A Portland native, Alyssa started her real estate career in the chaotic market of 2005, and quickly realized she reveled in matching particular clients with their perfect home, no matter how unusual. She began specializing in mid-century properties – both modern and modest. More recently, she has included what she calls “Period-Perfect” homes to her repertoire. Her goal in this is to seek out those hard-to-find, fixer-upper original homes of all eras.
When Alyssa started in real estate, she realized there was a market for ranch homes, from Mid-Century Modern to the more modest Daylight Ranch, but few REALTORS® willing to service it. That is why she started highlighting these ‘Picks of the Week’ on her website, introducing enthusiasts to the full gamut of midcentury houses of Portland. In 2006, she founded the Mid-Century Modern League in order to educate the public about the importance of preserving these gems.
Today, Alyssa continues to focus on Mid-Century Modern homes, but has also added vintage, mostly fixer-upper houses of earlier eras, which she calls ‘Period-Perfect,’ because they have interest to clients and are under-serviced too. Frankly, she enjoys seeking out any unusual or original elements a client might be interested in as she believes it’s a challenge to rise to.
As Founder of the Mid-Century Modern League, Alyssa is considered an authority in the local mid-century architecture scene, and is especially proud to include the Editors of Atomic Ranch Magazine in her past-client list. Often quoted in news and radio, she has been able to bring additional interest to her business, listings, and client’s homes – many of which have been featured in magazines such as Atomic Ranch, Oregon Home, The Oregonian and also included on several local home tours. With a background in marketing, and an eye for the unique, Alyssa really enjoys buying and selling properties whose interesting features may be overlooked by other realtors, especially if those features aren’t mentioned in the listing.
As a hobby, Alyssa has issued herself a challenge to walk every residential street of Portland proper and document the best architecture specimens of each neighborhood. There are about 3,500 square miles of Portland, and it’s a big feat. By the time she finishes, she will have seen every house in Portland with her own eyes. Clients can follow her walks on her blog Portland-by-Foot. http://portlandbyfoot.blogspot.com/
When off duty, clients can find Alyssa at estate sales, honky-tonks, her friend’s cattle ranch, or seeking out ghost towns, road tripping to the Oregon high desert. A music fanatic and semi-retired booker/manager, Alyssa is heavily immersed in the western swing, old-school country, and rockabilly music scene, where clients will often find her out at shows, dancing, maybe even sharing her favorites on the radio.
