If visitors to Bill and Chris Shriver’s home near Parker have a sense of déjà vu, it’s probably more than just a feeling. Thousands of people visited the home – as an entry in the 1997 Parade of Homes – before the Shrivers moved in.
“People will say, ‘I’ve been through this house before,”‘ said Chris Shriver. “They remember the unusual things about the house, like the mural in the sunroom.”
In fact, much of the home hasn’t changed since the tour. The Shrivers didn’t redecorate and even bought some of the furnishings brought in for the event.
The couple had lived in Denver before but were living in the Netherlands in 1997. When Bill was transferred back to Colorado, they took a house-hunting trip. They discovered the house about a month before the Parade, when it was in the final stages of construction.
“We had looked at a lot of other homes, but when we walked in this one, we fell in love,” Chris Shriver said. “All the other homes we had looked at were just so white inside. This place has a lot of wood and has a very warm feeling.”
Chris Shriver, originally from Germany, and her husband have often lived in Europe during their marriage. The home’s Old World design appealed to them and matched their furniture. It features dark woodwork, Austrian murals and maps of the world on the library wall.
“I think it is a big positive for people to see a home that has been personalized and has a specific theme to it,” said Jane Gates, an interior designer who has designed 10 Parade entries over the years. “It’s a common mistake to think that people want a house that’s a blank slate so they can impose their own style. Often what they want is a house that is already designed to match their style.”
That was the case with the Shrivers, but Gates also works with homeowners who want her to help them make it their own. Usually that means toning things down a little.
“If Parade homes seem a little over the top, that’s because they’re supposed to be,” she said. “This is a chance for designers to showcase their work.”
Custom homebuilder John Kurowski has showcased his talents in the Parade – and the home builders’ exposition that was a precursor to the Parade – several times since 1982, when the home he built was the entire tour. How quickly entries are sold depends on the community, market, economy and house itself, he said.
In all but one of the Parade’s 20 years, at least one house was sold during the event.
“Probably the most successful Parade by that measure was at Lowry, where all the homes sold during the Parade or within 30 days of it,” Kurowski said. “I think that’s a credit to the builders building houses that were appropriate to the neighborhood.”
Some years, builders lose money on the spec homes, however.
“It’s a possibility any time you build a house on spec,” Kurowski said. “Builders put a lot of work into these homes that they don’t get paid for. Those losses come out of the marketing budget.”
Homebuyers also wind up with bells and whistles at discounted prices.
“Builders get a lot of things free or at a reduced price because the vendors know they will get a lot of exposure in the Parade,” Gates said. “Those discounts are then passed on to the homebuyer.”
Kurowski keeps track of the homes he builds for the Parade. “They keep their value at a rate equal to or greater than any other house,” he said.
Shriver neighbors Dan and Lynne Price will soon find out if that theory is true. They are asking $1.1 million for the 3,833-square-foot house they have lived in since the 1997 Parade.
The 1997 homes, south of Parker in the Timbers at the Pinery, averaged 5,395 finished square feet and ranged in price from $599,000 to $1.5 million.
“We think the house has held its value,” Lynne Price said. “Everything in the house is a very high quality, so it has held up over time.”
Like the Shrivers, the Prices didn’t discover their home while visiting the Parade. The family, living in Wyoming at the time, saw the home in a magazine.
“We called (the builder) and said we were interested in something similar,” Price said. “They told me, ‘As it turns out, that house is still available.’
“When you think of Parade of Homes, you tend to think of something that’s been overdone. This is actually a very classic home. It sits back from the street and is not at all ostentatious.”
The house was a perfect fit for the Price family, with a master suite and three large secondary bedrooms with baths for their growing children.
“We just picked out some window coverings, added a few things to the yard – and that was it,” Price said.
Their home was built by Renaissance Homes, which has had a Parade home nearly each of the past 20 years.
“We start with a floor plan we think is marketable and work off of that,” said Tom Hall of Renaissance Homes of Pradera. “We’ve never offered a home for sale until it’s done.”
But once the Parade is on, so is the search for the perfect owner.
“We’ve had houses sell to the first person who looked at them on the first day,” Hall said. “And then we’ve had houses on the market for a while. We want people to know that these homes (in the Parade) aren’t just for show. They’re for sale.”
