Those who have tried to sell a home recently can truly appreciate how it feels to have an interested buyer looking at the house. The mere fact they showed up puts them ever closer to making an offer and buying.

For the area surrounding the Founder’s Point development in Carrollton, the past few weeks has been a home showing of monumental proportions.

While the long-term impact of the first-ever Spring Homearama, hosted recently in Founder’s Pointe, may not be fully known yet, the short-term return from this super-sized home expo has been significant.

During the past few weeks, more than 30,000 visitors, from throughout Hampton Roads, the Eastern Shore, the Peninsula, Northern Virginia, North Carolina and elsewhere came to view the eight amazing homes on display and visit the dozens of home and service vendors whose ware also were on display.

While the attendance figures are below what the Tidewater Builders Association brings in each fall during its traditional Homearama, this first spring event was no less of a success.

For the first time, Isle of Wight County was on display, and most of the eight homes went from on-the-market to sold in just a matter of 16 days. Area charities were blessed with proceeds from the sale of one of the homes, and the many vendors, subcontractors and specialists on display were able to meet and greet thousands of potential customers.

One other big winner in this event was Suffolk.

These 30,000-plus visitors had to drive to Carrollton. In doing so, they all crossed a major portion of North Suffolk, or other portions of Isle of Wight County. These visitors, who may not have known much about what the area offers before their trip, were exposed to the sights of tremendous retail and residential development and hopefully were left with the image that we have much more to offer than ever before.

The upcoming Fall Homearama will move back to more familiar stomping grounds, when it is set-up at East Beach in Norfolk. But let’s hope Homearama comes calling to our area again. We have a lot more to show and much more to sell.