Reply to Reviews/Experience with Arlington Village

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "Reviews/Experience with Arlington Village"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I lived there for 7 years- we just moved to be closer to work last spring.  We really enjoyed living there.

Pros:

Walkable to groceries, drugstore, library, multiple restaurants and bars, Starbucks, Chipotle, etc, but still in a quiet neighborhood.
16 Bus line- runs every few minutes at rush hour, and still frequently at other times of day.
Nice green space
Outdoor space on the deck
Generally charming- wood floors, original doors, etc.
Minimal exterior maintenance responsibility (you are only responsible for the deck, and may want to do some weekly upkeep on the landscaping)
Free parking
Pool

Cons:

Buses can be crowded by the time they hit Walter Reed/Barton.
Parking can be full if you get home late in the evening.  But you can usually find a space within a block or two. 
The townhouses are 75+ years old, so often need some love (refinishing or replacing floors, old electrical wiring, sticky doors, cracks in the plaster walls from settling- and that's assuming you get one with an updated kitchen and bathroom, and a washer/dryer in the unit)
The downstairs is always a good 10 degrees cooler than the upstairs.  They are supposed to be insulating the crawl spaces which should help, but the temperature difference is noticeable.
Lack of bathroom fans.  Spend the money to have one installed.
You can hear the neighbors- clearly.

There are a lot of younger couples moving in- more and pregnant women and strollers.  But there is a nice mix of younger and older people.  People were always nice- especially when digging out from the snow last winter- but we were not particularly close friends with anyone.

The association management is fine- it's a large complex, so they have a full time manager onsite and several full time maintenance people.  I had minimal contact with the manager, other than picking up our yearly pool passes- we just didn't need to contact her for anything.  They publish a monthly newsletter and send email updates of what is going on.  The maintenance staff will do some basic interior maintenance for a small fee- like unclogging a drain.  They seemed very pro-active about maintaining the buildings- they painted the trim every 3 years, they had the bricks repointed, they work on landscaping different areas, etc.  They are currently doing some structural work that was found in an inspection after the earthquake we had about 4 years ago- they raised the condo fees to cover the cost (in leiu of an assessment), but the fees are still reasonable in comparison to similar complexes.   There are restrictions on making any exterior changes- ie, color of door, must use a specific model of storm door.

They are always looking for volunteers for the various committees and the board, so you can get involved if you want to.

They are redistricting the schools- right now Arlington Village is in the Henry zone.  Henry is a great school and walkable (although across Columbia Pike).  They are building a new elementary school several blocks north.  Unfortunately, it's likely that Arlington Village will be redistricted to a different elementary school and the two most likely options are not as highly regarded as Henry.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics