SFH in Arlington with good schools for 600K - does it exist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This one has a little more character. Great location/schools. I would have considered this when I was looking (ended up spending a lot more then $615!)

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/5311-20th-St-N-22205/home/11236618

fucking awful, looks like someone welded a trailer home on top of a midget rambler. Again resale value shows the garage mahall houses aka narrow mcmansions are a better value as well built to look as 1 unit not some strange cancerous growth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This one has a little more character. Great location/schools. I would have considered this when I was looking (ended up spending a lot more then $615!)

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/5311-20th-St-N-22205/home/11236618

Did someone glue a double-wide to the top of a rambler here?

Looks like a contract fell through last year as well. I wonder what happened.

You can't polish a turd should've torn it down

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
seriously, what is wrong with this house? It looks like almost every colonial built in the burbs in the 60s and 70s, with the brick on the bottom level and the siding on the top. I think the inside is nice too. I think they may have OVERimproved on the inside - I wonder how many bedrooms it was originally? I probably would have made it a 4 bedroom.

I'm not the PP, but the problem is that the scale is off. The top of the house is way too tall and featureless. And the materials used for the addition are shoddy: the vinyl siding and porch look cheap. The windows and roof are awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This one has a little more character. Great location/schools. I would have considered this when I was looking (ended up spending a lot more then $615!)

http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/5311-20th-St-N-22205/home/11236618

Did someone glue a double-wide to the top of a rambler here?

Looks like a contract fell through last year as well. I wonder what happened.

Oh purveyor of aesthetics, what sort of house do YOU like?

I am partial to Arts and Crafts, colonials, and Queen Anne.

I don't like properties where popups have been done without the consultation of an architect. Besides being ugly it screams cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am partial to Arts and Crafts, colonials, and Queen Anne.

I don't like properties where popups have been done without the consultation of an architect. Besides being ugly it screams cheap.

That's great. $600k can get you something like that in say Warrenton, Leesburg, Frederick, Annapolis, etc. Brunswick has a lot of nice old houses too.

I love Queen Anne houses as well, I posted the one in Cambridge, MD in the house porn thread.

In North Arlington, that money gets you something on a busy street, something that's 800 square feet, or something that looks grafted on. Plus, you have the thrill of knowing you're near the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to the yuppie hierarchy in North Arlington. So no, it's not a choice I'd make for myself.

But if they'd rather live in Arlington, then more power to them -- screaming about how ugly/tiny their house isn't really productive.

[Anonymous]

I'm betting that I found the direction this thread took more amusing than the OP did.

Basically, it appears that some Arlington boosters had never come across a house in Arlington that didn't have potential, wasn't near "great schools," and wasn't worth the asking price because Arlington's just so darn "family friendly," Metro-accessible (apparently, even in the remotest parts of North Arlington) and "walkable." In response, other posters started to link to some of Arlington's ugliest properties to see if there was anything the boosters wouldn't praise to the rafters.

OK, point made; time to move on.

In that price range, there are some decent-looking homes in Arlington under 600K; here are some that aren't under contract:

http://franklymls.com/AR7743297 (yeah, near 66, but you'd survive)

http://franklymls.com/AR7749732 (yeah, it's Wakefield, but some people used to shun W-L, too, and look who's laughing now).

http://franklymls.com/AR7699724 (perhaps not the highest-quality rehab, but hits the Arts/Crafts buttons)

http://franklymls.com/AR7653667 (nice bones; has renovation potential, and in Yorktown HS district).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm betting that I found the direction this thread took more amusing than the OP did.

Basically, it appears that some Arlington boosters had never come across a house in Arlington that didn't have potential, wasn't near "great schools," and wasn't worth the asking price because Arlington's just so darn "family friendly," Metro-accessible (apparently, even in the remotest parts of North Arlington) and "walkable." In response, other posters started to link to some of Arlington's ugliest properties to see if there was anything the boosters wouldn't praise to the rafters.

OK, point made; time to move on.

In that price range, there are some decent-looking homes in Arlington under 600K; here are some that aren't under contract:

http://franklymls.com/AR7743297 (yeah, near 66, but you'd survive)

http://franklymls.com/AR7749732 (yeah, it's Wakefield, but some people used to shun W-L, too, and look who's laughing now).

http://franklymls.com/AR7699724 (perhaps not the highest-quality rehab, but hits the Arts/Crafts buttons)

http://franklymls.com/AR7653667 (nice bones; has renovation potential, and in Yorktown HS district).

OP here - the above cracks me up! I am actually taking a closer look at S. Arlington and have been driving around looking at neighborhoods. I have seen some areas I really like. I agree with a PP who said that we may not want to be the most broke family in N. Arlington anyway. We probably would fit in better in S. Arlington, which is where we already live and we fit in just fine. I did kind of think I may be able to get a bit more for 600,000K in S. Arlington, but looks like houses are still small and basic, but often updated at least.

[Anonymous]

17:35 The first house is in South Arlington near Rt. 395 not at all close to Rt 66.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:17:35 The first house is in South Arlington near Rt. 395 not at all close to Rt 66.

Ah - franklymls mapped it to North Arlington but it's South Arlington instead.

[Anonymous]

fyi, the http://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/5311-20th-St-N-22205/home/11236618 house just changed to Pending. I knew it would go quickly at that price!!

[Anonymous]

Coming late to this thread, and ignoring the last 4+ pages of posts slamming real estate listings:

I'm a huge fan of Arlington in general, but if you are looking to move here on a budget, do not overlook South Arlington. Yes, you don't get the snob appeal for living north of US 50, but your money is going to go much, much further once you cross that line. I lived in North Arlington before moving south, and haven't regretted my decision at all.

If you are looking for a clean, safe, aesthetically pleasing neighborhood, look at the part of Arlington Forest south of 50, Glen Carlyn (where I live), Barcroft, Douglas Park, and Arlington Heights/Penrose, among others. You are getting the same Arlington services and amenities, which are excellent. As for schools, keep in mind that calling a school in Arlington bad is a very relative term-- all of the schools, including the ones with higher proportions of poor kids, are very well thought of, and the kind of monolithically underclass school that you might see in some parts of DC just doesn't exist. And in any case, virtually nobody in Arlington is locked into attending a neighborhood school. In fact, as a resident of S. Arlington, your chances of getting into one of the competitive countrywide schools, like ATS, is going to be much better than if you lived in N. Arlington.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Wow - Chirilagua? Racist much? We are very excited to send our daughter to Clairemont and were happy to buy our house in the Clairemont/Barcroft Forest area to get away from the types of snobs that seem to pervade this post. It's funny how when you can be anonymous, the true racists come out... I bet you those posters in public probably have a big Obama 2012 sticker on their BMW 3-series anyway and are "outraged" at things like Ashton Kutcher in brownface.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow - Chirilagua? Racist much? We are very excited to send our daughter to Clairemont and were happy to buy our house in the Clairemont/Barcroft Forest area to get away from the types of snobs that seem to pervade this post. It's funny how when you can be anonymous, the true racists come out... I bet you those posters in public probably have a big Obama 2012 sticker on their BMW 3-series anyway and are "outraged" at things like Ashton Kutcher in brownface.

Because Republicans could never ever be racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow - Chirilagua? Racist much? We are very excited to send our daughter to Clairemont and were happy to buy our house in the Clairemont/Barcroft Forest area to get away from the types of snobs that seem to pervade this post. It's funny how when you can be anonymous, the true racists come out... I bet you those posters in public probably have a big Obama 2012 sticker on their BMW 3-series anyway and are "outraged" at things like Ashton Kutcher in brownface.

It's Claremont. Not Clairemont. If you really lived there, you wouldn't misspell it.