Eight Homes

After visiting quite a few display homes of reputed builders, stepping into Eight Homes was just another routine stop for us till we met up with Emily Dunstan. She is the main reason we're still at Eight Homes pursuing our dream home. She has a very cheerful and friendly demeanour, greets everyone with a smile, is very pleasant to talk to and patient when dealing with your every query and most of all, not pushy or forceful at all. She worked on our plans keeping our best interests at heart. The Base price being comparatively low along with the special offers enabled us to strike the deal with Eight Homes.
We moved on to the Colour Selections at the Glasshouse and we were met with another cheerful staff Ayla Div who spent the entire day with us taking us thru the different stages of colour selections. Patience and a cheerful disposition seems to be the trait at Eight Homes as we were assisted by Alya throughout the day. We could tell she knew her product well and guided us in choosing the right colours and shades.
One last stop was the Contract signing where we met up with Nancy Huang, who was our Administrator from the beginning and she too was very hospitable and cooperative making us feel at home. The coffees were a welcome treat too.
At the contract signing, we met up with Renee Gauci, our contract and tender presenter, who was as good and pleasant like all the others we met so far. Again, a very cheerful, patient and friendly person working thru our numerous changes with a smile on her face and never once did we see her lose it. Even when a few variations were not included in the main file, she did not show any frustration but said she would sort it out with her teams and told us not to worry and that it will all be fine. We did make a few amendments overall at different stages but it seemed like it was not communicated effectively to the main office and as such some of our changes did not appear. But it was all sorted out before we could leave the place, happy and contented.

So far, it has been a great ride with Eight Homes and we're hoping for nothing less than the best for the construction phase. We're still awaiting the final costing, however, looking forward to a great home being built for us by Eight Homes by the end of the year 2019.
Eight Homes - Definitely a 10 out of 10 for sure.

After a difficult time with a previous purchase that fell through, I was hesitant about jumping back in. Eight Homes were fantastic, upfront and honest throughout my build (both Pre and Post construction). My sight supervisor was fantastic, and prompt with any concerns that I raised, even as concerns were raised after keys were handed over. Everyone at the office that I dealt with over the course of two years, was professional and proficient. If I am ever in a position to build again, I know who i will be working with.

The build was managed perfectly and in a timely fashion. The workmanship and build quality was excellent. Any minor issues before the handover were taken care of promptly and professionally.

After a rough start to the house building process for us we are delighted to say our building supervisor Jason has ensured the process from the beginning of excavation to now has been smooth and we have been informed at every point. Nothing is too much work for Jason and he is willing to go above and beyond to ensure our house is soon our dream home. Jason has met with us out of hours to discuss any potential speed bumps and rectified any small issues in a prompt and professional manner. His communication with us has been outstanding. We were very nervous going into this stage of the process, us up until now we hadn’t experienced the best communication from the administration team and felt we were the last to know about any changes or concerns in regards to our house. Jason has completely calmed these nerves and has made building our home and enjoyable and exciting time for us. We look forward to the next couple of months working with Jason to watch our dream home come to life.

Everything looks fantastic, I’m happy with the product quality of the build, everything went to plan and the company handled every task to satisfaction. Thank you to the fabulous Sharon and Matt for helping me with my build. I am really pleased with the service that they provided

The support and communication we have been receiving from our administrator Danky and Matthew our site supervisor has been fantastic. They are communicating to us through every step, this has been so comforting to know exactly how our build is going. It is very recurring to know we have such a great team involved in our build.

Since our first appointment with Eight Homes, every very team member that we have dealt with as our matter has moved through the stages has been thorough, communicative and has strived to make our experience nothing but positive. Prompt and detailed responses to queries, no request too difficult. Build supervisor has been extremely efficient and has ensured all works completed to a high standard. Cannot speak highly enough of this company and would happily build with them again in a heartbeat.

The feeling I got from the very start from my sales agent Yogesh I knew this was the right company to build with. Nancy my consultant has been amazing. Her work ethic is second to none and doesn't leave a stone un turned. I am always kept up to date with everything. Keep up the good work Eight homes :)

I had such a stress free experience building my first home with Eight Homes. I had personal dealings with Megan Burns, Kayy Blain, Glen Milson & Rachel Cholosznecki who all played their role within the business to a tee! Any concerns/questions I had never went unanswered and they always did there best to keep me informed with any updates that were happening with my home. I would have absolutely no hesitation in either recommending family and friends to Eight Homes or building with them again.

From the moment i walked into the Eight Homes display homes at Warralily I have been nothing but pleased with what Eight Homes had to offer. Chris was super friendly and helpful which made everything a lot easier compared to other builders I was talking to at the start. After signing I had a few issues of my own which meant i was not able to continue with the build straight away but they were still happy to wait for me until I was ready. By the time this came around I had heaps of changes I wanted made but Eight Homes happily worked in with me. Going into construction this week, can't wait for the next stage!

Would recommend

After having a bad experience with another building company, I signed up with Eight Homes to build my dream home - the Coby 2-20. So far my experience has been great. I had Emily as my Sales Consultant, Jackie as my Color Consultant, Sophie as my Admin and Renee for my contract.
Emily was very thorough and helpful in going through the options available for the house. I asked many many questions of Emily and changed my mind numerous times as to what I did and didnt want included, Emily was very obliging and helped me make sense of everything I was unsure about. I was then introduced to Sophie as my administrator - Sophie was very professional and accommodating. Next was my color appointment with Jackie - I received great advice from Jackie on color schemes and options to choose from as well as good customer service and patience with my ever changing mind. Next step was my contract appointment with Renee - she was well presented, professional, and full of knowledge on all the products and also gave very useful suggestions to improve the design and functionality of the bathroom and other areas of the house, along with the expert advice from Charlie Gauci regarding a change in product and other little issues requiring clarification - to which end the contract signing was done smoothly. Hopefully the remainder of my journey with Eight homes will remain smooth sailing with no big bumps along the way. My land doesnt title till 3rd quarter of this year, so hopefully soon after that I will be on the road to having my dream house buillt on time and to perfection.

We started building with 8 homes towards the end of November 2018 and are due to finish around april 2019. They have been awesome so far, prompt replies to emails, keep us in the loop with what is happening with our build and our site supervisor has been helpful with changing a few things we missed. The whole process from when we first went to showhome until now has been a breeze with 8homes taking care of their part in a very professional way. Will certainly recommend and if we ever build again we know where to go.

Hi We just sign up for the Auroa 25 so far great experience from the sale consultant Diana to Maria and Renee at head office they are amazing people to deal with, hopefully the construction side will be smooth sailing starting next month. Thank again big thumbs up for the whole team.

My partner and I are building the Ace 1-26.
We started the process with 8 homes back in January 2018. We found the sales process to be great with lots of help from our sales rep. Colours, contract, signing, and pre-site was all smooth sailing and done professionally. There were no surprises or hidden costs, everything was straight forward and as per the sales quote, which was very reasonable.
Construction started end of May 2018. In the beginning, the build was quite slow. There were a few delays with long gaps of time between trades, which caused things to slow down. At this stage, we were a bit worried and stressed we were going to go outside our contract by a long way. Then we got our new site supervisor, Frank, in early November. Once he came on board, he has gotten things moving much quicker. In the span of just a few months, the house has gone from pre-lockup to nearly complete. He is always there for an update and very reassuring. We are now set to be in our new home soon. We are very appreciative of Franks work and of how helpful he has been. He has also eased the stress as we know our house is in good hands.
Overall, we are happy with the build quality, with only minor issues/defects along the way (which is to be expected when building a house). We would recommend Eight to anyone considering building a home.

8 Homes has just completed our home. Our experience with 8 homes was filled with a few bumps and roadblocks. During the duration of the build we had about 3 different site supervisors however only had confidence in only 1 of them. Beau Gentles. Great bloke to deal with. easy going, very responsive. Answered our calls and called straight back when he didn't answer. Beau took control of our house late in the build but managed to get everything sorted out in the timeframe set. and just a good all round bloke. Stephanie in the office was good to deal with, and our salesman Maddy even kept in contact during the build. The trick to 8 homes is to get the right team to deal with. the question I get a lot is would I build through 8 Homes again? my answer is yes if I deal with Beau, Stephanie and Maddy again.

I thought now that our build is completed it would be worth giving a review from start to finish, after much thought I have decided rather than be nasty and just write how bad our experience was I would provide "recommended improvements". You can skip to the end if you just want to hear the bad stuff.

SALES PROCESS:
This was the part that I think Eight Homes got right, why wouldn't they, they want to sell you a house right?? The sales person was lovely and very helpful, the price was right and all the right things were being said. No complaints.

DESIGN PROCESS:
This was where we started to see some gaps in the customer service, the first pain is driving to the other-side of Melbourne on a weekday. Frustrating when they have displays in the south east but no support office. The other issue Eight Homes tried to charge us $2,000 just to go to the appointment as we wanted to change the bench top and splash-back tiles everything else we chose was part of the standard inclusions, however after some discussions this fee was waived. *suggestion* Have another office in the south east and be a little more accommodating with selections.

CONTRACT SIGNING:
Again another trip to the other side of the city on a weekday. The contract signing was long and confusing, most of the things selected as part of our original color selection were wrong and not even close to what we selected. This then required MANY changes and further signatures this went on for 2 weeks across several emails. In the end I was getting so frustrated I felt like I was just signing whatever to have it done and out of the way. *suggestion* maybe have a pre-contract meeting at your display village with the design consultant and the customer. *Positive Note* Communication was good for the most part.

PRE BUILD Stage:
We had some delays with our land, Eight Homes was very helpful and didn’t charge the extra amount. However during this stage is where I started to see some big lacks in communication, it was next to impossible to call and speak to your consultant and it would be days before you get a reply via email.
CONSTRUCTION:
First up I will say you are supposed to get a call / email from your building consultant one week and then your building supervisor the next week. Just to be clear I never ever got a proactive call on any week from my building supervisor.

Slab:
I was given the name of my site supervisor and it took me a week of nagging and emails before I finally got his contact details and he actually gave me a call to check in and let me know when the slab would go down. I also had some early conversations about needing site access for CCTV install and home cinema I was told this was not an issue and were approved via email and over the phone. I thought ok the communication was bad but everything seems ok now.
Well this is the bit everyone waiting for, the big moment the slab goes down and everyone gets excited, I must say this went to plan in early April 2018.
Looking around at other new estates, plus we lived in a new estate at the time, we sort of thought we would be in around October, this seemed reasonable. We also had a new house being built next to our old house so it was good to see the comparison.

Frame:
4 weeks next to no progress, hard to get answers from anyone and no calls from the building supervisor. Then after some emails the frame started and I got a call from a new building supervisor apparently they had changed however I was not informed. I finally spoke to the new building supervisor and again spoke about site access, he said no issues and would let me know when we could go in prior to plaster. More weeks went by next to no progress and little answers provided by Eight Homes.

Lock Up:
After next to nothing happening and us watching houses everywhere around us being done superfast, we finally started to see some progress. I made some more calls about needing site access prior to plaster and I was assured I would be called back and it was fine. Next week no phone call and plaster is being installed. After some more calls not returned and emails another new site supervisor calls me, again I was not advised until I had done the chasing. I spoke to him and he said he didn’t know I needed site access however I could now send in my contractors if needed, however I had 4 days to do it. They also need proof that approval had been provided, (I was kind enough to send them their own emails and documents).

THE INSIDE STUFF:
We went on holidays and we thought we would come back and all the plaster would be done and there would be a good start on all the internal stuff, we were wrong two weeks and not a thing had been done. Some more calls and emails and I was assured things were progressing well an on time and I had nothing to worry about, and there was no delays their quality builds are much better than everyone else that’s why its taking longer. Over the following weeks there was some progress tiles went up, fixings and so on.. then the bench top. My wife made a big song and dance at contract stage about wanting a specific look for the bench we were assured they knew what she was after and it was all OK, anyway the bench top look was wrong, something about extended edges to make it look like thick concrete, we got the concrete part right but not the thick look. After looking at the contract and knowing any changes would delay things further I convinced my wife to suck it up. Then the power-point in the theater, simple mistake by the electrician the point was dead center of the wall and half way up the wall, no good for a cinema screen and projector 5 phone calls 6 emails and me speaking to the electrician myself we finally got it right after 3 weeks! Then the paint at the very start my wife said to the design team she wanted stark white walls, we were assured the one selected was stark white, we were so wrong, it was more of an off white / grey. My wife went crazy, tears, trips to Bunnings, angry phone calls and I wasn’t helping as I was trying to say it looked ok and we would just add more delays and that’s what is in the contract. In the end after some emails despite what was agreed at the color appointment we had to stay with this weird color.

NEAR THE END:
It was the end of October and despite the constant lack of communication and me having to guess what needed to be done, we sort of thought ok worst case we would be in at the start of December. Eight Homes HATE giving time-frames, however from the building supervisor we got the impression we were on the right track. November next to nothing gets done except random holes in walls and bits of paint here and there. I later found out the holes in the wall were because they forgot the alarm install at the very start. We get to December and this is where we start to get really frustrated, other houses around us that started after us had been long completed and people moved in and not just small single story houses these houses were bigger than ours and some were even built by Eight Homes!. I asked for fences to be installed and Cinema fit off and I was told no problems. I arranged for the cinema people and fencer to arrive on the Saturday and cleared this with the building supervisor. 5pm Friday I am now being told this was not permitted and some heated discussions took place, in the end I delayed the Cinema install however the materials where on site for the fence so regardless of their views this was going ahead as they had already approved it.

We were still getting no firm date for move in and Christmas was just 2 and a half weeks away, the kids were freaking out as Santa would not know where to go as we had no Christmas tree the whole family were planning on coming over Christmas day. This was honestly the most stressful and frustrating period of my life. After extensive phone calls, emails getting management involved we finally agreed that we would move in on the 14/12/18 however Eight Homes wanted their final payment first, I have not heard of a builder being paid prior to handing over the house, I was always told it happens with a bank cheque at hand over. Nope Eight Homes would not budge, we were not prepared to risk Christmas for the kids so after 4 days of intense stress with the bank and Eight Homes we managed to get the money cleared in to their account with 3 hours to spare. Speaking to 3 different people at Eight Homes none of them could agree with what had to happen with the final payment. We were also told if the money was not clear in their bank it would delay the hand over to Christmas Eve

MOVE IN / HAND OVER:
We met the building supervisor at 4pm and went through all the faults that would be fixed prior to Christmas some of these were:
- Delay on installing heater / cooling
- Damaged rangehood to be replaced
- Front lights not even
- Some render damage
- Some paint damage
- A wall not aligned in the study (would be fixed early January)
Again not wanting to delay things we sucked it up and took the keys. Over the next two weeks most of these items were fixed, however our $15K aircon unit was faulty and would not work, I stopped dealing with our building supervisor at this point as it wasn’t worth the pain and the aircon team were great in getting it fixed Christmas eve.
First night we move in kids all excited, my son is the first to take a shower in his bathroom and I go move the car. I come back in down stairs and Niagara falls appears in my kitchen through the lights was water pouring out like it was coming from a bucket, I screamed to my wife to turn the shower off. I called our building supervisor initially he said he would come and look at it the next day with the plumber, I then unfortunately lost my cool over the phone. Within 40min he and the plumber arrived. I must admit the building supervisor was shocked, after cutting several holes in the plaster they found the leak, I was told the plumber would be back to fix it the next day and everything would be sorted prior to Christmas. The next day comes by and unfortunately im told the whole shower has to come out including tiles and water proofing. The plaster down stairs was fixed prior to Christmas however the shower would be done by the second week of January 2019.
Boxing day night 11pm I notice water coming down the walls upstairs, I go in to the roof to see what’s going on, the drain pipe to the air-conditioning unit had not been secured this then caused about 3mx3m of water damage to the ceiling upstairs, I managed to fix the pipe and secure it. Again I am assured this issue would be fixed the second week of January 2019.

NOW:
So as of the 02/02/2019 the remaining items remain:
Shower has not been repaired
Plaster up stairs not fixed
Paint not being completed in upstairs living area
Study wall not started
Faulty part on air-conditioner needs replacement

After several emails I am getting very little in return last email I got 2 days ago was “ I will get back to you shortly”. When I have had contractors show up to start works they have been unannounced with no warning and for one week they all showed up and could not start because the glass in the shower screen had not been removed. Now nothing other than the tiles have been removed.

THE BAD BITS:
1. No Communication from the building supervisors
2. Communication from the building consultant is usually just a one liner like “tiles arrived”
3. Eight Homes staff do not communicate with each other
4. Constantly fell like you have no control and do not know what is going on
5. The design team don’t know their products and are not clear on what is on offer
6. Poor trades with questionable workmanship
7. Long time frame to complete the build
8. Telling me there are no delays and our house isn’t as quick as other because of Eight Homes high quality standard. (Clearly false)
9. Faults still remain and have not been completed as advised
10. Told one thing and then does another and they do not check the quality of their trades
11. Refuse to give any time frame for hand over
12. No compensation or a genuine apology for this nightmare

THE GOOD BITS:
1. Sales process was good quick and easy
2. Despite all of the above the people I did deal with were friendly in nature including the site supervisor
3. We still managed to get in 1 week prior to the contract end date

Conclusion:
It honestly comes back to communication, I get there are crap trades out there and delays in materials and in getting trades, just tell your customers and be honest and don’t try to hide everything. This process has been so horrible I will never build again, all we have ever asked for through the whole project is to communicate and be honest. Its now at a point I just want the last items fixed so I can put the whole thing in the past and forget about it. My recommendation to anyone looking at building with Eight Homes is check the reviews and form your own opinion.

1. The build was going on time till frame stage and we were happy with the progress. Don't know what happened after that because we are running 92 days delayed and still haven't got the handover. Very poor management, no clear communication on what is happening, what are pending things, when we can get the handover. They only say "we are sorry to hear your disappointment but this is unintentional".
2. Build quality is also not 5* as our personal inspector got plenty of defects which is not meeting the Australian standards as per their contract. Our OP inspection got failed twice!! Moreover, they don't follow the contract, so be aware, whatever is there in your contract, you may not get everything done. In our case, Eight Homes missed security mesh door, stone bench-top, shower head which we had added separately in our contract. We identified all the missed items and had to do a lot of follow up to get those done. Still we have not got the home, so not sure what else is missing.
3. As I said earlier, the construction manager and the admin assigned to us are extremely inefficient to handle the customer. They never respond to email or neither they contact you pro-actively. Standing today, we have no communication from them about why the construction is delayed so much. However, they will not miss an hour to send you the invoice though. The build was started in March 2018 and not completed yet.
4. We are paying interest only installments to bank for the last 4 months and 8Homes will pay back 260$ per week only. So let's not discuss about finance here. Money is flowing out like Yarra.

Finally, absolutely not recommended as a trusted builder. I wish I had not opted for Eight Homes for building my first home. It's an experience of extreme harassment and frustration. It feels like, they are building house for the first time, so unprofessional and irresponsible they are.

Really an unreliable builder, started to build my first home last May which they have dragged the building process to 10 months now!, Honestly, I don't think any builder would take more than 6 months to build a house these days. Houses around us which started to build after us have been handed over already. Somehow due to their carelessness and lack of supervision they have not even noted that they’ve fitted the wrong basins and kitchen waterfall end panel was missing. Once the issues were identified in last September 18 which were noted to both [name removed] (supervisor) and [name removed] (construction manager) and nothing, ‘I mean nothing’ has been done ever since and now we are stepping onto February 19. However, they’ve managed to cover up this by creating one lie after another to this date and nowhere near this matter to be solved. When we wanted to reach out to a higher authority seeking a solution for this, unfortunately this company doesn’t really seem to have anyone that we can file a complaint to. If this occurred to one of their own houses, I guess the situation would have been different. Honestly, I regret my decision in choosing ‘eighthomes’ to build my first house which has been a bitter and quite unpleasant journey for me and my partner. So my advise to anyone who’s considering building with this hopeless company is ‘Stop, look away and build with someone else’.

We had few issues during pre, post and during construction. Most importantly we are very disappointed about the service we receive after settlement. Builders showing no responsibility after communicating multiple times. Since we have moved in to our dream home we are facing some ongoing issues, informed on site team and building supervisor multiple times. No response. Very disappointed.
We would not recommend Eight Homes.

The experience has been great so far. @Emily Gibney was awesome during the entire sales process. She spent time explaining each and every aspect of the design, as well as the sales and build process. She promptly answered all my queries.

Zoe took care of the post sales process and has been great so far. The contract signing process was smooth too. Colleen was good in explaining and answering the queries.

The build has not started yet. Hopefully the build experience is as good as the experience I have so far.

Cheers