Busby Homes

A BEautiful Home – Our journey with Busby started several years ago and I would strongly recommend them for somebody with a budget between volume builders and architectural builds. We found the design process clunky as an inherent outcome of the custom design process and our inexperience. In good faith they will attempt to design a house based on your vision even… Read more

if it isnt fit for purpose, in our case the house we wanted could have only been achieved on a flat block. However, the reason we went to Busby was because we had a sloping block. After countless hours of iteration we ended up with a house we didnt love anymore and were ready to walk away. It was at this point that Ron Busby intervened and we are grateful he did. In less than 48 hours they had produced a design we were happy with which is today pretty much the house we live in. Whilst on the design process, it is important to understand custom builds require you to have a very clear understanding of what you want, right down to how you want cupboards positioned and doors opening. In trying to meet your needs and budgets you may end up with something difficult to live with if visualisation skills arent your strength. Id encourage sharing initial designs with people who are experienced at building/designing homes. The more advice you can receive at this stage the better.

Before I move to the building stage, I would encourage any prospective client to set 15% stretch on the budget they provide Busby. The nature of the design process will see costs rise so if you want landscaping or a pool, make sure that budget allocation is put away in the beginning.

The bumpy start was smoothed over by a positive contract administration process. The flexibility to ensure you get the best house you can afford was brilliant. Again this is another process that goes through countless iterations but I never felt rushed. This happens right up until the point you have every detailed agreed upon and the final contract is signed. Given the size of the investment I took the contract to a Conveyancing Solicitor. His advice to me was the contract is irrelevant, albeit favourable to the builder, the important aspect to be aware of is you are entering a relationship. Treat the builder with respect, be mindful they deal with very emotive people every day and look to compromise. It turned out to be invaluable advice.

Our Building Manager had the responsibility to oversee the building of our dream. Although I have read reviews where clients had issues at this point, we had nothing but the best experience possible. Inspections were provided regularly and any issues detected where rectified immediately. We engaged a private Building Inspector throughout the build and they were very impressed with the workmanship of the trades. Within reason, a request to visit the site was never refused. In fact, it was rare for the Building Manager to ever say no to any request. Having built and renovated several houses in the past, I would say this is the best experience I had ever had outside of family.

The final stage is the defects, after living in the house for 3 months you provide a defect list. Throughout the building process every trade was exceptional bar the painters, so our defects were very much cosmetic only. Busby again manage this process extremely well and ensure trades return to rectify issues.

Building your dream house with a custom builder has several pros and cons. If I was going to do the process again I would consider paying a architect/designer to review the plans to provide a critical view of the design and liveability of the house. This would also extend to a professional kitchen designer/maker to ensure cabinetry is optimised.

Our building journey with Busby Homes - 3 Month Maintenance ** Horrible services – *** September 2019 - 3 Months Maintenance *** Horrible services We done the final payment back in December 2018. That was a big mistake. I was naive believing that the service quality by Busby Homes would not change after the final payment but I was very wrong. I should have waited for everything to be done correctly before paying the final… Read more

payment.

9 months has past, multiple emails and phone calls but things just not being done.

Below are few examples. - Heater issue - not function correctly- not able to use the heater over this freezing winter night. - Garage very noisy when closing and opening - Timber deck - very bad quality so need to be re-done , maintenance guy came and do half of job and left it there now for the past 3 weeks and haven't come back. - Kitchen sink area need splash back to be added on - they did half the job again and left it there. We cannot use the sink for 3 weeks now. - Front entrance door - lock not work correctly

The site supervisor told us, we just need to put the items in the 3 months maintenance list and it would be done. Sound good at the time, but now it has been 9 months and not much have been done How much longer do we need to wait??

to be continue...

*** April 2019 *** 3 month maintenance list* We are waiting for Busby Home to fix maintenance items. We have sent them the list around a month ago. We want a couple of things to be done ASAP but nothing being done. Not good.

*** January 2019 *** After many months of careful searching and short-listing (reading internet reviews, visiting different display homes across Eastern and South Eastern Melbourne, and speaking/meeting up with numerous building companies including Large- and Medium-Volume builders, as well as private and Custom-builders), we finally decided on Busby Homes to build our dream home. Our reasons? 1. From day one we were impressed by the level and quality of service we received when we walked into their Bayswater Design Centre. The New Homes Design Consultant was very friendly and professional. He listened and took notes on our specific requirements for the new home (the most important being a full-brick double storey, European inspired external façade home; with no light-weight building material or rendering used for the first floor, and a gentle-curved feature staircase). 2. Internet reviews we read were all very positive, which gave us reassurance we were dealing with a reputable builder committed to excellent customer service and high quality-built homes. 3. After a few meetings with the New Homes Design Consultant (to customise the floor plans to exactly how we want it), the design concept drawings were fantastic - showing a lot of attention to detail and creative ideas had been put into our home’s design and drawing preparations. We found the colour selection appointment (with a Busby Homes hostess/interior designer) extremely valuable (we also did quite a lot of pre-planning and preparations before the actual appointment). The hostess/interior designer was very helpful and knowledgeable in giving us advice and guidance when choosing our colours/fittings and fixtures, to ensure our new home will match and achieve the style and look that we are after. Admittedly, the process of reviewing and finalising our Pre-Contract Variations, before proceeding to the final house plans and signing of building contract took a bit of time, and a lot of conversations and negotiations. But we finally got there in the end. After finally signing the building contract (end of March 2017), the building works began around end of May 2017. Overall, the build progressed relatively well (with only a few slight hiccups). We're pleased with the build quality and workmanship. It's reassuring to see that Busby Homes had not intentionally taken shortcuts or cut corners in places where most other builders might, so we know our dream home will be a very good quality build. But as with all building projects, not everything can be 100% perfect and according to the contract plans. We've had to accept a couple of last minute changes during build, in order to rectify oversights that occurred either during the drafting or the building process but the overall end result was good. We have just handed over our new home yesterday. Á beautiful, quality built home. Our overall experience has been positive. We highly value the friendly and excellent personalised customer service we received from the Busby Homes team during each step of our building journey, from the initial meeting with the New Homes Design Consultant, right through to the building site supervisor and Construction Administrator and final handover. The friendly, approachable and personalised service and communications from all Busby Homes team members throughout our building process - always willing to listen to clients' concerns and resolve any issues raised, has vindicated our decision to build with the company.

Maybe one day we will get the house we want – We are still waiting for our home and we are now past the middle of September 2019. We were told our house would be completed in 2018 and our contract completion date was for the end of Jan 2019. Ongoing communication is not good. Please lift your game Busby, this is getting ridiculous. Show details

High Quality Build – We have been in our new Busby home for over a year now and are very happy. We have received numerous comments from friends and family (a number who have a background in construction) regarding the high quality of the build. We found all the Busby staff to be very professional and responsive to our queries and requests from the early design… Read more ·  1

stage right through to the end of the defects liability period. We spent a considerable amount of time with the design team at project commencement to ensure we got the layout right. As a result, we have the house we always wanted, with minimal changes during construction (which is important as the cost of variations can be high). Thank you to the designers for spending this time with us and for turning around marked-up plans expediently. We’re also forever grateful to Marjan who suggested adding a balcony to our upstairs rumpus room. We hadn’t realised what a great view of the city we have and would’ve been kicking ourselves now if we didn’t have that balcony! Whilst there was some turnover of site managers through our build, once Grant was appointed as our site manager, the remainder of the build was efficient and was completed with a high attention to detail. We would definitely recommend Busby Homes to those looking for a professional construction company that will build the house you’ve always wanted. A special mention to Marjan, Tracey, Alison, Grant, Sarah and Stephanie for making the whole process enjoyable.

Building with Busby – We’ve always wanted to design our own home, a place we have dreamed up - the idea of having a blank slate and doing whatever we wanted was very appealing. As it turns out when it actually comes to it, designing an aesthetically pleasing but functioning house to fit the specific area and meet council requirements is a lot more difficult than we… Read more ·  1

first thought. This was lesson number one - we actually don’t have the skill set for this and we’re going to need help.

During the design stage we spoke in depth with Mark (our Design Consultant). He wasn’t just interested in how we wanted our house to look but how we were going to use it. He asked questions I had never thought to ask myself, and based on our answers, provided us with our first designs. As we lacked the imagination to dream this up ourselves this was a great starting point for us to refine the design over a number of visits. We were pretty indecisive and made multiple changes during this stage but Mark clearly knew what he was doing and brought what I can only assume, based on the results, a lot of experience to help us on our way. We’re very grateful for his patience with us and his continued efforts to ensure we were happy with the end result.

Excited about our design and the prospect of one day living there, our thoughts turned to the detail. This was lesson number two - when building a house there are a LOT of decisions to make, things I had never given a second thought to in any house I’d previously lived, like where to put a power point or what style doors to have. It was truly overwhelming at times but the staff at Busby were brilliant, helpfully and respectfully helping us navigate through colours, tiles, bathroom fittings and electrical plans. The results were choices which were ours, representing our personalities, suiting our lifestyle but all these decisions are sympathetic to each other and this, we feel, was most definitely due to the influence and advice offered through Busby.

Lesson number three, building a house is not a quick process! Once construction began it was hard not to drive by every week to try and look for changes. In all, our build took about ten months and was handed over to schedule. During that time we were provided multiple opportunities to visit the site with Grant our Busby Supervisor. Grant’s knowledge of what was going on, what stage we were at and how we were progressing was impressive. We really felt like our dream was in good hands.

Not everything went perfectly, and this was lesson number four, rarely does anything go perfectly to plan. There were bumps in the road but how Busby dealt with these challenges along the way was excellent. We had high expectations which were not always met, compromises were made, some due to planning permissions others because of budgetary restraints but we can’t fault how any of this was managed by the Busby team.

The end result... we are very happy, we have our home, sure there are some things in hindsight we would have changed, however, the quality home we now have is amazing. Whilst keeping in mind nothing is perfect, the finish of our house is exceptional. We’ve been living here now for two months and there is a small list of maintenance items, nothing major just touch ups which once again Busby are all over.

Thank you Busby Homes for our lovely home. If we ever decide to go through this emotional journey again you will be the first on our list to call. We highly recommended this company, their professionalism, knowledge and just their desire to do a good job and build a great home does place them above other builders.

Our dream home is now a reality! – Andrew, my hubby researched and got quotes from at least 6 different builders before, by chance, I found Busby Homes. We received their quote and it was within our budget. We worked with Marjan for months on the design of our home and went back and forth until finally, on paper, our dream home was there and looking perfect. Our home has… Read more ·  1

everything we asked for and more. More being double glazed windows which come as a standard.

A Busby Home is filled with standards other builders would call an extra and that’s something which appealed to us.

The builders were great and email contact excellent. We were informed and notified of everything from start to finish.

The quality of the build is excellent with everything just as we’d expect. The paintwork is great, colours as they should be and all the stock we chose for our home eg tiles, carpet, light switches etc are what we ordered and what were fitted in our home 9 months on.

The final cost was pretty much spot on! It was a few hundred dollars under what was quoted.

All in all our home is beautiful to look at and the spaces are light filled and feel homely. We’ve been living in our home for 7 months now and just love it!

Enjoying our new house – My family and I have recently moved into our new home built by Busby. We’re delighted with how the home has turned out. This is the first time we have built a house and we wanted to pick a builder that had a reputation for good quality and service. The staff at Busby have been really helpful and friendly. During the planning and design phase,… Read more ·  1

Mark has been extremely patient with the drawings and changing of the floor plans. Emma has been fantastic in helping us with our colour and fittings for the house. Alison has been great with getting the council approvals and finalisation of the contract. Both Grant and Sarah have always kept us up to date with the progress of construction. There were some minor hiccups but they were attended to and fixed quickly.

The project was completed on time and on budget. We are thoroughly enjoying our new house and glad that we built with Busby.

Extremely happy with our dream house! – We used Busby to build our dream home in Heathmont due to the excellent service of the sales manager who was able to visualise and help create our Provincial house. We didn’t go into the project with rose coloured glasses on as a big project like this would always have a few issues. The main thing was that Busby was able to handle the glitches… Read more ·  1

work through them and communicate with us during the process. We decided to go with Busby because they were local to us and it was important to have people that were easy to work with.

We love our house, our relatives and friends love our house.

We would definitely recommend Busby and use them again.

Excellent Job! – Busby Homes have just built us a house in Mt Dandenong Ranges. Three storey, on deep slope, high bush fire restrictions, and etc., as hard a project as one can imagine. We are very pleased to see the construction contract been beautifully executed with all the details addressed and on time. During the project time and after the hand over, we had a… Read more

lot of communications with Busby Homes people, Sales, Owner, General Manager, administrator, designer, color selector, site manager......, we seen and highly respected the professionalism around the whole company. Of course, there were by no means disputes free; but what we can honestly tell is that, all disputes between us and Busby Homes were well handled with both sides being reasonable. We highly recommend Busby Homes.

Be ready to face numerous price increases – In August 2016, we entered into pre-contract with Busby Homes. Our first contact with the design consultant was very positive and the initial quote was right. However, it rapidly turned into a nightmare. The amount of the initial quote was increased four times, three of which completely unjustified (they just didn't make their homework from the… Read more

start). We had not signed the contract yet and we had already faced terrible delays without explanation, mostly due to very poor customer care from the contract manager and, as we discovered later, by the owner himself. We finally settled out of pre-contract with them, scarred and terribly disappointed.

Our building journey with Busby Homes – *** April 2019 *** 3 month maintenance list* We are waiting for Busby Home to fix maintenance items. We have sent them the list around a month ago. We want a couple of things to be done ASAP but nothing being done. Not good. *** January 2019 *** After many months of careful searching and short-listing (reading internet reviews, visiting… Read more ·  1

different display homes across Eastern and South Eastern Melbourne, and speaking/meeting up with numerous building companies including Large- and Medium-Volume builders, as well as private and Custom-builders), we finally decided on Busby Homes to build our dream home.

Our reasons?

1. From day one we were impressed by the level and quality of service we received when we walked into their Bayswater Design Centre. The New Homes Design Consultant was very friendly and professional. He listened and took notes on our specific requirements for the new home (the most important being a full-brick double storey, European inspired external façade home; with no light-weight building material or rendering used for the first floor, and a gentle-curved feature staircase).

2. Internet reviews we read were all very positive, which gave us reassurance we were dealing with a reputable builder committed to excellent customer service and high quality-built homes.

3. After a few meetings with the New Homes Design Consultant (to customise the floor plans to exactly how we want it), the design concept drawings were fantastic - showing a lot of attention to detail and creative ideas had been put into our home’s design and drawing preparations.

We found the colour selection appointment (with a Busby Homes hostess/interior designer) extremely valuable (we also did quite a lot of pre-planning and preparations before the actual appointment). The hostess/interior designer was very helpful and knowledgeable in giving us advice and guidance when choosing our colours/fittings and fixtures, to ensure our new home will match and achieve the style and look that we are after.

Admittedly, the process of reviewing and finalising our Pre-Contract Variations, before proceeding to the final house plans and signing of building contract took a bit of time, and a lot of conversations and negotiations. But we finally got there in the end.

After finally signing the building contract (end of March 2017), the building works began around end of May 2017. Overall, the build progressed relatively well (with only a few slight hiccups). We're pleased with the build quality and workmanship. It's reassuring to see that Busby Homes had not intentionally taken shortcuts or cut corners in places where most other builders might, so we know our dream home will be a very good quality build. But as with all building projects, not everything can be 100% perfect and according to the contract plans. We've had to accept a couple of last minute changes during build, in order to rectify oversights that occurred either during the drafting or the building process but the overall end result was good.

We have just handed over our new home yesterday. Á beautiful, quality built home.

Our overall experience has been positive. We highly value the friendly and excellent personalised customer service we received from the Busby Homes team during each step of our building journey, from the initial meeting with the New Homes Design Consultant, right through to the building site supervisor and Construction Administrator and final handover. The friendly, approachable and personalised service and communications from all Busby Homes team members throughout our building process - always willing to listen to clients' concerns and resolve any issues raised, has vindicated our decision to build with the company.

Couldn't have expected more from the builder! – Two years ago we decided to build a new home. The hardest part was to find a suitable builder who was able to build according to our needs, who was able to build in the bush, who had experience with BAL-40 restrictions and who was willing to listen to our needs. After a long selection process we decided to use the services of Busby homes as they… Read more

ticked all the boxes.

We couldn't have asked for a better service. From day one they were listening to our needs. We weren't the easiest of clients as halfway through the process we decided to change the plans dramatically. Busby accepted our new decision making and as a result had to re-draw the plans completely.

We started building last year at the end of September. Now, 6.5 moths later we were handed over the keys and the house is all finished, well before the expected finish time.

During the process we were kept involved in the process. The sub-contractors used in the building process all had many years of experience and to us the whole process was hassle free.

We were warned upfront from many people that building a house in bushfire prone area was not going to be easy. Well in our case it has been a breeze!

If we would ever build again we would definitely use the services of Busby Homes again!

Many thanks to the team from Busby Homes who made it a very enjoyable experience!

Fantastic experience with Busby – From the 1st time we walked into Busby offices the customer service was professional warm and friendly. From [name removed] who designed our stunning home, who is a very committed and professional man. He discussed with us what we wanted from the ground up. To the interior decorators whom assisted our choices and dreams then to the Building… Read more

Manager who liased with all the Contractors who built the home even down to the cleaners at the end of the works were so friendly and extremely oblidging. We would highly recommend and always speak highly of this family company and all its committed staff. Thank you Busby homes for making our build so easy and so enjoyable. Your the best!!!!!!!!

Hassle Free Quality Build – We are currently building with Busby Homes and they have been wonderful to deal with at every stage (we are nearly at Lockup). Everyone we have dealt with has not only had excellent technical skills, but has been genuine, honest and really tried to accommodate our very specific needs. The terrific salesman we initially dealt with helped us… Read more

work out a custom floor plan that suited not only our needs for each room, but made the most of the block orientation. He even visited our block, which was essential for trying to tailor our floor plan to fit in with a huge old tree we wanted to keep.

The salesman’s engineering background also enabled him to advise on whether our specific requests were possible. There was no pressure and he was very focused on ensuring that we were happy with the plans before we progressed to the next stage. Other builders had required an enormous upfront fee for a custom plan before they could cost the build and without any guarantee that we would like it.

Once our floorplan was agreed upon and costed, we were handed over to our wonderful Contracts Manager. At every stage of this process she would calmly guide us through the decisions required and offer excellent advice upon request. She was very thorough and extremely good at her job.

Our Contracts Manager was also very patient with our endless questions and on the couple of occasions our requirements were outside their normal operating procedure, she and the Building Manager genuinely sought to solve the problem rather then deny it outright (in both instances they found a successful work around that met our and their needs).

Our colour appointment to choose fixtures and fittings was with Busby’s very talented Interior Designer. We wouldn’t have had the confidence in our choices without her excellent advice and she even accompanied us to the tile shop to assist. I felt overwhelmed when I walked into the tile shop, but she knew exactly what she was doing and within half an hour we had chosen everything. I knew my style, but I have learnt some invaluable decorating tips and it’s exciting and reassuring to know that our interior and exterior choices compliment each other.

Busby’s Interior Designer has also been an invaluable source of advice for the many interior furnishing questions (accent chairs etc) we have run past her since signing our contract and her enthusiasm and delight in our progress has been so encouraging.

Our build has run smoothly throughout and all the tradesmen have been great. We are renting next door, so have kept a close eye on things. Our Site Manager and his colleague have been excellent and we really appreciate how swiftly they have fixed a couple of minor things (inevitable in any build) without any hassle. We feel part of the team and their open door/can do approach to any queries we have during the build is one of the most important aspects of the building process.

We look forward to posting an update when we move in. Very easy to deal with; honest about costs; knowledgeable; reliable; quality build

Excellence in every way – We have just moved into our new Busby Home and love everything about it. The Busby Team made the whole process from the first meeting to the finished home an absolute pleasure. Their design skills provided us with an individual home that was within our budget and the quality of the workmanship and fixtures and fittings is excellent. We… Read more

couldn't be happier with our new home and thank the Busby Team for their outstanding effort in completing our home in a very short time frame. Stress free build absolutely no problems.

We still love our home after 7 years – When we built with Busby Homes, it was before they moved to new premises and were under the name of Glenmachen Developments operating from an office at the home of [name removed] and his family who own and operate the business. We were building a new 3 bedroom home with double garage directly behind our old weatherboard house (dual occupancy)… Read more

so we were basically living on site and I have to say that everything ran smoothly from start to finish. As this was our first building experience, I was worried after hearing so many horror stories about builders but I can honestly say, all the tradespeople who arrived on site and the help from staff in the office was excellent. If I needed to ask a question, I only had to ring the project manager who either popped round to see me or spoke to me on the phone.

Since we were basically living on site, we were able to have a look at every stage of the build once the workers had gone home. It really was an exciting time in our lives having lived in an old weatherboard house for over 20 years. I also took photos of each stage for future reference.

The build finished on time and we moved in just over 7 years ago. We were told to make a list of anything that needed fixed and the only things I could find were a few little problems with plaster joins in corners which were rectified straight away and one tile hadn't been replaced properly on the edge of the roof where the supports for the safety rails had been when the roof was tiled.

We have had no problems whatsover with the house. The builder took care of everything such as tiles and carpet throughout, the driveway concreted to both homes, a carport built out the front of the old weatherboard, a concrete patio at the back, fencing and even a new double mailbox to serve both homes. Glenmachen (now Busby) took care of everything for us. We only had to move in and enjoy our new home.

I presume that even under the new name of Busby, they are the same family owned company who provide quality and attention to the needs of their clients. We certainly had an enjoyable experience. Started on time, finished on time and the only extras were for insect screens on all windows and an additional small section of retaining wall at the side.