Chris Kolmar

1. Bloomberg denied a second piece of pizza.
2. The awkwardness of pooping at the office.
3. Cat Wars: A Star Wars parody
4. Beards are awesome. So says science.
5. The internet brings us together. Only took this dude a year off to figure that out.

Megan Radich

1. Build creative habits.

Sally Olsson

1. 3D Skype
2. 20 Foot balloon dinosaur

This post was written by Chris Kolmar

+ Chris Kolmar is the Chief Economist at Movoto. He enjoys developing new real estate tools, reading about real estate, and Diet Coke.

At Movoto, we believe in education. The more a person knows about a subject, the better decisions they are likely to make. With this in mind, the Movoto team recently created “The First-Time Home Buyer’s Guide” to help you learn the ins and outs of purchasing your first home.

What’s Inside the Guide?

Our home buyer’s guide will give you everything you need to know about buying a home. You can think of it as a free ebook. Divided into 10 chapters, The First-Time Home Buyer’s Guide explains these topics:

1. Is Now a Good Time Buy?
2. What Do I Need to Buy a House?
3. How Much House Can I Afford?
4. How Do I Know What I Want?
5. Should I Work With an Agent?
6. How Do I Know What Loan to Apply For?
7. How Do I Know What to Offer for a Home I Like?
8. What Do I Do Once I’ve Made an Offer?
9. What Should I Do Before I Close?
10. How Does the Closing Process Work?

To read Movoto’s First-Time Home Buyer’s Guide, click here.

This post was written by David Cross

+ David Cross is a writer for Movoto and former journalist. He attended Ohio State and Florida State universities.

Chris Kolmar

1. Where every shot in the NBA happened this year.
2. Reasons why kids are just tiny, drunk adults.
3. Watch the washing machine destroy itself.
4. Wet Towels… IN SPACE!!!!
5. One night stands during war time.

David Cross

1. Michael Shannon Does Dramatic Reading of Insane Sorority Letter

Megan Radich

1. Dudes and cats.

Randy Nelson

1. We are actually living in the Matrix.

This post was written by Chris Kolmar

+ Chris Kolmar is the Chief Economist at Movoto. He enjoys developing new real estate tools, reading about real estate, and Diet Coke.

Chris Kolmar

1. How men see themselves.

Zach Mirsberger

1. Grand Canyon is getting old.

Nick Johnson

1. Stupid tech quotes.

Sally Olsson

1. Since we’re all obsessed with LEGOS
2. Is this the final frontier after the final frontier?:

This post was written by Chris Kolmar

+ Chris Kolmar is the Chief Economist at Movoto. He enjoys developing new real estate tools, reading about real estate, and Diet Coke.

Chris Kolmar

1. Reason my son is crying – we wouldn’t let him drown in a pond.
2. The Blue Jays season is already over.
3. Getting into college is hard now-a-days. Especially if you’re an entitled kid trying to get into the Ivy league
4. Surprised Patrick is surprised.

Zach Mirsberger

1. Hovercraft golf carts.

Nick Johnson

1. The Popinator
2. ZOMG BITCOINS!
3. America’s Most Hipster Neighborhoods

This post was written by Chris Kolmar

+ Chris Kolmar is the Chief Economist at Movoto. He enjoys developing new real estate tools, reading about real estate, and Diet Coke.

David Cross

1. Why I left news.

Zack Mirsberger

1. The NYTimes is redesigning. We like it.
2. Google pays fine over street view privacy breaches.

Chris Kolmar

1. The answers to all of your Ultra Ever Dry questions.
2. Employeers taking their sweet time to hire.
3. Food truck economics.

Nick Johnson

1. Hasid or Hipster?

Randy Nelson

1. The rise and fall of 4 winged birds.

This post was written by Chris Kolmar

+ Chris Kolmar is the Chief Economist at Movoto. He enjoys developing new real estate tools, reading about real estate, and Diet Coke.

David Cross

1. The answer is obviously 1. If you get anything else, you did math wrong.
2. She’s my hero.

Zack Mirsberger

1. A guy jumps into a puddle…

Chris Kolmar

1. Random acts of awesome are always born of ball pits.
2. I pushed the Zebra from the top floor. It didn’t end well.
3. How the internet makes us all better.
4. Glass ceiling index
5. What a trombonists lips look like from inside a trombone.

Sally Olsson

1. Build your own space plane.
2. Buzzfeed shows us what we can learn from homeless people’s funny signs
3. Bubbles!
4. 10 Common Phrases for expensive home listings

Chris Bernardo

1. Now these are how theaters should be.

Megan Radich

1. And people think it’s weird when I take my shoes off for a meeting.
2. A tree in tribute to the Japanesse tsunami.

Randy Nelson

1. 3D printers have a ways to go before homes become a viable option for me.
2. This is a steal at $50million.

This post was written by Chris Kolmar

+ Chris Kolmar is the Chief Economist at Movoto. He enjoys developing new real estate tools, reading about real estate, and Diet Coke.

Happy Holidays from the Movoto Blog team!

As the end of this year draws near, the Movoto Real Estate bloggers are dutifully making our resolutions: to spend less time sitting on the couch stuffing our faces, to cut back on our daily Starbucks lattes (and try saving the money instead), and of course to work on producing even more amazing blog content to keep you entertained!

Technically we cheated a little–we’ve already started upping the awesomeness since our last newsletter. Behold our latest article attempts at putting our best foot forward:

• Coinciding with balloon enthusiast Jonathan Trappe’s trip, Movoto made a calculator to go Lift Your House With Balloons: We Aren’t Making This Up
• We created a handy interactive graphic to build your own gingerbread house–life-sized or table size–in our article The Tastiest Home You’ll Ever Build
• Inspired by the movie adaptation of Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” we found ourselves calculating a listing price for Bag End in There and Back Again: A Hobbit’s Real Estate Journey
• We compared the costs of popular musicians’ homes over time in Homes That Strike a Chord: Mozart to Lady Gaga
• In an attempt to prepare ourselves before time completely runs out, we wrote an article about how We’re All Going to Die: The Procrastinator’s Guide to the End of the World

Coming up: If you like bacon and snow (not necessarily together), keep your eyes peeled for their appearances in next month’s articles!

Movoto: Moving Forward

The end of 2012 finds Movoto expanding its user platforms, building a new app, and increasing tools available for agents and clients. We recently began offering widgets, or website applications, with Movoto data for agents and any other individuals interested in the tools.

Our widget options currently include an application that showcases agent testimonials from actual clients, one with localized market trends, another that offers our “ChalkScore” evaluation of local schools, and more. Check out all of the Movoto widgets available for your website and blog on our Tools page.

Meet Movoto

Meet Sam, one of Our Agent Relations Associates

1. What is your role at Movoto?

I work with agents who are just starting out with the referral program and help them start out strong with us.

2. What do you like most about working for Movoto?

Whenever I have a call with an agent who I can have a friendly conversation with, it makes my whole day. Also, my co-workers are all fun people to work with.

3. What’s been your favorite Movoto moment from 2012?

Henry Shao, CEO and Founder of Movoto, dressed as an Angry Bird.

My favorite moment would have to be the Halloween Party this past year. Our HR department put together all kinds of contests, everyone showed up in these crazy costumes (a full-on Storm Trooper won the contest, I think, and our CEO came as an Angry Bird), I got wrapped up like a mummy—all in all, a successful little break. It was also fun to have the typical professional conversations with our partner agents while dressed up like a surgeon.

4. What are you most excited about for 2013? How do you plan on celebrating the start of the New Year?

How do you plan on celebrating the start of the New Year? I’m actually going to be in a production of “The Taming of the Shrew” in late March, which I’m pretty excited about. As far as the New Year goes, I will probably be running around San Francisco with friends and coming up with a resolution that I’ll actually be able to keep up with.

Want to Share Your Ideas?

Have a crazy awesome idea for a Movoto blog piece? Don’t be shy, let us know! Email our Content Editor (he’s also our resident Jedi Master) David Cross at dcross@movoto.com and put “Crazy Awesome Blog Idea” in the subject line.

This post was written by Kristin Crosier

Kristin Crosier is a staff writer for Movoto and a graduate from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She also enjoys editing (oddly enough), and has a Minor in Professional Editing.

As the holidays approach, the Movoto Real Estate office is abuzz with holiday cheer and chatter about the festive season. The blog team can barely contain their excitement for seasonal Starbucks lattes, Secret Santa gift exchanges, and holiday decorations. But mostly food. Lots and lots of tasty food.

Movoto's Power Your Home With Pets calculator was featured on Gizmodo, Fox News, and Mother Nature Network.

Since our last newsletter, we’ve been playing with furry critters, blasting Death Stars, hopping around the world, and obsessing over the value of the White House. Here are just a few of our exciting blog posts from the past few weeks:

• We decided to put an end to lazy pets and generate alternative energy by creating a calculator to see how much energy our pets could produce in Animal House: Power Your Home with Pets
• Befitting our love for Star Wars, we sought to figure out how many homes would fit in the Death Star with our article That’s No Moon: How Many Houses Could Fit in the Death Star?
• Curious about international real estate markets, our bloggers searched high and low to find out the size comparisons of 30 International Homes for $250,000 – See How Yours Stacks Up
• We investigated how to modernize the homes of our three favorite pigs in Three Little Pigs Renovated: Pick a Pre-Fab Home or Build with Bamboo
• With the election in our sights, our team set out to value the White House under different presidents, during the last election, and on market in the battleground states

Coming up next month: Be on the lookout for some of our holiday-themed blog articles! We’re particularly fond of holiday treats and winter wonderlands, as you’ll soon see.

Movoto: Moving Forward

Both the Movoto Real Estate iPhone/iPad app and Android app are in the process of getting makeovers. The new versions will have design enhancements and allow Movoto to offer quicker updates. Android users, rejoice! You will also finally see a sleek app design that more closely resembles the version for Apple products.

We’re also currently in the process of developing a top secret tablet app, so shhh! All we can say are four words: it will be awesome. You can expect to see the results of this project within a month or two.

Meet Movoto

Meet Kevin, a Customer Care Member of our Client Relations Team

1. What is your role at Movoto?

I am a customer care member for our Client Relations Team (CRT). I work with the most exciting people and we are the forefront of Movoto. On an average day, I field anywhere from 50 to 60 client and agent calls. My goal is to make the client’s home buying experience as enjoyable as possible. I also assist my manager Jesse in day-to-day duties, from emails and calls to creating a positive work environment. We wear many hats on CRT and if it can be done we can do it!

2. What do you like most about working for Movoto?

I absolutely love the people I work with. Our CRT is a family like any other. From my amazing managers to my crazy team members, we make any obstacle into a solution–there is never a dull moment. Show me an obstacle and I’ll show you a solution. The old saying “where there’s a will, there’s a way” is true, and I couldn’t agree more. I also have the pleasure of working with members of our Agent Relations Team (ART) who have guided and educated to provide better support.

3. What’s been your favorite Movoto moment so far?

My most memorable moment at Movoto has to be our annual company retreat to Tahoe. Last year was the first time I went and it was very exciting, and this year didn’t disappoint either. It was a great bonding experience, from the ride up to hanging out with everyone at the house. It was a blast!

4. What part of the holiday season do you most look forward to? Is there a certain holiday tradition you have?

I enjoy the cold winter season a lot. I really look forward to the holiday spirit, as well as spending time with family and friends. Being around them makes the times unforgettable, and everlasting. My friends are also like my family because they are the people who put up with my crazy and awkward comments. Every year my family has a tradition of getting together with extended family members and telling stories and embarrassing moments, along with a nice dinner. The holidays are always a great way to spend time with the people that mean the most.

Want to Share Your Ideas?

Have a crazy awesome idea for a Movoto blog piece? Don’t be shy, let us know! Email our Content Editor (he’s also our resident Jedi Master) David Cross at dcross@movoto.com and put “Crazy Awesome Blog Idea” in the header.

This post was written by Kristin Crosier

Kristin Crosier is a staff writer for Movoto and a graduate from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She also enjoys editing (oddly enough), and has a Minor in Professional Editing.

Movoto home buyers will now have access to the real estate company’s innovative search tool, interactive map feature, and detailed information for more than one million active listings. With the advanced search options, Oklahomans can now:

• Explore local neighborhoods with the multi-functional map search tool
• Access comprehensive schooling details and demographics for all active properties
• Compare region-specific market statistics side by side

“We’re excited to bring our easy-to-use search tool to Oklahoma City and help make the home-buying process an effortless one,” said Movoto Real Estate CEO Henry Shao. “With Movoto’s data, Oklahomans now can input their location, price point, and property specifics to easily find their dream home.”

In addition to providing user-friendly property profiles, Movoto’s service caters to the home buyer with its online platform and attentive representatives and agents. Every Movoto team member and partner agent is committed to helping individuals find the perfect home, in Oklahoma and the other 30-plus participating states.

“We make sure to be there every step of the way with our triple-duty customer service–we have assistance online, Customer Care Representatives available by phone, and agents to talk with in person,” Shao said. “Our goal has always been to continue improving the buyer’s search for a home and making housing data accessible for Americans.”

The expansion to Oklahoma City is only the latest advancement in Movoto Real Estate’s goal to bring quality home-buying tools to Americans everywhere. Next step: conquer the nationwide online housing market with Movoto’s customizable search options and transform the hunt for a dream home into a more timely and personalized experience.

Movoto is a free service available for potential home buyers and requires no obligation for users to purchase from a Movoto-certified agent.

About Movoto
Movoto Real Estate launched www.movoto.com in March 2006, providing innovative, easy-to-use research tools with ready access to a network of experienced local real estate agents. Movoto.com was the first real estate website to bring a map front-and-center into the home search experience right on its homepage. Movoto now offers its free services in over 30 states. In 2011, Movoto was named #13 on the Inc. list of fastest growing private real estate companies.

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This post was written by Chris Kolmar

+ Chris Kolmar is the Chief Economist at Movoto. He enjoys developing new real estate tools, reading about real estate, and Diet Coke.