Prey Hawk Kaimai Ktwn
Hi we are looking at using Stonewood homes to build a 2 story in Bay of Plenty..any recommendations??
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Hi we are looking at using Stonewood homes to build a 2 story in Bay of...
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Chris
Hi Prey (hope your name is not an indication of what you will be to a builder),
No experience of using Stonewood for an actual build (we dropped them before it got that far), and of course different SW franchises may perform differently. But first warning is examine their build contract carefully before doing anything else. I have some experience of building contracts, and the one they showed us (a few years ago) was not just very biased in their favour, but almost unintelligible. Frankly I don’t think they knew what it meant themselves. But were totally unwilling to discuss any changes. Don’t worry, ‘she’ll be right’, that never comes up, so we never need that clause! So delete it then. Oh no, can’t do that. Boss won’t like it.
A later experience with another SW franchise gave me the impression they’re all smooth talk, but don’t follow up on promises.
Roger
Not that it necessarily makes any difference to the way a particular franchisee operates, and I don’t know how they are building homes, but for some people it might be worth knowing that Stonewood is ultimately owned by the Chow brothers, who came from and made their money in the prostitution industry originally as brothel-keepers.
Maybe they are straight up, salt of the earth dudes, but it does make one wonder a bit. Personally I would prefer someone with a bit of pedigree and ideally a family reputation and legacy to protect rather than an investment vehicle for parlaying the profits of prostitution when it comes to building my family home, but that’s just me https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/77697968/chow-brothers-add-stonewood-homes-to-property-empire
Phil
Hi,
We used Stonewood Northen a few years, it was a nightmare, wouldn’t touch stonewood again.
Kerryn
Completely agree with all the answers below on this one. Wouldn’t touch Stonewood with a barge pole. The project Manager avoids meeting the clients during the build and also ignores anyone with maintenance issues after hand over. They do PC sums which can really bite you in the behind as well if they haven’t done their homework properly. I have even heard of builds taking over a year to complete!