What is Wrong With This Falls Church House?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2 bathrooms would be a deal breaker for me and no primary bath. Only two bedrooms on the top floor. It’s no good for families. It will sell for more though.

While this would not bother me, I know tons of people who won't even consider a house with no primary bath.

[Anonymous]

It's a little puzzling, though. A close relative bought a house a few years ago in the Greenway Downs neighborhood, which isn't far from here and is zoned for the same ES but Falls Church high. It's a smaller house on a smaller lot, but it does have a basement and this one doesn't. It also has a better walk score. Yet the tax assessments and redfin and Zillow estimates are very similar -- this one is only slightly higher. I wonder why . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Terrible elementary school. Looks priced right compared to comps. So, no, nothing weird here.

Are you the realtor drumming up views?

It's a great elementary school, actually. It's Title I, it gets extra funding, and the families that we know there take a lot of pride in the school and in supporting every child and teacher.

[Anonymous]

Where is parking? I would not buy a house without even a private driveway in suburbia. And this is suburbia, it's not like you don't need to get into your car for every errand.

It's a narrow street too, which mean street parking on both sides would be difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2 bathrooms would be a deal breaker for me and no primary bath. Only two bedrooms on the top floor. It’s no good for families. It will sell for more though.

This isn't going to be attractive for a family of 4-5 for sure. But a family with one kid would be ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you done streetview? Have fun parking on the street and hiking up those stairs when you're carrying groceries.

Yep. Groceries, baby car seats, strollers, etc. It's urban life inconveniences with suburban amenities (lack of urban amenities).

It's not a bad deal for a childless couple, or a couple with one older kid, or a single mom. But I'd see other areas for this price too, this may not be competitive after all, IDK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like the whole house is built on a hill, so you don’t have much usable yard, and all the backyard water flows down against the house.

It’s in the Fairfax Co. part of Falls Church, not the FCC part. And there are pieces of the neighborhood around Timber Lane Elementary that are being threatened with redistricting from McLean to Falls Church HS — a big difference. Not sure where that process is, or where it’s headed, but as a homeowner I would be worried.

A lot of DC metro is hilly, this is hardly unusual. People are used to this type of terrain, IDK why this would be this huge negative, it's not FL or Dallas suburbs
it's the lack of private parking that would bother me. The yard, if properly graded, is fine. Unless you need it for outdoor games, I guess. Then I'd want to "flatten" it a bit on the back with a retaining wall. I've seen people excavate and put retaining walls to create more flat surface. Parking, on the other hand, looks like would be impossible to create?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where is parking? I would not buy a house without even a private driveway in suburbia. And this is suburbia, it's not like you don't need to get into your car for every errand.

It's a narrow street too, which mean street parking on both sides would be difficult.

And you'd be an idiot. There are plenty of places in suburbia where parking is a non-issue, and this neighborhood is one of them.

[Anonymous]

This area shouldn’t remain in McLean HS pyramid after the next boundary review. It should have already been moved but it’s unlikely to stay in MHS.

[Anonymous]

At the moment, it's the only single-family house on the market in the McLean HS district for under a million. By way of comparison, the only single-family house in the Langley HS district for under a million is outside the Beltway and appears to be a tear-down. So they shouldn't have a hard time selling this house at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At the moment, it's the only single-family house on the market in the McLean HS district for under a million. By way of comparison, the only single-family house in the Langley HS district for under a million is outside the Beltway and appears to be a tear-down. So they shouldn't have a hard time selling this house at all.

Nobody is going to buy this house with the high school in mind. Whoever buys it will either not have kids or have little kids. It's a starter home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This area shouldn’t remain in McLean HS pyramid after the next boundary review. It should have already been moved but it’s unlikely to stay in MHS.

That ship has sailed. Timber Lane convinced the School Board to keep the area north of Route 29 at McLean rather than move it to Falls Church, and a different area in Tysons with more kids got moved to Langley instead. Timber Lane is safe at McLean for years to come, absent some major growth within the McLean district. There will be some growth near the West Falls Church metro, and in the remaining part of Tysons zoned to McLean, but the MHS areas with the most growth potential were in north Tysons and got moved to Langley.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At the moment, it's the only single-family house on the market in the McLean HS district for under a million. By way of comparison, the only single-family house in the Langley HS district for under a million is outside the Beltway and appears to be a tear-down. So they shouldn't have a hard time selling this house at all.

Nobody is going to buy this house with the high school in mind. Whoever buys it will either not have kids or have little kids. It's a starter home.

People buy two-bedroom condos to send their kids to McLean (and now they'll be doing so to send their kids to Langley, too, as a lot of condos in Tysons have been reassigned to Langley).

The set-up with this house with two bedrooms on each floor will also be less of an issue with older kids than younger kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This area shouldn’t remain in McLean HS pyramid after the next boundary review. It should have already been moved but it’s unlikely to stay in MHS.

That ship has sailed. Timber Lane convinced the School Board to keep the area north of Route 29 at McLean rather than move it to Falls Church, and a different area in Tysons with more kids got moved to Langley instead. Timber Lane is safe at McLean for years to come, absent some major growth within the McLean district. There will be some growth near the West Falls Church metro, and in the remaining part of Tysons zoned to McLean, but the MHS areas with the most growth potential were in north Tysons and got moved to Langley.

It has sailed for this review. But they will review the boundaries again in five years. That’s what I was talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This area shouldn’t remain in McLean HS pyramid after the next boundary review. It should have already been moved but it’s unlikely to stay in MHS.

That ship has sailed. Timber Lane convinced the School Board to keep the area north of Route 29 at McLean rather than move it to Falls Church, and a different area in Tysons with more kids got moved to Langley instead. Timber Lane is safe at McLean for years to come, absent some major growth within the McLean district. There will be some growth near the West Falls Church metro, and in the remaining part of Tysons zoned to McLean, but the MHS areas with the most growth potential were in north Tysons and got moved to Langley.

It has sailed for this review. But they will review the boundaries again in five years. That’s what I was talking about.

The only reason they looked at McLean's boundaries last time was because it was over 105% capacity in 2024-25. In response, they are moving over 200 kids in Tysons (Spring Hill area) to Langley, which puts McLean close to 100%. So they probably won't have any need to look at McLean's boundaries again in five years.