Southern Development Homes Named Single Family Builder of the Year
EarthCraft Virginia Honors Southern Development Homes as Sustainable Leadership Award Winner

[Charlottesville, Virginia] – March 31, 2015– Southern Development Homes has won the Single Family Builder of the Year award as part of EarthCraft Virginia’s 6^th Annual Sustainable Leadership Awards, the organization’s yearly awards presentation to recognize Virginia leaders in the adoption of green, sustainable housing. Southern Development Homes was honored on Thursday evening at a ceremony in downtown Richmond which brought together over 100 individuals representing home builders, non-profit and for-profit housing providers and developers, affordable housing advocates and those interested in creating green housing opportunities in Virginia. Awards were presented in a variety of categories to cover new construction, renovation, single family homes, multifamily housing and more.

As a leader in the local homebuilding community since 1999, founder Frank Ballif knew that when it came to sustainable building, Southern Development Homes had a larger responsibility to its clients and community. Each EarthCraft Home built by Southern Development Homes follows such strict standards that they provide owners 30-40% more efficient living expense than the typical new home built today.

“Our annual Sustainable Leadership Awards recognize the best initiatives in sustainable housing in Virginia over the past year,” says EarthCraft Virginia Executive Director, K.C. Bleile. “Now in its sixth year, we feel privileged to honor the dedicated individuals who continue to amaze us with their passion for high performance home building. This year’s nominees and winners have all gone above and beyond standard building expectations to become the leaders in transforming Virginia’s housing market.”

“Winning this award for the second year in a row is a wonderful honor. We take great pride in building high quality homes that are healthier, more comfortable, and cost way less to operate than other new homes,” said Southern Development Homes President Frank Ballif. “The dedication and attention to detail from our construction team and our trade and vendor partners is extraordinary. We share this award with all of them.”

Details about the 6^th Annual Sustainable Leadership Awards are available at http://www.earthcraftvirginia.org/events_annual/earthcraft-virginias-sustainable-leadership-awards/.

About Southern Development Homes

Your Builder, Your Neighbor

Southern Development Homes is a local business with strong ties to the Charlottesville and greater Central Virginia community. Southern Development was founded by Frank Ballif in 1999, and today is the largest local homebuilder in the area, thanks to integrity that translates into superior construction quality and customer service. http://www.southern-development.com.

About EarthCraft Virginia

EarthCraft Virginia, a 501c3 non-profit, was established in 2006 in partnership with the Home Builders Association of Virginia and Southface Energy Institute with assistance from the Virginia Community Development Corporation. The EarthCraft program, originally founded in 1999 by non-profit Southface and the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, serves as a blueprint for energy and resource efficient homes built in the Southeast. Throughout the Southeast, the program has certified over 8,000 homes and 25,000 multifamily dwelling units (with 13,500 of these multifamily units in Virginia alone). For more information on EarthCraft or EarthCraft Virginia, please visit www.earthcraftvirginia.org.

EarthCraft Virginia’s partners include Southface Energy Institute, the Home Builders Association of Virginia, Habitat for Humanity of Virginia, and Virginia Housing Development Authority.

Garnett Harris, Superintendent, Southern Development Homes

Favorite place to eat in Charlottesville?
Everyday cafe across from rite-aid on Pantops. I eat there everyday.

Best way to spend a weekend?
Working on the house.

Favorite event or thing to do around this time of year?
With the weather is getting warmer, I enjoy getting the boat out on the water.

Favorite thing about home construction/Sales?
There is always a new challenge every day.

Favorite Southern Development Floor Plan?
The Bellview

Favorite thing about your home?
It’s quiet and in the woods.

Best Trip you’ve ever taken?
Las Vegas, Nevada. I attended the International Builders Show there.  

What do you like best about working for Southern Development?
The amount of work we do on a daily basis, and I like to stay busy!

Andrea Akers joins Michael Guthrie and other guests to talk about 55 plus communities.
http://wina.com/podcasts/55-plus-communities/

Meet Gwen Moore, our newest Sales Consultant at Pavilions at Pantops!

What is the Best Trip you’ve ever taken?
One of the Best Trips I have ever taken was staying at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville NC. The Vanderbilt home is located here.

Tell us about your most memorable prior work experience?
One of the most memorable times working with a prior employer was when they built a home for St. Jude Children’s Hospital, in the neighborhood I was selling, donated from a raffle 635,000, gave the home away to a VERY LUCKY winner, and sent me on a trip to St. Jude.

Best way to spend a weekend?
The best way to spend a weekend is just being with my husband, the love of my life.

Favorite event or thing to do around this time of year?
The thing I like to do most around this time of year is being in my yard. I love flowers, flowers, flowers, then sitting out on the patio looking at them.

Its time to applaud your energy bill.

Our homes will give you energy bills so low, you’ll want to cheer. A Southern Development Home has an average HERS score in the 50’s. That means they are nearly twice as energy efficient as a standard new home built just a few years ago and over 60% more efficient that the average resale home. 

We’ve all heard promises of energy savings, but we understand that a truly efficient home takes more than just buzzwords. It takes conscious building. Southern Development Homes takes superior construction to the next level with conscious building, and we have the energy savings ratings to prove it.

We start from the ground up, making smart design choices that translate into better comfort, durability and energy efficiency. Features like high efficiency HVAC Equipment, ENERGY STAR appliances, water sense-rated faucets, and Geospring Energy Star-rated water heaters reduce operating costs, saving you money every month. Our responsible building practices extend beyond our use of sustainable materials — including recycling our construction waste at a local facility that we helped create.

Our commitment to conscious building is more than marketing fluff – we use third-party ratings to ensure our effectiveness. Each home is third-party inspected, tested and given a HERS Index score – the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) is the national industry standard by which a home’s energy efficiency is measured. Last year, more than 1/3 of all new homes sold in the U.S. received a HERS rating.

Additionally, many of our homes are certified EarthCraft Homes, meeting and surpassing the energy and environmental requirements of EarthCraft Virginia and the Home Builders Association of Virginia. In fact, we are EarthCraft Virginia’s “Builder of the Year”.  Bottom line – you’ll use less energy and keep your home more comfortable – making the planet, and your wallet, happy. And that’s something to applaud.

To learn more about our commitment to energy savings, contact John Semmelhack semmelhack@think-little.com, our third-party rater.

Want to know more about the rating system? Visit the HERS site.

penguin plunge, lake monticello

The Villages’ Sales Consultant, Andrea Akers, bravely participated in the 1st Penguin_Plunge held at Lake Monticello this past weekend. To really challange all the participants, the beach was appropriately covered in snow and the high was just below freezing. The dip in the icy lake raised money for the following Fluvanna community resources: Fluvanna Habitat, FSPCA, Fluvanna Meals on Wheels, Lake Monticello Fire & Rescue. We love your dedication to the Fluvanna community Andrea, great job!

See the clip here: Penguin_Plunge