Please post your local house search updates, MLS finds, on-topic ideas, and links here.
News: Congratulations, Tabitha! (A delightful new residence has been secured for our blog friend and her happy family).
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Northern Virginia Weekend Bits Bucket 4/18-4/19 2009
Posted by Harriet at 8:52 AM
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31 comments:
Thank you, Harriet.
In all seriousness, I feel like I should have a Bubble Blog Blast at the house once we are settled in. The wisdom I found here directly led to this becoming possible.
After all these years of moving constantly with the Marine Corps, of being beholden to landlords and onbase housing offices, of having neighbors shaking their heads over the antics of a large family, we finally have a corner of the world that is ours, with complete and total privacy.
Just imagine a huge old tree out front with a swing...a driveway flanked by arching trees...a pond with a dock and a geese couple with their fuzzy babies...paths through woods back to a couple of streams...pastures hemmed by old-fashioned wood fences...a wide wrap-around front porch...one stone wood-burning fireplace, one stately gas-burning fireplace...a swing under the back deck overlooking the pines...long dormer bedrooms upstairs for the kids to have their own beds (no more bunkbeds!)...a rec room the size of the whole house in the basement...views out of every window where you see nothing but your own land...all this just a couple miles from the Manassas Park VRE!
We're getting a dog. Finally. And the house came with four cats already ;) And deer, and turkeys, and foxes, and lots of chirping birds...and two firepits, one by the pond, and one by the gazebo in front...and did I mention the view?
So there you go. Anything is possible.
But again, I must bow in gratitude to what you all contributed. Everything I learned about the process came from here. Thank you, thank you all so much.
Congratulations....
HOUSEHEAD!!
HOMEDEBTOR!!!!
Just wanted to get that in.
Yes,
A big congrats to Tabitha!
This is about the best "buying environment" I have seen since the mid-late '90's. Actually, I think Nov '08 to Feb '09 was better than right now. I heard from a friend that Countrywide ended their moratorium on foreclosures April 15th., so we should be seeing more inventory if other Lender's are doing the same.
Congratulations, Tabitha! Sounds like a dream come true :)
Longtime reader and occasional poster--major congratulions! I had no idea that kind of house existed anywhere around NOVA anymore :)
Have you done any kind of writeup of the buying process, what kind of deal you got, tips/tricks, etc? From all of your experiences it sounds liek you could start a spinoff blog!
Grats again!
I am so happy for you Tabitha! That house and it's grounds sounds so perfect!!! Congratulations, felicitations, and commendations.
All the best,
Cara
Celebratory thread!
This was a lot of work and a lot of stress, I know. But I think it's worth it in the end.
Echoing all others: Congratulations. My offer from the previous thread stands. Seriously, the younger one is 6'5" and benching over 300lbs now. They scare me a little.
did anyone see this one?
http://franklymls.com/AR6952512
750 DICKERSON ST S #212
ARLINGTON, VA 22204
List Price: $99,900
Prior Sale: $197,900 9/21/2006
-49.5%
sold for 82,250
it's an older condo that sold for 59% discount
from the 2006 price.
Arlington is now at the leading edge of the
deflation wave that we saw in the Exurbs.
pat,
That's impressive. It must have been absolutely trashed out. Even a 1/1 condo in less desirable portions of Arlington will have higher intrinsics than that.
Also of note, a townhouse across the way from where we are renting is on the market now (PWC/Woodbridge) ask is a shade under $100K. A competative price for the location and size, if condition warrants. We watched it sit vacant for months with no activity. Today not less than 6 showings by realtors. It was like an open house, except everybody brought their own.
This hits on two discussions we've been having. First, some of the shadow inventory is leaking on finally. Second, it really is spring.
Note: gorgeous weather and we got to watch 4 of them try it as we did yard work. Good weather definitely does drive up traffic.
The building is going on 50 years old and there are no pictures. So yeah, I'm guessing that it hasn't been updated and it has been trashed.
I must admit I am basking in the glow right now. Closing was surreal. As you all know, the couple is divorcing. It was the first time we met the husband. He was SO happy. The poor lady kept putting her head down on the table, while he couldn't stop smiling. Since they were both getting over a quarter million dollars (no mortgage somehow), I guess it was like winning the lottery for him.
You'll never guess his occupation. I was floored.
He's a pastor of some church.
But he gave us a photo album from when they had the house built, and pointed out that the mantlepiece on the stone fireplace is from a huge cedar tree that had stood where the house now stands...and that the stone fences were from the fireplace and foundation of an old civil war-era house that once stood where a gazebo is now. He even included old, old pictures he found in the old house before it was bulldozed.
I love the history. You'll just have to trust me when I say I combed over PWC for the past three years, and there is no other plot of land like it.
But in any case, tips? My #1 tip is just ask. It doesn't hurt to ask. This all started when I wrote a snail mail letter addressed to the owner, asking if she was thinking of putting the house on the market again this spring, since it had not sold last year. I knew the best we could offer was far, far below what she had been asking last year, but I could not know my chances unless I never asked at all.
#2 tip: don't listen to the naysayers. If you have done your homework and have a leg to stand on, an argument to make, just try. I was told by a real estate investor there was no way in hell that the house would ever, ever in a million billion years EVER go for less than the mid $600Ks. I am looking forward to emailing him and sweetly positing that miracles do happen.
#3 tip: appraisals are baloney. Four appraisals (two by the same appraiser): $690K, $670K, $587K, $550K. You can make the numbers say anything you want if the property is even slightly unique.
#4 I don't think it hurts to be nice. My husband and I promised each other we would approach this by always being honest and doing unto others, and we would accept whatever outcome. We were stomped on a few times along the way, but in this case, when we determined our offer, we really found it to be fair, and we knew the new tax assessment would be less, and then when the assessment came out even lower, we stayed with our original offer. I think the goodwill we built up along the way, even when the husband treated us kind of like a jerk, made sealing the deal possible.
Must go...heading back home tomorrow...but thank you all for everything...good to share with you...
Congratulations Tabitha!
When's the party?
Whoo hoo!
COngrats Tabitha & much love to you & yours.
May God continue to bless you all in your new Paradise!
Tabitha,
Congrats. It's good to see that in this world sometimes dreams do come true.
I hope that sometime that dream will come true for me too :-).
Tabitha, the description is just beautiful. I wish you and your family many, many happy years.
I do feel very sorry for the wife. It sounds as if she loved the house as much as you do, and has to deal with that loss as much as the terrible ordeal of divorce. I hope her family and friends are supportive.
ps Thank you so much for the advice. That is very helpful!
Congratulations, it sounds like all your work and patience paid off.
Tabitha,
Congratulations! Enjoy your new home.
Anyone go to any open houses that you liked today? There were a ton of houses open in Arlington. The modern green house at 5803 16th (way out of my price range but we had to go look for fun) is very, very cool; I liked the floor plan and the bathrooms were wonderful. IMHO the interior drawbacks were that the kitchen was small (though layout was good) and in my opinion too harsh and severe looking, and some of the touches (e.g., beams with L brackets) looked too rustic and out of character with the most of the rest of the house, which looked subtle and refined (especially the bathrooms).
The main drawbacks are the location (great roof deck but no view) and tiny lot.
But maybe there is a $1.3 mill. buyer who doesn't mind. After all someone is buying all those DC condos at that price or higher, and they have the same drawbacks or worse!
Ace,
Contracts seem to have quieted down tremendously out past Gainesville.
I'm starting to wonder if the spring selling season was from the Superbowl to Easter, or if things will start to pick back up.
Tabitha,
Congratulations!
It is fantastic to see somebody who can really MAKE USE of a fabulous house, actually get one!
This is great for the kids, and great for you as a family. To have a place that warrants your joined efforts and provides a venue for family life to unfold. Some small smidgen of sanity has returned to the world.
OT a wee bit: My son is also a Marine. It heartens me greatly to know that being a Marine is not incompatible with family life. The stories he told of boot camp, MCT and MOS school made it sound like he will never have a moment to find a nice girl and a life outside of work. I will cite you as a role model to him!
Congrats Tabitha.
"#2 tip: don't listen to the naysayers."
That's a very, very valuable tip.
Ace,
I went to the 16th st green house open house today as well - cool place! Certainly not worth $1.3 million imo but it's neat to see how green features are incorporated into houses. It's kind of ridiculous to make a 'green' house that large though, it somewhat defeats the purpose of making it environmentally friendly. It's like a hybrid SUV - it doesn't do much good to make a car more efficient if you end up making the car so big that the mpg is still terrible.
I also finally saw the inside of the Barton St modern house. I wasn't impressed in the least. After seeing the inside I really do think it's a spite house. The layout was the same on every floor and the quality was lacking in parts. There was very little thought put into the interior design of that place imo. And what was up with having two washer/dryer sets? I did learn that they're planning to tear down the little strip mall at the corner of 50 and Pershing and throw up another mixed commercial/residential building there. That'll make the immediate area slightly nicer I suppose.
Barton St: I like the last picture of the two bathroom sinks, but no mirror.
Tabitha.! YOU did it! I think you secured a wonderful place or home for your chilren. You go girl. I think the space fits to a tee having children...perfectly fine, oridnary children in numbers can get people wild so that little things can get get totally blown out of porpotion.
Harriet, interesting. Do you think it is the calm before the storm?
In my general nosiness, I overheard several conversations at the open houses I attended, and it was clear that most were neighbors and looky-loos (I'm seriously looking but also go to some that are simply interesting). For example one young couple at a $1.1 mill.-asking-price house was in an involved conversation with the agent about a $500000 condo.
Jeff, I agree re: Barton. Re: the Green House, the info they had posted estimated heating and cooling costs to be around $330 per year, IIRC. That's a lot less than I pay for the same bills for my little ol' brick Colonial. So if they've estimated correctly, I do think they can make a good case for the house size (unlike the hybrid SUVs that still only get about 25 mpg). I also didn't see the house as excessively big - 2700 square feet.
As for price, the closest comparable I know of is the Gumby house (also green, maybe not to the same extent), at 1922 Quantico. It sold for $1.325 mill. on 9/17/08 (before the most dramatic part of the crash). Arlington has already assessed it lower for 2009. It was a much bigger house (4174 square feet, but I suspect that includes the basement level) and had a back yard (6640 square foot lot vs. less than 5500) and wasn't surrounded by apts., where the probability of your privacy's being disturbed or noise levels' being too high is raised by the sheer # of people. Quantico was also several blocks closer to a metro.
So I would agree the 16th St. house is pretty far away from its selling price.
ooops - meant to say that those estimates were for *annual* heating and cooling costs. Pretty impressive, if they're accurate.
ps Quantico also had a 2 car garage; 16th St. had a carport. People pay a premium for 2 car garages in Arlington.
It did appear to me that 16th St. had somewhat higher quality materials, design and construction - designed by an architect as opposed to a design-build firm. But I could be wrong.
congrats Tabitha - you always have so much to add to the threads. I hope you stay with us and keep the logic/knowledge flowing!
so happy for you!
Its the end of an era. Tabitha has closed!
Congratulations Tabitha. Im very happy for you...
We're getting a dog. Finally. And the house came with four cats already ;) And deer, and turkeys, and foxes, and lots of chirping birds...and two firepits, one by the pond,Sounds like you have all the elements you need to stage a reenactment of Peter and the Wolf--except the orchestra.
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