Just moved to Bristow and want advice

[Tish Thompson]

Jberrn,

I live in Rivenburg/Ducharme...the neighborhood between Safeway and Old Dominion Baptist Church. I absolutely love it here...and so do my kids. When we first moved in we were allowed to choose between Cedar Point's coverage area, or Victory Elementary. Before living here, I was over in Sheffield Manor..which used to be in Cedar Point's area.

Are you at all involved with your HOA? If not, you should think about participating. Between the number I gave you and HOA participation, I think you stand a good chance of making the neighborhood the way you want it to be. I live in a neighborhood where we're all looking out for each other, and will let each other know when things aren't kept up to par. A new family moved in next door to me a couple months ago...they have so many cars I can't count and they were hanging laundry to dry all over. One of the guys on the board went and talked to the family about it. For now they've gotten rid of some of the cars and they keep their laundry out of sight. If they revert to their old behaviors, they will be reminded of how they have to keep things.

It stinks that you made such a big move and regret buying in the neighborhood you're in. This is a great area and I'm sorry that you're not able to experience that. The good part about your situation is that your children are young. You can always move OR you may want to contact the school board to ask about sending your kids to the school of your choice. If you'd like, I can post the number for you tomorrow when I get to my office. Few people realize that you can pretty much take your kids to any school as long as you pay the fee and provide transportation. It's something like $5000 per school year, but it may be worth it to get your kids in the school you'd prefer they go to. I learned about this a couple years ago when a client I was working with wanted to live in a neighbhorhood that was in Prince William County, but wanted her kids to stay in Manassas City Schools. I looked into it and got all of the information....but my client ended up finding another house that didn't require the school change.

[HEATHER72]

JBERN: Ok So I drove out to New Bristow Village this morning. I had seen it in passing, but had never driven thru it until today. I thought the big houses were cute! But the thing that caught my eye about the neighborhood was that the builder and/or HOA had let all the grass die around the common areas and even around the club house. I know we are having a bit of a drought, but well first impressions are everything.

Also just from driving thru that neighborhood and then mine, I thought New Bristow Village had more excess cars on the street. Not quite sure what's going on there.

TISH: I know the neighborhood you live in. The builder's agent who handled our house sale lives in that neighborhood. Isn't it technically part of Braemar or no?

[jberrn]

The lack of up-keep is something else that I hope will be addressed soon, as that is another big complaint from everyone. I know it was brought up at the HOA meeting a few weeks ago and they are "talking" about putting in sprinkler systems, etc to fix the dead grass problem. As far as the excessive amount of cars...Im tellin ya...I dont know why I didnt notice some of the red flags when we were checking out the area. Thanks for all the advice..Im going to be making some phone calls and see where it gets me. .There is always the option to move in a few years as much as I hate to say it!