Month: November 2010

BDX is excited to announce that we are now the exclusive provider of new home listings for HomeJunction’s SpatialMatch.com, the first real estate search platform to fully enable geospatial map-based search. Now home buyers using SpatialMatch’s neighborhood and lifestyle search technology to find homes in areas that ‘fit’ their lifestyle needs will also have access to thousands of new home community listings through the extensive BDX network.

“We are very excited to add this national footprint of high quality new construction listings from BDX,” said John Perkins, chief executive officer of Home Junction, Inc., creators of SpatialMatch™. “Giving home buyers access to the new construction data and listings from BDX on SpatialMatch allows for a better user experience and a more effective team approach between resale agents and new home builders”.

The alliance also allows BDX to provide another distribution outlet for builders interested in reaching new home shoppers online, and is part of a larger BDX effort designed to help builders “List Once and Be Everywhere”. In addition to hundreds of partner sites, the BDX network includes NewHomeSource and Move New Homes, the number one and number two new home websites*. Collectively, the BDX network reaches over 40 million potential new home buyers each month.

You may have noticed that the BDX has begun sending out our Hot Homes E-blast in select markets. We’ve seen requests regarding how to get a placement in our market-specific emails. As a result, I’m writing this as a simple explanation of the process that we take to creating and sending them out, as well as tips to getting your hot homes listed with each release.

Let me preface this by saying that our goal is to do good by both builders and home-shoppers alike, meaning that the BDX will place no favoritism upon any one builder when choosing what offers are best and will give no preferential treatment to any builder for any reason. The end goal is simply to get the maximum amount of homes listed for all interested builders and to get those homes sold to interested customers.

The Hot Homes eblast is a free service for our builders and is distributed monthly in 12 major markets. As the program develops we plan to roll out additional markets. The program is designed to promote those homes that builders have identified as ‘Hot’ and to help advertise Special Offers and Promotions listed on NewHomeSource.com.

In creating these eBlasts, I compile a list of the best Hot Home deals by market directly from the website. Any Hot Home or Promotion that is compelling and I believe will drive consumer action will be considered. With this in mind, any listing that is not completely filled out (i.e. has an empty description or title), or only includes filler such as an address or “schedule an appointment” has little chance of being included. They are less compelling and have shown to have a lower click thru rate. Both the description and title of your Hot Home should be completed to the best drive consumer action. Also, ALL CAPS and using excessive amounts of !!!’s has not shown to improve clicks or performance.

In contrast, I find that the offers that have the strongest performance in terms of click-thru action have strong call to actions in pricing point, home description or evocative imagery. For example, titling your home something as simple as “Own a New Home for as low as $679 a month!” has show strong performance and will drive traffic. In direct comparison, using something generic like “Affordable Monthly Payments” would not receive as strong of performance. Home-shoppers like numbers. Tell them why your pricing points will appeal to them.

In addition to low-cost promotions other offers are also compelling to consumers. This can be achieved by saying something as simple as “Only 2 Lots Remaining” or evoking a strong image of what makes the house stand out above other local homes. Examples such as “Huge Gourmet Kitchen with Granite Countertops” have also seen strong response rates.

For information about adding Hot Homes & Promotions to your listings on NewHomeSource.com contact your Account Manager to take advantage of this free service.

–Jamie Lintner

Obie AwardThis week, BDX was proud to receive the Best Corporate Website OBIE award from the Greater Atlanta HBA. We received the award for for the recent changes we made to our Move New Homes (MNH) listing website. In addition to changing the look and the feel of the site this year, we’ve also added new functionality to increase the performance of the site and create a better user experience.

Whether a builder wants to promote special offers, feature a “hot home”,  showcase and library of photos, tout green features and products, the recent redesign of MNH has made it possible. New navigation functionality has also increased ease-of-use for consumers and has led to more leads for builders. And now builders have access to reporting tools that allow them to monitor the performance of their listings and make data-driven decisions as they plan upcoming programs.

BDX is proud to have our efforts recognized by such a great group of folks. The OBIE Awards program is presented by the Greater Atlanta HBA’s Sales and Marketing Council to honor excellence in building, remodeling, marketing and personal achievement in the homebuilding industry.  Want to find out who else won an OBIE? Check out the 2010 Interactive Winner’s Book for all the details.

From the recent USA Today article about Canadians becoming the top out of state homebuyers in Arizona, to the article from The Real Deal about snowbirds from Canada flying down to South Florida to buy homes, you can’t escape the news that Canadians are snapping up US real estate faster than ever.

The strong Canadian dollar combined with warm, inviting climates are attracting Canadian buyers to southern U.S. markets in record numbers. Canadians now make up 23 per cent of all international home purchases, up from 11 per cent three years ago, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors. And according to a new report from the TD Canada Trust, almost half of British Columbia boomers are considering buying a property in the U.S.

One way to reach these potential new home buyers is to let BDX help you send your targeted message to Canadian real estate agents. You can send your email message to our entire list of over 50,000 Canadian agents for under $500. … An Exciting Opportunity To Sell More Homes.

Now is the perfect time to take advantage of this marketing opportunity. For more information contact info@thebdx.com.