12/28/12 11:14am

And here they are: the results of the fifth annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate! Who won what in this year’s competition? You’ll find the answers below.

This announcement caps an almost month-long process that began with calls for nominations in 7 separate award categories. Official ballots were assembled from reader nominations. Then voting was opened up — to everyone.

Winners of the 2012 Swampies: We salute you for your unique contributions to this city. It takes something special to stand out in Houston’s real estate landscape. On Swamplot, Houston real-estate fans have noticed you!

Big thanks are due the many Swamplot readers who took time to nominate, evaluate, vote, and comment on competitors in each category. It’s your judgments, your descriptions, and your observations that are featured below. Does this honor roll of award winners — along with the list of runners up — provide a good snapshot of the year in Houston real estate? All were determined by reader votes. Let us know what you think!

The winners of the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate are . . .

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12/27/12 1:00pm

Your votes have been tallied. Now here’s the moment you’ve almost been waiting for! That’s right: It’s time to announce the second-place winners of the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate!

But first, a note of thanks — to all of you who voted, commented, nominated, campaigned, and cajoled in support of your favorite candidates. You made this extended moment of reflection, recognition, and honor possible. The Swampies belong to you!

You know what they say about runners-up: Should the actual award winners (they’ll be announced in a later post) be unable to fulfill their duties for any reason, these second-place winners will be ready and willing to serve! Let’s have a big round of digital applause, please, for the 2012 runners-up in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate — the Swampies!

They are:

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12/26/12 9:25am

5 pm today is the deadline. That’s when the polls for this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate will close. Only a few hours are left for you to get you votes in! Is there enough time for a come-from-behind candidate to win? Sure, if enough supporters cast each of their 4 possible votes in each category to sweep it over the top.

Without your votes, will the best candidates win all these categories? We need your help to make the 2012 Swampies the best they can be. Tell us who your favorites are!

12/21/12 11:41pm

The official nominees for all 7 categories of this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate have been announced, and voting is well under way.

There are 4 places you can vote for each category. But you don’t have to choose one of them — vote in all 4 if you like:

  • In a comment to the official ballot for the category
  • In an email you send to Swamplot
  • Using Twitter (it’ll help if you use the format spelled out here)
  • In a wall post on Swamplot’s Facebook page

Here, in one convenient place, are links to the official ballots for all 7 categories:

Got a question about voting? You can probably find the answer in this brief voting guide.

Already voted? There’s still time to round up more support for your favorites! Come-from-behind candidates, here’s your chance: All it might take is a little email, Facebook or forum post, or tweet to stir up your friends. If you explain your vote clearly when you make it, you’ll help build support for your choices.

Swamplot will return to regular posting after the Christmas holiday. And voting in all categories will end shortly after that — at 5 pm on Wednesday, December 26th.

12/21/12 11:58am

We now come to the final category in the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. We need your help to determine the Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate of the past year. The official nominees, culled from reader suggestions, are posted below. Which one would you pick to win the award?

Remember, there are 4 ways to vote! And you can vote once using each approved method — that’s 4 votes in all for each award category. Declare your vote in a comment to this post, in an email to Swamplot HQ, in a Tweet, or on the wall of Swamplot’s Facebook page. The complete voting rules are available here.

All votes must be in by 5 pm on Wednesday, December 26th. When you vote, please tell us why you made your choice. We’ll include some of the best explanations for the winners when we announce them next week.

The official nominees for the Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate of 2012 are . . .

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12/19/12 11:44pm

Please vote for one of these official nominees in this, the second-to-last category of the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. It’s for one of the biggies: Neighborhood of the Year. Where’d all the nominations come from? From you!

You can vote for your favorite nominee any or all of 4 ways: in a comment beneath this post, in an email to Swamplot, from Twitter, or in a post on the wall of Swamplot’s Facebook page. Here are the official voting rules. If you want to start a campaign on Facebook or some online forum in support of your choice, go right ahead. Just make sure all the votes get in by 5 pm on Wednesday, December 26th.

Which Houston-area neighborhood deserves to be called this year’s Neighborhood of the Year? Here are the official nominees:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

12/19/12 10:06am

Did you know that you can vote up to 4 times in each category of the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate? But you’ve got to follow the rules for them to be counted. You’re allowed to vote once in a comment to the official ballot post for the category, once in an email to Swamplot, once from your Twitter account, and once on the wall of Swamplot’s Facebook page. You’ll find more details on how to do each (and how not to have your votes disqualified) here.

Nominations in all 7 categories of this year’s Swampies are now closed; balloting has begun in 5 of them so far: Most Overlooked Neighborhood, the “It’s Alive!” Award, the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic, Best Demolition, and Favorite Houston Design Cliché. Did any of your favorites make it to the ballot? Recruit your friends to vote for them. We’ve got 2 more categories coming up this week, and then a short voting season: All votes for all categories must be in by 5 pm on Wednesday, December 26th.

12/18/12 11:52pm

Onward, to the “neighborhood” categories in the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate! First: Which little slice of Houston deserves to win the award for Most Overlooked Neighborhood?

The official nominees, culled from your choices and descriptions, are listed below. Now’s your chance to choose the winner! Add your vote to a comment below, send it in an email to Swamplot, announce it on Twitter, write it on the wall of Swamplot’s Facebook page — or all 4! (That’s right, if you follow these rules, each of you can vote 4 times.) If you think you can drum up more support for your favorite candidate, go right ahead! Just make sure all votes are in by 5 pm on Wednesday, December 26th.

The nominees for Most Overlooked Neighborhood are . . .

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12/17/12 11:34pm

And now we come to the zombie category of the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Or, to be more precise, the “It’s Alive!” Award. What place, person, or effort deserves such an honor? One of the official nominees listed below. You tell us which, with your votes!

You’ve got 4 of them to spend in this category: You can cast one vote in a comment at the bottom of this post, another in an email to Swamplot, another from Twitter, and another by posting on the wall of Swamplot’s Facebook fan page. (All the rules for voting are spelled out here.) If you want to help your favorite candidate win, start a campaign! The voting ends for this and all categories of the 2012 Swampies at 5 pm on Wednesday, December 26th.

The official nominees for the 2012 “It’s Alive!” Award are . . .

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12/14/12 11:41pm

And now, a very special category in the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate is open for voting! What makes it so special? Well, the word “special” is in the name of the award, for one thing. It’s our Award for Special Achievement in Traffic. And we need your judgment, your comments, and your votes to determine the winner.

The official nominees in this category — as advanced and presented by Swamplot readers — are listed below. Now’s your chance to vote — which you can do up to 4 times if you follow our rules: once in a comment below, once in an email to Swamplot, once using Twitter, and once by scribbling on the wall of Swamplot’s page on Facebook. That not enough for you? Then recruit your friends to vote, too! But make sure you get all the votes in by the deadline: 5 pm on Wednesday, December 26th.

And now, the official nominees for the Award for Special Achievement in Traffic:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

12/12/12 10:42pm

What was this year’s Best Demolition? That’s what we aim to find out in this, the second category in the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. The official nominees are now in the (soon-to-be-demolished) house!

The voting rules for this year’s Swampies are posted here, but they’re not that complicated: You can vote in this category through each of 4 methods: in a comment below, in an email to Swamplot, on Twitter, or on Swamplot’s Facebook page. If you’ve got a favorite candidate, start a campaign! The polls close for all categories at 5 pm on December 26th.

The nominees for Best Demolition of 2012 are . . .

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

12/10/12 10:21pm

Here they are, culled from your contributions: The official nominees for the very first category of the fifth annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. And that would be: Favorite Houston Design Cliché. Thanks to everyone who submitted tried-and-true suggestions!

You can cast your vote for this award category simply by adding a comment below indicating your choice. But why not make it more fun? Don’t just tell us which choice you’re voting for, tell us why!

And pay attention to the Swampies’ quirky voting rules: You can also vote up to 3 more times — by email, on Twitter, or from Facebook — as long as you follow the listed guidelines.

The nominees are . . .

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

12/10/12 1:03pm

Nominations closed at midnight last night for the first 2 of the 7 categories in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Demolition. Later today, we’ll announce the official nominees — and begin the voting — for the first of those categories. Throughout this week and into the next, we’ll be introducing the official nominees and opening voting in each category, one by one.

This means there are now only hours left to make your nominations for the second 2 categories, which are new this year: the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic and the “It’s Alive!” Award. Nominations for these 2 categories will close at midnight tonight.

Some terrific nominations have already come in for all our remaining categories, but we still need your help to make sure that all the candidates are the right ones, and that each is presented in the best possible light.

So if you find anything missing from any of the 5 remaining award categories, please add your nominations now! Or if you think you can improve on any of the explanations submitted, feel free to write in with your own better presentation. If you see a nomination without an explanation, please add a good one! Got photos of any of the nominees? Please send them!

(Special note to neighborhoods hoping to make it to the final ballot for 2012 Neighborhood of the Year: A simple mention of your subdivision’s name, combined with descriptions that could be applied to many other parts of the city, won’t necessarily be enough to get it onto the official ballot. Instead, tell us what makes the neighborhood you’re nominating special or unique, and worthy of this award this year.)

There’s still plenty of time to contribute. Add your nominations to the comments section below the post that announces each category (you’ll find all the award categories listed together here). Or send them to us in an email. Who are the contenders in Houston real estate this year? What deserves recognition?

12/07/12 4:53pm

All 7 categories in the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate have now been announced. Voting begins next week. Terrific nominations have already come in for many of the categories, but we still need your help to make sure that all the candidates are the right ones, and that each is presented in the best possible light.

So if you find anything missing from any award category, please add your nomination now! Or if you think you can improve on any of the explanations submitted with a nomination you like, feel free to write in with your own better presentation. If you see a nomination without an explanation, please add a good one! Got photos of any of the nominees? Please send them!

This Sunday at midnight, nominations will close for the first 2 award categories: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Demolition. For the next 2 categories we’ll close nominations Monday night, then continue through the week with the rest of the categories. On Monday, we’ll announce the official slate of nominees for the first award category and open it for voting. We’ll do the same for another category each day — until we’ve made our way through them all.

There’s still plenty of time to contribute. Add your nominations to the comments section below the post that announces each category. Or send them to us in an email. Who are the contenders in Houston real estate this year? What deserves recognition?

12/06/12 1:32pm

We’ve announced 6 categories so far in the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic, the “It’s Alive!” Award, Most Overlooked Neighborhood, and Neighborhood of the Year. That’s a lot of ground to cover. What’s left?

Here it is, the 7th and final category. And probably the biggest of them all: What was the Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate of 2012?

Covering great moments in Houston real estate is the whole point of Swamplot; it’s why we’re here. Browse through the site if it’ll help you to draw up a list of contenders; or raid your own memory banks. (Did we miss a few big happenings this year?) Tell us what moment deserves this recognition — and why.

A great moment is lost if there’s no one there to chronicle it or cherish it. Which is why we need your help. Add your comments or send us an email describing the moments you’d like to nominate. (If you’ve got questions about how to make a nomination, you’ll likely find the answers here.)