That gift wrap room thread was great! We live in Bethesda in 6600 sq ft but if you include porches, decks and walkout then we're over 7000. We bought towards the end of the pandemic for about $1.5ish and put down 40% thanks to selling our previous place for a nice profit. The house was built in the late 2000s and was probably top of the line in the neighborhood when it was built but it needed to be updated so that cost us even more $$$. Our place is probably around 1.7-8 based on recent comps.

I admit I used to judge folks with the huge houses and I even thought the house was too big when we bought it. But it works for our current family situation (we will def downsize later) and bc we both WFH a lot having two dedicated offices plus a gym room, guest rooms, extra TV rooms etc is great. We use every inch of it and love having family, friends, and kids' friends over now that we have space. Ymmv but we enjoy our space and you might as well enjoy life because tomorrow is no guarantee.

7,100 sq ft on a 23,000 sq ft lot
Alexandria
Bought in 2009 for $1.1 M and renovated in 2010/2011
50% down and 50% VA loan; we pay down so about $100K left
Builders contact us all the time and want to buy for $3M range because it is built on 4 lots

My parents live on 7,000sqf+. It's just the two of them. They like the space. We like visiting.

I think it really depends on the configuration and your lifestyle. We have a couple of large, formal, beautiful rooms that we never use, but no place for a gym or casual entertaining. For us, well-arranged 4000 sf would be perfect.

Anonymous wrote:Only strivers get houses that big. It’s grotesque and shows poor taste. 2k-3k is the ideal house size

2-3k is small and the cost to build vs land value makes the numbers not pencil out in high end areas. You basically have to build something much larger than this to avoid the house being worth less than total cost (land +construction) if the land is 500k+.

10,450sqft

Potomac Outside. Built early 90’s. Bought & renovated by us recently. Massive in every sense and symmetrical to tone down the noise of such a beast.

We have a wine vault with tasting room, a gym, two guest suites, home offices x2, great room, formal dining, parlor, 2 main floor powder rooms and a 5 car garage. I would love to do a pool house or maybe a shop/garage at the way back one day.

Go for it. Live to excess. I don’t know the mortgage amount anymore. But it gets paid.

Anonymous wrote:How do you fill such a house without being a hoarder?

You don’t need to “fill it”. We have open spaces. It’s nice.

How do you fill such a house without being a hoarder?

RE- size of house. I would have agreed that nobody really "needs" a house that large until Covid hit. Both my husband and I work from home and need individual home offices. Add in a guest room and exercise room and you are at 3500 minimum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will start

8005 SF Mclean/Langley area
Built in 2009
Paid 800k for the land + 900k to build
Estimated value 3.2m
Did a 140k down construction loan
2.75% mortgage which I refinanced in 2020 which a 1.3m balance

Builder here. I doubt your home is worth $3.2m. A $900k building in 2009 cost would have garnered you
builder grade finish with lower end materials. I can purchase a higher quality home for $3.2m in McLean today.

The builder is a personal friend, when we shopped around with other builders, it would have cost over 1.2m+. It is a full custom home from plans that are from an architect designed from scratch. Also I am seeing new homes in our area listed for 3.5-4.2M+ so I am being conservative on our value but that's the value they used for our heloc in 2022.

DP 1.2m '09 on that square footage - including scratch architect plans - still seems low.

Its possible...if your builder friend did a good job and did not pad upgrades, etc.....but NOT if the lost is than 1/2 acre...1/4 acre not going to get you over $3m.

LOL you are wrong:
https://www.redfin.com/VA/McLean/1479-Waggaman-Cir-22101/home/9392214
https://www.redfin.com/VA/McLean/1714-Forest-Ln-22101/home/9415441
https://www.redfin.com/VA/McLean/1415-Kurtz-Rd-22101/home/9392154
https://www.redfin.com/VA/Mc-Lean/1440-Oakview-Dr-22101/home/9406838
https://www.redfin.com/VA/McLean/1564-Forest-Villa-Ln-22101/home/9407830
https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/3525-N-Ohio-St-22207/home/11226387
https://www.redfin.com/VA/Mc-Lean/8329-Weller-Ave-22102/home/9265838

We only have about 5000, but I'm here to say we would absolutely use 7,000 sq feet.

Two adults, 3 elementary school kids, nanny, dog.

We use every room daily except our dining room and basement bedroom.

And our rooms are small, which is why I can easily see using additional square footage. Small kids bedrooms (barely fit a queen bed), small bathrooms, small kitchen, small mudroom, small entryway. I don't necessarily need more rooms, but larger rooms would be great.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will start

8005 SF Mclean/Langley area
Built in 2009
Paid 800k for the land + 900k to build
Estimated value 3.2m
Did a 140k down construction loan
2.75% mortgage which I refinanced in 2020 which a 1.3m balance

Builder here. I doubt your home is worth $3.2m. A $900k building in 2009 cost would have garnered you
builder grade finish with lower end materials. I can purchase a higher quality home for $3.2m in McLean today.

The builder is a personal friend, when we shopped around with other builders, it would have cost over 1.2m+. It is a full custom home from plans that are from an architect designed from scratch. Also I am seeing new homes in our area listed for 3.5-4.2M+ so I am being conservative on our value but that's the value they used for our heloc in 2022.

DP 1.2m '09 on that square footage - including scratch architect plans - still seems low.

Its possible...if your builder friend did a good job and did not pad upgrades, etc.....but NOT if the lost is than 1/2 acre...1/4 acre not going to get you over $3m.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will start

8005 SF Mclean/Langley area
Built in 2009
Paid 800k for the land + 900k to build
Estimated value 3.2m
Did a 140k down construction loan
2.75% mortgage which I refinanced in 2020 which a 1.3m balance

Builder here. I doubt your home is worth $3.2m. A $900k building in 2009 cost would have garnered you
builder grade finish with lower end materials. I can purchase a higher quality home for $3.2m in McLean today.

The builder is a personal friend, when we shopped around with other builders, it would have cost over 1.2m+. It is a full custom home from plans that are from an architect designed from scratch. Also I am seeing new homes in our area listed for 3.5-4.2M+ so I am being conservative on our value but that's the value they used for our heloc in 2022.

DP 1.2m '09 on that square footage - including scratch architect plans - still seems low.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will start

8005 SF Mclean/Langley area
Built in 2009
Paid 800k for the land + 900k to build
Estimated value 3.2m
Did a 140k down construction loan
2.75% mortgage which I refinanced in 2020 which a 1.3m balance

Builder here. I doubt your home is worth $3.2m. A $900k building in 2009 cost would have garnered you
builder grade finish with lower end materials. I can purchase a higher quality home for $3.2m in McLean today.

The builder is a personal friend, when we shopped around with other builders, it would have cost over 1.2m+. It is a full custom home from plans that are from an architect designed from scratch. Also I am seeing new homes in our area listed for 3.5-4.2M+ so I am being conservative on our value but that's the value they used for our heloc in 2022.

Ours is about 3,500 sq ft per level. 5 bedrooms upstairs and one bedroom in finished walk-out basement. McLean. Built it for around ~$6m. Probably worth about $8m now. No mortgage.