New Million dollar homes in Vienna? (Falls Church: houses, neighborhoods, buy)

[JD984]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

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.

That property is outside the Town and is clearly being marketed as a teardown. But you didn't mention that the front yard currently is largely paved over with a driveway that easily has parking space for at least a dozen cars. So if someone buys the land and builds a new home there, it's possible they could end up with at least as much of a front yard as there is now.

[michgc]

A year ago, we were offered $550K (by a few builders) for our 1/3 acre flat lot in Vienna. House on land is a larger rambler, mostly not updated. We declined the builders' offer as we were hoping to keep the house standing (I'm a sentimental sap), and we sold to a family who didn't pay much more than what the land was worth to a builder. Since that time, two houses have sold on the next street over as knockdowns.

Every time we go back to Vienna for a visit, I am amazed how many more new homes there are or how many homes are in the various stages of knockdowns.

While in some ways, I am sad to see the "old Vienna" homes become a thing of the past, people buying knockdowns does prevent sprawl, because the alternatives for some people would be to buy farther out. Plus many of these houses are over 60 years old and in bad shape. At least that's what I tell myself, trying to look at the bright side of it.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by JEB77

That property is outside the Town and is clearly being marketed as a teardown. But you didn't mention that the front yard currently is largely paved over with a driveway that easily has parking space for at least a dozen cars. So if someone buys the land and builds a new home there, it's possible they could end up with at least as much of a front yard as there is now.

I didn't read close enough to see that it's marketed as a tear down but I believe you.

[snowdenscold]

Originally Posted by Bigfoot424

The new house will fill up this 1/2 acre and there will be no yard left.

You would need a pretty giant house to not have much yard left with a 1/2 acre lot.

I mean, a half acre is ~21,000 sqft. The foot print for a big house with garage might be what - 2100 sqft? 10% of that? Maybe 15% max. Should have plenty of yard available.

[kieplangdu]

Originally Posted by michgc

A year ago, we were offered $550K (by a few builders) for our 1/3 acre flat lot in Vienna. House on land is a larger rambler, mostly not updated. We declined the builders' offer as we were hoping to keep the house standing (I'm a sentimental sap), and we sold to a family who didn't pay much more than what the land was worth to a builder. Since that time, two houses have sold on the next street over as knockdowns.

Every time we go back to Vienna for a visit, I am amazed how many more new homes there are or how many homes are in the various stages of knockdowns.

While in some ways, I am sad to see the "old Vienna" homes become a thing of the past, people buying knockdowns does prevent sprawl, because the alternatives for some people would be to buy farther out. Plus many of these houses are over 60 years old and in bad shape. At least that's what I tell myself, trying to look at the bright side of it.

How did the builder approached you? I want to buy my neighbor's house but feel kinda weird approaching them. They are older couple who has been living in the same house since 1973 and it looks like they may move to assisted living soon. It's a smaller house not exactly rambler and not exactly cape cod either.

I want to buy it and rent it out to keep it as is and moving in about 10 years when our kids are off to college. My current house is not that big just 1700 square feet colonial but we are thinking of 1 level living. Too many big ugly houses have been built on this road.

[michgc]

Originally Posted by kieplangdu

How did the builder approached you? I want to buy my neighbor's house but feel kinda weird approaching them. They are older couple who has been living in the same house since 1973 and it looks like they may move to assisted living soon. It's a smaller house not exactly rambler and not exactly cape cod either.

I want to buy it and rent it out to keep it as is and moving in about 10 years when our kids are off to college. My current house is not that big just 1700 square feet colonial but we are thinking of 1 level living. Too many big ugly houses have been built on this road.

Well, it was on the market and we had a Realtor, so they approached her, but my Realtor told them we were hoping to sell to someone who wasn't going to level it. I see nothing wrong with just striking up a general conversation with your neighbors and asking them if they are going to be moving away soon, and that you might be interested in buying. It might be appealing to them to not have to pay a 5-6% Realtor commission.

[Novadhd5150]

Originally Posted by snowdenscold

You would need a pretty giant house to not have much yard left with a 1/2 acre lot.

I mean, a half acre is ~21,000 sqft. The foot print for a big house with garage might be what - 2100 sqft? 10% of that? Maybe 15% max. Should have plenty of yard available.

Have you seen some of these Vienna McMansions?. Some of these ones are pushing 4 or 5 thousand square feet. But i agree 1/2 acre is rare in these parts so still should be room for nice yard. Some of them are built sideways as to fit in the lot!

[sjankis630]

The girlfriend and I walked through this house Sunday. She likes going in these and I was only interested because it was so small for a house that was built in 2009 in this neighborhood off of Plum st in Vienna.
308 Plum St SW, Vienna, VA 22180 | MLS #FX9554104 | Zillow

I saw the price of $640K and then walked through the house and thought the only good thing I saw to even think about commanding a price that high was a decent back yard. It looked like the house was older than 2009 and maybe there had been a addition added to an older house.
Anyway I could not tell the sq footage from the flyer and so looked it up and realized that is listed as 1,283 sq ft.
so that means they are asking (640,000/1,283) = $499/sq foot!
That seems outrageous for the house that I walked through.
Even the Mc Mansions don't usually go over $250-$280/sq foot.
Also this corner has seen about 3-4 mcmansions already so whoever buys this house cannot be thinking of not knocking it down.

[FCNova]

That house definitely wasn't built in 2009. That's the small raised rambler style that's prevalent in Vienna and was probably built in the 50s or 60s. But the price isn't outrageous if it's in good shape. The lot is about 1/4 acre of prime real estate in the heart of Vienna. We actually looked at a split level in Vienna this weekend listed for 585k which was an absolute dump.

[fcyolo]

Originally Posted by sjankis630

The girlfriend and I walked through this house Sunday. She likes going in these and I was only interested because it was so small for a house that was built in 2009 in this neighborhood off of Plum st in Vienna.
308 Plum St SW, Vienna, VA 22180 | MLS #FX9554104 | Zillow

I saw the price of $640K and then walked through the house and thought the only good thing I saw to even think about commanding a price that high was a decent back yard. It looked like the house was older than 2009 and maybe there had been a addition added to an older house.
Anyway I could not tell the sq footage from the flyer and so looked it up and realized that is listed as 1,283 sq ft.
so that means they are asking (640,000/1,283) = $499/sq foot!
That seems outrageous for the house that I walked through.
Even the Mc Mansions don't usually go over $250-$280/sq foot.
Also this corner has seen about 3-4 mcmansions already so whoever buys this house cannot be thinking of not knocking it down.

Most of the value is in the land.