VINTAGE HOME FASCINATION

Andy’s early fascination was sparked from driving deliveries through so many great neighborhoods filled with Craftsman Bungalows, California-Style Spanish Haciendas and English Tudor Cottages built prior to World War II. His interest in the possibilities and potential these homes had to offer 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 than the “cookie-cutter” homes. The older properties provided larger lots with big backyards and houses built of quality construction, fabulous fixtures and fine craftsmanship no longer offered in new housing construction. Better yet, there is No Mello-Roos to increase property taxes or the usually dreaded Home Owners Associations (HOA) found in most of the new planned housing communities.

ENTER THE 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’s 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 in the 1990’s. The appreciation for quality craftsmanship and construction was returning a sense of American pride and nostalgia to the bay-boomer generation.
That added appreciation for historic homes fueled 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

At the dawn of the online Realtor. Com experience, Andy figured that there had to be a better way to utilize the internet to consolidate the various historic neighborhoods and vintage homes for sale into a real estate network. 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 provided 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.

DON’T BE SUCKERED INTO A “PIECE OF SHACK”

Andy Alison provides home buyers interested in purchasing vintage a vintage home the resources to easily search for available and to be represented by a Realtor that is a specialist in all aspects of a vintage home purchase. It takes a specific knowledge and experience to navigate the potential pitfalls that Buyers often encountered with older homes.
No one wants to end up buying a “Piece of Shack” as Andy calls older homes fabled in movies like the “Money Pit.” There are hidden dangers that most real estate agents don’t have a clue about when it comes to buying an older home in a historic neighborhood.