Coming to a Falls Church near you... (Alexandria, Hybla Valley: short sales, foreclosure)

[claremarie]

You are not going to find a single-family house under $250K anywhere near Haycock, unless it has been condemned and is being sold as a tear-down. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find a townhouse in that price range. Haycock is just down the road from the West Falls Church metro, inside the Beltway, and in a highly desirable school pyramid. JEB is correct that a slam-dunk GT placement gives you the flexibility of considering homes in less desirable elementary school attendance zones, but you're still not going to find a livable home for $250K. And then you have a younger child who will not be eligible for GT placement until third grade.
Haycock is not the only GT center school -- there are a number of GT centers in every part of Fairfax County. You might consider going further outside the Beltway for lower housing costs.

[buildinginva]

Originally Posted by claremarie

You are not going to find a single-family house under $250K anywhere near Haycock, unless it has been condemned and is being sold as a tear-down. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find a townhouse in that price range. Haycock is just down the road from the West Falls Church metro, inside the Beltway, and in a highly desirable school pyramid. JEB is correct that a slam-dunk GT placement gives you the flexibility of considering homes in less desirable elementary school attendance zones, but you're still not going to find a livable home for $250K. And then you have a younger child who will not be eligible for GT placement until third grade.
Haycock is not the only GT center school -- there are a number of GT centers in every part of Fairfax County. You might consider going further outside the Beltway for lower housing costs.

Tearsdowns are going to for around 450-500K in this school pyramid. Take it from someone who has bought such a teardown there (for the purpose of tearing down).

[Newcomer2010]

I truly appreciate all this sage advice.

But sage goes well with chicken... and I'm wondering if I'm not just a dumb enough cluck to scratch up something positive here. Okay, I'll stop with the literary devices. My books are available on Amazon and their recent sales numbers might be an indicator that I should leave such contrivances to others.

I understand the difficulty in getting a bargain in a popular area... but, as they say, it's best to buy the worst house on the block than to buy the best one - and the initial price is only one of the factors in that equation.

I see several things like this (in 22043)
Maynard Dr. Falls Church, VA 22043 | HomeFinder.com | ID: 27305364
and wonder just how bad a neighborhood can get with million dollar homes just blocks away. At that sort of price, the fix-up could be pretty magnificent.

I hope I've also been strategic in setting my search during the holidays with a loose target for buying in the depths of January or February - which will also impact the price in my favor... logically, but not necessarily, realistically.

But let me turn this around a little:

Say you're looking for a single level home, not much of a yard with something like 200k in your pocket.

Your priorities include two scarily bright boys just beginning their academic careers and moderating the climate you're used to, having grown up in Michigan and Northern Illinois and having lived in Salt Lake City, Fresno, Los Angeles and now the smack dab center of the country.

Having eyeballed a lot of the nation (and having been stationed at the Pentagon for a brief stint) your brain settles on the beltway and its nearby relations. The wife's calculations - looking for the best private schools (with scholarships of course) which are flanked by great public schools with GT programs (should the scholarships be otherwise engaged) puts her target within your target of the Falls Church area.

So good public schools backing up an attempt at good private schools, a wallet worth looking into, an area that (beyond the school thing) caters to some personal interests (I like doing readings and have been known to act + a VA hospital near at hand + a beach within driving distance + an airport, unlike KC's, where one can, occasionally get a transatlantic or transcoastal flight for less than an entire set of appendages)... it all sounds pretty good.

So where should this dart, with all these tail feathers, best land in this target?

[JD984]

This isn't a bad area - it's considered part of Pimmit Hills, which is probably the most affordable neighborhood of single-family homes in the West Falls Church part of Fairfax County. The assigned elementary is Lemon Road, not Haycock, although Haycock is the local GT school.

Not sure what to infer from the RealtyTrac info (is it a minimum offer price that will surely be exceeded in an auction)? FYI, the land alone for most of the lots on Maynard Drive is currently assessed at around $200,000 and the least expensive reported sale on the Franklymls web site for a 3-bedroom in Pimmit Hills over the past nine months was around $275,000 (and probably needed a lot of work).

Not trying to discourage you at all, as this area has much to offer; however, as many other posters note (often more vehemently), this is a comparatively expensive part of the country to live in and there is a lot of traffic congestion.

[Doppelganger69]

Welcome, Newcomer! All your calculations sound good, as far as location, schools, amenities, etc . . . except for price range. If you spread out a bit to include townhouse or condo, that helps, but as others have said, certainly doesn't make it a slam dunk. I just did a quick search for my area (Vienna, zip code 22180), which goes to the Louise Archer GT program (which also has an excellent reputation), and came up with a few 2-bedroom condos. Two of the four are walk-ups, but two are first floor. Alas, they are under contract, but if these look good to you, that shows it is not impossible to get here on your price range. Property Quick Search.

From what I have observed, it is not common around here to fix up an older, smaller house. It is much more common to buy it ($400-500K in my town) as a tear-down and build a monster house that sells for $1M+. There are a few exceptions, but I see those mostly in the $600-800K range. If you intend to stay here forever, that won't matter much to you, but my guess is that if you put a lot of money into fixing up a smaller house, you wouldn't get back much of that investment upon resale.

With respect to your "scary bright" children, as you call them: I've got two myself, a bit older than yours, with one in private (which is the right match for him) and one in public (which is the right match for her). When we moved here about a year ago, I also assumed that private was our first choice, and that public would be the backup. Certainly that was the case where we lived in Ohio (and after having done stints, like you, in various places across the country). But it's not totally the case here. After several school visits and a fair amount of internet research, we decided that the public GT center was a better match for our then-4th-grader. The private schools offer a lot more "extras," like foreign language, more arts classes, and (the big draw for us), smaller class sizes. My son is very happy at his, and his does a lot of differentiation to try to meet each kid's needs. But our GT center seemed to offer greater acceleration and a faster-moving curriculum, which is what is really important to my daughter. I also prefer the public school social environment.

The last issue when house-hunting (which really needs to be one of the first issues), is where you and your wife will be working. Traffic here is even worse than LA (really), so living in close proximity to work (whether via car or Metro) is a big factor, not to be dismissed lightly.

[normie]

I hope you find what you're seeking, but I don't think you'll find it in Nova. Nova is like southern California. Finding a house in your price range is extremely unlikely. That's one reason I never recommend people move here unless they have a relatively high paying job offer.

There are a lot of towns that could appeal to your gifted children. If you are on disability and can move anywhere in the country, I'd consider Los Alamos, NM.

This is just a guess, but maybe it could be a good fit. Most of the kids there tend to be brainy, since their parents work at the Los Alamos labs. Also, a lot of people are moving away from there right now due to lack of jobs. So real estate might be much more affordable.

[Newcomer2010]

I appreciate this continuous stream of well pointed advice.

I was told 1o years ago that I couldn't buy anything in SoCal for under $250k (which was a lot more money then =sigh=) and promptly bought a nice place in L.A. (between Beverly Hills and Culver city) for 90k. And it was neither a foreclosure nor teardown. We sold seven years later and three times the price and happily ran out of town with our Las Vegas style winnings.

Maybe I was too strong on the price I'm willing to consider. And yes, metro-connected areas that feed Haycock (and even those that feed similar nearby schools) are certainly earning space on our menu.

2937 Lawrence Dr, Falls Church, VA 22042 MLS# FX7208958 - Property Details

For the record, I am disabled vet (though, not yet requiring any special equipment or treatment... it's physical pain mostly) and gratefully receive $1100/monthly - from various sources. My wife teaches at the university here and could likely pull down a similar job there with little difficulty. I am hoping, however, to rely on her for only 1/2 time work or less... as running after the little one is sometimes more than I can manage.

So... if we're looking at selling this place in the 200k to 250k and plunking that into the next one... there is a potential of the M word (mortgage) but the amount would be so small that most joints wouldn't talk to us.

So let's say I'll widen the target a bit... but with an eye toward avoiding the predicaments that caused a lot of the foreclosures we'll have to sift through.

I'm surprised not to be getting a lot of junk mail from realtors in answer to my post (which, I see, is Googlable)... not a bad thing, just surprising. I was hoping to fill my trough with a bit of actual knowledge (which you folks are doing splendidly) before dealing with anyone on commission.

BTW, New Mexico sounds perfectly fine to me... but I'm guessing the wife will blow a gasket if I even mention it. So I'll make sure I have fortified position before I do. Still... I would miss the fall... and spring... and lawn.....

[FindingZen]

Going with the priorities of finding a home ~ $200K that's relatively convenient to both transportation and a GT center, I'd look into the West Potomac pyramid in the (Fairfax) county section of Alexandria. If you were to find homes in your price range, it would be immediately west of Route 1/Richmond Highway. Now granted, the reason why you would find any property for that price is because the condition of the homes as well as the perception of the neighborhood. You would definitely have to do your due diligence.

On the flipside, assuming your kids pass the qualifying procedures, they would be able to catch a school bus to Stratford Landing Elementary which includes a GT center. You'd also be no more than five miles from the Metrorail.

So you may well accomplish what you want... but there will definitely be trade-offs.

[claremarie]

I'll just add that there aren't all that many private school options in the greater Falls Church area, other than Catholic schools. Many of the most well-regarded private schools in the DC area -- especially the ones in a position to give substantial scholarships for financially needy students -- are in DC and Maryland.

[Newcomer2010]

Two notes on school stuff:

We're looking at this (with Haycock as the back-up): The Congressional Schools of Virginia, Inc - The Congressional Schools of Virginia (http://www.congressionalschools.org/Page.aspx?pid=239 - broken link)

And, as far as my younger boy is concerned... there are certainly GT programs prior to 3rd grade. You, as the parent, must request evaluation and service for the younger kids (and by "request" I mean that we fought like hell).