Visit us online at http://bigbigtour.org

Each spring during the Big BIG Tour city-wide Open House, hundreds of properties in every style and price are available to peruse and purchase in neighborhoods all across this great city — from Carondelet to Walnut Park, from Downtown to Skinker-DeBalivere. This free-to-the-public event kicks off Real Estate Season in St. Louis and presents an excellent opportunity for first-time homebuyers, empty-nesters, curiosity-seekers and everyone else interested in city living to take a peek into many of the city’s unique and distinct neighborhoods.

Best of all, the tour and informative Homebuyers’ Expo at the Tour's starting point are absolutely FREE and open to everyone. Attendees can arrive early to mingle, review available mortgage packages, talk to neighborhood organizations and look over and discuss other real estate-related services. Then they grab a Guide Book and their maps and off they go on an urban adventure!

This free self-guided city-wide open house had its beginnings in 1999 when Marti Frumhoff, a local realtor decided to share what she called the “best-kept secret” of city living in a big way with the greater St. Louis community. She appreciated the huge potential in the for-sale properties she saw on a daily basis. Marti felt there must be an equally great demand for urban-minded folks of all types to find quality residences in the unique metropolitan neighborhoods of the City.

And was she right! The Tour has always displayed great diversity of housing stock including traditional single-family homes and lofts, as well as two-family and four-family residences. Located throughout the City, the properties are available in all architectural styles and price ranges — they are rehab projects, completely restored historic homes, even new construction. This spectrum of features, style and price, broadens the appeal of listed for-sale City properties both with real estate agents and visitors, making the Tour universally appealing.

Every year since Marti started the Tour, it has grown both in properties to view and in the level of interest and participation from the public. Hundreds of people come out every year, rain or shine, lured by the adventure of one glorious day spent exploring a new neighborhood, and possibly, finding that place to call home.