BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
VILLA HILLS -- It's the type of event that plays to a person's curiousity about opulence, as well as to benevolence. And it's becoming more common in Northern Kentucky.
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For more info
For more information about the home tour Saturday and Sunday, contact Schneider Homes at 384-1621.
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To raise money for schools, nursing homes, the learning-impaired and other groups and causes, home builders are offering tours of some of their finest work to the public for a charitable donation. "It's a win-win for everybody involved," said John Yeager, president of Ashley Development, an Edgewood builder.
"People get a chance to see a fine, beautiful home and a good cause is helped out," said Mr. Yeager. His company has used such benefits to raise funds for, among others, Notre Dame Academy high school and the Northern Kentucky Association for the Retarded, now known as The Point.
The Erpenbeck Co. is another Northern Kentucky home builder that has held benefit tours of its homes.
Such tours also help the builder, which gets a chance to showcase its work, talent and product, said Julie Schneider of Schneider Homes.
"It's a way to raise money for charity; but, sure, we get a chance for people to come in a see a home we've built," Mrs. Schneider said.
"It's a little about marketing, but mostly it's an opportunity for people to tour a home and to donate money to some pretty good causes," she said.
Mrs. Schneider will hold benefit tours from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at a home the company has built at River Hills Estates, a subdivision of winding streets, old-time street lights, lots of trees and stunning homes off Highwater Road in Villa Hills.
For a $5 donation, visitors can tour the nearly 8,000-square-foot, $1.2 million house situated on 3 tree-covered acres across from a pond.
The money will go to Villa Madonna School in Villa Hills and Carmel Manor Nursing Home in Fort Thomas, where Mrs. Schneider's grandparents live.
She said Kordenbrock Interiors also helped by donating materials for the home and the benefit tour.
"We're hoping to do about $5,000 a day," Mrs. Schneider said. "That may be a little ambitious, but I know other builders have done that well in the past."
Mr. Yeager said Ashley Development typically raises from $2,000 to $5,000 on the benefit home tours.
"We started a couple of years ago and have done it several times," he said. "It's always difficult to raise money for charity, so this seemed like a good idea because we do get a lot of requests from people who don't necessarily want to buy a house but they do want to see it.
"We've held these (tours) in some of our smaller homes, but the larger homes . . . attract more attention," he said. "For some people it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a house like that." The Schneider home is a "market home," meaning it hasn't been sold.
"Maybe we'll get a buyer," Mrs. Schneider said. "But . . . for sure we'll be raising money for two real good places."
