I like it - but the black painting in the back of the dining room pic that says FUC_it is really out of place.

This house is so charming! At that price I’d be shopping for a new build (likely) but would be so happy to live here with that back yard

The F'it painting in the formal dining room is an interesting choice

I don't care for the house, but those look like original hardwood floors from when the house was build in 1954. Can't get floors like that in a new build. Gorgeous.

Anonymous wrote:Aren’t new builds around $2.5 / pushing $3M now in Vienna

Yes

Anonymous wrote:I don't trust new builds. I would actually prefer a well maintained/renovated home.

Havjng previous owners work out the kinks helps a lot. My parents bought a new house when I was a kid and the first year we had to have electricians and plumbers out multiple times to fix things. Inspections don't catch everything.

With a new build, you're getting those 9 or 10-foot ceilings that make everything feel so much more open. Plus, with 2x6 walls and better insulation, the house is way more energy-efficient, which really saves you on utility bills in the long run.

What is this obsession with crappy new builds?

There is a house in my neighborhood that is 20 years old and almost 2 mil. For another 200K, they get a new roof, HVAC, new siding, and a completely updated interior. I understand there are issues with new builds, but at that price point, I wouldn't want to worry about maintenance.

Anonymous wrote:I don't trust new builds. I would actually prefer a well maintained/renovated home.

I am the same, but at least they generally come with a builders warranty so you can get issues addressed. The key is to understand that there WILL be issues, go looking for them immediately, and make sure everything gets fixed within the warranty. Also I would make sure it's a 2-year warranty. That's how long it takes to ensure it all gets done.

But yes, I'd much rather move into an existing house that someone else has lived in because you are much less likely to discover some stupid construction error that costs 20k to fix.

Quarter acre lots are $800k, so most new construction on quarter acre lots are around $2.4 million.

Evergreen is building new construction at the lower end at $2 million, but you have to wait until next year to move in.

Aren’t new builds around $2.5 / pushing $3M now in Vienna

Lol, this house embodies what I find so frustrating about real estate in this area. It's a perfectly fine house, and it's large, so I get its original list price. But going for 200k over ask? It's not even an attractive house! The exterior is boring with bad proportions and that awful tacked on rock work around the garage. The inside is just run of the mill "modern farmhouse" crap -- reasonably high end finishes but the design choices are going to look dated and tacky tomorrow. It has weird flow. And *this* is a house that gets bid up like that?

But I get it, because it's finished and fully upgraded, and that's incredibly hard to find in an existing house. Which yes, some people want because another owner has essentially broken it in, and you are less likely to get weird problems the first few years (everyone I know who has bought a new build has had to deal with some weird BS like drainage, bug infestations, poorly applied flashing, etc. because contractors in this area do shoddy work). But it's just depressing that this is what you get for that price.

They essentially made it look like a new build (which are mostly hideous as well) using an existing house, which they could do because the house was already the same size as a new build -- most older homes are not.

I don't trust new builds. I would actually prefer a well maintained/renovated home.

Vienna house sold for $1.95M—that's $200k over asking. At that point, why not just go for a brand-new build? Plenty of new-build options now available in the $2M range in Vienna.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/370-Holmes-Dr-NW-Vienna-VA-22180/51768370_zpid/