Archive for July, 2008
Arlington House Styles Part 4 - The Split Level
July 31st, 2008 Categories: Arlington Dirt, Neighborhoods, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt, Real Estate 101
Today’s lesson will be a short one – in all actuality it probably should have been included yesterday. Today I’d like to discus the split level home. These were wildly popular in the 70’s although I’m not quite sure why, but we see quite a lot built during that time period – of course some earlier, some later.
The main characteristic of a split level is that the home is quite literally split into two halves and they are 1/2 a story apart from each other. MOST of the time, the split is side to side. So, what you can expect from a floor plan is to enter into a foyer and have a living room, dining room and kitchen on that same floor. Then, you can turn to the left (or right) and choose to go UP 1/2 a flight of steps to the bedrooms (anywhere from 2–4 depending on the size of home) or DOWN 1/2 a flight of steps to a rec-room. Sometimes you can continue down 1/2 flight zig-zagging through the house from side to side to lower level bedrooms or even an unfinished storage area, laundry, etc…
You’ll hear references sometimes to a 4–level split. Conceptually, if you flattened the house out, you’d have a rambler on a basement. Instead, this just gives some interest to the spaces. The most I’ve seen is a 5–level split. Also, and I’ve only ever seen one of these, I once saw a back to front split - it was a very interesting home but you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s a split level from the outside…
Here are our photo examples: This first one is a little tough to read, but look at the window heights on the left side of the home compared with the top of the door frame…
Here’s another one that’s easier to see:
In this second example you see a more typical roof line change.
Happy Thursday
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! Spring is HERE!
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Arlington Virginia Home Styles Part 3 - The Bi-Level and the Split Foyer - Cousins of the Rambler
July 30th, 2008 Categories: Arlington Dirt, Neighborhoods, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt
Yes – I thought before the description of a rambler became a distant memory, we’d cover a few relatives – remember, a rambler is single level living, most of the time on a basement. In today’s examples, it it ALWAYS on a basement…
What primarily distinguishes between the 3 styles is how and where you enter the home. In a rambler, you enter on the main level and can then proceed downstairs into the basement. Generally these were built on any type of topography ranging from fairly flat to gently sloping downwards to steeply sloping downwards. This gives a nice walk-out basement in the back and brings a lot of light into the home.
In a bi-level, the entry door is IN the basement - you enter generally to a foyer with a garage perhaps to one side, rec room to the other – it’s like a daylight basement but to the FRONT. You then proceed UP the steps to the main level living, laid out exactly as described in the rambler. These are generally only placed on lots where the land slopes upwards.
Here are a few examples:
Some might confuse the bi-level with a colonial, and as we haven’t defined a colonial yet – look at the windows to see if you can determine if it’s 1–level living upstairs (living room, dining, kitchen, bedrooms) all together – the 2nd picture is a little more deceiving, but a bi-level nonetheless.
The second example for today is called a split-foyer – not to be confused with a split level… a Split Foyer is the same house inside as a rambler or bi-level, however, the entrance is BETWEEN levels – so you enter the home to a very small landing to make a choice to go upstairs to the main living level or downstairs to the rec room/basement, garage, perhaps storage and laundry. You can easily spot these once you know to look for the door placement between levels:
So there you have it – relatives of the rambler – all offering lots of living space.
Happy Wednesday…
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! Spring is HERE!
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Arlington Virginia Home Styles Part 2 - The Rambler
July 29th, 2008 Categories: Arlington Dirt, Falls Church Dirt, McLean Dirt, Neighborhoods, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt
Yesterday I mentioned my series on house styles found here in the local area – today I thought I’d hit a biggie – The Rambler. This comes in many shapes and sizes, but it’s basically a 1 level home – most of the time here it’s on a basement, but it could just be built on a concrete slab. You will generally find a living room/dining room “L” and kitchen on one side with bedrooms/baths on the other side – a rec room in the basement perhaps with another half bath – and maybe an unfinished utility room. That’s it! Many people have added on perhaps a den on one side or a family room off the back. Let’s look at some examples:
Here is a fairly small (but super cute) rambler:
Here are some additional examples:
Ramblers are also a FABULOUS starting point for a renovation. There are many things one can do with a rambler, and what makes it most attractive for renovating is the large footprint. You have to figure if the entire living space is on 1 level and you double it by adding a 2nd story, you don’t necessarily have to create an addition.
The other fantastic thing about renovating a rambler is that you can turn it into a colonial by going straight up and keeping with colonial architectural aspects. You can add a steep roof with dormers and create a LARGE cape cod. You can create an arts and crafts style (see example below) or a farm house style. You can even create a contemporary.
Here’s an example of a rambler that underwent a whole house renovation taking the square footage from about 1,900 to 4,800.
Before:
And here it is AFTER:
Yes, it is the exact same house!
So, there’s your lesson on ramblers… If you’re in the market for something to renovate, give me a call - I can help you find a great property TODAY!
Happy Tuesday!
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! Spring is HERE!
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Arlington Virginia Home Styles - Part 1 - The Cape Cod
July 28th, 2008 Categories: Arlington Dirt, Neighborhoods, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt
I was having a conversation with a new client last week and we were talking about architecture. Just general terms really, he was telling me that he didn’t like boxy rooms, tight spaces, etc… but he really can’t afford a large home. I said, “oh, so you probably don’t want a cape.”
He looked at me and said, “I don’t know; I don’t know what a ‘cape’ is.”
So I went to the MLS listings and began describing house styles and what he could expect from the different floor plans – in general terms. It dawned on me that a lot of folks probably don’t know the difference between some of these styles. So I thought it might be best to write this series of posts to illustrate the different types and styles that can be found around Arlington. Now, of course you can also find these in Alexandria, Falls
Church and other surrounding towns and cities – but all of my photos were taken in Arlington.
Today, I want to focus on the ‘cape’ – or as it’s formally known as, “The Cape Cod.”
Here is a classic photo of a cape:
This is a beautiful example of a cape cod style home - they are known for a fairly small footprint, a very steep roof and dormers upstairs revealing usually 2 (or maybe 3 in a big home) bedrooms and a bath. There are obviously bigger and smaller examples, but most of the time you can expect to find a living room, dining room, kitchen and most of the time, you’ll also find a bedroom and full bath on the main level. Some, like this one, has an addition on the side, which is probably a family room.
Here’s another photo I took:
You can find these homes scattered all around the east coast – in fact, the first home we owned in California was a cape cod! It certainly looked out of place there, but here, they are beautiful sightings around Arlington County and the surrounding areas!
Over the week (or more) I hope to cover Ramblers and Bi-levels, Split Levels and Split Foyers, Contemporaries, Tudors and Colonials. There are a few others, but these make up the majority of what we find here. If I run across other great examples while I’m out and about, we’ll toss those in too!
Happy Monday – stay tuned as tomorrow we’ll another exciting house style!
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! Spring is HERE!
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Ladies Night at the Washington Nationals - Sounds like Fun!
July 25th, 2008 Categories: Area Attractions, Friday Fun, Local Events, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt
I just received an email that I thought I’d share with my readers – at many places in the blogosphere, Fridays are reserved for fun - so this seems fitting.
On Thursday, August 14th, the Washington Nationals will be hosting what I think is their 2nd annual Ladies Night. See the flyer below:
Sounds like a great opportunity (and at a sweet deal, too!) to go out and support our local baseball team with all your gal-pals - it says guys are welcome, but if it were me, I’d leave ‘em at home!
Enjoy the weekend – Happy Friday
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! Spring is HERE!
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Arlington Virginia June 2008 Housing Sales Statistics
July 9th, 2008 Categories: Arlington Dirt, Market Stats, Northern Virginia Home Buying, Northern Virginia Home Selling, Northern Virginia Real Estate Dirt
Hello – me again…
I’ve been running numbers and statistics for a few different publications I author for the past few days and I find the data very interesting. Here’s how the numbers stacked up for June sales in Arlington:
Doesn’t look remarkable one way or the other… compared with last month, inventory levels and “solds” are stable but contract writing is up significantly (except in the condo market where things are stable).
And here are the current absorption rates:
Pretty good – however, upon further inspection, looking at year-to-date, and year over year comparisons, this really gives us the picture. Here’s year-to-date 2007 to 2008 comparison for the condo market:
WOW – that’s a 42% decrease in unit sales – with average selling prices AND Days on Market remaining somewhat constant – odd…. Here’s what it looks like for single family:
Single family is not as gloomy, but still seeing a 29% decline in unit sales again, with average selling prices only experiencing a 4.3% decline and days on market virtually the same. Somehow out in the world it just doesn’t seem this way. I’m having a busy sales year (don’t get me wrong, I ALWAYS have time for a new client or two!), it does seem like homes are taking longer to sell - but perhaps in my mind it’s always a comparison with 2004 when things were nuts!
So, you might wonder, what’s happening to all of those homes that are “excess inventory?” Many are simply being withdrawn – those will choose another time to sell – if they can. The rental market is up almost 14% this year - so some are being rented rather than sold.
A lot to ponder - but if you are a buyer – there is a lot of inventory to choose from. However, please keep in mind that market conditions aren’t such that sellers just roll over – yes, they would like to sell their homes, but for fair prices with fair terms.
Should you like to discuss it further, I’m always happy to talk real estate!
Happy (gloomy) Wednesday!
Jennifer
Serving all of your real estate needs in Arlington, McLean and the entire Northern Virginia Region!
Contact me today for a free home valuation or buyer counseling session! Spring is HERE!
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