Anonymous
06/25/2024 17:08
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Good for them. I bet most sellers will be too greedy to do this though.
Anonymous
06/25/2024 17:02
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My area of Arlington has 40×150 lots. Explain to me how fitting a triplex or sixplex next door with my 8 ft side yard is not unfair.
I’m also in an R-6 neighborhood. Explain to me how the number of units in a building is different than being sandwiched between 2 new build SFH that are built right up to the maximum lot coverage?
The house in question is asking $1.2 for a teardown. That’s an expensive lot. To turn a profit, you have to build a $2.5-3M home or multiple units. Guess what? That $2-3M home will also tower over your modest house next door and shade the yard with a tall, narrow monstrosity of a home.
You truly can’t understand the difference between a single family house with 2 kids and a garage and apartment building?A minimum of 12 cars with 6 or less parking spaces. A dumpster of garbage placed right by your fence and 18 neighbors as opposed to 4. Enjoy!
I think everyone understands your life is (negatively) impacted by having a larger apartment next door to you, but come on. You’re acting like it is catastrophically impacting your quality of life. It really isn’t. Take one for the team. Your home will still appreciate.
It will negatively impact my life and that’s why I moved to my quiet neighborhood. I used to live in an apartment in Clarendon. I don’t want to live that way anymore. And it’s absurd to say take one “for the team.” You must be a troll. Also, people like me aren’t worried about appreciation. We have other investments. All our money isn’t tied up in our Arlington $hit shack. Here’s the BEST part, I can easily sell my 2.7 million dollar house and move to McLean. And the more MM that is built, that’s exactly what people like me will do. And property values will go down as Arlington becomes less desirable. More MM will be built and it will be a cycle. And viola, you’ll soon be living in Alexandria!
Anonymous
06/25/2024 16:57
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure the next owner can remove that covenant if they want.
Yeah, that doesn't really seem like an enforceable thing.
Also, the arrogance of the seller. Jesus.
Why would a developer buy a lot with a covenant and spend money to fight it? The margins are thin and there's tons of money to be had selling a SFH. This is the kind of stuff that muddies the water enough to make a developer move on to another lot (or just build a SFH).
Anonymous
06/25/2024 16:53
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Pretty sure the next owner can remove that covenant if they want.
Yeah, that doesn't really seem like an enforceable thing.
Also, the arrogance of the seller. Jesus.
Anonymous
06/25/2024 16:46
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My area of Arlington has 40×150 lots. Explain to me how fitting a triplex or sixplex next door with my 8 ft side yard is not unfair.
I’m also in an R-6 neighborhood. Explain to me how the number of units in a building is different than being sandwiched between 2 new build SFH that are built right up to the maximum lot coverage?
The house in question is asking $1.2 for a teardown. That’s an expensive lot. To turn a profit, you have to build a $2.5-3M home or multiple units. Guess what? That $2-3M home will also tower over your modest house next door and shade the yard with a tall, narrow monstrosity of a home.
You truly can’t understand the difference between a single family house with 2 kids and a garage and apartment building?A minimum of 12 cars with 6 or less parking spaces. A dumpster of garbage placed right by your fence and 18 neighbors as opposed to 4. Enjoy!
I think everyone understands your life is (negatively) impacted by having a larger apartment next door to you, but come on. You’re acting like it is catastrophically impacting your quality of life. It really isn’t. Take one for the team. Your home will still appreciate.
Some of us live in our homes and plan to do that until we age out. The appreciation isn't the main thing. Nice but quality of life is more important. Home isn't biggest asset. Paid off long ago.
Anonymous
06/25/2024 16:43
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is not good, that area needs more housing and more affordable than what SFHs fetch there.
As soon as they line Langston Blvd. with affordable rental apartments, Lyon Village will revert to where it was in the 1960s and 1970s -- group houses for Georgetown students, owned by batty people who inherited the house from their granny, and GS 12s who could afford to live in the houses because they need so much work.
Do you mean market rate apartments or Affordable Housing? As a practical
matter, nobody can build 100 percent Affordable Housing complexes (CAFs) in places where they don't already exist. Where these type of buildings already exist, they can be redeveloped to include more units. But any new buildings that aren't currently Affordable Housing buildings with a will be luxury rentals with a paltry amount of Affordable units sprinkled in (if this ever even happens, which for a variety of reasons, is unlikely as proposed).
Anonymous
06/25/2024 16:12
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is not good, that area needs more housing and more affordable than what SFHs fetch there.
As soon as they line Langston Blvd. with affordable rental apartments, Lyon Village will revert to where it was in the 1960s and 1970s -- group houses for Georgetown students, owned by batty people who inherited the house from their granny, and GS 12s who could afford to live in the houses because they need so much work.
Lyon Village is the most expensive neighborhood per square foot in Arlington. Because it's so walkable, it has the least to lose in all this haphazard planning. I would be more worried if I lived in a neighborhood in 22207 that is getting random apartment buildings.
Anonymous
06/25/2024 15:48
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Love to see it. “Missing middle” serves to enrich developers and nothing more. Hopefully people have begun to recognize that.
Agree. I'm over developers ruining neighborhoods.
Ah yes, your home was built by...whom?
The original owner in 1892.
That’s great but like 95% of the homes built in the late 19th century at least in DC were built by developers. Literally they did it to restrict any undesirables buying land and building something themselves.
From Arlington Wikipedia entry:
"In 1900, Blacks were more than a third of Arlington County's population. Over the course of the century, the Black population dwindled. Neighborhoods in Arlington set up racial covenants and forbade Blacks from owning or domiciling property.[21][22] In 1938, Arlington banned row houses, a type of housing that was heavily used by Black residents. By October 1942, not a single rental unit was available in the county.[23] In the 1940s, the federal government evicted black neighborhoods to build the Pentagon and make room for highway construction.[21]"
The great liberal Franklin Roosevelt took the land from the blacks in Queen City to create the road system for the Pentagon and put them in squalid trailers with no sanitation. His wife, the great liberal Eleanor Roosevelt, supported the FHA program which restricted the program to white home buyers. Madame Roosevelt even came to Arlington to congratulate the first white homeowners who purchased their home in Arlington with an FHA insured loan. Now Arlington is clearing Green Valley, Halls Hill, Highview Park and Johnson Hill for developers. The great white liberals, especially the YIMBYs, are all about making affordable housing.
Anonymous
06/25/2024 15:44
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:This is not good, that area needs more housing and more affordable than what SFHs fetch there.
As soon as they line Langston Blvd. with affordable rental apartments, Lyon Village will revert to where it was in the 1960s and 1970s -- group houses for Georgetown students, owned by batty people who inherited the house from their granny, and GS 12s who could afford to live in the houses because they need so much work.
Anonymous
06/25/2024 15:04
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My area of Arlington has 40×150 lots. Explain to me how fitting a triplex or sixplex next door with my 8 ft side yard is not unfair.
I’m also in an R-6 neighborhood. Explain to me how the number of units in a building is different than being sandwiched between 2 new build SFH that are built right up to the maximum lot coverage?
The house in question is asking $1.2 for a teardown. That’s an expensive lot. To turn a profit, you have to build a $2.5-3M home or multiple units. Guess what? That $2-3M home will also tower over your modest house next door and shade the yard with a tall, narrow monstrosity of a home.
You truly can’t understand the difference between a single family house with 2 kids and a garage and apartment building?A minimum of 12 cars with 6 or less parking spaces. A dumpster of garbage placed right by your fence and 18 neighbors as opposed to 4. Enjoy!
I think everyone understands your life is (negatively) impacted by having a larger apartment next door to you, but come on. You’re acting like it is catastrophically impacting your quality of life. It really isn’t. Take one for the team. Your home will still appreciate.
Anonymous
06/25/2024 15:03
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Love to see it. “Missing middle” serves to enrich developers and nothing more. Hopefully people have begun to recognize that.
Totally agree and I can't believe how much my lot value has gone up since MM. It's a boomer grab as much as for developers.
It’s almost painful having a discussion with proponents of MM who don’t understand how the economy works. Your real estate valuation didn’t go up because of MM. It would be too early for that as MM is untested and developers have no idea if it will work. You wouldn’t see an impact yet. And also, relative to other DMV areas (all without MM), it didn’t really go up that much.
In % change in average median sold price from 2023 to 2024
Oakton was up 31%. Then came Annandale, Fairfax Station, Vienna, Fairfax, Burke, Fairfax County, Great Falls, Lorton, Reston, Alexandria, Centreville.
Arlington clocked in after all of these towns at 7.8%. If I were stupid, I would point to this and say “look Arlington is less desirable than those 12 towns because of MM!” But that’s not how the economy works.
https://www.foxessellfaster.com/blog/washington-dc-metro-real-estate-market-april-2024-insights-and-analysis/
Wow, hard to establish cause and effect but it seems possible that MM is hurting Arlington real estate.
Anonymous
06/25/2024 14:53
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
There are lawyers who do it for free because it's their block.
Anonymous
06/25/2024 14:25
Subject: Re:Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Will it stand up to legal scrutiny?
No, all the new owners have to do is submit for a variance wit the county to subdivide. talk to a local real estate lawyer before purchasong
The covenant is absolutely enforceable if he gets another property owner in the neighborhood to sign onto the agreement.
If I was the neighbor, I would only sign on if the seller agrees to pay all legal costs to enforce it.
Even then…I am skeptical the seller would be available when it comes time to hire a lawyer.
Again….this is why some people really like HOA communities.
If I were a neighbor, I would love this and would happily cover my own legal fees to enforce it. My guess is that the seller's neighbors feel the same way -- look on street view, and you'll see lots of recent builds. You really think any of those people want a 6-plex on their street?
Good for you...however, I honestly don't think you would consider $100k+ in legal fees to enforce this if you are going up against a well-heeled developer.
I think you are imagining a much lower number or you don't have the same demographics of what I imagine this person's neighbors to be.
There are plenty of upper middle class retirees in Arlington with 100k to throw at a lawsuit. Developer will not buy the property to begin with because it will come up during the title search.
You have to get lucky that you have a neighbor who is just completely obsessed with this issue (there are people out there, so not saying it is impossible).
I assume 99% of people have no interest in getting involved in the legal process, possible counter-suit, etc., Now, you might be able to get everyone on the block to throw in their equal share...though you just have to accept there will be free-riders who aren't contributing a dime (but will give you their moral support).
Anonymous
06/25/2024 14:21
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My area of Arlington has 40×150 lots. Explain to me how fitting a triplex or sixplex next door with my 8 ft side yard is not unfair.
I’m also in an R-6 neighborhood. Explain to me how the number of units in a building is different than being sandwiched between 2 new build SFH that are built right up to the maximum lot coverage?
The house in question is asking $1.2 for a teardown. That’s an expensive lot. To turn a profit, you have to build a $2.5-3M home or multiple units. Guess what? That $2-3M home will also tower over your modest house next door and shade the yard with a tall, narrow monstrosity of a home.
You truly can’t understand the difference between a single family house with 2 kids and a garage and apartment building?A minimum of 12 cars with 6 or less parking spaces. A dumpster of garbage placed right by your fence and 18 neighbors as opposed to 4. Enjoy!
Anonymous
06/25/2024 14:17
Subject: Missing Middle middle finger -- seller insists on SFH restriction
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Love to see it. “Missing middle” serves to enrich developers and nothing more. Hopefully people have begun to recognize that.
Totally agree and I can't believe how much my lot value has gone up since MM. It's a boomer grab as much as for developers.
It’s almost painful having a discussion with proponents of MM who don’t understand how the economy works. Your real estate valuation didn’t go up because of MM. It would be too early for that as MM is untested and developers have no idea if it will work. You wouldn’t see an impact yet. And also, relative to other DMV areas (all without MM), it didn’t really go up that much.
In % change in average median sold price from 2023 to 2024
Oakton was up 31%. Then came Annandale, Fairfax Station, Vienna, Fairfax, Burke, Fairfax County, Great Falls, Lorton, Reston, Alexandria, Centreville.
Arlington clocked in after all of these towns at 7.8%. If I were stupid, I would point to this and say “look Arlington is less desirable than those 12 towns because of MM!” But that’s not how the economy works.
https://www.foxessellfaster.com/blog/washington-dc-metro-real-estate-market-april-2024-insights-and-analysis/