Hearty Homes Office and Selection Centre

Thank you Hearty homes for building us our dream home, we can’t be more happier with the end result it’s looks perfect. Big shout out to Jarrod who came along a few months into the build and took over and grab it by the horns. Went over and beyond to make the end result perfect. Thanks also to George for the great result and all Hearty homes people. We love it!!!!! Would definitely recommend them as a quality builder!! Until next time Cha cha.

Thankyou Hearty homes! Very impressed very our homestead style home recently completed! The whole process of building a home was very easy right from the start with Darren from sales. Very knowledgeable and good to deal with, to Lesanne in the selections process. We thought it would be a daunting task selecting everything but the way the showroom is layed out and with lesannes help made it very simple.
Through the building process. Hearty homes used quality tradesman that were very good to deal with. Luke our first supervisor. We also found him good to deal with. Given he was new to the job, he seemed very experienced at it. And then George who through the whole process was extremely thorough and made sure the workplace was always tidy and right to the very end has been always about quality. Would highly recommend hearty homes to build your new home!

Highly impressed with Hearty Homes and specially Darren from the sales team. Their floor plans are nice, easily modifiable, reasonably priced and you can get upfront cost estimate directly from their website.

Darren was very accommodating and showed great understanding particularly due to our constant changing situation- anyone else would have probably given up in helping us but not Darren. He understands your situation and works with you as a customer rather than trying to just push for upgrades like lot of others do. I was quite impressed with the way he was quickly able to understand our thought process and work based on that and modify the floor plans. He also persuaded the management to build in towns they usually don’t build for us. He is highly knowledgeable and has great technical understanding of the industry – you can ask him any technical queries you have for your build and he will have an accurate answer to that straight away. Very easy to deal with and also down to earth bloke. I highly recommend dealing with Darren from Hearty Homes with building your new home.

We've just had the 6-month maintenance done on our new home, mostly very minor nit-picking to be honest, but the maintenance crew was fantastic. They fixed up a lock that was a bit sticky, completely repainted the ensuite and a sliding door and some door frames when all we expected was a little touch-up of some brush marks. A tap in the ensuite was also stiff and starting to creak, so Hearty Homes arranged for it to be fixed by the plumber straight away. My daughter built a new house with another builder, and had no follow-up maintenance at all (in fact she's never heard from them again since they moved in).
Our build was so easy from start to finish - great people, always contactable, and we got exactly what we wanted. I did an initial review 2 weeks after we moved in, and I haven't changed my mind since. If you want to build a new home, these are the people to go with!

We love our hearty home!
Front start to finish the build was perfect, Tom jr made the decision to build with hearty homes an easy one making sure our quote and design was exactly what we wanted, George our build Superviser went above and beyond to have us in our home before Christmas last year and the quality was outstanding!
We just had our 6 month maintenance review and had to nit pick small things, kade from M4 property services and his wife BJ called to book a time, came 10 minutes early and was such a pleasure to deal with, kade walked through and went over our entire house making sure doors didn’t squeak and paint wasn’t bubbled, he fixed a few cracked corners in the house and left it looking brand new, even went over things I hadn’t previously seen or didn’t care about
Such a great team put together
Will definitely be building with them again!

This is the fourth house my husband and I have built and it turned out to be the easiest build. We were already to go with another builder, however after walking through the Hearty Homes display house and talking to Tom sr, we realised that Hearty Homes were the builders for us. We made quite a few changes to the plan and Kevin also suggested a few that we had not thought of. Having Natalie's help to pick out the tiles, carpets etc. was invaluable. During the build George was fantastic and his suggestions during the build has made living in to house so much better. Also dealing with the ladies in the office was a pleasure. Through out the build nothing that we asked of Hearty Homes was too much trouble. Even now after living in the house for six months, I still get a wow when walking in to the kitchen/family room.

We worked with Lana, who made the whole process of picking our colours smooth and exciting. We were very pleased with our outcome!!

The gang at Hearty Homes have gone above and beyond.

Absolutely awesome ever so friendly and helpful.

Thank you Hearty Homes for providing us with our amazing home. We built the display Homestead 298 after seeing it in the Lucas Display Village. We knew right away it was our home of choice, with a few unique upgrades! Hearty Homes were supportive through the whole process, especially as we built out of town and were required to do planning through council.
The building process was smooth and very quick. We appreciated being kept in the loop and knowing what was to come.
We recommend building with Hearty Homes!

Went to look at there quality off building. Was very impressed, better then most but not as expensive as some. Friendly staff at the display centre, gave us good advice.
On our short list to be our next builder once we get some land.

**EDIT UPDATE**
Brickwork to garage has been rectified to an acceptable standard. Still waiting for our GARAGE LIGHT COVERS?? WHERE ARE THEY?? OR THE REPLACEMENTS??

As below exceptional experience with sales & selection staff however we felt it went downhill from there.

Build commenced Feb '22 moved in Mar '23, with Hearty claiming industry shortages being the biggest issue.

Building rural meant the house build, for us, was not as supervised as builds close to town, despite Hearty Homes charging an arm and a leg for doing so. If you are planning on building rural, be on top of your game, check every single step and that things are done properly.

Issues along the way such as forgetting to excavate part foundation for alfresco, incorrect kitchen light placement, and a very sub-standard finish to the front of our garage because there is a brick overhang on the slab, the repair looks absolutely botched and for me has ruined the look at the front of the house.

10 months in and we are still waiting for our garage light cover to come - despite asking many times, once the money is received you are fobbed off, yes, the lights might be out of production, that is not my problem if the cover was never there in the first place. Still wondering if Hearty Homes would like to provide us with replacements?

Site clean consisted of clay being placed around the house instead of topsoil as requested, and also discovering that our ensuite toilet had been used by tradies (with a NON COMMISSIONED SEPTIC SYSTEM) whilst doing the walkthrough with the Site Foreman and Construction Manager left me in disbelief.

This was our second build with Hearty Homes, after building a similar size/plan investment property with them 3 years ago. Our property had an expected build time of around 12 months and the timeframe provided was accurate (4 bedroom, 2 bathroom), with the main delays during construction being in the windows and tiling as well as follow up trades/handover process

A couple points of frustration lay with inconsistent communication. We seemed to wait a day or two for a reply to an email (which is more than acceptable) but in other instances more than four weeks and in one instance a proposed on site inspection request went unanswered and the date went by without a response. It didn’t particularly bother us when we did receive an answer “late” (we would probably consider anything past two weeks a “delay”compared to our previous experience) however it was the differences in response rate that made it hard to manage our own finances and third party contractors such as fencing, landscaping, real estate agents etc. When issues were identified and raised throughout the build they were generally dealt with by our site supervisor in a quicker manner however following up from there (when required) felt more “corporate” and lost a personal touch with it feeling more like a blanket response/reply rather than a solution based conversation.

There were some delays with the final handover in which a lot of contractors seemingly weren’t coming back to finish work. For example plumbers and carpenters would have a day or so worth or work but as the “main job was finished and paid for” there was no incentive for them to finalise their work. Whilst no fault can be put on Hearty Homes as we were assured the were managing this as best as possible, it’s worth raising it was a source of frustration and very much a reflection on the broader building industry in 2022-2023

The final handover process also felt a bit disjointed compared with our first build, with week by week delays lasting around a month resulting in some items being missed and not being rectified before the final handover. There was a number of smaller onsite inspections in the final weeks in which the list of incomplete works piled up, causing some confusion as to what had been identified and what hadn’t been identified, I.e we would lose track of what was meant to be fixed before our next catch up. We preferred on our last build to have just one final walkthrough inspection in which we had a longer opportunity to go through the entire home and work through defects rather than multiple smaller chances in which we would work on the same list and then work through the delays and reschedule everything for another week time

Defects still outstanding post handover included clothesline missing, some external plumbing not completed, internal flooring mistakes still to be rectified, caulking around tiling to be finished, walk-in robe cabinetry not completed/missed, front façade not being completed and some obvious painting defects.

Overall the staff we directly had contact with were all friendly and we were pleased to support a local Ballarat business in this instance. Office and administrative staff were all prompt and knowledgeable (billing, design team, etc). Our site supervisor was generally sympathetic to our concerns and we felt was honest when we had questions or raised issues. He was also accomodating when we had special requests with our landscaping and fencing completion for which we were thankful for. We would recommend Hearty Homes to build again however would most likely search around at other builders as well rather than just going with the “locals” as the overall product was no real different to what we have experienced with the bigger national companies and there seems to have been a decline in the “finishing touches” of quality when comparing to our first build from three years ago that would place Hearty Homes on par with most other local/national builders.

I embarked on my journey with Hearty Homes in early 2021, drawn by the exceptional pre-sales experience and the appeal of supporting a local business. My decision was solidified when I signed the contract towards the end of 2021, even contributing extra funds due to price increases. The construction progressed until December 2022, and I finally took possession in June 2023. However, what followed from December 2022 onwards has been nothing short of disappointing.

Here's a list of the issues I encountered during this period:
Months of no building activity on my site, while work continued at other construction sites.
Doors with unsightly cracks.
An internal doors that wouldn't close properly, leaving gaps.
Unresolved gaps in the mortar.
A slow-draining ensuite shower.
Outdoor pipes left uncovered
Poor site cleanup.
Mounds of soil.
A septic tank system that was not turned on resulted in an overflow of greywater.
The septic tank is only partially buried in soil.
Electrical conduits are protruding from external brickwork.
Soil not correctly up to the foundation level in some areas.
Concerns were raised but disregarded, with our lack of building expertise used to dismiss the issues.

When I raised these concerns with the management, I received responses that left much to be desired:

Blaming "inexperienced tradespeople" for "substandard workmanship."
Citing "Covid-related delays."
Suggesting they "could have extended that construction date."
Dubbing the completion of my home as a "blessing" considering the current environment.
Mentioning that "profits are down a lot."
Pointing out that "land value has increased by a small fortune."
Referring to "the cost to build your home today."
Asserting that they "rushed your contract through" with "free government grants."

Here's the crux of the matter:
Land value, Hearty Homes' profit margins, and current construction costs should not affect their commitment to finishing a job, ensuring system functionality, or site cleanup.
The responsibility for "substandard workmanship" ultimately falls on Hearty Homes for employing these tradespeople without adequate supervision.
A lack of empathy was evident in their response to my concerns.
Contrary to their Hearty Homes claims, I did not receive any government grants.
This entire experience has left me deeply dissatisfied.
It appears that Hearty Homes lost interest in our project after December 2022, resulting in a lack of quality control and site oversight.

Still, despite promises made by Hearty Homes management and the extended duration, the painter has not returned to finish the job.

Seeing posts on Facebook showcasing properties built by Hearty Homes with vastly different quality, communication, and cleanup compared to my experience is disheartening.
If I were to consider building again, I would lean towards a larger national brand and enlist an independent building inspector to ensure a smoother and more satisfying experience.

Call these guys if you don’t want them to take any owner ship of the poor quality of workman ship. I went to a clients house to look at the driveway that they had gotten poured from the builders subby concreter. At first look I would have thought my 2 year old son poured it. There were knee board marks everywhere in the concrete which tells you that the concreter was useless and doesn’t know how or when concrete should be finished. There is surface cracking everywhere and the top slurry of the concrete is starting to wash off after rain that tells you the concreter finished it way to wet. Parts of the driveway are 85mm thick of concrete. you can stick your hand under the driveway 200mm where rock hasn’t been compacted the list goes on. The site foreman says it’s contaminated concrete in which I replied well in that case it shouldn’t have been used if it’s contaminated. When asked if he would accept the finish and the state of the driveway at his house he replied yes so that just goes to show they are rough backyard sort of set up. The owner of the house was told he would hear from Kevin “the owner of hearty homes” that day which was a week ago, he is still waiting