and lock you into a PPA in a deposit without you really knowing what’s going on. So it’s super important, obviously, as a buyer,
to understand you want to make decisions efficiently and effectively. But there’s a very fine line between rushing into things and making decisions effectively and efficiently. You do not want to be rushing into choosing a builder if you’re unsure, or sales consultant or a design or a plan, if you aren’t 100% and you don’t fully understand it.
It’s a, yeah, very fine line between working out
that happy medium of you’re moving through the process efficiently and quickly, at a good pace, but you’re not rushing your decisions, especially.
Especially at the start of the process, when you’re working on your structure of your home, and you really need to nail that, because that’s the stuff that’s going to come bite you back in the isolator, because you can’t change it, your windows, roof, walls, doors,
making sure you’ve got the structure and the bones, and taking the time to go over it, looking at your plan effectively and efficiently. You know you don’t want to sit on it for four weeks and not look at it, but you want to take a good amount of time for you to make the right decisions for you and your home effectively and efficiently without being rushed. But it is a very fine line. You want to make sure you’re moving through the building process
effectively and efficiently, but you’re not being rushed, and it is super important to understand that, and especially when you’re in that early research phase. If you spend three to six months researching,
look at you know how much time and like money that has then cost you researching.
We can weekends and display villages, Googling like that, all that time, and that research that costs money, and that’s like another benefit of using a building broker is I’m and we’re here to do that research and that nitty gritty for you, so you don’t have to spend that time, which then results in wasted money doing all of that, because you’ve got us here on your team helping you through that process. It’s come up quite recent, like quite a lot recently, where I’ve had people like rushed into contracts or rushed in with signing builders, and it’s like, whoa. Just back it up. And yes, time is money, but do not rush your decisions and make sure you’re making the right decisions for you the right builder your plan is right, because in the long run, that will also cost you more money and more time If you’ve made the wrong decision with that too you
if you’re not quite sure where you are in your journey at the moment, or if you need some help, or this sounds like something that you know you need a bit of help with, or more understanding. Book a call in the discovery notes below, and let’s have a 1015, minutes casual chat about where you’re at, and I can help break down the process a little bit more for you.
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