All of the housing stock under $1m is HORRIBLE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree on poor options here. Looking for homes in the $700k range. Decided that renting a place I love in a neighborhood I love is a better choice than buying something just to be buying. Not willing to trade overall quality of life for dying with more money to my name than someone else has. In a position to buy if I see something I need to submit an offer for within days, but not going to rush it. The hardest part is ignoring all the people (up to their eyeballs in debt and enduring horrible commutes) who say I'm throwing money away.

I feel this way too, but there's nothing bigger than my current apartment for rent in the neighborhoods I want! I didn't think I'd hit my mid-30s with a second kid on the way and still be stuck in <1000 sq feet with no dishwasher, in unit laundry, yard, or space to host. It's goddamn pathetic and frustrating that it takes more than half a million dollars to get a patch of grass and space for a table that's not in the middle of your living room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I guess it depends on where exactly you are looking. Where exactly are you looking?

One of us works in Arlington and the other in Herndon. We've been looking in Alexandria, Falls Church, and South Arlington for a townhome. Completely priced out of DC.

Neighbors S Arlington townhouse is on market at $625K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people would stop demanding turnkey houses, sellers wouldn't feel compelled to slap things together to meet this demand. I will never understand why people can't use their imaginations and buy something that needs tweaking to meet their exact needs/tastes. I saw my current house before the sellers held the open house. In between those two visits, the sellers paid to install a brand new beige toilet in the white bathroom. I wish they'd just left it alone because now I feel guilty about tearing out a brand new toilet even though it doesn't match. Similarly, rejecting a house because it has light fixtures you hate means that you don't get to pick out the perfect new light fixtures yourself and instead must live with somebody else's choice. And you pass up lots of houses that might have been fantastic for your family. It's about location, not an easily replaced faucet.

Do you live in the area? $500,000 buys you a tear down in places like Arlington. It’s not about light fixtures. If I’m making $300,000 a year and carrying a $1 million loan, I want to like my home without having to spend another $100,000 renovating the whole place.

Tear downs in Arlington are at least $600K for small lots in questionable areas of Arlington. Most are $700-900K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, I guess it depends on where exactly you are looking. Where exactly are you looking?

One of us works in Arlington and the other in Herndon. We've been looking in Alexandria, Falls Church, and South Arlington for a townhome. Completely priced out of DC.

Neighbors S Arlington townhouse is on market at $625K

Link?

[Anonymous]

I get it. We bought a 1.5 M dump and when I wrote about it here, I got skewered. A million doesn't get you much these days.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of nice remodeled homes under a million in south Arlington. You all are just pushing up prices further by refusing to consider south Arlington.

[Anonymous]

OP what about this:
https://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/7023-I-Haycock-Rd-22043/unit-709/home/160526181

There are two units for sale. Great community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of nice remodeled homes under a million in south Arlington. You all are just pushing up prices further by refusing to consider south Arlington.

Yeah the word horrible

[Anonymous]

You need to be in the 1.4m to get something

[Anonymous]

Yeah. We moved to Annapolis. If my commute is gonna blow I’m gonna have a waterview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP what about this:
https://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/7023-I-Haycock-Rd-22043/unit-709/home/160526181

There are two units for sale. Great community.

$800/mo HOA for 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms falls under the category of horrible and out of budget.

I know some people pay for those school ratings but that is not us. If I could get a job in Maryland I would live in Bowie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP what about this:
https://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/7023-I-Haycock-Rd-22043/unit-709/home/160526181

There are two units for sale. Great community.

$800/mo HOA for 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms falls under the category of horrible and out of budget.

I know some people pay for those school ratings but that is not us. If I could get a job in Maryland I would live in Bowie.

You can still live in a Maryland. A lot of people drive from there to Virginia because there are more jobs in Virginia and your housing dollars stretch further in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this works for people with a ton of money but for the rest of us we are spending most of our savings on a house. I cant fathom purchasing an expensive old home and plan to renovate every room only to find out that I have to do more than cosmetic renovations.

I dont need a turnkey house but I also am not going to pretend im on property brothers and can afford to completely reno a house and get it up to code -----.

The point is to buy a house for a lower price than the "pretty" ones and do the updates yourself, instead of paying the middleman flipper for his troubles. Sure, you're still spending a lot but it will be less overall than if you buy turnkey. Being willing to live with construction and having work done over time is how you build serious equity in the DC area.

We did this with a newborn. 10 years later made a $300 k profit after accounting for what we put into it. We tore out old carpets ourselves, laid pavers for a patio ourselves, built decorative privacy fencing with the help of day laborers from Casa de Maryland, and so on. I painted almost every wall myself over those 10 years.

To sell it, I went to Community Forklift and bought gently used items to make it look like what uninformed DC buyers want. In bathrooms
we painted the 1970s tile white. Had a contract over asking in less than a week.

If you think that all turnkey looking houses don't have at least a few surprises waiting for you, you're naive. I suppose buying a brand new house with a warranty makes sense if that's what you want.

I agree with you that this can be an effective strategy, but there are two issues. First, this doesn't solve problems with the location, lot, or low inventory. I'm one of the PPs and there are exactly six houses for sale in my kid's school zone: I can afford any of them, but the lots all suck. When I say they suck, I mean they are adjacent to I-66 or have a county drain ditch across the back yard: it's not a Backyard Makeover issue. So when I agreed with OP, it wasn't because I don't want to replace some bad wallpaper, it's because I don't have the "make me move" millions it would take to buy a well-located house that's not on the market.

Second, you and I are both very lucky to have the time, knowledge, and physical capability to DIY so much: not everybody can. I have done renovations on my townhouse (both DIY and supervising contractors) and I grew up in a house that was constantly being DIY renovated, one weekend at a time, for 16 years. I am not convinced the equity gains are worth it to me anymore, now that I'm old and have kids to spend time with.

This 100 percent! We are working to make ends meet so don’t have an extra free moment. If we do, those moment are spent with the kids. On top of that, we aren’t very knowledgeable about construction and DIY projects so would have to really spend time learning the ropes. For 700k we want something that is livable atlesst.

[Anonymous]

OP, there should be townhouses along the orange line (outside of Ballston) that are in your price range. I commuted in via Metro from Merrifield for years and it was pretty good. If you're willing to take a chance on Falls Church HS or Stuart HS, you could get an older single family house.

If you're willing to go out to Fairfax HS or Woodson or Oakton, your options increase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of nice remodeled homes under a million in south Arlington. You all are just pushing up prices further by refusing to consider south Arlington.

Didn't the OP say she was considering south Arlington?