THE BUNGALOW HUNTER STORY (BIOGRAPHY)

BACKGROUND
....Andy Alison has been involved in Southern California Real Estate in one form or another practically since birth. His father and grandfathers going back four generations have all been involved in Orange County real Estate. In fact, as early as the 1860’s his Great-Great-Grand Father is credited for naming the township of Anaheim, California.
“I remember riding along with my dad in his old Buick, appraising homes on the weekends,” said Andy, “He had me hold the starting end of the measuring tape as we appraised each property.”
After finishing college at San Diego State University, Andy began working as an appraiser on commercial property for the family firm, The Alison Company. Fifteen years later, as the firm’s president, Andy had grown the company portfolio to 7 million square feet of managed investment grade commercial real estate as a National Board of Realtors-Certified Property Manager. Clients included Mission Viejo Company, Hughes Aircraft and Crown Life Insurance.
After selling the family firm in 1995 to John Burnham & Company of San Diego, Andy embarked on a new direction in real estate. With the growing popularity of the internet and his fascination with vintage homes built prior to World War II in Southern California, Andy set out to create the first vintage home sales and service network on the internet.

VINTAGE HOME FASCINATION
....Driving through so many great neighborhoods filled with Craftsman Bungalows, California-Style Spanish homes and English Tudor Cottages during the 1980’s and 1990’s renewed Andy’s early interest in possibilities these homes had for first-time home buyers and growing families relegated to higher density condos and look-a-like house painted pink and beige.
“Great neighborhoods like Laguna Village, Old Towne Orange and Floral Park in North Santa Ana have so much more to offer. Larger lots with big backyards; homes built of quality construction and craftsmanship. Better yet, No Mello-Roos taxes or the usually dreaded Home Owners Associations (HOA) found in most new planned housing communities.

ENTER THE BUNGALOW HUNTER
....Andy bought his Colonial Revival Style Bungalow in 1994 and began restoring the historic 1922 structure and gardens. It took several years of scraping paint, refinishing hardwood floors and replacing plumbing and electrical. He placed the property on the local historic register and furnished it with period furnishings and appliances.
The fascination continued to where Andy started helping others in their quest to restore and renovate vintage homes.
As a licensed real estate agent, Andy began to search-out Bungalows and cottages for others to buy throughout Orange Counties and Long Beach historic neighborhoods.
“I started researching the history of the vintage properties and the resources available for owners of vintage homes,” Andy said, “That where somebody along the line called me the ‘Bungalow Hunter’ and the name has stuck.”
It became increasingly clear that the popularity of vintage homes in great neighborhoods was increasing as a desirable way of life. There seemed to be a convergence around the year 2000 caused by rising home prices, frustrations with condo living and the additional expense of the new ‘Master Planned Communities’. The appreciation for quality craftsmanship and construction was returning a sense of American pride and nostalgia to the bay-boomer generation.
Soon historic home buyers were also discovering that most of the local City Governments offered an annual property tax saving for designated historic homes with up to a two-thirds reduction in many cases provided by the little know Mills Act.
That added appreciation for historic homes fueled a resurgence in rediscovering vintage neighborhoods and those spacious classic older homes. The growth of cable television also helped with specialized shows like This Old House, If Walls Could Talk, and Huell Houser’s California’s Gold. The only trouble was that there really wasn’t any Realtor or Internet service connecting all the various historic neighborhoods scatter about Orange County.

WELCOME VINTAGEHOMES.NET
.... Andy figured that there had to be a way to utilize the internet to consolidate the various historic neighborhoods and vintage homes for sale into a real estate network. In 2000, Realtors were predicting that in the near future, a large percentage of home buyers would first go to the internet on websites such as Yahoo.com and Realtor.com to start their search for their next home. By 2008, 84% of potential home buyers were first searching the internet when looking for available homes.
For the online home buyer, it was difficult to go to one of these on-line real estate services and extract information on historic homes in certain neighborhoods. Mostly because of the broad scope of the data fields on real estate websites didn’t offer easily defined categories for productive vintage home internet searches. To frustrate matters further, most realtors didn’t have a clue how about vintage homes and the great historic neighborhoods.
Andy’s primary goal was to consolidate the “homes for sale” information available to Realtors via the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) into a usable database for online home buyers seeking to purchase a vintage home. It was important that the information be ‘fresh”… and in realtime, segregated by each local vintage neighborhood. There was an additional need for descriptive information and maps of each vintage neighborhood.
Another objective of vintagehomes.net was not to appear like the typical “Corporate-Style” real estate website. In many respects, online home buyers are not interested or attracted to the ‘Sell, Sell, Sell!’ campaign that the real estate industry continues to promote.
Vintagehomes.net is pleasant to view, easy on the eyes, a welcome departure from the “used-car” sale approach. Sorry, no pop-up ads or solicitations for aluminum siding.
“The online home buyer is not impressed by a hard sell,” according to Andy, “They don’t want to be sold… online home buyers want a comprehensive selection of quality real estate with correct information and lots of photos… a most of all, a pleasant home search experience.”

WELCOME HOME AMERICA
The renewed enthusiasm for vintage neighborhoods and homes is what drives Andy Alison to provide the best resource available, whether online or by traditional methods, for buying that heart-warming vintage home in a great vintage neighborhood. People who love nostalgia, or better yet a way-of-life reminiscent of simpler times, will enjoy what Andy Alison, the Bungalow Hunter, has created for those looking for that perfect vintage home.
Welcome Home America!

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Old Towne OrangeSan Juan Capistrano-San ClementeWashington Square
Wilshire SquareTustin-Villa Park Coming Soon.!

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