What the Hell Is Pre-Construction & Why It’s More Important Than You Think

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 Jaimi, 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.

Tune in as I take you on the journey to building your home like a boss. Hello and welcome back to another episode. This week I am going to be chatting all about what is pre construction, what steps are involved, and why pre construction is so important to get right so that your construction process is as easy and smooth as possible.

I have, uh, some recent clients who have started working with me last week and we’ve been really going through all the steps and the processes and the questions. that they have that they need answered. What is pre construction? What are the steps? What’s involved? So that’s why I thought I would Chat to you about this this week.

First off, what is pre construction? Now your building journey is split into two phases. You have pre construction and then you have construction. Pre construction is all the work, the planning, the preparation that you need to do, the builder needs to do, finance, all the moving components and parts, plans, council.

Everything that needs to be prepared, planned, written down in pre construction so that the builder, the trades and the team can bring your home to life in construction. Down to every single little detail in pre construction. You have to plan out everything. Now pre construction can seem very, very overwhelming.

So I like to guide my clients and suggest, break it down step by step. So with pre construction, this starts off from your early planning, your researching, finding the builder, looking at blocks of land, sorting out your finance eligibility, and this all kicks off when you find your block of land and you start looking for a builder, getting quotes, getting design sketches through that process.

Once you have found a builder, you’ve got a sketch, your builder will start working on the next steps of pre construction. Now from here, after you have signed your preliminary agreement with the builder that you have selected, your builder will then work on your building contract. And your building contract is your legal and technical document that has your working drawings, all your finer details, all the legal documents, legal.

Everything you need to go to the bank will be inside your building contract. Now, this takes about four to six weeks to get done from your preliminary agreement, because the builder has to order engineering, site surveys, go out to your block, do bits and pieces to prepare your building contract. You will also have…

Working with your finance broker, preparing your finance, that all comes into the pre construction process. From here… Once you have signed your building contract, you’ll be booked in for pre-start now. Pre-start in your pre-construction process is your consult with your builder, where you select all your tiny finishing non-structural items, taps your paint colors, your external interior, literally everything your door handles, all your selections you will do at pre-start.

This all gets typed up, written up, costed. There’s article, ed, sketches, quoted, estimating is involved, drafting is involved. There is a lot of movement and different teams and components that work together in pre construction to help bring all those documents and everything needed in construction to bring your home to life.

Now, during pre construction, it is so important to double, triple check all your plans, what you’re signing, if you don’t understand something, ask the question. There is a lot of… terminology and lingo in pre construction that will come up that you will not know. So you need to be able to be comfortable to ask your builder, your sales consultant, your building broker, ask them these questions so you understand what is happening, what you’re signing, what things mean, because you do not want to sign off on something, not knowing what that means, and then during construction, something goes up or you walk through the house and you’re like, oh, I didn’t.

I didn’t put that there and then you go ask your client liaison or your admin team and you actually find out that you did sign off on that but you didn’t know what that meant. So everything will always come back to your final plans and what you’re signing off in pre construction, what you’re getting costed, what your plans say, your working drawings.

So it’s so, so important to be prepared, organized, ask lots of questions during pre construction and make sure you understand. the steps that you’re going through. Once you have signed off your building contract, your finance broker will help you with the process now of formal finance. So lodging to the bank to get your finance approved.

This is happening together, side by side, usually with pre start, getting things costed, variations and sorting out your final plans. From your formal finance, you’ll also have a settlement agent. Your settlement agent is there to help process the settlement and change of certificate title from the seller’s name of the block of land into your name.

So they’re there to help contribute and support you during that process of pre construction. Your builder will be sorting out any planning approvals and building permits. Making sure your design guidelines comply with, um, your build and your land estate. If you have design guidelines that you must comply with.

And then once you have your… applications, your permits, council approval, your final plans are signed off, you’re happy with everything, you’ve signed off on your pre start variation, you have been approved for formal finance and your block has settled, you officially own your block of land, the builder can then start the construction of your home.

That’s when you move into the second phase. And construction, they will use your documents and your final plans, your addenda, everything you have planned in pre construction is what is going to be used in construction to bring your home to life. Pre construction can be so overwhelming, daunting, there’s so many steps.

So my suggestion here to help you navigate pre construction is make sure you’re organized, You’re prepared, work out what you want, and make sure you communicate clearly with your builder, your sales rep, whoever you’re working with. That’s going to make things a lot easier and always ask, ask, ask, ask, ask questions.

Because if you don’t understand something, you need to ask and find out. Because that’s going to give you a better understanding of what’s going on, what do things mean, what do I need to sign off, when are things due, it also helps when you know when are things due, how quickly do I need to get things back to my builder, can I sit on this for a week and decide, all those things will help with your timeline of pre construction as well.

Um, on average, if you have a title block and your finances. are all good, you have your deposit saved, you’re ready to lodge, you don’t have to wait for income or pay off any credit cards or wait for employment, time in employment. Pre construction on average will take four to five months. Now, there is so many steps involved, so that’s why it’s important to break it down step by step and understand what’s going on.

I always help my client. This is the part where, as a building broker, I help my clients the most through this stressful phase of pre construction, with all the support. of what they need at the time to ensure that construction goes as smoothly as possible. I’m obviously there through construction as well to help them answer any questions, but pre construction, this is the part where I help out the most.

Your finance, your land, your paperwork, your contracts, the lingo, the builder, pre start, working drawings. All those types of things. So pre construction is so, so important. I hope you have learnt today a little bit more info on what is pre construction, what’s involved, and some of the steps. There’s obviously a lot more stuff that happens behind the scenes that the builder does, things that I do.

That will help through that process as well. They’re the main gist of things so that you understand what is pre construction, what is involved and why is it so important? Thank you so much for tuning in to the home building like a boss podcast. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and learn 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. Don’t forget to check out the show notes for more information and free resources. If you haven’t already hit that subscribe button, so you never miss an episode of the home building like a boss podcast