The fifth annual Chicago Luxury Home Tour, displaying 22 lavish, custom homes ranging in value from $900,000 to $4 million throughout Chicagoland, kicked off Sept. 5 and will run throughout the weekends of September.

What started out as a way to gain exposure for local developers has evolved into a widely popular scenic tour stretching from the southern tip of Wisconsin to the south suburbs of Chicago. Attracting more than 10,000 viewers last year, the tour, presented by Midwest Home Chicago, seeks to connect custom-home inquiries with Chicagoland’s most sought-after developers, said Kim Hansen, the Luxury Home Tour events manager.

Custom-home builders, in a pressure-free environment, are required to be on site to answer any questions about the craftsmanship of the fully-furnished homes in Chicago suburbs such as Glenview, Naperville, Oswego, Frankfort and St. Charles, Ill., to name a few, Hansen said. Visitors are given a map of the Chicagoland area so they can drive to the locations at their leisure.

“Without the pressure of a realtor, they can take a look at the architecture, interior design, windows, granite countertops, anything and everything that goes into a custom home,” Hansen said. “Many homes have been [commissioned] because of the tour.”

Tickets can be purchased for individual home tours, but a “passport ticket” grants viewers access to every home, all month. The $15-$20 passport tickets are being sold on ChicagoHomeTour.com and at Caribou Coffee shops, one of the home tour sponsors, and partially benefit public radio producer American Public Media, a parent company of Midwest Home Chicago, according to the home tour program guide.

While displaying multi-million dollar custom homes during an ongoing housing crisis might seem audacious, developers like Michael Vincent Ciampi, owner of Michael Vincent Homes, said he believes it is an innovative way to reach out to a failing market.

“It’s much harder to sell now with the economy the way it is,” Ciampi said. “But if there is any way to get your name out there and you can get people who are on the edge of buying, it’s a great way to showcase your abilities and designs.”

For first-time home tour participants like Ciampi-who is displaying an estimated $900,000 ranch home in St. Charles, Ill.-it’s also a great way to meet fresh clientele, he said. Last weekend, he said he had more than 1,000 people visit.

For developers like Janet Frasca, co-developer of The Walker Group, the tour is a great place for builders who don’t do much advertising. Frasca, who showed a home on the tour last year, is currently showing a French provincial home, estimated at $2.5 million in Clarendon Hills, Ill., a town west of Chicago.

Last year, The Walker Group’s custom home in Hinsdale, Ill., attracted more than 2,200 people and proved to be beneficial with numerous requests for custom work. She said she believes the housing crisis has actually weaned out builders who weren’t that strong in the marketplace to begin with and there will always be an audience out there for quality.

“Home buyers of this caliber look to the guy who’s still standing as somebody they can trust,” Frasca said.

While on the tour, like all on-site developers, Frasca has prepared herself for various visitors’ questions, ranging from the detailed ceiling and trim work to the intricate tile work in all the bathrooms.

“We get all kinds of different questions,” she said. “It’s ridiculous, but a lot of times they ask, ‘What is this paint color?’ That’s fine, but we are looking for that one inquiry that leads to [potential hiring].”

The Chicago Luxury Home Tour will run its last weekend tour Sept. 19-21. For more information on ticket sales and home locations, visit ChicagoHomeTour.com.