News and notes from Reston (tm).

Friday, March 19, 2010

High-Low: Everyone's Favorite Game of Reston Real Estate

Hey kids! Grab your parents' checkbooks and dust off their FICO reports, because it's time to play everyone's favorite game of real estate wheelin' and dealin' where it's always time to BUY BUY BUY -- the Reston High-Low Game (tm)!

Property_Photo-1.aspx.jpegWe're always happy when the toniest house on the market in Reston isn't a penthouse aerie or a particleboard McMansion that only has a Zip code in common with our beloved earth-toned community. For a mere $1.25 million, this home on Upper Lake Drive offers stunning views of Lake Thoreau, plus all the various fancy you'd expect in a high-end home. Actually, it's really nice. We could actually see ourselves living here, once we start getting the mad crazy page views and become one of the millions of highly paid "web loggers" out there. Here's the breathless Realtor (tm) description:

LAKE FRONT HOME. This incredible home sits right on Lake Thoreau. with fantastic views of lake from virtually every room, private dock. This large custom designed and remodeled home is ready for move in. Spacious living areas with Cathedral ceilings, hard wood floors through out most of home, too many luxurious items to mention. Home also includes office with loft, screened in porch, and studio.
Property_Photo.aspx.jpegWow. Who wouldn't like to live in a house with too many luxurious items to mention! Though we wonder if the teddy bear in this picture is one of them. Who knows, maybe it's stuffed with shredded $100 bills or something.

The sad thing? Some "stager" probably got paid to suggest sticking the teddy bear on that chair, then went out to have a sandwich and called it a day.

Property_Photo-2.aspx.jpegOn the other end of the price spectrum is this charmer on Northgate Square near Lake Anne. At $144,900, it's the cheapest townhouse available in Reston -- and shockingly, it's located north of the Toll Road, unlike so many of our past High-Low winners. For that low, low, price, you get what appears to be the most bitchin' party wall we've seen in some time, plus so much more!
2bedrm 1.5 bath townhome in good condition, has washer and dryer in unit, walk-in closets, backs to common area. Fenced in backyard w/ wood patio and storage shed. Minutes to Reston Town Center and Toll Road
In a more entrepreneurial frame of mind? Lakeside Pharmacy at Lake Anne Village Center is still on the market for $900,000, and the 'ole distillery is still available for a mere $799,900. Buy both, and sell hangover remedies at one place for the hootch you produce at the other. Robber barons used to politely call this "horizontal integration," and you could become the Rockefeller of Reston!

Well, that's all the time we have this week. Thanks as always for playing the Reston real estate game -- where everyone's a winner!

41 comments:

  1. Imagine that!

    Cheapest house in Reston and where is it? In the same district that the bigot who has ruied Reston named Robin Smyers lives --- thanks a lot for yet another thing you have ruined, Robin -- the property values in your own district!

    And 900,000 for sewer-front property? Good lick with that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob Simon's Metallic Alter-EgoMarch 19, 2010 at 8:29 AM

    Really? Do we have to drag politics into this as well? Somehow I doubt the choice of an elected representative on a board with only limited power over a neighborhood HOA had as much of an impact on the price of that house as market conditions and the physical condition of the property.

    Why can't we find something we can all agree on? Like maybe that awesome DRB-approved shade of Russet Brown on the second floor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Agreed, it's good to debate, agree to disagree, but when I see the hatred and name calling on this thread -- disgusting. I don't agree with many of the things Robin attempted to accomplish -- but I have zero HATRED for her.

    Obviously the prior poster never took a civics class...

    ReplyDelete
  4. No, wrong again --- civics and politic and ethics are all things that Symers. Matthews, Chew and others flip the bird at again and again and again. They are public figures and owe a duty (and a fiduciary one at that) to wisely spend what they are entrusted with --- they failed miserably at that and should be condemned if not prosecuted. That's not hate; that's justice.

    The bed they messed is theirs to lay in (or is it lie? Our not-so-great FfxCo schooling never did sort out those little differences for us.

    In any case, don't read what you don't like!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi everyone, just your favorite friendly "web logger" taking a break from his busy schedule running this web log and watching "The View" to agree with the last couple of comments. We've clearly disagreed with Robin and others on the RA board for their positions on a wide range of things, but I think the point's been made. Let's try to temper the personal attacks.

    Agree with her or not, she and others volunteered to serve on the RA Board, and clearly didn't do it for the money. They're public figures and can be criticized, but they don't deserve to be attacked constantly. Please, don't make me plug the spare VIC-20 into the Internets to start moderating comments. Regis and Kelly Lee isn't going to watch itself, you know!

    Not a sermon -- just a thought.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I looked at the lake home 2 years ago when we were looking for a house. It was out of my price range but fun to look at. They were asking 1.4 then which seemed overpriced, 1.2 might still be high for this market. I loved it. It felt like something out of California. Interesting renovation in the craftsman style.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Restonian,
    thank you for being the grown up around here. I think the constant personal attacks on Robin and Milton are actually making me sympathetic to them. Please don't allow that to happen. I have a good mad going and don't want to lose it but the personal attacks are not appreciated. okay back to my bracket - I'm gettin killed.

    ReplyDelete
  8. oh please -- look up the word "attack." 9-11 was an attack. calling leaders and public officials on what they did is no attack.

    And, let's face it, the reason this blog is doing so well is because they are doing so badly.

    ReplyDelete
  9. To 11:27 am...I actually liked the blog better when it was snarky and not hateful. But hey, that's just me.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Agree with 11:36. The vitriol is out of control.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Count me in as well, Pij. It looks a lot like somebody either (a) has decided that "smear" is a legitimate political tactic or (b) has serious anger management problems. In either case, it may be time to get the meds checked.

    In the interim, no matter what some other doofii might think, I consider our declining property values as more of a reflection of the overall economy and less of a reflection of poor county and municipal (if that's what you want to call RA) governance. I just wonder whether the same doofii who would lay the blame for our declining property values at the feet of the BoS and RA, will also shower accolades upon them for the bump up in our property values (and assessments) when that first train rolls into our very own monument to rad 80's artistic sensibilities.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Broke in Charter Oak (BiCO)March 19, 2010 at 4:22 PM

    Am I NEVER going to get my group hug?!! (Sniffle, sniffle!) ;-(

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hickory Cluster Knuckle DusterMarch 19, 2010 at 4:33 PM

    I'm with all of the above except crazy troll.

    I mean at least confine your crazy ranting about Smeyers and Hudgins to thread specifically about them and with some modicum of decency.

    My god man have you no decency?

    ReplyDelete
  14. No, BiCO. I may like you and wish you well and all of that, but I'm never going to give you the opportunity to cop a cheap feel.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hey, that super-pricey place is on our street! We just noticed it a couple weeks ago, first house here for sale we've seen since we bought ours last August. We're not lucky (wealthy) enough to live on the lakeside, but they are very nice. Oh, and the sign on it says for sale or lease, so if you don't have a cool 1.25 mil lying around (or whatever assets would ensure you could get the $5K+/month mortguage, maybe they will let you rent it for a mere $3K/month? Many people in Manhattan would kill for a rent so low for an entire house! Heck, they'd kill for a rent that low for a 1-bedroom apartment!

    As for the folks beating up on the RA folk, I don't know whether it's justified or not, but the tone is so repugnant that all it does is make me doubt the grasp of reality of people spewing such venom. It may be legitimate anger, but when it comes through constantly on every post here... well, it's been expressed better by others above, so I'll leave it at that and just call for some reasonable level of civil discourse. The reason *I* keep reading the Restonian is not to hear people ranting, but to hear the silly cleverness of the blog owner as well as some of its regulars.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I wonder if anonymous vitriolic person would be willing to run for the position of RA president. Of course, he or she would have to stop being anonymous.

    It is easy to criticize. It is better to offer constructive solutions.

    BiCo -- although I am one of those over-the-hill women you poke fun at, I'll still give you a hug if you need one. Here: { }

    ReplyDelete
  17. Restonian, I am glad you said something about the hate mail on this blog. I think you are losing out on those page views...I discovered your blog during Snowpocalypse and really like your writing, but the constant haters are getting really boring. Make them stop

    ReplyDelete
  18. http://reston2020.blogspot.com/search/label/Lake%20Anne

    Here's a plan which I think exciting.

    I agree with taking the extremely caustic comments off the blog. If I were the established Democrats (not including free thinking Democrats which there are many) I would try and destroy the Restonian with caustic anonymous messages. Why not they have almost total control of Reston Journalism. The 2020 blog has approval of every comment for this very reason. There were people at the meeting Thursday that tried to lump everything said on the Restonian to these caustic comments.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This is my first time back in while due to the hatefulness, so I completely agree. The hate is out of control.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Broke in Charter Oak (BiCO)March 20, 2010 at 10:23 AM

    Make love, not war! :-D (Unless you're dealing with Archstone, at which point I'd say rant away!)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Rod, I really don't know what planet you are from. To blame the vitriol on this blog, on the Democrats is almost as bad as the haters themselves!

    You really are exposing just how far out there you are....

    ReplyDelete
  22. Yes, down with vitriol. Really though, is the troll ONE person?

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ohhhh here we go -- same old, same old -- blame it on the gd'd democrats again...

    Hey Rod, I'm a dem, I support SBC, I think Chew is out of his league, Hudgins needs to move on and Robin missed an opportunity. But to label all caustic comments as the work of the dems here in reston and the county -- get a life.

    I welcome the friggin day when i can enter a conversation without having to show what lapel pin i'm wearing -- and i beleive my closest friends who are repubs feel the same.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I'm am an SBC supporter. I have a list of complaints about Robin and Chew having dealt with them during the rec center fiasco and now during the election. However, I do admire her spirit of volunteerism. When the comments go over the top, I find myself defending her. She is not evil or to blame for everything that is wrong with Reston. I don't know who is making the extremely caustic comments. It is not us.

    ReplyDelete
  25. 12:15: Let him go. The more he talks, the more he sabotages himself.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous said...
    Ohhhh here we go -- same old, same old -- blame it on the gd'd democrats again...

    Hey Rod, I'm a dem, I support SBC, I think Chew is out of his league, Hudgins needs to move on and Robin missed an opportunity. But to label all caustic comments as the work of the dems here in reston and the county -- get a life.
    ________

    Why not go back and READ what I actually said.

    "If I were the established Democrats (not including free thinking Democrats which there are many) I would try and destroy the Restonian with caustic anonymous messages. Why not they have almost total control of Reston Journalism."

    I guess I'm thinking of someone like Chew who dose not want people in his sphere of thinking swinging away from his way of thinking but instead to just read something like the Times and is also somewhat diabolical or calculating in his actions.

    You should of been in the room Thursday at the nature house when one of the canididates said something about the 'filth on the blogs' and you could sense if not hear the room sighed a collective gasp as if trying to imply that every single thing on this blog in that category.

    There are a lot of sensible thinking Democrats and I'm married to one of them.

    I think making extremely caustic comments are counter productive in trying to make people make what are really are deeply held views. I went to a public demonstration recently which I rarely do and was sort of disappointed when I saw people on my own side acting so belligerent to the other side of the demonstration. Why how dose that help them change their paradigms? While a lot on my side yelled and hollered till they were horse. I just smiled and waved. Some on the other side waved back.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anyone who would self-describe as a "knuckle duster"? ....enough said there?

    ReplyDelete
  28. So, if the hate is out of control, and this election is one step away from the health-care debate (at least there is no spitting going on here) and Reston is supposed to be a bastion of tolerance, "multiculturalism" and all kinds of melting pot stuff, what's gone wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  29. "The troll," as in the real deal, lives under the bridge near the county cottages / townhouses near the Reston police station.

    He or she is very real, but silenced by bronze or whatever metal we use these days for that purpose.

    ReplyDelete
  30. HIckory Cluster Knuckle DusterMarch 21, 2010 at 10:51 AM

    Anon 10:29,

    Taking a page from BiCO's moniker, I wanted a catchy rhyming tag.

    Duster rhymes with cluster.

    Muster, fluster and bluster were not good enough IMHO.

    -HCKD

    (And I'll punch you in the face if you disparage my "name again"!)

    (... The above was a JOKE.)

    ReplyDelete
  31. knuckle duster (head?)

    Whatever you do, don't quit your day (you are no poet) job and stay away from --- far away, because we all fear that when those meds wear off, punching would commence.

    PS -- I am thinking of another word that rhymes with cluster that may better -- oh never mind that one.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Here's one of the songs we will be singing at the Reston People's Citizen Meeting?Conter Sheratn meeting in my cul-de-sac (maybe print it out)



    WE THE PEOPLE
    Words and Music by Steve Romanoff

    We the people, hand in hand,
    We, the people, understand,
    That there's an answer, there's a way,
    We, the people, have to say,
    So, send the orders to prepare,
    We, the people, do declare,
    Send the good news, send the word,
    We, the people, will be heard,
    We, the people, everywhere.

    There's a message in the air,
    And it's a'movin' across the land,
    If you listen you can hear it well, my friend,
    we know the time has come
    To take our heads out of the sand,
    'Cause if we don't the chance might never come again,
    The future is in reason,
    Not in building ways of war,
    And the time has come for reason to be heard,
    The purpose of the people
    Is what this declaration's for,
    And it's why our fathers told us word for word...

    We won't accept excuses,
    And we won't accept the lies,
    Of those who'd lead our nations into hell,
    It's time to call their bluff,
    To say to them, enough's enough,
    It's time we all could hear the tolling of the bell,
    It's time to feed the hungry,
    And it's time to heal the pain,
    And it's time to beat our weapons into plows,
    It's time to hear the voices that have risen once again,
    It's the wisdom of the people clear and loud,
    Singing proud...

    ReplyDelete
  33. Hallelujah!

    Palin in 2012!!

    All who disagree must die!!!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Rod, get your own freaking blog.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Palin could possibly make more sense than Chew and Smyers.

    ReplyDelete
  36. On a clear day, you can see Arlington from Reston.

    ReplyDelete
  37. What's that about Palin and 2012, Pij? Is she going to squeeze out another pup or what? It would be just about time...

    Sarah Palin has single-handedly (or single-wombedly, if that's how your mind works) contributed more to human over-population than just about anybody I know besides that Duggar woman and the Octomom.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I like this thread for once. The hate was getting really old. I say the hateful messages should simply be deleted. Criticism of something someone did or a decision someone made is one thing but saying hateful things about them as a person is just too much and this blog was getting really full of it. In fact, criticism is even better when you can provide a better solution or a way something could have been done better, or how someone could lead better. But come on now. We're lovers - not haters - in Reston, right? Hugs for all!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Sorry, I flaked. Think those lyrics hypnotized me.

    ReplyDelete

(If you don't see comments for some reason, click here).