You’ve got the quote. After months of sketches and rough numbers, there’s a real figure attached to your home.
So what happens now? It’s the question we’re asked most, because a quote is where most people’s picture of the process runs out. From the outside it looks like you sign and trucks arrive. In practice there’s a stretch of work in between that shapes how the whole build goes.
A quote is a snapshot. A quote prices your home as it’s understood on the day it’s written, often before anyone has put a drill into your block.
So the next stage isn’t about price. It’s about definition: pinning down every element precisely enough that it can be documented, approved, ordered and built without guesswork. It’s the least photogenic part of building a house, and the part that does most to protect your budget. A decision resolved on paper costs a fraction of the same decision resolved on site.
Contracts and working drawings
First the agreement goes in writing: scope, specifications, allowances, inclusions and exclusions. Read it properly and ask the awkward questions now. What’s an allowance versus a fixed price? What’s excluded?
Then come the working drawings, a considerable step up from the floor plans you’ve been looking at. They carry the detail that makes a design buildable, and your engineers, certifiers, suppliers and trades all work from them.
Read these carefully too. Moving a wall before approval is a five-minute conversation. Afterwards it’s a variation.
What your block decides
Perth blocks are far from uniform. A sand pad up north behaves nothing like reactive clay in the hills or limestone in the western suburbs, and each carries different footing and slab requirements. Your site may also need levels, a wind classification, retaining details or a Bushfire Attack Level assessment.
This is why some items sit in your quote as allowances or provisional sums. Until the soil report is back, nobody can price your footings to the dollar.
Pre-Start
Pre-Start is where the home starts looking like somewhere you’d live: cabinetry, benchtops, tiling, flooring, colours, tapware, appliances, and where every power point goes.
It’s the best part of the process, and the stage where budgets move fastest, because selections rarely change in isolation. A different tile can change the substrate. A relocated island bench moves the plumbing and the electrical.
That’s not a reason to hold back on what you care about. It’s a reason to ask what a change carries with it before you sign it off.
Services and accounts
Air-conditioning, solar, data, security and automation are planned before the walls are lined. Power, gas and internet are accounts only you can open, and they’re easy to forget right up until they’re the thing holding up a stage.
Approvals and your permit
With selections locked in and reports back, the documentation is updated so the drawings describe the home you’re actually getting. That package is then certified and lodged for your building permit.
The permit is a real milestone, but it isn’t a starter’s pistol. Conditions need reviewing, the site needs to be ready, and trades and materials need booking in sequence.
Practical Completion is not handover
From site start your home moves through its stages, from earthworks and slab through to structure, roof, services, linings, finishes and final checks.
Practical Completion means the home is finished apart from minor items that don’t stop it being lived in. Keys and possession come afterwards, once the remaining handover conditions are met. The distinction catches people out, so it’s worth knowing early.
Why it matters
The clients who enjoy building most are the ones who understood the shape of it going in. They know which decisions are coming, and they’re not blindsided by a stage nobody explained.
From quote to keys, our job is to keep it clear enough that you can make good decisions while they still cost nothing.
Thinking about building in Perth? Get in touch with Mondo Exclusive Homes to talk through your plans, your block and your next step.
