Love for the Parade

Sidebars: Builder Beware: What to Avoid Tips for a Successful Parade Home Table Stakes: What It Takes to Compete

Everybody loves a parade. And considering the benefits of a parade of homes, custom builders ought to love them more than most.

Building a home for exhibition — whether you call it a Homearama, a Parade of Homes or a Street of Dreams — is likely to generate a lot of brand awareness for your company. But how you prepare for your participation in a parade home will determine whether this increased attention works for or against you. If done right, building a parade home could be one of the best promotional moves your company makes.

The first Homearama took place in 1962 and was the brainchild of the late Orville Brown, executive director of the local home builders association in Cincinnati, and Allen Paul, a local developer and builder.

Simonini Builders proves a parade home can be an entryway to success for custom builders."It was their idea to start the home shows," says Judith S. Kincaid, co-author of the book, "Profiting from a Parade of Homes: A Guide for Builders and Sponsoring Associations." She is also a regional director of marketing for K. Hovnanian Homes.

Brown took Kincaid under his wing. The home show became a popular practice among builders nationally. Kincaid worked for a builder that only advertised two weeks a year — through the home show in Cincinnati — and says the company grew to be one of the largest builders in the area at that time.

Make a Good Impression

A custom builder must put his or her best foot forward when participating in a parade home.

"It has to totally be the best of the best of what you do," says Kincaid. "It's an opportunity for a builder to really make a name for themselves and put all of their effort into this house and make it really amazing," says Scott Teel, director of marketing at Simonini Builders in Charlotte, N.C. "Then they can ride that wave of enthusiasm about their company for several years."

David Frosch, co-owner of Kootenia Homes in Woodbury, Minn., agrees. "It's the number one marketing event we can do as builders," he says. "I can spend lots of money on advertising and direct mail, but I'll never get the amount of traffic that I get during the [Twin Cities] Parade of Homes."

Ironically, most visitors to a parade home are not in the market for a new home. Most are in search of decorating ideas. So don't expect to close sales at a home parade.

That said, anything is possible. At the end of a long week working her first parade home, Kincaid and the builder she worked for at the time noticed a couple who kept walking through.

"Finally I said, 'Do you like this house?'" Kincaid says. "The guy said, 'Yes, we do,' and I said very flippantly, 'Well, you should buy it.' And he said, 'I think I will.' And he did. So that does happen, but that is not the norm."

This is Sarteono, Burnham Custom Homes' entry in the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago's 2005 Parade of Homes, Luxury Edition. The home includes a movie theater, custom bar with keg dispenser, and lower-level wine cellar with a secluded tasting room.

In any case, your aim is to make such a strong impression that when an attendee is ready to buy — now or in the future — your name will be first in mind.

"At some point they get sick of the house they're in," says Frosch. "And we want to be there for them."

"We have people," Teel says, "that will hold onto a home site in Charlotte for two or three years and will finally call us and say, 'Listen. We've been to every one of your HomeArama houses for the last five years. We love what you guys do. I'd like to talk to you about building.' We certainly like to impress at these shows for that reason."

Parade du Jour

Home parades come in all stripes and sizes. There are single-site and multi-site versions; some feature only luxury homes; others fall into the moderately priced category. Sometimes there are multiple shows in a single market. In the Chicago area, at least three separate home building associations hold a parade event.

The Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago puts on the Parade of Homes, The Fox Valley Builders Association has the Gallery of Homes, and the Home Builders Association of Illinois calls its event the Cavalcade of Homes. Each association has its proprietary terminology.

"Our last HomeArama in Charlotte had six houses," says Teel, "all between $2 million and $4 million, whereas the local Parade of Homes could feature a vacant builder inventory or model home. You just pick up a book at a local grocery store that has maps and floor plans, and you drive around and just visit those you find interesting."

Casting Lots for Lots

The developer hosting a parade show will normally hold a drawing to determine which builder gets first choice of lots. If you're that lucky builder, which lot should you pick?

"Different builders have different priorities," says Teel. "Our priority used to be to get the most desirable lot, regardless of price. Now we try to get a more competitively priced home site so that we can have a little bit more freedom with our home."

"Last year we had a house on a hill," says Scot Begovich, president of Burnham Custom Homes (formerly Case Homes) in Elgin, Ill. "It was the largest house and it won the People's Choice award for favorite home, but it was the last home people saw because the ticket booth was at the other end of the street. This year we wanted a more eye-catching location."

Kootenia Homes' entry in the Minneapolis/St. Paul 2006 Parade of Homes. Parade attendees are just as interested in landscaping as they are interior design, so don't make it an afterthought.There are no hard and fast rules on what lot position is best, as a visitor's path of perusal is hard to predict.

"Often people don't follow the general path that they're supposed to," says Teel. "The only time I'd say it would be great to be house No. 1 or No. 2, or house No. 9 or No. 10 on the tour, is when it's real hot, and you want to make sure people get to your home, especially if there are more than five or six homes on your tour, because some people will just give up after two and a half hours of walking houses."

Three Keys to Good Parade Home Design

Most people come to a home parade for design ideas. If you want to make a good impression, it would be wise not to disappoint in this area.

Sizzle — Incorporate the "Wow" Factor. You want your home to stand out among the competition, which is tough with anywhere from six to 1,000-plus homes in the same showcase. You'll want to pull out the stops.

Keep your eye out for design trends. "For the past few years it's been movie theaters and home technologies," says Begovich. "Before that it would have been kitchens. Trend watching is really important."

Consider 'memory points' that can be incorporated into the design or decor. "It's the same things that model home designers try to do in their merchandising," says Teel. "We try to incorporate certain elements here and there for which people will remember our home. That could be anything from a beautiful mural in a baby's room to a really awesome home theater."

Memory points vary from the superb to the divine. Frosch built a chapel in his parade home entry this year for his wife, who wanted private space at home for prayer and meditation. Once Frosch is done with the home as a model, he and his family will move in.

"I would never do it as a spec," says Frosch, "though I'm getting some great comments. Now I know that there are people who think it's kind of a cool thing."

Salability — Strike a Balance Between "Wow" and "Weird." Know your market and what home features will have the most appeal, are affordable and fit the neighborhood you're building in.

"You have to do you research and your homework on the product as you would for any product, to be sure that it's what people want," says Kincaid.

"Even though we love to impress the judges and visitors, our main priority is to sell the home," says Teel. "We certainly don't want to put features and cost centers in the house that we don't feel are salable. People are still going to look at pricing and the home's place in the community."

"I happen to be on the east side of St. Paul," says Frosch, "which is very conservative, so I don't go too far out on a limb for ideas. The one thing I would teach anybody planning a model is you want to be as different as your market can take, but if you're too different, you're going to be perceived as being weird, and you don't want that."

Sensibility — Design with the Public in Mind. A delicate balance comes in combining the ideas above with a pragmatic design that can handle the onslaught of the public.

"Over a three-week period, you can expect anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 people," says Teel about Charlotte's HomeArama. "So you try to build elements into the home that make it fairly resilient to that amount of traffic flow.

"The public's perception is different from someone involved in the industry," Teel adds. "If you have a crowded foyer in a house when you have 2,000–5,000 people coming in a day, people are going to have a negative impression of you as a builder just based on the fact that your floor plan can't accommodate that number of people."

Teel says he pushes hard for dual staircases to ease traffic flow and inexpensive hardware throughout the house.

"When you open and close a front door 20,000 times over the course of three weeks," says Teel, "that can put some wear and tear on your hardware."

With close to 1,200 homes on parade in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market, huge crowds for any one home are rare. So Frosch has a different perspective on designing a parade home for the public.

"I really don't do anything different for the crowds," he says. "If the crowds are that big, you need to hold them back at the door. You've got to design the house the way the house should be for the inhabitants."

You also need to design for safety. When people are oohing and aahing through your home, they don't always watch where they are going.

"You have to be careful with any kind of sunken space or raised platforms," says Begovich. "You have to be extra careful that there are no sharp corners."

Teel's advice: "You have to make sure you're taken the necessary precautions from an insurance standpoint," he says. "You are inviting people onto private property, and injuries and things like that could become serious problems if you don't take the necessary precautions."

Sadly, theft is also an issue.

"We had soaps that were engraved with our logo, and they were taken," says Teel. "We had one designer, who put her high school all-state track medal in a little display case in one of the children's rooms, and it got swiped. If you don't want it to disappear, get damaged or walk away, don't put it in the house."

As a co-chair and participant of Charlotte's HomeArama for many years, Teel has seen it all. He has compiled a list of tips he distributes to each of the builder participants on how to make sure things run smoothly, while preparing for the unexpected (See "Tips for a Successful Parade Home").

Entering a home parade show is worth the work. The key is preparation, attention to design details, knowledgeable staff on hand and a defense for sticky fingers and trampling feet.

Builder Beware: What to Avoid Not finishing on time or completing the job. "Builders don't plan enough time for a parade of homes," says David Frosch of Kootenia Homes. "We hear it all the time from our subs and vendors because we're organized and we're done a week early. Other builders are still running around on the Saturday when it starts trying to lay that last piece of sod and clean up the driveway. "And make sure your home is complete — down to the last knob on a cabinet to the caulking on the outside to the paint job," adds Frosch. Completing the job reflects attention to detail and the ability to adhere to a schedule — two very important things that reflect on a builder's brand. Not providing good parking. No matter how impressive your home, if you don't have good, on-site parking, your attendance will be affected. Or when visitors come, their most vivid memory point might not be in your house. "One year we provided parking in a field nearby," says Scott Teel of Simonini Builders. "But we just happened to have about 12 inches of rain in 30 days that turned it into a complete nightmare. We almost spent more money towing people out of the parking lot than staffing the home." Another time Simonini hired a luxury bus to take people from a nearby mall to the parade site. To load 50 people on a bus and drive to the location three miles away took a good 20 minutes. And people were anxious about being away from their cars. "People in our society are so tied to their vehicles," says Teel, "especially those who have children. You want to be able to, at a moment's notice, hop in your car and go somewhere in an emergency. "When people understood the logistics of getting there, it was a big detractor," says Teel. Tips for a Successful Parade Home Scott Teel of Simonini Builders in Charlotte, N.C., offers participants in his area's parade of homes, HomeArama, these tips. Think of traffic flow. Try to accommodate a secondary staircase and multiple entry and exit points. Remove all doors to bathrooms and do not keep toilet paper in the house. Strongly consider Gypcrete on the entire second floor. People don't want to hear hundreds of footsteps upstairs while walking through the main floor. Keep knick-knacks out of children's reach. Think about children's spaces very carefully. Any toys, stuffed animals, drawing tables, play sets, etc., will be destroyed no matter how hard you try to prevent it. Always hide an extra key outside in case one of your volunteers forgets a key. Run your air conditioning all day at 67 degrees or below. Make sure you get the A/C going early so you can test it. The last thing you want is a hot second floor, because visitors equate that to a poorly built home. Have your staff periodically check the thermostats. Visitors will sometimes change the settings. Keep a few boxes of booties in the event of a heavy downpour. The water tracked in is less of a problem than the grit and grime that accumulate on shoes. Clean the house every day! You will be amazed at the amount of dust that accumulates. Make sure your cleaning crew pays special attention to the stair risers, as they always take a severe beating. Have cleaning supplies in the house, including towels, in the event of a spill. Keep a duster or other broom on hand to do periodic cleanups during the day. Also store extra light bulbs. Have a lockable interior closet such as a coat closet for cleaning supplies, marketing information, personal items of your volunteers, etc. Have multiple doormats at all entry/exit locations and attractive but inexpensive carpeting inside the front door — 50,000 pairs of feet will damage the front entry foyer beyond repair. Strongly consider a stone or tile entry foyer if it fits the architectural style of the home. No matter what kind of hardwood you use, it will be destroyed. Have your volunteers memorize five key things: Asking price Square footage Lot size Who designed the home Interior designer Do not allow any drinks. Visitors will fight you, but stand your ground. Teel says he has seen more adults spill than children. Try to minimize the amount of easily concealable trinkets, such as board game pieces and flatware. They will disappear. Do not under any circumstance use anyone's personal items to decorate your home. Also don't put anything in the home you cannot replace. It may be stolen, damaged or destroyed. Try to have audio/visual equipment in a hard-to-access area; guests will want to change the channel or volume. Try to choose fairly indestructible drawer pulls, plumbing fixtures, and cabinet hardware and hinges. Each of these things will be put to the test during the show. Have fun. It only lasts a few weeks. Table Stakes: What It Takes to Compete Give considered thought to design and décor. Allot time to design and execute a memorable, compelling parade home product. "People are here to see trends in design and decorating," says Scot Begovich of Burnham Custom Homes. "Way more effort goes into decorating a parade home than with any other home. The amount of time, energy, cost and effort are significant and need to be planned for." "We spent as much time as we could in the design phase and coordinated early with our interior designer," says Steve Heflin, president of Steve Heflin Architect/Builder in San Antonio. "We had all of our ducks in a row so that we could pull off something really neat." Furnish and decorate your parade home. "So many guys make the mistake of building a house without furnishing it," says Frosch. "The [Twin Cities] Parade of Homes here in Minnesota is probably the biggest in the country, with 1,100 to 1,200 homes in a parade. And half of them are not decorated. You walk in and you see Sheetrock walls and carpet floors and you say, ?Big deal.' You have to think like Walt Disney does. How do you excite the people? How do you captivate them?" "Find a good decorator," David Frosch of Kootenia Homes adds. "Don't use your wife [unless she's a professional]. A good decorator can help you a lot in staging the home just the way you want it." Pay attention to landscaping. It can't be an afterthought; it's not just for curb appeal. It has value in and of itself. "A lot of people come just to look at landscaping," says author Judith Kincaid. "Our landscape plan is designed so that the plants we choose are in bloom during the parade event," says Begovich. "Those plants don't get planted until a few weeks before the parade. But the plan itself is coordinated for the plants that will be at their peak during that event." "Pink works better than red," Kincaid says. "It's softer and prettier, and it photographs well. Even the color of the flowers is an important thing to think about." Staff your parade home with knowledgeable people. "You should have people there who can explain your product so that you can take advantage of the relationships that you can build in those shows," says Kincaid. "If you want to hire part-time people, at least train them on our product and your company so that they can answer questions and direct people to your other communities if need be."