Sumner Lake? (Manassas, Sudley, Gainesville: apartments, foreclosure, HOA fees)

[Shed]

I'm looking for some opinions/thoughts on living at the Sumner Lake in Manassas.

I drove through there over the weekend to check out some properties. It looks like a nice neighborhood but I'm wondering if prices are leveling off for that area. Also I saw an article in the Washington Post about some algae problems with their "lake". Anyone know if those issues have been resolved?

Thanks.

[barryhussein]

There have been threads on SL, before. Try a search. There is at least one sex offender living there, and several units have been converted into separate apartment units.

I would consider under 300K, otherwise I would get more value in Wellington, with a bigger yard for under 250K.

Liberia kind of sucks and so does Plantation, and so does that part of Stonewall. And Sudley? Yikes!

[tgbwc]

[quote=barryhussein;6845796] and several units have been converted into separate apartment units.

quote]

Really? We looked there a few years ago, but didn't buy. Their HOA must be week...or non-existant. I am surprised they would allow that.

[blossom4792]

I walked through the farm before it was built, during construction, and after construction. I have to confess to being "dubious" that they would succeed. But they did a great job and built just the right type of homes to "work" right there. It really became an extremely prestigious neighborhood and an alternative to the new places in Gainesville et al. Anyhow, I was tracking a couple of houses there recently and the declines have been relative - or comparable to the comparables. I do not know about the lake, but such problems with algae can be remedied. Now, if you were talking about flooding or many other things, I would be more worried. It still is probably not in a great school district, etc., but this has been the case all along and has always been priced in there ... I've always been impressed with the neighborhood, and a little bit surprised that they somehow pulled it off so nicely ...

[Tish Thompson]

If "several units" were converted to "separate apartments" it was done illegally. What I have seen is not a conversion to apartments but more bedrooms being added to allow for boarders. If anyone is aware of or suspects that houses in your neighborhood that are used as boarding houses, report it. When we keep quiet about things like that...it affects all of us in the long run. We're either going to end up with lower property values, higher HOA fees, etc. Anyway, using a single family or townhouse as boarding homes is not specific to Sumner Lake, it happens all over the state of Virginia.

I have a foreclosure listing in Sumner Lake. It's a nice house, very good size and it's listed at $308750. I prepare price opinions for several banks interested in getting ball park values on their "coming soon" foreclosure assets. There are a few houses in the neighborhood that are larger than my listing that have sold higher than $308750. Based on sold comps for the larger homes and monthly depreciation, I couldn't find anything to support a value lower than $425K on the larger properties.

As for the algae, that's an easy problem to fix depending on which type of algae is affecting the water. I think the bigger problem with the lake is the geese. Their poop everywhere is likely a contributing factor to the overgrowth of algae, plus it just doesn't look or smell nice.