Greenbriar in Fairfax (Burke, Reston, Centreville: spring break, for sale, rentals)

[momofone23]

I'm a recently single middle-aged mom to a teenage son with special needs and two four-legged kids. Been looking for 5 months for SFH in Herndon, Reston, Fairfax. It looks like the only place to get a decent SFH in in a halfway decent area in close proximity to shopping, commute, etc. and under 500k is Greenbriar. I've looked at a TON of townhouses all over the place and have not been able to find one that is workable for my situation for one reason or another.

Wondering if anyone lives in Greenbriar or has lived in Greenbriar, what the pros/cons are and if there are certain streets or portions that are recommended or not recommended. I have to stay within Fairfax County guidelines because of my son's school and services he receives through the county.

[choff5]

Hilsmom, where are you? She lives right in Greenbriar and can speak about it. I am there too and think it's a great community. Although older, overall it is very well taken care of by homeowners. I feel there's pride there. Check out Greenbriar Community which has copies of the monthly Greenbriar Flyer that is published and distributed through the mail to residents. Greenbriar is NOT an HOA, it is a civic association. There are probably pros and minuses to that but people do regulate themselves pretty well, no one telling you what color to paint your house. The homes do not have basements, but the rooms tend to be larger as were built years ago, plus the yards are good size. Areas towards the front are very walkable to the shopping center but even if not, it's a short drive to good eating and services. Do check it out and hope something works for you.

[hilsmom]

Hi, I am out of town for spring break, but just happened to check the board tonight. We bought in Greenbriar in 2011 right before our daughter started kindergarten at Greenbriar West. We like our section of the neighborhood for proximity to schools, the library and the shopping center. We live right on Poplar Tree, though, and I do NOT recommend that! It is used as a cut through street and is quite busy pretty much all day. I am quite happy with the area, though. There are days I don't get into my car, but I find even when I do, nothing is more than 15 minutes from our house. Fairfax Corner, Fair Oaks Mall, Reston Town Center, Wegman's - all the suburban niceties are pretty close.

I just saw a house that is going on the market on Pennerview for $445K. One of the realtors who lives in the neighborhood is on Facebook and posted it. I think that would be a good location.

I can't really speak of the special needs services in the local schools. My daughter was diagnosed ADHD, but she seems to be doing OK without accommodations/plans. It sounds like you already have experience with the special needs programs in FCPS, though.

Do you have any other questions? I'm happy to answer anything you want to know.

[momofone23]

Thanks so much Hilsmom and choff5. Hilsmom, I actually just put an offer on a house a few days ago on Marshall Hall Lane, however it is the corner house and is a side-load garage that is on Melville. I hesitated for the reason you mention, of Melville being a through street, but I figured because there is a speed bump there it might not be too bad. Ended up getting outbid so I didn't get the house unfortunately, but I figure that it was meant to be.

I've become familiar with the different models and am probably interested in the Georgetown or Essex as I do need a larger place with larger rooms for a few reasons including my son's special needs. I'll check out the house on Pennerview that you mentioned but I'm guessing it's probably one of the smaller models at that price.

As far as the schools, my son actually attends a small private day school in Springfield that is through his IEP with FCPS and they provide transportation so that is all set. I know it's a ways out but right now we're in Herndon so it's really about the same distance. I much prefer to live in Greenbriar or westside of Fairfax then out in Springfield or Burke.

[qtbrye]

Another Greenbriar resident here, moved in last October. So far, my family and I love it here. The neighborhood is indeed older (built in early '70s) so there's a lean toward the older demographics but that is quickly changing! All those houses for sale last year and this year are primarily retired folks that's selling to go into retirement! And from walking around and talking to neighbors, many of them are around my age--early 30's with young kids. Not surprising, since the schools nearby are highly rated.

Hilsmom made a great point in that some of the roads are "short cuts" through the neighborhood and there are plenty of car traffic. I would think hard before buying a house facing Point Pleasant, Melville, Poplar Tree, Middle Ridge, Majestic, because those are the main roads out of Greenbriar.

As for Pros and Cons:

Pro: Lively neighborhood, very friendly neighbors for the most part, guaranteed that your kid will have friends near his age to play with due to shift in demographics, guaranteed that your dogs will have doggie friends to play with as well, walking distance to both Fair Lakes and Greenbriar Town Center, highly rated schools (I don't know the specific programs though), NO HOA!! but there's a big pool in the community, very active community civic association that organize events for the kiddies, multiple parks close by.

Cons: No HOA means some houses are a little run down (especially the model that sits on the little "hill" with the two columns), traffic in and out of the area can be bad until Stringfellow Rd is widened, no basement, and I think most of the houses does not have natural gas in kitchen (at least mine doesn't and those that I've seen while searching).

Overall I'm pretty happy with Greenbriar. It's relatively safe, close to shopping and schools which will help in propping up the house value down the road. Hope this helps.

Btw, the realtor that Hilsmom referred to is Joe Dettor if you want to look him up. He lives in Greenbriar and "handles" quite a few of the houses for sale as a result. From what I've seen lately, the houses up for sale tend to go really, really fast--some barely had their for sale sign out before changing to Under Contract within a day or two.

[qtbrye]

I know that house on Marshall Hall, I am a few doors down on Maltese
Sorry you got outbid, but Melville is "busy", people cuts through there from Centreville. But since it's more tucked down toward the edge of Greenbriar, through traffic wouldn't be as bad as say....Middle Ridge near Rt. 50.

Originally Posted by momofone23

Thanks so much Hilsmom and choff5. Hilsmom, I actually just put an offer on a house a few days ago on Marshall Hall Lane, however it is the corner house and is a side-load garage that is on Melville. I hesitated for the reason you mention, of Melville being a through street, but I figured because there is a speed bump there it might not be too bad. Ended up getting outbid so I didn't get the house unfortunately, but I figure that it was meant to be.

I've become familiar with the different models and am probably interested in the Georgetown or Essex as I do need a larger place with larger rooms for a few reasons including my son's special needs. I'll check out the house on Pennerview that you mentioned but I'm guessing it's probably one of the smaller models at that price.

As far as the schools, my son actually attends a small private day school in Springfield that is through his IEP with FCPS and they provide transportation so that is all set. I know it's a ways out but right now we're in Herndon so it's really about the same distance. I much prefer to live in Greenbriar or westside of Fairfax then out in Springfield or Burke.

[momofone23]

Thanks so much, qtbrye, that is really helpful. And, yes I was concerned about the busy traffic on Melville because while the front door of the home isn't on Melville the garage is, which means I'd have to back up onto through traffic among other things. The house was so perfect and pristine that I figured I would just deal with that issue but I also think that is why it might have been priced a little lower than a comparable home that is not on a through street.

One thing I am VERY concerned about is exactly who the next door neighbors are wherever I move because I had a bad experience in the past when I rented a place and did not bother to find out who my neighbors were. You just never know, especially in this day and age, and I was nervous about making an offer on the Marshall Hall house because I had knocked on the neighbor's doors and no one was home but we had to get the offer in asap.

Unfortunately, we (my 2 dogs, my son and I) have been living in a hotel since November because my ex forced the sale of our home. I have a great realtor and we've been scouring everywhere from Reston, Herndon, Vienna, Oakton, Fairfax. I've seen God knows how many homes and townhomes and have also looked at rentals and applied for 2 but so far nothing has panned out. The Greenbriar home was the first I made an offer on because I finally felt like I had found something that I could call "home" but obviously it wasn't meant to be.

As you said, the homes go very quickly there, especially those that are in decent shape and not on through streets so it's really tough. Some buyers are now waiving appraisals and home inspections but I am not in a financial position to be able to do that, nor do I think it is wise.

If you all happen to hear any of your neighbors talking about possibly selling their home in Greenbriar, please let me know asap. I will pm you my contact info.

As far as age group, I'm actually an older mom in my mid-50s but young at heart My son is almost 18 but he's a junior because he was ill and out of school for a while. It sounds like the neighborhood is starting to turnover, which makes sense because of when the development was built so that should also help home values in upcoming years.

I'm literally at the point where I'm considering going door to door to see if anyone might be thinking of selling their home so I can get a shot before it hits the market. I'm pretty desperate at this point, but I also can't afford to jump into something just because I want to get out of the hotel yesterday.

I have a friend who actually did that several years ago in Vienna and ended up finding her dream home. The family was thinking about eventually selling but hadn't gotten to that point yet and when she came along they figured they might as well go for it and avoid the hassle of putting it on the market, open houses, etc. If I could find a situation like that with the right house it would be wonderful!

[hilsmom]

The Essex and Georgetown models are not going to be super easy to find under $500K these days, but those were the models we mostly focused on. We wound up with an Essex and did renovations to it.

Good luck. We actually came from Reston and were sad to leave that area, but it is really hard to find a SFH in a reasonable price range up that direction with good schools. Someone mentioned the pool, and I will tell you that is it near impossible to get a pool membership these days - they are limited, and many of them are sold WITH the house. I have given up any hope of ever getting one, but we have a bunch of friends who have them, so we figure we can go that way. Also, Brookfield advertises their pool memberships every summer and many people who can't get Greenbriar memberships go over there.

[momofone23]

Thanks, Hilsmom. Yes, Reston is almost impossible to find anything decent in a good part of Reston. I've only looked at Townhouses in Reston because there is no way I could afford a SFH there. The house I made an offer on and didn't get was an Essex going for 525 but I think part of the reason it was even priced at that is because it was the corner house with the garage facing Melville. It was in pristine condition from top to bottom. There's another Essex on Middle Ridge that just came out at 545. It has major upgrades but I can't go that high and would not want to live on Middle Ridge anyway. It does come with a pool membership though.

One question, is there any decent place nearby where my son (almost 18) could go to workout and play basketball? He goes to the Reston YMCA almost every night and it is his saving grace. He doesn't really have any friends to hang out with and he doesn't drive yet and I'm not sure when that will happen. That's why I have been looking at Townhouses in Reston, but even those are impossible. They are either the size of a postage stamp if in a decent area or super run down or both. If we didn't have to stay in Fairfax County, I would go into Loudon because you can get a lot more for your money out there, but that's not an option due to my son's school situation and needs.

[hilsmom]

That's a good question. The YMCA is a bit unique in the mix of services it offer. I know there are gyms you can join nearby to workout, but not sure about places where he can also play basketball. There are plenty of outdoor parks in the area, and I'm sure one of them has a hoop where he can shoot baskets. Actually, I've seen kids at GBW doing that afterschool - there is a small paved area with baskets behind the school. There is a community center not too far, but it does require a car to get there.

You might be able to find a person in the neighborhood willing to take him afterschool to whichever place you decide would be best. There are a couple neighborhood Facebook groups where you could post - I'd be willing to ask the questions for you before you move, if you'd like?