Award

NAREE 2014 Award CeremonyWe are so very pleased to announce that our very own Patricia Garcia, BDX Content Manager, and New Home Source received the Gold Award for Best Newsletter on Friday night at the 64th Annual Meeting of the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE) in Houston.

This is the pre-eminent award for real estate journalism. The program honors excellence in reporting, writing and editing stories about residential and commercial real estate. A panel of judges from the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University selected winners. Patrick S. Washburn, a former news reporter and editor and a professor emeritus, chaired the panel.

More than 300 journalists from leading media and industry leaders from around the nation attended the event. Patricia and Jay McKenzie, BDX Director of Content, were both panelists at the event. Patricia also represented New Home Source ably in a fast-paced series of three-minute Meet the Press interviews. Leaders of realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow, Homes.com and several MLSs and brokerages were present as speakers, panelists and attendees.

In presenting the Gold Award to Patricia Garcia for the New Home Source Home of the Week eNewsletter, the judges stated,

“This e-newsletter offers far more than its home of the week feature. It covers the hottest trends from cool gadgets and gizmos to the future of the mortgage interest deduction.”home of the week newsletter

In the above photo, Patricia has just received her well-deserved award. Standing between Jay and Patricia are Ken Harney, a columnist for New Home Source, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and many other leading newspapers across the nation. Next to him is Michele Lerner, a frequent contributor to New Home Source, New Home Source Professional, Fox News, The Washington Post and REALTOR Magazine.

NAREE is a non-profit journalism organization founded in 1929. A list of all award winners can be seen at: http://www.naree.org/index.php?src=news&srctype=detail&category=Association%20Headlines&refno=151

Congratulations, Patricia!

sfbnWe’re excited to announced that our website promoting new home advantages,  StartFreshBuyNew.com was the runner-up in the Real Estate Category for the 18th Annual Webby Awards.

What is a Webby?

The Webby Awards are the leading international awards honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, The Webbys are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) — a 1,000+ member judging body that includes Executive Members comprised of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.  Over 12,000 websites were submitted for a Webby Award from over 60 countries.

Background of the Start Fresh. Buy New. websitewebby

In an effort to promote new construction and educate consumers of the many advantages of buying a new home over a used home, the StartFreshBuyNew.com website and national campaign launched in 2013.  The goal of the website is to increase exposure for new homes in the general real estate marketplace and increase awareness of four key new home advantages: Low Cost of Ownership, Quality Construction, Design, and Energy Efficiency. To accomplish this, the site uses a combination of infographics, videos, image galleries, and interactive tools. The site engaged over 1.5 million home shoppers in 2013; the significant traffic is fueled by an ambitious digital marketing campaign and online sweepstakes aimed specifically at current and soon-to-be home shoppers.

The website was developed by BDX sister company, EX2 Solutions. EX2 offers complete custom web and mobile app development that provides  turnkey services such as enterprise level web design, development, project management, hosting, and information architecture.

For more information you can visit the site directly or email us for additional details about the campaign.

 

This week Professional Builder magazine announced its next inductees into the “40 under 40” club.  Each year the magazine honors “up-and-comers” in the home building industry and with hundreds of applications submitted only 40 are selected.  These professionals represent the next generation of leaders in the industry and are all under the age of 40.  BDX is proud to see so many clients among the winners- including Adam Aschmann with Tilson Home Corporation, Jason Grupe with Charter Homes and Neighborhoods, Frank McKee with McKee Homes, Matt Devereaux with Lennar Homes, Ryan Jackson with Streetman Homes and Todd Waguespack with Level Homes to name a few.

Congratulations to all the winners! To see the full list of inductees, click here.

 

 

 

 

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.