What do you think of this house/price/area (North Potomac)?

[Anonymous]

I think the issue may be the commute. It's not really in North Potomac/G'burg, which I think of as closer to 270. It is closer to Darnestown, which means you've got a ways to go to get to a major road. If you dont need to commute to DC that would be less of an issue. But I live in Bethesda and when we have to go out that way for some sports activity it is a looong drive.

I live a few streets over from this house. The commute is better from here to DC than from farther north close to 270. Its about 10 minutes to Potomac Village (Falls and River). You just take Glen or Travilah to Piney Meetinghouse and turn left on River. You can take River, MacArthur or Clara Barton into the city.

I would not buy this house unless I needed 8 bedrooms. We have 3000sq ft plus a walkout basement and this feels like to much. I can't imagine 7K sq ft. If I was going to spend between 900K-1.1 M in this area I would look in Belvedere or Potomac Chase behind Belvedere. The landscape and trees are mature. There are more houses in the neighborhoods but still privacy from the 2 acre lots.

[Anonymous]

1. It's far - as others have said, "North Potomac" is developer-speak (or developer-fraud) for Gaithersburg.

2. It's developer-standard. Crappy kitchen, generic fixtures, etc. If I'm paying 7 figures, I'd prefer a little character, not something out of a catalogue.

3. 8 BR is completely unnecessary for most families. Even with 3 kids, that's at least 2 more BR than necessary. Why pay extra when you can save $150,000 on a 6 BR, or get a much nicer 6 BR for the same price?

[Anonymous]

As someone who lives in the area, I can say it's waaay overpriced. It should be priced around $950K if they really want to sell it.

[Anonymous]

1. It's far - as others have said, "North Potomac" is developer-speak (or developer-fraud) for Gaithersburg.

Sigh, let me guess you are from Bethesda. Look North Potomac was incorporated over 30 years ago. It has registered boundaries. It has a postal code. Everyone who lives anywhere in the area knows the location. What is it with Bethesda types needing to claim that other areas do not exist?

[Anonymous]

North Potomac is not incorporated...it is no-mans land between Potomac, Rockville, and Gaithersburg, created by enterprising developers seeking to get higher prices in what had been mostly Gaithersburg zip codes. Schools feed into Quince Orchard (some feed into Rockville schools too I believe).

Granted, most of NoPo is nicer than Gburg, but let's call a spade a spade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:North Potomac is not incorporated...it is no-mans land between Potomac, Rockville, and Gaithersburg, created by enterprising developers seeking to get higher prices in what had been mostly Gaithersburg zip codes. Schools feed into Quince Orchard (some feed into Rockville schools too I believe).

Granted, most of NoPo is nicer than Gburg, but let's call a spade a spade.

Sure, and let's call a twit a twit while we're at it.

[Anonymous]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Potomac,_Maryland

NP is a census designated place formed in 1988. I live living here and find it interesting how people view it differently. We are on the western edge of Potomac and a street over from the Darnestown line and a few streets from the Potomac school cluster area (so I assuming it is Potomac or at least my neighbors over there have a 20854 zip). I have to drive through Darnestown and pass by the Welcome to Darnestown sign from the other direction to get into the Kentlands and Gaithersburg. I always thought that NP was really Darnestown just not zoned for the Darnestown schools. I have friends who live over toward Travilah right before the Rockville line. They think NP is really Rockville.

So...NP is not Gaithersburg. Its not Potomac. Its not Darnestown. Its not Rockville. It is North Potomac.

It is entirely a residential community. Travaille Gateway aside (which I think is in 20850 anyway) is not very large. NP lacks any of the lower income housing or even apartments that you can find in Gaithersburg. It lacks the bling of Potomac. The house on this thread is on the large extreme end of the spectrum. NP is filled with mid-sized SFH on medium lots. It has some larger houses on 2 acre lots but nut the 4,000 sq ft + type. It has a few very big houses on Glen and Travilah. It has townhouses in StoneMill.

Its kid friendly. There is some diversity beyond the basic WASP with a good sized Jewish, Indian, and Chinese community. There seem to be lots of PHds, science types, doctors, etc but not too many big firm lawyers or lobbyists. No one dresses flashy. You can wear Target to the PTA meeting and fit in just fine.

The schools are good. Swimming is the big teenager sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Potomac,_Maryland

NP is a census designated place formed in 1988. I live living here and find it interesting how people view it differently. We are on the western edge of Potomac and a street over from the Darnestown line and a few streets from the Potomac school cluster area (so I assuming it is Potomac or at least my neighbors over there have a 20854 zip). I have to drive through Darnestown and pass by the Welcome to Darnestown sign from the other direction to get into the Kentlands and Gaithersburg. I always thought that NP was really Darnestown just not zoned for the Darnestown schools. I have friends who live over toward Travilah right before the Rockville line. They think NP is really Rockville.

So...NP is not Gaithersburg. Its not Potomac. Its not Darnestown. Its not Rockville. It is North Potomac.

It is entirely a residential community. Travaille Gateway aside (which I think is in 20850 anyway) is not very large. NP lacks any of the lower income housing or even apartments that you can find in Gaithersburg. It lacks the bling of Potomac. The house on this thread is on the large extreme end of the spectrum. NP is filled with mid-sized SFH on medium lots. It has some larger houses on 2 acre lots but nut the 4,000 sq ft + type. It has a few very big houses on Glen and Travilah. It has townhouses in StoneMill.

Its kid friendly. There is some diversity beyond the basic WASP with a good sized Jewish, Indian, and Chinese community. There seem to be lots of PHds, science types, doctors, etc but not too many big firm lawyers or lobbyists. No one dresses flashy. You can wear Target to the PTA meeting and fit in just fine.

The schools are good. Swimming is the big teenager sport.

I have no problem with North Potomac and don't think any ill of the people who live there. It is too far out for me, but a perfectly nice community and seems like a great place for a family. But, PP, you just pointed out why the Bethesda crowd hates on NP and likes to play the elitist game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Potomac,_Maryland

NP is a census designated place formed in 1988. I live living here and find it interesting how people view it differently. We are on the western edge of Potomac and a street over from the Darnestown line and a few streets from the Potomac school cluster area (so I assuming it is Potomac or at least my neighbors over there have a 20854 zip). I have to drive through Darnestown and pass by the Welcome to Darnestown sign from the other direction to get into the Kentlands and Gaithersburg. I always thought that NP was really Darnestown just not zoned for the Darnestown schools. I have friends who live over toward Travilah right before the Rockville line. They think NP is really Rockville.

So...NP is not Gaithersburg. Its not Potomac. Its not Darnestown. Its not Rockville. It is North Potomac.

It is entirely a residential community. Travaille Gateway aside (which I think is in 20850 anyway) is not very large. NP lacks any of the lower income housing or even apartments that you can find in Gaithersburg. It lacks the bling of Potomac. The house on this thread is on the large extreme end of the spectrum. NP is filled with mid-sized SFH on medium lots. It has some larger houses on 2 acre lots but nut the 4,000 sq ft + type. It has a few very big houses on Glen and Travilah. It has townhouses in StoneMill.

Its kid friendly. There is some diversity beyond the basic WASP with a good sized Jewish, Indian, and Chinese community. There seem to be lots of PHds, science types, doctors, etc but not too many big firm lawyers or lobbyists. No one dresses flashy. You can wear Target to the PTA meeting and fit in just fine.

The schools are good. Swimming is the big teenager sport.

OP here - thanks for this. Very helpful and sounds like it might be a good fit for us.

[Anonymous]

I actually went to an open house at this home. It is actually pretty private and on the very end of the street. It's a very roomy home. What turned us off at the time was the price for the amount of work we would have had to do. I did not like the kitchen at all and would have had to put all hardwoods upstairs. Most of the acreage is in the front of the house. While the back yard is quiet and peaceful, there was not space for us to have put a pool in later on if we wanted to. There was a nice big pond, but it needed a lot of work and we did not want to have to deal with the upkeep.

We ended up buying a home close in price to this one, but with all the acreage in the back of the house. It is also move in ready and it is a much newer home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually went to an open house at this home. It is actually pretty private and on the very end of the street. It's a very roomy home. What turned us off at the time was the price for the amount of work we would have had to do. I did not like the kitchen at all and would have had to put all hardwoods upstairs. Most of the acreage is in the front of the house. While the back yard is quiet and peaceful, there was not space for us to have put a pool in later on if we wanted to. There was a nice big pond, but it needed a lot of work and we did not want to have to deal with the upkeep.

We ended up buying a home close in price to this one, but with all the acreage in the back of the house. It is also move in ready and it is a much newer home.

My bad, I meant I did not like that all the hardwood floors were different from each other.

[Anonymous]

It is entirely a residential community. Travaille Gateway aside (which I think is in 20850 anyway) is not very large. NP lacks any of the lower income housing or even apartments that you can find in Gaithersburg. It lacks the bling of Potomac. The house on this thread is on the large extreme end of the spectrum. NP is filled with mid-sized SFH on medium lots. It has some larger houses on 2 acre lots but nut the 4,000 sq ft + type. It has a few very big houses on Glen and Travilah. It has townhouses in StoneMill.

Its kid friendly. There is some diversity beyond the basic WASP with a good sized Jewish, Indian, and Chinese community. There seem to be lots of PHds, science types, doctors, etc but not too many big firm lawyers or lobbyists. No one dresses flashy. You can wear Target to the PTA meeting and fit in just fine.

The schools are good. Swimming is the big teenager sport.

I have no problem with North Potomac and don't think any ill of the people who live there. It is too far out for me, but a perfectly nice community and seems like a great place for a family. But, PP, you just pointed out why the Bethesda crowd hates on NP and likes to play the elitist game.

The great irony here is that Bethesda and Potomac are also Census Designated Places (CDP) just like North Potomac. We can all claim that all of Bethesda is just really Rockville. This would freak them out.

Gaithersburg is a city. NP residents are not considered part of Gaithersburg city. If you want to take a class through the city of Gaithersburg you have to wait for the non-resident sign up.

[Anonymous]

Septic and well water??? No thank you!

[Anonymous]

Coming from New England, this is always the most confusion part to me. Where I am from, everyone knew exactly what town you lived in. Here, you might be in Rockville but not actually IN Rockville, or in Gaithersburg, but not in the Town of Gaithersburg, or in no-wheres-ville like Bethesda. And Silver Spring stretches from the DC line to Howard County, out to Olney (itself an ambiguous concept), next to parts of Rockville and Chevy Chase (which is 5 separate towns?!?)

And then these semi-made up places, which exist as sub-nodes of already made up places: North Bethesda (note: if Bethesda doesn't have a fixed address, where exactly is North Nowhere)...North Potomac, okay, it's north of the Town of Potomac, but sometimes Poolesville is part of Potomac?

I'm going to stay in DC. Except for the Chevy Chase DC folks, most people agree that DC is DC!

[Anonymous]

..confusing, sorry