Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. What is the allure of Clifton? Genuine question--I am not familiar with the area and was surprised to see many expensive homes in such a remote location.

Remote? It's in Fairfax County.

Clifton is remote. One would have a very long commute to DC from Clifton. Much longer than most locations in FFX.

Not all of us work in DC and lots of us like that it’s quiet and quaint.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. What is the allure of Clifton? Genuine question--I am not familiar with the area and was surprised to see many expensive homes in such a remote location.

Remote? It's in Fairfax County.

Clifton is remote. One would have a very long commute to DC from Clifton. Much longer than most locations in FFX.

NP. Um, no Clifton is not remote. Everything outside of the beltway is a long commute from Clifton.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Well, I made an offer and didn't get it.

Offers were due an hour after the close of the open house. Apparently there were 11 offers, 6 at or above list, and 3 all cash. I'll try to remember to come back and update when I learn the final sales price. But I have reason to believe it is probably at or over 1.1M.

I knew our offer was likely dead in the water because we insisted on an inspection because a conservation easement on the property did not allow expansion of the existing retaining wall (behind the house it is a very steep wooded slope to a creek), and I wasn't comfortable buying without an engineer looking at it and telling me it was fine and would never need to be expanded (probably the case, but I'm risk averse). I'm doubting anyone else looked that closely at the easement, but DH and I are lawyers and actually familiar with conservation easements, lol.

I’m very knowledgeable about conservation easements. Any easement that is so restrictive that you can’t build a retaining wall is one you don’t want to mess with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saw the same house and went to the open house after viewing it earlier in the week. I had the same worry about the retaining wall. There was also a noticeable cigarette smell in the living room and a wet/damp smell coming well the closet with the well pump. The smell wasn’t as bad at the open house as it was a few days earlier, but it was enough to make me wary and not place an offer. It was at the top of our budget and seemed to have the potential to be an unexpected money pit.

It was still a cool place, though. 😭

Op here. Yeah it was at the top end of our budget too. I didn’t smell the smells. I bet they did something to minimize them.

Because of the retaining wall issue we insisted on an informational inspection. That contingency probably lost us the house. We had an all cash offer and included an escalation clause that went well over asking. I’m kind of relieved now that we didn’t get it tbh. I’ll be interested to see what it went for.

NP and I wish PP and I (plus maybe my DD) could rent ourselves out as house sniffers. I’ve taken so many houses off my list after going to a showing and smelling something off…and inevitably it sells and then I see work trucks at the property for sewer work, water remediation or other crazy stuff 2-3 months later.

I think you dodged a bullet, OP. We finally just got a house and did it with our last escalation clause. However, we had our own inspection done before we made our offer even though the house was pre-inspected and we waived inspection. If we hadn’t had our very thorough inspector come through, we would have probably made a different kind of offer and been in big trouble when we encountered the $300k of invisible work we’re doing now. We bought in a neighborhood where we live now so heard a lot of stuff while pending. The buyer with the next closest offer didn’t do their own inspection. Relying on the sellers’ inspection would have left them in the dark for at least $200k of the necessary work, none of which I would have wanted to deal with as a surprise or after occupying the house. It’s just nasty, messy stuff that’s complex to time and stage.

The retaining wall alone could blow everything up and you are lucky to have the experience and knowledge you do- I hope the buyer knows what they are getting into.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. What is the allure of Clifton? Genuine question--I am not familiar with the area and was surprised to see many expensive homes in such a remote location.

Remote? It's in Fairfax County.

Clifton is remote. One would have a very long commute to DC from Clifton. Much longer than most locations in FFX.

You and I have very different definitions of "remote" locations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. What is the allure of Clifton? Genuine question--I am not familiar with the area and was surprised to see many expensive homes in such a remote location.

Remote? It's in Fairfax County.

Clifton is remote. One would have a very long commute to DC from Clifton. Much longer than most locations in FFX.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. What is the allure of Clifton? Genuine question--I am not familiar with the area and was surprised to see many expensive homes in such a remote location.

Remote? It's in Fairfax County.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. What is the allure of Clifton? Genuine question--I am not familiar with the area and was surprised to see many expensive homes in such a remote location.

Big lots with woods = a lot of privacy. The town itself is so quaint it is almost out of a Hallmark movie.

Anonymous wrote:Saw the same house and went to the open house after viewing it earlier in the week. I had the same worry about the retaining wall. There was also a noticeable cigarette smell in the living room and a wet/damp smell coming well the closet with the well pump. The smell wasn’t as bad at the open house as it was a few days earlier, but it was enough to make me wary and not place an offer. It was at the top of our budget and seemed to have the potential to be an unexpected money pit.

It was still a cool place, though. 😭

Op here. Yeah it was at the top end of our budget too. I didn’t smell the smells. I bet they did something to minimize them.

Because of the retaining wall issue we insisted on an informational inspection. That contingency probably lost us the house. We had an all cash offer and included an escalation clause that went well over asking. I’m kind of relieved now that we didn’t get it tbh. I’ll be interested to see what it went for.

Saw the same house and went to the open house after viewing it earlier in the week. I had the same worry about the retaining wall. There was also a noticeable cigarette smell in the living room and a wet/damp smell coming well the closet with the well pump. The smell wasn’t as bad at the open house as it was a few days earlier, but it was enough to make me wary and not place an offer. It was at the top of our budget and seemed to have the potential to be an unexpected money pit.

It was still a cool place, though. 😭

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amazing house, terrible kitchen layout.

And why would someone install colonial 6 panel doors in a MCM?

Unfortunately this.

Other than the front room, this house completely lacks any MCM attributes. The kitchen is ugly raised panel (should be slab). The doors are colonial (should be slab). And potentially more concerning: all the windows on the back of the house are builder grade colonial, right up to the colonial trim around them all. Even the size and spacing of all the windows on the back of the house makes no sense for MCM. But for the front room, there’s no MCM charm about the house at all. Not only are they not MCM updates, they are old and ready for update. I think you’d want to spend $300-500k to make this house MCM charming. Otherwise, you’re buying a dumpy 60s house in need of whole house updates with one really cool room.

The builder-grade interior doors jumped out at me right away too. As well as some of the fixtures and don't get me started on the mishmash of flooring. This house has good MCM bones and potential but it should have been left alone. The remuddle messed it up.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting thread. What is the allure of Clifton? Genuine question--I am not familiar with the area and was surprised to see many expensive homes in such a remote location.

I think that’s the allure. It’s away from density and the hustle and bustle of the city. It’s quiet and has lots of trees.

Interesting thread. What is the allure of Clifton? Genuine question--I am not familiar with the area and was surprised to see many expensive homes in such a remote location.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amazing house, terrible kitchen layout.

And why would someone install colonial 6 panel doors in a MCM?

Our MCM house has the original 6 panel solid wood doors except for the door to the basement and basement closets, which are flat front hollow core.
Although, I wouldn't consider them MCM, they were clearly used by builders at the time.

Keep looking OP. Lots of nice 5 acre lots homes in Clifton and parts of Fairfax Station. We live in the area and love it.