Content Living

I thought this might be an appropriate time to give people an insight into who we do most of our new home business through and that is Content Living.

People know "Dale Alcock" & "Ventura", maybe they've dealt with a builder from "BGC", or "Summit". Content Living has also been around for a long time (started in 1992) and has built over 20,000 homes in Perth and the South-West. You will have no doubt heard of some of the brand names - Content Living itself, Dreamstart and more recently MOMU. Ben Trager Homes is also now part of the group.

Content Living has a very lean management structure, which loosely translated means they have a lot less "managers" and as a result, their wages overhead is significantly lower than other building companies. On top of that, the owner of the company is still involved in a "hands on" manner, which means he also actively chases down every dollar in savings he can make when purchasing materials that go into making a new home for a client. Other builders rely on their management structure and in most cases these people aren't fully invested in the business - they're just there to do a job and collect a pay cheque.

I personally haven't worked for too many builders, but I have heard of some outfits providing "yoga sessions" for office staff, "professional massage" to relieve management stress, exorbitant overseas holidays for sales staff and so on. These costs all end up being reflected in the bottom line, which then ultimately is reflected in the cost of the product being sold. So, essentially the client ends up paying for these staff benefits.

Another thing that a number of builders will push as a sales tool is awards. The Housing Industry Association (HIA) and Master Builders Association (MBA) typically have an annual awards ceremony and award gongs to those builders that provide quality at reasonable value. We have had a few builders in recent years fudge some numbers to drop a higher value house back into a lower price bracket and they've been caught out and disqualified. Typically these awards are a good indication that a builder does represent value. However, not all builders have entered these awards and unfortunately Content Living is one of those. Having said that, the owner has been convinced to start entering our homes to be judged and compete and in the first 12 months we have already picked up 3 awards from the HIA, with more to come.

Content Living has also been labelled as a "cheap builder", in a negative fashion by our competition, as they really have nothing else they can use to counter the fantastic value that our product represents. I've been with Content Living just over 12 months now and I'm just blown away by how many people who have come through my display home, that have built with Content Living and just praise the build they received. The constant thing running through that is construction - people say they had very few problems and if they did have a problem, it was sorted in quick time and without fuss.

The reason we can build at an amazing price is all those little things above - no big marketing budget, flat management structure, reduced staff overheads, shrewd business sense when it comes to purchasing materials, no fuss construction team. Bundle all these up and you get a simply tremendous buying experience that represents value, the best service and a house you will be proud to call home!