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Old 04-13-2013, 03:20 AM
 
2,369 posts, read 2,893,634 times
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you should see the (was) 3.7 million off park st near tapawingo. yeah it was buy the house, destroy it, build another 5-600k house and sell it for 1+ million
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Old 07-21-2014, 11:20 AM
 
Location: Herndon VA
147 posts, read 253,370 times
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This is an update to the thread I started earlier for the big houses in Vienna thread. Of course the tear downs continue at a faster pace.
A friend and I checked out a couple of open houses in Vienna this past Sunday.
It was interesting to say the least.
The first was a small? 2,600 sq footer built in 1986 and was going for $750k. it is the first home right at the corner of Cedar and Park across the street from the elementary school and also with a backyard that is right behind the gas station.
This one was pretty nice with the skylights and a decent sized but very cozy back yard. It is right on Cedar, however which gets a ton of traffic. It had only one owner and sell date back in 1986 when built (then for $212K) was the only sale. I am thinking that the household was probably just the parents left there who were downsizing. This would have been considered a pretty big house back in '86.
The last three houses we looked at were 4,400, 5,200 and 5,500 square feet and were enormous.
The 4,400 one was right down cedar and while very large, had some not well thought out angles in the basement which seemed to leave a lot of dead unused space. I did like the windows however - I guess the style is to have them plain without panes which makes them look larger.
The biggest of the 3 big boys was the 5,500 footer with 4 bedrooms on the upper floor. Each bedroom had its own full bath. I will give it to the builders though. Once you go upstairs they had it staged so you first see the ante-room to the master suite, then the bedroom further past and the bathroom is all the way in the back. Your eyeline ran straight back from room to room to the bathroom which must have been 45-50 feet away.(very impressive) They were asking $1.3 million for it so I guess around $ 236 a square foot.
It only had a two car garage but I was thinking to myself, "are there families moving into these houses that can come close to using the space?" SE are talking huge. (6.5 bathrooms with an option to make the "den" downstairs into its own master suite.
It was sort of an adventure to me because I had never been in any house that large before.
I often wonder how the neighbors in the 1200- 1500 ramblers feel.
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Old 07-21-2014, 05:07 PM
 
Location: NC
1,225 posts, read 2,410,641 times
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unfortunately the Mcmansion era is back in Vienna and the housing market is strong now. The developers / builders will buy up the property at whatever cost. Fix it up cheap and sell it for a Million +!
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Old 07-21-2014, 05:46 PM
 
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I thought I heard many of these homes in Vienna sat for a while before selling though. I am not that familiar with the area but I can think of one in McLean that I would drive by that took a year to sell. After sitting on that construction loan for a year, I wonder how much profit they actually made.
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Old 07-21-2014, 08:52 PM
 
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I wonder if people ever pay attention to the amount of property tax they have to pay a year just to live in that kind of house. The tax alone is 1000 a month. I rather live in a smaller house and save the difference for vacation. Different priorities I digest.
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Old 07-22-2014, 08:21 AM
 
1,304 posts, read 2,410,392 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kieplangdu View Post
I wonder if people ever pay attention to the amount of property tax they have to pay a year just to live in that kind of house. The tax alone is 1000 a month. I rather live in a smaller house and save the difference for vacation. Different priorities I digest.
Yes, which is why there is a giant market for tearing down 1500 sq ft and replacing it with 4000 sq ft. If there was a market for it they wouldn't be doing it. You think Vienna is bad look at Arlington.

I wonder how many of the ramblers that are still left have had the same occupants for 20+ years? Unless the lot is real small or it is just not conducive to rebuilding/expanding I doubt many ramblers exchange hands anymore.
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Old 07-22-2014, 08:54 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by boyd888 View Post
Yes, which is why there is a giant market for tearing down 1500 sq ft and replacing it with 4000 sq ft. If there was a market for it they wouldn't be doing it. You think Vienna is bad look at Arlington.

I wonder how many of the ramblers that are still left have had the same occupants for 20+ years? Unless the lot is real small or it is just not conducive to rebuilding/expanding I doubt many ramblers exchange hands anymore.
No, actually a lot of people still buy the older ramblers in areas like Vienna. Some of them are dumps/tear downs but alot have been nicely maintained and updated over the years. Not everyone can afford a million plus house. Those older well maintained ramblers still cost 650-750 in Vienna. I live in a townhouse in Vienna/Tysons currently and where we buy a house is still up in the air, but we'll be looking at that type of house in a couple of years in Vienna if we stay due to my job location.
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Old 07-22-2014, 01:41 PM
 
5,125 posts, read 10,041,519 times
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Originally Posted by FCNova View Post
No, actually a lot of people still buy the older ramblers in areas like Vienna. Some of them are dumps/tear downs but alot have been nicely maintained and updated over the years. Not everyone can afford a million plus house. Those older well maintained ramblers still cost 650-750 in Vienna. I live in a townhouse in Vienna/Tysons currently and where we buy a house is still up in the air, but we'll be looking at that type of house in a couple of years in Vienna if we stay due to my job location.
Yep - I'd say that, in our McLean neighborhood, 2/3 of the older homes that are sold are torn down but 1/3 are houses that are nicely renovated and prized for their relative affordability. I'd guess the same ratio holds true in parts of the Town of Vienna as well (for the most part, it's the Town that has the older ramblers that are torn down; the county neighborhoods with Vienna tend to be newer subdivisions with HOAs and restrictive covenants).

Given all the angst about funding the schools and other social services in suburbs like Fairfax, it seems to me that worse things can happen than attracting new buyers who are willing to pay additional property taxes for their dream house.
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Old 07-22-2014, 08:00 PM
 
1,304 posts, read 2,410,392 times
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Originally Posted by JEB77 View Post
Yep - I'd say that, in our McLean neighborhood, 2/3 of the older homes that are sold are torn down but 1/3 are houses that are nicely renovated and prized for their relative affordability.
Yes I did not mean to imply that there is a rambler tear down monopoly in Vienna and no one buys them anymore, but as above I'd think most of them being sold are tear downs, especially the time capsule ones. I have seen some really nicely updated ramblers that won't be torn down, but the are definitely in the minority. There is a bigger market for tearing down ramblers vs renovating them or they wouldn't spend the extra money tearing them down ya know.
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Old 07-23-2014, 04:16 AM
 
Location: Virginia-Shenandoah Valley
7,670 posts, read 14,156,737 times
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I've been working in this exact area for the last two years although I won't be here much longer. I cut through Nutley to back roads to get to Cedar to my office. I've also noticed the proliferation of new and huge expensive homes in this area. Some sitting next to some very plain and older smaller homes. I saw a home on Cedar yesterday when going to lunch. Very small older home in poor condition. We looked it up when we got back and we were shocked to see it was for sale for $450,000. 1/2 acre and crummy home. They showed no interior pics on Zillow which was likely due to it being in such bad shape. No dount someone will buy this and tear down and rebuild. The new house will fill up this 1/2 acre and there will be no yard left.
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