Saturday, January 10, 2009

Northern Virginia Weekend Bits Bucket 1/10-1/11 2009

Please post your local house search updates, MLS finds, on-topic ideas, and links here.

Posted by Harriet at 9:12 AM

6 comments:

Tabitha said...

I just had a really freakish househunting experience I feel the need to share.

We took it into our heads that maybe we would buy some land and have a house built. So we went driving around the Virginia countryside to look at some plots of land that are for sale. We're bumping down a gravel road when suddenly we come upon some boarded up, rotting half-built mansions in the middle of th woods. Really-truly mansions, really-truly rotting. Like out of a horror movie.

So I come back home and look up the sale history. This one 13,000sqft house is still owned by a gentleman with a Hispanic surname, and when I look up the place in which he supposedly currently lives, I see he was foreclosed upon, and the new owner bought it from the bank for $154,900 this October.

So this guy bought the land for his mansion in 2004. Then he bought a shack in 2005 in which he resided. Then he started construction on his mansion in 2007. In 2008, he is foreclosed upon in his shack and the construction on his mansion stops.

Wait--this is not all. There is a police report from this past summer for his address. Police were "in the area," heard shots fired, and upon investigation, found a different Hispanic gentleman drunkenly driving a new car away from the house, with a gun on his person.

This house is down a gravel road in the middle of nowhere, next to a couple other half-built huge homes.

What the heck is going on?!?!

On a different tack, does anyone have any experiences with buying land?

1/10/09, 6:13 PM  
Harriet said...

Tabitha,

*Wow*.

Lots are much more in abundance than when we thought about building a few years ago. I do think it's a possibility, but in my opinion one doesn't want to be in a hurry to build. It takes planning to do it right. (Not forever, but having builders rush you through the process isn't much fun). I would consider buying the land and then building the house via a lot loan. You can get them through the local banks and farm bureaus a little easier perhaps, but they often require 20%-25% down.

With your sized family, the thing to be most concerned about would be the septic system. The property would have to perk for a 4+ bedroom house, and even then I am sure you'd have to get advice about it from a professional. I know someone who had relatives visit recently and with 10 of them in the house the system was really pushed to the limit (noted by wet soggy earth all around it).

There are also lots for sale in regular unfinished neighborhoods by some of the bigger builders that might be worth looking into.

I saw this posted by Julie Emery recently about some possibilities for builders:
Green Building. I checked out a few of the builder sites and liked Golden Rule Builders and Craftsman Construction.

1/10/09, 6:59 PM  
Tabitha said...

Excellent info, Harriet. Thank you so much. I did notice some lots in unfinished neighborhoods, but the builders are asking a great deal for them. Any idea how to bargain over land?

Septic tank overload...ewww.

And has anyone ever heard of HBI Custom Home Builders?

1/10/09, 7:59 PM  
NoVAwatcher said...

Tabitha: where was this place?

1/11/09, 4:37 PM  
Tabitha said...

Nova,

It's hard to describe. These houses are on Alessi Drive, which is an unpaved road off of Flint Rock Road, which is an unpaved road off of Lucasville Road, which is a real road that crosses the Prince William Parkway just south of Manassas.

Hope that helps. It's kind of like seeing a tornado. You have a hard time believing what you are seeing. I wish I could post pictures.

1/11/09, 5:33 PM  
contrarian said...

More than we ever needed to know about NoVa resident David Lereah

1/12/09, 2:19 AM  

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