Buying neighbor's house behind ours, tearing it down to make yard / pool

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Odds are your DH is going to get a better job offer and you'll haul ass back to Jersey or New York or wherever. Do us all a favor and leave the neighborhood as you found it, this is actually home for some of us and we'd rather not have to look at your whim for the next 30 years.

I've lived in Virginia for all my 36 years. Please stop hating on outsiders, they're the reason Northern VA has become an economic powerhouse, and stop fantasizing about some agrarian fantasy that never was.

[Anonymous]

10:36 - well said. It is old and tiresome to not realize your well stated point. Some people don't want to hear the truth. Too bad for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking about buying the neighbor's house directly behind our house because we have a small backyard. What we would like to do is tear it down and have a large backyard and pool.

Has anyone done this?

As long as we aren't building our house bigger past the property line there shouldn't be an issue right?

This is in fairfax county.

Odds are your DH is going to get a better job offer and you'll haul ass back to Jersey or New York or wherever. Do us all a favor and leave the neighborhood as you found it, this is actually home for some of us and we'd rather not have to look at your whim for the next 30 years.

I am op and have lived in fairfax all my life, I don't have any connections to new york or jersey. Thanks for trying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking about buying the neighbor's house directly behind our house because we have a small backyard. What we would like to do is tear it down and have a large backyard and pool.

Has anyone done this?

As long as we aren't building our house bigger past the property line there shouldn't be an issue right?

This is in fairfax county.

Odds are your DH is going to get a better job offer and you'll haul ass back to Jersey or New York or wherever. Do us all a favor and leave the neighborhood as you found it, this is actually home for some of us and we'd rather not have to look at your whim for the next 30 years.

I am op and have lived in fairfax all my life, I don't have any connections to new york or jersey. Thanks for trying.

No problem, enjoy living in the neighborhood's country club.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are thinking about buying the neighbor's house directly behind our house because we have a small backyard. What we would like to do is tear it down and have a large backyard and pool.

Has anyone done this?

As long as we aren't building our house bigger past the property line there shouldn't be an issue right?

This is in fairfax county.

Can you build a pool directly behind your house, so it still sits within the boundary of your lot (and so fulfills the requirements of being on a site with a residential structure) and use the lot next door as a backyard?

People put pools in all the time, so I'm sure the fencing/alarm requirements can be met with the right builder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are gong to have to get permits out the wazoo. Your neighbors may hold up the hearings. You will have to submit plans. The County has all sorts of rules about what can and cannot be built. Run it all by the County before you purchase the house. Also, the actually process of tearing down is much more difficult and expensive than you would think. You have to haul all that debris off sit and pay to have it properly dumpled. You cannot use it for fill for the basement. The plans that you submit will require that you have a specified-height fence surrounding the pool so children can't get it it, unless permanent cover (that rule keeps changing). We have two lots and pay two separate property tax bill

Is there a process for merging two lots so it is officially recognized as a single parcel?

[Anonymous]

Yuck. I would hate to have my "next door neighbor" be a swimming pool. Really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yuck. I would hate to have my "next door neighbor" be a swimming pool. Really.

not the point here stay on OP's topic

[Anonymous]

I don't see how the pool would be .5 million. Unless this small lot house is in Franklin Park, Ballantrae, Langley Farms, near the Chain Bridge [not in a development] I think the project is a WASTE of money.

Move onto another house OR if possible carve out a small portion of the second lot, fix up that house and sell it. That also is only worthwhile in specific locations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yuck. I would hate to have my "next door neighbor" be a swimming pool. Really.

It sure beats having a 3 story house towering over your charming rambler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how the pool would be .5 million. Unless this small lot house is in Franklin Park, Ballantrae, Langley Farms, near the Chain Bridge [not in a development] I think the project is a WASTE of money.

Move onto another house OR if possible carve out a small portion of the second lot, fix up that house and sell it. That also is only worthwhile in specific locations.

I'm one of the PPs who wrote we bought the house behind us and rent it out, and will probably make it a pool.

For us, we like our current house, neighborhood, and location in the neighborhood, and plan to live here for at least the next 20 years and our kids will grow up here. By buying the house behind us, we are ensured a tear-down won't end up in its place (unlike every other house on the same block, including ours). The kids will enjoy the pool. We aren't as concerned about real estate values as this isn't an investment for us -- it's for our lifestyle.

Anyway, the place we bought, the land is worth 3x the value of the 3br/2ba house on it, so we'll still be able to capture value selling it, though likely we'll be 60 years old and sell it as part of our main house at that point.

[Anonymous]

16:08 - "charming" - that's funny! I can smell it from the street.

[Anonymous]

No way the pool itself is 500k. We put in a huge pool with top-of-the-line everything including water features, attached spa with a waterfall into the pool, natural stone multi-level patio and a trex deck off our kitchen. Total cost was 200K. That did not include landscaping!

Another issue to think about is if the lot is in a hot, tear-down neighborhood like ours, getting the lot will be a challenge. There are 2 builders in our neighborhood who manage to buy up all the tear downs before they ever go on the market. At the peak of the market a 12K square foot lot in our neighborhood went for 1 million. They've come down since then but still crazy expensive.

[GreytPets]

Not sure where prior posts are coming up with 500k for a pool (try 50-100k) But to demo a house should not cost more than $20k. Permitting process in fairfax county is not difficult, it just takes time. Best recommendation would be to talk to county before hand and let me know you want to take two lots and combine to one lot. For tax purposes it is treated as two lots but for building purposes it allows you to treat it as one lot, thus knockdown the house and put a pool and stay within current zoning. Is it a pain - yes and it takes time, but not difficult. If you have any other questions feel free to send me a PM and I can answer any further questions and can recommend civil engineers who can create a site plan to join the lots etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yuck. I would hate to have my "next door neighbor" be a swimming pool. Really.

It sure beats having a 3 story house towering over your charming rambler.

It may, but why does that have to happen either?