Parade of Homes goes virtual for 2020
Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association prepares for first online tour of homes
One week after Disneyland shut down and March Madness was shelved, leaders of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association knew the 2020 Haciendas: A Parade of Homes would have to be virtual.
Staging the association’s first virtual Parade of Homes has been Miles D. Conway’s undertaking since his first day on the job April 1 as the group’s executive officer.
The virtual tour will take place Oct. 2 rather than in mid-August, when the canceled live tour was to be held.
“October feels like tomorrow,” Conway said last week. “An incredible amount of work and care is being taken on how to present this virtually. We have gone this revolutionary route.”
In the past several weeks, the association created the template of what each individual home entry would look like online by using as a model the 2019 Grand Hacienda-winning home by Prull Custom Builders.
Each home entrant will have a three- to four-minute video; about 30 photos and descriptions of the house; a 400-word written narrative; and logos for the builder, architect, interior designer and landscape architect. The association is producing the videos and photos.
Conway also expects to have a chat feature for each home so “visitors” can communicate directly with homebuilders. The purpose of the Parade of Homes is for potential homebuyers to meet homebuilders — even if it is virtually, he said.
Conway anticipates about 20 homes on the virtual tour. But visitors won’t be limited to people who come to Santa Fe.
“The internet knows I am doing this,” Conway said. “Because we are doing this, we can put advertising in front of faces in Texas, in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle. The builders look forward to interacting with people in person. With this virtual tour, we are responding to the reality of this moment.”
A virtual element of the Parade of Homes will likely remain in place even after the in-person event resumes.
“Many of our builders have been asking for an online component to showcase their homes for the last couple years,” Conway said.
Residential real estate and homebuilding have started to embrace online commerce in the past few years, but the association had not done so until forced to this year.
“I’ve been one of those guys,” said Scott Cherry, owner of Lightfoot Inc., a Santa Fe design-build construction firm, and a past president of the association. “I’ve always been an advocate for a more robust visual presence. We get something that has longevity beyond the parade.”
Cherry said much of life has evolved to what you see on your iPhone.
“People see things on Instagram, see things on digital media; that creates desire,” Cherry said. “It has the ability to reach a whole lot more people. You can be in New York and say, ‘I want to look at a house in Santa Fe.’ ”
Kurt Faust, partner at Tierra Concepts, was the association’s president as the first Parade of Homes was planned for 1992. The company’s homes have won the Grand Hacienda prize at the parade six times.
“The jury is still out for me,” Faust said. “There’s a lot of fans that go to the parade every year. Without people going into houses, it remains to be seen how effective it will be.”
The association put the virtual parade on the agenda for its March 19 board meeting when there were only 28 reported cases in New Mexico. But that was the day Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered malls, theaters and dine-in restaurants to close.
“Everybody looked at the reality we were facing in March,” said Conway, who was not yet executive officer. “We cannot do our usual Parade of Homes.”
A virtual tour surfaced immediately.
“We are leaning into this 100 percent now,” Conway said.
Faust was wary about going virtual at first and is still wondering about it.
“At that time, I was thinking there’s no way,” Faust said. “I’ve thought about it more and more. It’s an experiment. The homebuilders association needs to stand behind this. It’s nice to keep some semblance of continuity.”