Depressed about house hunting in Alex./Arl. (Arlington, Alexandria: lease, townhouses)

[ACWhite]

Originally Posted by Montacute

Not a bad idea. Would tearing the garage down effect the value of the house much?

I would NOT do it. Garages in good shape in Arl./Alex. are fairly rare and command a premium (and some people in your price range won't buy a house without one)--even if you don't want to put your car in them, where are you going to store your lawn mower, garden equipment, etc.? But you could check with a Realtor about how most customers in this price range feel about them.

I think you are running into the same frustrations that a lot of prospective buyers and homeowners have encountered. It's a supply/demand problem based on the economics of the neighborhoods. Realtors will tell you that is a very difficult/competitive price range in the desirable neighborhoods, because the land alone is so expensive. Then, additions cost a ton to be designed and built around here, and to say nothing of other necessary renovations such as new kitchens and baths, that by the time homeowners take a small, older, unrenovated $750K house (on a small lot that alone is worth > $500K of that amount, so that doesn't leave much for the house), and add on the upgrades etc., they are often well over the $1.1 mill. or more mark. If you are talking about a fully renovated house (e.g., with the basement as well as the high priority items done upstairs), it will be even more $. Just to give you an idea, a lot of custom builders won't work inside the Beltway because adding onto older houses can be very tricky, and the going rate is $250 per square foot and up. Let's say you buy a lot and build new. The architect will require another 10-15% of the building costs. So if you can find even a small buildable lot for $550K (and that will be hard), a 2000 square foot house will be another $550000 at an absolute minimum, plus $30K or so to tear down what is there. Already out of your desired budget range, and that's without all the high end upgrades you probably want.

And given not only the cost, but also the huge hassle of those renovations, most people are going to stay in their renovated houses as long as they can. So what you typically see are huge new houses in the $1.5+ range, or smaller, older houses with varying levels of additions/renovations. The only renovated houses that stay on the market are ones that are really overpriced (e.g., sometimes a developer bought a bad lot thinking they got a real deal, then slapped a big new cheaply done house on it, only to find that no one wants to pay >$1 mill to live on a schlocky house on a busy street) or where the renovator made unpopular choices (e.g., maybe they satisfied their own unique tastes but those tastes don't have wide appeal).

You may see more properties on the market in the spring. But I wish I could be more encouraging.

[ACWhite]

Originally Posted by Montacute

I'm sorry but agreeing to go month to month with no intention of honoring that beyond a few months is disingenuous and dirty. If you don't see that then I am glad I don't have to do business with you. I would not have asked to go month to month if he had told us his plan. My realtor told me in DC it is law that after a year leases go month to month. He couldn't pull month-to-month reverting to a year there. We have been perfect tenants and even payed him early a few times when he said he was going on vacation and asked us to. Who in their right mind is going to move to an entirely new place when they are looking to buy soon? He knew we were looking to buy because we were forthright and dealt with him with good will, telling him this is WHY we wanted to go month to month when we asked to do so. He knew he had us over a barrel when he sprung the year lease again. He has started asking 6 months early what we intended to do at lease end. Guess who is saying "I don't know" until exactly 60 days before the lease ends, which is when we are required to give him notice? He has destroyed any good will we had toward him.

I do not believe that is the law in Virginia--don't know about whether the Realtor is telling you the truth about DC. But you say you are in Old Town, so I am not sure why the DC law is relevant.

Isn't the whole point of month-to-month that neither of you is making a commitment beyond the next 30 days? Why is it "dirty" of him to offer only a month to month and then decide later to end it, when it would not be "dirty" of you to leave after you find a house you want to buy? Really, I do not understand why you think you are being treated badly.

[kww]

Originally Posted by ACWhite

I do not believe that is the law in Virginia--don't know about whether the Realtor is telling you the truth about DC. But you say you are in Old Town, so I am not sure why the DC law is relevant.

Isn't the whole point of month-to-month that neither of you is making a commitment beyond the next 30 days? Why is it "dirty" of him to offer only a month to month and then decide later to end it, when it would not be "dirty" of you to leave after you find a house you want to buy? Really, I do not understand why you think you are being treated badly.

agreed

[Montacute]

Originally Posted by ACWhite

I do not believe that is the law in Virginia--don't know about whether the Realtor is telling you the truth about DC. But you say you are in Old Town, so I am not sure why the DC law is relevant.

Isn't the whole point of month-to-month that neither of you is making a commitment beyond the next 30 days? Why is it "dirty" of him to offer only a month to month and then decide later to end it, when it would not be "dirty" of you to leave after you find a house you want to buy? Really, I do not understand why you think you are being treated badly.

For a month to month, both parties should in essence be saying to each other, my intention is to rent to/from you until some event in the future makes it that I no longer want to. That is good faith. My landlord lacked good faith because he was really saying, unbeknownst to me, I will rent month to month until I get your lease term to end in Spring. I will NEVER let you end your lease term at a time other than Spring. If he had told me his intentions, that would have allowed me to say, actually I prefer to end in September. He admitted this later. He was not straight about his intention to never allow us to leave at any time of year other than Spring. Knowing the timing of when we faced a year extension if we had not bought a house would have have helped us. We would have settled more rather than rent another year. He asked us often about our house hunt and we were honest. I just would have liked the same courtesy. In his position, I would have been up front with the tenant, telling them they could go month to month only until Spring.

[spencgr]

Originally Posted by Montacute

I will NEVER let you end your lease term at a time other than Spring............. He was not straight about his intention to never allow us to leave at any time of year other than Spring.

What is this "never allowed to leave any other time of year other than spring" nonsense? You had every right to leave when your lease was up in September; you also could have left in October, November, December, January, February, or any month until you choose to sign another year-long lease. Month to month tenancy is risky; there is no guarantee that you get to stay until it is convenient for you to leave.

[HokieFan]

Originally Posted by Montacute

Not a bad idea. Would tearing the garage down effect the value of the house much?

I can't comment on the value but it appears to be a shared garage with the neighbor to the right so that could cause some issue with tearing it down.

[mdcrim]

If you were September to September you could have started looking last summer, then moved out in September, when your lease was up! Problem solved!

[robbobobbo]

Many of the garages in Del Ray and Rosemont are detached/carriage house style, often near the rear of the property, and often not kept in as good of shape as the house. Many that I see are used for storage of things other than cars, and a car can't even fit with all the other stuff stored.

I've known people who have moved such garages to other spots on the property, or torn down and later replaced with a newer shed structure (usually custom-built, not some Lowe's or Home Deport little thing for just a lawn mower).

Even Rosemont/Del Ray million-plus dollar homes built brand-new, or from a gutted older house, don't bother putting in an attached garage and often not even a detached garage.

[stpickrell]

Given that you're spending 700k-1MM on a new house, the leasebreak fee of maybe 6-8 grand would not be that big of a deal IMO. Everything you want at your budget would require you to head out to my neck of the woods (Leesburg/Frederick) or down south to Fredericksburg.

There are many people with lots of money and many other people with lots of Mommy/Daddy money. Throw in a little bit of urban revival, some of DC being one of the better areas economically, and you're seeing a lot of increase in housing prices. I suspect in the 1990s and earlier, DC and close-in areas were *under*valued, but that and $5 gets you a latte at Starbucks.

A month-to-month lease allows either party to end the lease with a month's notice, if you had wanted to keep your place until the fall, you could have asked to lease the place until the fall, or have baked in the leasebreak fee into your housing search (also, let's face it -- if you want to renovate, that might take longer than you'd think.)

A galley kitchen can be expanded. Walls can be moved around. Floors can be redone. You can cook in an out of date kitchen and use a bathroom with green and pink tiles.

The house you can change. The neighborhood you cannot.

[Mnseca]

This thread is absurd. 1.2 million is plenty to find a great home in Old Town. However, detached won't happen - there are hardly any of them there. But there are beautiful luxury townhomes near the waterfront under a million, and historic row houses in the million range that fit the description of the OP. However, it's Old Town and supply is very limited - that means that a home search takes way more than a month. A month is nothing in Old Town. It's also winter, when fewer homes go on sale. Supply should pick up in spring and summer. OP needs to learn some patience.

Also - if you buy historic you cannot go tearing things down - there is an architectural review committee that won't let you tear down anything historic in OT, which is most stuff. Interiors can be modified, but everything is very regulated, so don't count on being able to change things a lot. When we lived there our neighbor got fined heavily just for painting his exterior without approval.