Home tour participation sometimes yields immediate sales, but the big payoff comes from cultivating a future client base. People tour your houses, seek out your entries in the next parade and remember you when they’re finally ready to build or remodel. Even smaller events are good venues for “institutional marketing,” says Barry Rutenberg, president of Rutenberg Homes in Gainesville, FL.
Get the Best Results by Planning Ahead
You’ll get the best results by planning ahead. Here are some pointers on parades and tours from seasoned pros:
- Set goals. What do you want to get out of the parade? “Some people just jump in and don’t think about it. Consider what aspects of your company you want to promote,” advises Nancy Mostad, co-owner of Mostad Construction in Missoula, MT., who started a parade of homes in her area 13 years ago.
- Choose your entries carefully. Pick neighborhoods where you want to work and homes the market will buy.
“We usually do one new house and one from an existing plan,” says Rutenberg. If you can’t afford several entries at once, think year to year: Show off a starter home one year, a move-up home the next.
- Budget for expenses. Entry fees can cost between a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars per home, but that is not the only parade cost your will incur. Other costs may include:
- Cleaning
- A decorator’s fee
- Merchandising
- Marketing materials
- Security devices
- Signage
- Extra insurance. Check with your association about coverage requirements
It's like operating a model home — plus, in many cases, the added expenses of showing a private residence. So budget accordingly.
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Work with your association. Most associations’ parade committees offer training seminars for contractors. Attend them, and bring your employees along, too.
Stay on the schedule your association sets. “There are so many deadlines, including naming your house, finishing it and providing information for the catalog,” Mostad says. Entry fees often include substantial deposits that associations keep if builders blow deadlines. And those entry fees can double if you enter after a certain time.
Get your home owners on board. Make a list of existing homes you’d like to show. Then ask homeowners how they feel about having the public troop through. Doug Nelson, CEO of New Spaces, a Burnsville, MN, design/build remodeling company, recommends starting the conversation early — at least a year before the parade or tour.
If the home owners are social types and eager to participate, ask them to talk up their project during the event. If they’re concerned about privacy, offer them a weekend getaway package at a nice hotel.
- Decorate unoccupied homes. “We’ve learned over the years that merchandizing helps tremendously,” says Dave Baron, president of Baron Custom Homes in Cary, NC. “People can ‘see’ themselves in your house.”
For models, use a good merchandizing company that understands your market. Alternatively, see if a local furniture store or interior designer will let you borrow furnishings in exchange for some PR in your marketing materials.
- Protect your homes. With so many people going through your homes, assume you are going to have some damage or theft. But you can reduce the losses by having employees circulate through rooms regularly.
Provide safe deposit boxes for home owners’ valuables and install locks on passage doors to keep visitors out of private areas. Also, be sure to ask home owners what they consider irreplaceable. “I always have them put away everything they’re emotionally attached to,” Mostad says.
Supply protective booties and put seating near the door. Booties are not just a needed expense, they can become a memorable marketing giveaway. New Spaces prints its logo on canvas shoe bags that people carry along tours.
- Provide information. Prepare an information sheet that lists product brands and colors and contact information for everyone who worked on the house. Hand the sheets out to prospects, and “you are perceived as being very detail-oriented,” says Mostad. If someone wants to know what that terrific tile is called or who did the floors, you’ve got all the information in one place.
For a remodeled home tour, enlarge “before” photos and mount them on an easel where you did the work. “Otherwise, people don’t know what you’ve done with the house,” says Nelson.
- Connect with prospects. Some builders put Realtors® in their parade homes to register prospects and answer questions, but you’ll connect better with potential clients if you are on site to provide information and represent your company. That goes a long way toward converting leads into sales when salespeople or designers follow up with prospects after the event.
- Put staff in every room. A homes parade is a large undertaking, so bring your entire staff. Staffing every room helps address security issues and gives prospects more “faces” to associate with your company. Station someone in the entryway to greet visitors and have them enter contact information in the guest book.
Involve the rest of your project team, too. Nelson asks each of his trades and suppliers to donate $100 toward his tour home. He mentions them in his marketing materials, gives them signage in the house and lets them put spokespeople on site to describe their services or products. The partnership pays for his entry fee.
Read “Making the Sale: Getting Great Clients to Choose You,” available through BuilderBooks.com for more tips on wowing prospects. To order it, call 800-223-2665 or go online.
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