A Home Tour For Every Taste

Homeowners, buyers and the merely curious have turned annual tours in a booming business.
By Sarah Frank
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Sunday, November 26, 2006

You've just spent more than $100,000 remodeling your home. You have your dream kitchen, a new deck and a media room. Fresh carpet, too.

Maybe it's time to show off the house to a few friends.
How about 1,000 strangers?

Many Central Texans are actually answering "yes" to that question when asked by their architects or remodelers.

At a time when the Central Texas real estate market is thriving and home building and design shows dominate entire cable TV networks, home tours have become an increasingly popular activity among builders, homeowners and buyers.

"People are beginning to realize what an impact design has on their lives," says Sally Fly, executive director of Austin's chapter of the American Institute of Architects, which runs a tour each October featuring about 10 homes with creative architecture and design.

"They see it is so critical for the way you feel, they way you work and how efficient you are, that these tours are a great way to put what we do out on the streets for people to see and understand what design is and what it can be."

For architects and remodelers, letting prospective customers inside a home they've worked on can be an incredibly effective form of advertising. For the people who tour the homes, they're able to get ideas, see how certain projects — such as raised ceilings or skylights — might work in their homes and sometimes talk with builders face-to-face.

For the owners of the home being shown off, it's a chance to be proud of the money spent and give a little thank-you to the builders by helping them drum up extra business.
Every home-tour organizer interviewed for this story said they've seen interest in the tours at least double in recent years.

"There were years, early on in the life of these home tours, when it was not competitive like it is today," says Fly, who's planned the architects' association's home tours for 15 years. "We had to go out and beg architects to beg homeowners to be in the show. But now, these tours have such a reputation, it means a lot to be featured."

These tours are no easy feat to organize. Aside from persuading homeowners to give up their house for a weekend and allow hundreds of strangers to explore it, organizers work to find weekends that don't overlap with holidays, University of Texas home football games or, naturally, other local home tours.

"We've noticed some inadvertent competition with other home tours," says Jacqui Schraad, executive director of the Heritage Society of Austin. That organization runs the annual Heritage Homes Tour, which showcases Austin neighborhoods with homes that were built at least 50 years ago but often date back to the late 1800s.

"The public gets confused with all the tours," Schraad says. "They think they've been on our tour, that it's a repeat from last week or the same one as next week's. We try to differentiate ourselves to show we're one of the only tours that showcases historic Austin homes."

The 15-year-old tour takes six months to a year to organize, Schraad said, because of the research that goes into learning the history of each home, with intense research focused on past owners, special rooms and antique pieces, and training about 40 volunteer docents who lead patrons through homes.

The naturally eclectic Austin-area market also has led to niche home tours. Only one of the main local tours — the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin's Parade of Homes — shows houses for sale. They've been taking patrons through high-end homes (now $1 million and up) for about 50 years.

Other Austin-area tours feature work by local builders and architects.

About 20 years ago, the architects' tours featuring impeccable design popped up. Later came the Texas Solar Energy Society's Cool House Tour of houses with advanced energy-saving features and tours by Austin's chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, featuring homes with additions and substantial renovations.

This time of year, some home tours feature extravagant holiday decorations. Each tour comes with a special set of tasks for organizers, some of which take months to complete.

"When looking for homes to show on the tour, we have to approach and sometimes persuade the homeowners to let us bring 200, 300 people through their house," says Barbara Vana, who organizes Bastrop's Holiday Historic Homes Tour, Dec. 9, which highlights eight historic homes and buildings decorated for the holidays.

"Sometimes they are real willing; other times it takes a little more persuasion. But most are excited. They spend all year getting their home in tip-top shape and decorating, putting Christmas trees in every room sometimes. It's just gorgeous."

"We really work to keep homeowners interested in showing their house," says Rick Dowden, a board member with the Austin chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, who plans the October tours. "Last year, we had a couple homeowners who agreed, but by the time it got close to securing the date, they decided they didn't want to do it. They're just more private than that; it wasn't a reflection on the builders."

Sometimes, there can be a small incentive to showing your house in a tour. With a strict tour date in place, Dowden says, it can speed up the remodeling process and guarantee renovations will be complete (sometimes with a few small touches thrown in for free).

And occasionally, homeowners featured in Austin's remodeling tour receive a complimentary hotel room from their contractors for the tour weekend so they won't be bothered by the touring guests.

"It's a real privilege for us as remodelers for homeowners to let us do this," says Dowden, who also owns Masterpiece Remodeling & Design, showcased on the tour. "We saw a response within two weeks of the tour. I've already had at least 10 calls from serious clients, not people just shopping around."

The NARI tour wrapped up last month, but the group already has begun planning for the 2007 tour. The first step, Dowden says, is snatching up precious billboard and banner space around the city that can disappear quickly between a few fall home tours.

For now, most home tours do not fall on the same weekend. This could change if more tours are created, which worries some organizers.

One thing that doesn't worry organizers is ticket sales. Many say they are surprised at the range and diversity of people who attend the tours, including students, people who have yet to own a home and out-of-towners.

For the cost of a tour ticket, often ranging from $5 to $25, anyone can become a design or remodeling or architecture enthusiast for a day. And with so many choices in the Austin area, there's clearly a tour for any kind of home style groupie.

"We try to have a variety of size and style for every kind of person on the tour," says Mary McLeod, residential coordinator for the Austin Green Building Program, which helps put on the Cool House Tour.

"Sure, most people are maybe thinking of building or buying a new home and they want to incorporate elements from the houses they see on our tour. But some people just enjoy the tour even if they might not be able to modify their home right now.

"Some people are just really into it."