North America's Best Builders Distinguished with 2016 Avid Awards for Highest Home Buyer Ratings

MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

In recognition of the best builders providing extraordinary customer experiences, Avid® Ratings is proud to announce the winners of the 13^th annual Avid Awards. Homebuilders throughout North America are honored with the prestigious awards for scoring highest with their customers on home buying experience surveys. The 2016 Avid Awards are the largest award program in North America recognizing customer satisfaction in homebuilding. This year's program had 1,445 qualifying builders from all over the United States and Canada, double the size of last year's program. All winners were recognized on July 13^th at the digital presentation of the Avid Awards, viewable at www.avidratings.com/avid-awards.

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"We are excited to recognize the winners of the 2016 Avid Awards, who have all set the bar for home quality and customer service across North America," said Paul Cardis, chief executive officer of Avid Ratings. "It is our goal to provide homeowners with the security that a builder in their region can not only meet, but exceed, home buying expectations."

Homeowners who purchased new homes in 2015 were surveyed to determine the winners of the 2016 award. The top two winners were Mitchell & Best, which took home the Avid Cup Award; and Meritage Homes - Orlando, Florida Division MTH, which earned the U.S. Avid Diamond Award.

"With Avid, the word spreads from [the customers] that have experienced [the Mitchell & Best customer service]; Avid has helped us get that message out through customers to other people. These have been difficult times but Avid has been a benefit through those times, and we're still here," said Bob Mitchell, chief and chairman at Mitchell & Best.

"We weave everything from customer satisfaction to customer experience into everything we do –– it's a daily initiative, it's part of our culture –– we're passionate about being out in the field and being visible to our community," said Brian Kittle, division president at Meritage Homes - Orlando. "So, being an Avid Award winner is the ultimate prize for a job well done by a whole team effort."

The Avid Awards are regarded as a trusted benchmark of customer service performance in the homebuilding industry. Avid Ratings has long been at the forefront of the industry in bringing transparency of builder performance to consumers by consumers since 1992. In order to determine the Avid Award winners, homebuilding companies are evaluated using Avid's award winning GoSurvey® program and database. Every home buyer survey in the database is analyzed to determine each builder's Avid Index Score, which is a combination of the total home buying experience, the willingness to refer, and the actual number of recommendations a buyer has made. Builders with the highest Avid Index Score in each category are presented with awards. Each award-winning company must score at or above the top 25^th percentile in the United States or Canada to be recognized with an Avid Award. To provide even more transparency, many participating builders publish all of their completed (and unedited) reviews and star ratings online via Avid's GoSocial® program and at www.homequality.com.

"Part of our brand promise is that we are a trustworthy company that consumers can rely upon," Cardis said. "Integrity is of paramount importance to us, which is why home buyers and builders alike can be assured that the Avid Awards are based on surveys of 100 percent verified customers, with 50- to 70-percent response rates, and therefore have true meaning behind them."

Avid Cup

Avid Ratings' top honor, Avid Cup, recognizes the building company with the highest customer ratings throughout North America, across all surveys, from contract signing through one year of home ownership.

2016 Avid Cup:

• Mitchell & Best

Avid Diamond Award

The Avid Diamond Award is given to builders scoring the highest on the New Home Move In Experience™ survey (based on purchasing experience within the first 90 days in the home). One builder in the production category and one in the custom builder category were each named as Diamond Award recipients.

Avid Diamond Award:

• Meritage Homes - Orlando, Florida Division

Avid Diamond Award Custom/Small Volume Builders:

• Baker Residential - Carolinas Division

Avid Gold Award

Avid also distinguishes top building companies on a local level with the Avid Gold Awards. This honor is awarded to leading builders within five distinct regions of the United States who received the highest scores on their New Home Move In Experience™ survey (based on purchasing experience within the first 90 days in the home) out of all qualifying builders in their area.

Avid Gold Award winners are as follows:

North Central Region

• Traditions Building Group - Ohio Division

Northeast Region

• The Green Company - Massachusetts Division

South Central Region

• Rausch Coleman - Little Rock, Arkansas Division

Southeast Region

• Meritage Homes - Tampa, Florida Division

Western Region

• Meritage Homes - Phoenix, Arizona Division

Avid Benchmark Award

The Avid Benchmark Award is presented to the second- and third-place builders that rank among the top 25 percent nationwide (up to two per region) on the New Home Move In Experience™ survey (based on purchasing experience within the first 90 days in the home). The winners of the Avid Benchmark Award in the United States are as follows:

North Central Region

• Mattamy Homes - Minnesota Division
• Tim O'Brien Homes - Milwaukee, Wisconsin Division

Northeast Region

• None Qualified

South Central Region

• Ideal Homes - Oklahoma Division
• Meritage Homes - Austin, Texas Division

Southeast Region

• Mungo Homes - Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina Division
• Mungo Homes - Coastal Division

Western Region

• Richmond America - Southern California Division
• Meritage Homes - Southern California Division

For more information about the Avid Awards, please visit www.avidratings.com.

About Avid Ratings

Founded in 1992, Avid Ratings Co. (avidratings.com) is a full-service customer experience (CX) firm dedicated exclusively to helping residential construction companies maximize customer value, increase sales velocity and grow market share. Avid develops and implements end-to-end voice of customer (VoC) and integrated marketing technologies for attracting, delighting and activating loyal homebuilding and remodeling customers. Avid Ratings currently serves over 2,000 residential construction companies throughout North America and is ranked among the "50 Most Influential Tech Companies in Residential Construction" by Constructech magazine.

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