Purchasing a Parade Home (sale, fee, prices, construction)

[chrolly420]

I'm thinking of purchasing a parade home but am feeling a little uneasy about it. Anyone have any comments/personal experience positive or negative?

Thanks in advance...

[Mike Peterson]

Saying you are purchasing a Parade home is like saying I am purchasing a home advertised in the newspaper.
Parade of Homes is just advertising the builders pay for.
They pay $2500 to be called a "Parade Of Homes" home and they are given a few signs and put on the P of H map.

Edit: Unless of course there is a builder called Parade Homes then just disregard.

[chrolly420]

Well, not every home advertised in the newspaper has had hundreds of people walk throught it. My concern is one of security. Any weirdo can purchase a ticket, walk through the home, and then know the entrances/layout of the home. I admit I am probably more paranoid about this than the average person. Also, I wonder why this information (that it is a "parade" home) is often mentioned in real estate ads. What about this would be appealing to a buyer?

[kevcrawford]

Depends on what you mean by "Parade Home". Here, we have a Parade of Homes every year that consists of about 7 incredible homes in the $1 Million range and up on one street in a high end subdivision. That brings out a huge number of people, but they're usually staged by companies and it's none of your own stuff that could get ruined. After the Parade, the builders will go back and repair any damages done by the people walking through. Then the buyers will move in, if they've been sold.

We also have several "Tours of Homes". These are where builders all over the city sign up to be on the tour of homes and one weekend people drive around to all the open houses. Basically a city-wide open house. They range in prices.

I'm not sure what you'd have to worry about in either case. My team has listed and sold Parade homes and haven't had any issues with them. The builders are usually very good about fixing anything that needs to be done before move-in. There are parts of the homes that people aren't allowed to see from time to time as well. We had a safe room in one that we sold hidden behind a book case, but that was never opened to reveal that it was there.

[chrolly420]

Thanks for the response.

[Mike Peterson]

Originally Posted by chrolly420

Well, not every home advertised in the newspaper has had hundreds of people walk throught it. My concern is one of security. Any weirdo can purchase a ticket, walk through the home, and then know the entrances/layout of the home. I admit I am probably more paranoid about this than the average person. Also, I wonder why this information (that it is a "parade" home) is often mentioned in real estate ads. What about this would be appealing to a buyer?

I could go to the county and pull out plans on any home built to see the lay out and most of the builders have the floorplans on their websites so I don't see that the ability of anyone to walk through the home should be a big concern. In fact it costs money to walk through those homes, going online or to the permitting department costs nothing.

The fact that they mention Parade Home is just part of the marketing. It gives people the appearance that the home is special when in fact the only thing that sets it apart from other homes is that the builder paid a fee to call it a Parade Home.

[arctichomesteader]

As the previous poster mentioned, with most newer homes, and anything older that's been remodeled with a permit issued, it's usually easy to find the floor plan of a house. Find something older without such plans on file (will require checking), or, find an area where you can build your own house without a permit like that (though there are few places like that in much of the country), if it bothers you. It would certainly bother me to have the plan of my house so readily accessed by anyone, burglars really are getting quite good at this stuff lately. But they won't with me, since I'll be building my own home (yes actually build it myself, I have some construction experience and logs are simple anyways) in an area without any permits or anything required. It's a nice bit of extra security.

[rscustomhomes]

Sometimes companies (example anderson) will give a builder discounts to use "new" products to showcase in the parade of home as long as the builder also lets them advertise about the product their. So you might get a home with some nicer features/upgrades/options for a cheaper amount because the builder didnt pay more they shouldnt charge more. Not always the case some builders dont do that.

[johnrex62]

A parade home will often have higher quality finish items, landscaping and other extras not found in the builder's normal line. If the price differential between the parade home and their standard line is inconsequential you could get a better bargain.

As far as familarity with the floorplan by the mass public...most builders have a limited selection of floorplans and repeat them throughout the subdivision so anyone wanting to study a layout need only go to any home for sale and they will have the general layout for the whole subdivision.

I don't see any problems associated with parade homes from a security perspective that are not common to the builder's entire line.


Years back a lot of tract builders would build a model home and when they close the subdivision that home would go on the market. It sometimes had odd things built into it, no garages, or strangly placed doors or walls etc. Converted garages commonly reduce their overall value. I would avoid these, but I am fine with parade homes.