Parade season and the 10.5-month build: a builder's year

The Twin Cities Fall Parade of Homes opens on September 11 and runs through October 4, and the builders entering it are spending these two weeks on staging, signs and the last punch-list items. Builders associations elsewhere run tours of their own on similar calendars. Before the doors open, it is worth stepping back from the house to the year, because many of the families who walk through in September are weighing homes that would start next spring. Census data released last week shows how that year actually runs.

The year in starts

The Census Bureau’s quarterly table of single-family starts by purpose, released on August 18, separates out contractor-built homes: houses built under contract on land the owner already holds, which is most of what a custom builder does. The pattern repeats year after year.

• First quarter: 24,000 contractor-built starts in 2023 and 2024, 25,000 in 2025 and a revised 24,000 this year.
• Second quarter: 33,000 in 2023, 37,000 in 2024 and 38,000 in 2025, with a preliminary 34,000 for 2026.
• Third quarter: 35,000, then 32,000, then 35,000 across the same three years.
• Fourth quarter: 32,000, 35,000 and 32,000.

Spring is the busiest quarter for breaking ground and winter the slowest, with second-quarter starts running roughly 40% to 55% above the first quarter’s. NAHB’s reading of the same release, posted on August 19, counted 49,000 custom starts in the second quarter of 2026, a figure that also includes owner-built homes. That was 9% fewer than a year earlier, with custom building holding a 20% share of single-family starts on a one-year moving average.

Working back from a spring start

A start is the end of a long run-up, not the beginning. Census averages for 2025, published this spring, put contractor-built homes at 1.4 months from permit to start and 10.5 months from start to completion, while owner-built homes took 12.8 months to finish. Before the permit sit the land, the design and the lender. Fannie Mae’s rules for construction-to-permanent loans require the borrower to hold title to the lot, either already owned or bought in the same transaction, so a family still looking for land has a step to finish before anything else can move.

Put those together and a spring start runs backward through the calendar like this:

• April: ground is broken.
• February and March: the permit, which on average comes about six weeks before the start.
• November to January: design development, pricing and lender approval.
• September and October: the first serious conversations, which in our experience often follow a tour visit or a referral.

That last line is why a fall parade matters more than its foot traffic suggests. The visitor standing in your kitchen in September is right on schedule for an April start, and the house they move into will take most of the following year to build.

Getting the parade house to sell the next one

The house will show well; that is why you entered it. What usually goes missing is everything around it. Before September 11, we would want a builder to have:

• A landing page for the tour house with the floor plan, square footage, the lot, how long the build took and what the contract included, plus a plain way to ask for a design meeting.
• A sign-in at the door, on a tablet or a card, that asks permission to follow up and asks what the visitor is planning: lot owned, lot wanted, timeline.
• The license number on every sign and printed sheet in states that require it in advertising, such as California and Florida.
• A follow-up sequence loaded in the CRM by stage, so a family that owns land hears something different from a family that is just looking.
• One named person who calls every visitor who asked for a meeting within a day of the visit.

Reviews belong in this list too. BrightLocal’s 2026 consumer survey found 74% of consumers only care about reviews written in the last three months, which is hard on a builder who finishes a few homes a year. Ask at milestones rather than only at move-in: the design sign-off, the framing walk-through, the day the keys change hands.

The months after the doors close

October is follow-up month, and it is where parade money is won or lost. A thank-you note with the floor plan, an invitation to see a home under construction and a check-in after Thanksgiving keep the builder in the conversation while families talk it over at the kitchen table. Most will not be ready in October. In our experience, the ones who sign in January are the ones who heard from you in November.

November and December go quiet on the phone, but not in the background. NAHB’s March analysis of the 2025 market describes custom building as less sensitive to interest rates than other home building and more sensitive to household wealth and stock prices, which is why year-end bonuses and a good market year can show up as calls in January. The site should be current before then, with the parade house written up as a finished project.

Spring brings the next round. The Twin Cities association already lists its spring tour for March 12 to April 11, which lands just as the year’s biggest quarter for starts begins. Builders who plan to enter should book next spring’s photography and landing page work over the winter, not in the week before opening.

What to do this month

• Build the tour house landing page now and test the design meeting request on a phone.
• Set up the door sign-in with consent and planning questions before the first weekend.
• Write the visitor follow-up by stage in your CRM while there is still time to write it well.
• Check the license number on every sign and handout that leaves the house.
• Ask this spring’s move-ins and any client currently in framing for a review before the tour starts.
• Block time in early October to call every visitor who asked for a meeting.

The parade lasts four weekends; the work it starts runs well into next year. Our page for custom home builders shows how we plan a builder’s year around starts and tours, and our GoHighLevel builds are how we set up visitor follow-up so no name from the sign-in sheet goes cold.