Building your dream home is one of the most exciting (and overwhelming) things you’ll ever do. For many first-time home buyers, display homes seem like the perfect place to start. But are they? In this episode of Home Building Like a Boss, we explore the realities of display homes and why they might not be the best starting point for your home-building journey.
Let’s be honest: display homes can be overwhelming. As your host, Jamie, shares from personal experience, even someone who knows the ins and outs of building a home can feel lost in the process. Walking through these show homes, you’re bombarded with upgraded finishes, fancy design features like high ceilings, skylights, and luxurious bathrooms. While these elements look beautiful, they often come with a hefty price tag—up to $100,000 to $150,000 worth of upgrades. It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of these gorgeous homes, but what about the reality?
What you see in a display home may not reflect your future home’s true cost. Many features are added to make these homes look stunning and sellable, but they don’t necessarily align with what you might want or what’s in your budget. While it’s helpful to gather design ideas and inspiration, the focus on inclusions and finishes can distract from what you really need to know—the step-by-step process of building, budgeting, and choosing the right builder for your unique needs.
For first-time homebuyers, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information thrown at you during a display home visit. From brochures to pamphlets, it’s hard to know which pieces of information are useful and which are designed purely for sales. At the end of the day, after hours of walking through multiple display homes, you might feel just as confused, if not more so, than when you started.
The problem isn’t just about the overwhelming number of builders you’ll see—there are dozens of other builders who don’t even have display homes. Many of these companies could offer you a better deal or a more suitable design for your needs, but how do you know about them if you’re only looking at a handful of options in a display village?
Take Jodie and Kev, for example. They went through the display home experience and found it to be just as overwhelming as many others do. They were unsure about how to proceed, so Jodie did her research. She came across the Home Building Like a Boss podcast, listened to all the episodes, and then reached out to us for an info session.
After talking through their options, Jodie and Kev now have a block of land and a builder they’re excited about. They’re on their way to building their dream home with more clarity and confidence than they had before. This is the power of education and understanding your options.
The reality is, many first-time homebuyers make decisions based on what they see in a display home. But is this truly the best approach? The process of building a home is complex. You need to understand more than just price points and inclusions. You need to know how the process works, what hidden costs to look out for, and which builders are the best fit for your unique situation.
Walking through display homes can give you ideas, but it doesn’t equip you with the step-by-step knowledge that you need to make an informed decision. This is where a building broker, like us, can step in and help. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by dozens of brochures and sales pitches, you can work with an expert who can break down the building journey and guide you through it.
Working with a building broker can save you time, money, and a lot of stress. A broker helps you navigate the maze of builders, land developers, and design options, ensuring that you’re making the right decisions from the very start. Without a broker, you could spend hours at display homes, trying to decide between builders who may not even be the right fit for you.
Our job is to simplify the process. From helping you find land to choosing the right builder and understanding the fine print, we’re here to make sure you’re informed at every stage of your journey. As Jamie highlights in this episode, having an expert by your side can help you avoid making costly mistakes, just like Jodie and Kev almost did.
Before you head to a display village, keep these tips in mind:
Building a home is a huge decision, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed in the process. Display homes can provide inspiration, but they often leave you more confused than confident. By working with a building broker, like us at Home Building Like a Boss, you can cut through the noise and make an informed decision about your dream home.
Remember, you don’t have to go through this journey alone. If you’re feeling unsure about the process, book a discovery call with us today. We’ll break down the building process, help you understand your options, and ensure that you’re making the right choices for your situation.
Stay inspired, stay informed, and stay confident on your building journey. You’ve got this, and we’ve got your back.
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.
Truth about display homes. Now, this topic here is a little bit controversial in a way. I feel like display homes are pretty old school. And the reason that I’m bringing up this topic on this week’s episode is I recently did some research and a bit of experiment and went through a few display homes and trying to understand from a Client and customer point of view, how that process works and the experience that you’re getting on the other end.
And man, oh man, even I got overwhelmed and I know what I’m talking about and some of the information that you’re getting directly from builders or the amount of inclusions and spec that’s upgraded and added into display homes is ridiculous because you walk into a display home and you can see how much, you know, You know, right.
Ceilings or skylights or big fancy baths and all those things that get added in to make the display home look good to sell you on the builder and the house and the package. Now I went through some displays and overall, like the process was so overwhelming. I feel like I left more overwhelmed than what I started.
And I think a lot of people have that experience and it is so easy when you’re kind of going through the process of deciding established homes, new homes, where do I want to build? Do I want to buy? What’s the process here? You know, you go to a few home opens and then you’re kind of like, Oh, maybe let’s look through at some new homes.
And it is good to look through new homes and see ideas and different layouts and things like that. But you have to go into it with the mindset of it, having a hundred to a hundred and fifty grand of extras worth on top of that. And I find like, I didn’t going through display homes, I didn’t get much information on builders and the process and education and how it works.
It was all very driven by, um, price point. Inclusions, different things like that, and not a lot on breaking down the process step by step versus looking constantly at it by a price point of view. It was so overwhelming and I got so, so much information, but different information from different people in the display homes that it was so overwhelming.
I was like, how do people actually come through here and make a decision on building like that? And you know, You walk through displays and you might have a street of, I don’t know, eight to 10 builders. Let’s say there are so many more builder options out there. You’re going to a display village and you’re making a decision on one of the biggest investments in your life through eight to 10 different builders, but there’s so many more different options out there.
There’s builders who don’t have displays. There’s building brokers. There’s other sources of information where you can get the information that you actually need to make an educated and informed decision. And, you know. Like this podcast, for example, like we had a client come through shout out to Jodie and Kev who had a display home experience similar to this.
They went through the display villages, they had a walk through, they were so overwhelmed and didn’t know. What to do and Jodi started doing some research and upon doing her research, she found the podcast and then listen to all the episodes and then they reached out and we had an info session. Now they’ve got a block and a builder on we’re starting through the process.
So it’s just about around that education on there are other avenues and different forms and ways of getting the. Actual information that you need to make a decision on whether building a home is right for you and display homes. In my opinion, this is obviously my opinion is just, is so overwhelming. And I think it’s one of the hardest ways to actually make the right decision for you because you’re being sold something by eight to 10 different.
Builders down the display street, is that decision actually the best for you? And do you have all the information that you need on the building process on different builders on your block, on your budget, on all those things, it can make the process really overwhelming, especially when you’re getting books and brochures and flyers and pamphlets and all that kind of stuff.
Getting all this information, but what information do you actually need to understand the building process and how it works? Because it always comes back to at the end of the day, you know, we didn’t get taught at school how to build a home, how to do our taxes, you know, don’t you think all those things would have been useful things for us to get taught at school, but we didn’t get taught how to do this.
So it’s. Understanding the step by step process and what you need to be able to make that decision that’s right for you when you’re making one of the biggest investments of your life, you know, do you want to build? Do you want to buy? How does this work? What’s the process? And display homes are honestly so overwhelming, like by the end of the day, I was so overwhelmed.
I was hangry. I didn’t have any energy. I was, I don’t even know, like my mood was down. There was just so much going on. I was like, wow. And people spend time in these display homes and it’s just like, there is needs to be more education around different avenues for different information, display homes. A great to get ideas and look at things, but also take it with a grain of salt because there is a hundred to 150 grand worth of extras inside a display home.
When you have a look through and you go through, you know, and depending on the display home, like the blocks are usually like slightly bigger. So. So the blocks are bigger, so the designs are bigger, which makes it look the room slightly bigger and luxurious and nice, but it’s a different kind of concept.
If you’re going for a smaller block with a smaller design, you get a totally different feel for it. So, you know, they’re the types of things that you want to consider when you’re going through and looking and getting ideas. To help you through that part of the process. And yeah, like it was just such an overwhelming process.
Like I can’t believe how overwhelmed I felt through that. Brochures, flyers, pamphlets, information, inclusions, spec, and You know, to me, technically as a buyer, you know, you don’t know what a lot of those things are. So getting all that new information can be very overwhelming, especially if you’re getting it hit by hit by hit by hit, you know, it takes a couple of hours to go through a full display straight.
And by the end of it, you’re just absolutely knackered. And what information have you actually gotten from it that is going to help you make that educated and informed decision on what’s right for you. So always, you know, same as these episodes, like, and things that we break down, especially for clients in the building process, like you want to make it simple and short and sweet and understandable because.
The whole thing is so overwhelming and there’s so much information and moving parts to building that it needs to be broken down step by step. So, you know, that’s what we’re here to do as well. And hopefully, and this podcast as well, it’s here to break down the information step by step, and that’s what we’re here to do as brokers as well.
There’s other ways about finding the right builder for you. And I think that’s probably like the biggest takeaway is. Displays are overwhelming and they’re not the best place to find the best builders and they’re great, but they all can also be very, very overwhelming. So. Hopefully that helps you a little bit in your display home journey.
Um, or if you’re looking at going at displays and things like that, if you actually want to get some information on the building process, you know, how the process works, step by step hidden costs, what’s involved, reach out to us in the link and the call notes below book in a discovery call, and then we can have an info session with Jake or Mim and break down the process on understanding on exactly.
Is building right for you and how that works to your situation rather than just going and getting a whole bunch of information and then being really overwhelmed by the end of it.
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.
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