Welcome to Luxury For Less, a weekly column highlighting the best deals in luxury real estate. Written by Brandy Schantz of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, Luxury For Less offers tips and tricks navigating the competitive real estate market and securing the home of your dreams. To learn more, visit ttrsir.com.
One of the most common requests I get from clients is to help them build a custom home.
Building a custom home has many advantages. The first advantage is choosing your own location. Buying a lot for a tear down means you can choose the neighborhood, size of lot and lot configuration. The next advantage is building exactly what you want.
When you buy a spec home (a home built by a builder with no specific buyer in mind- speculation), you may get something you really like but might have chosen different finishes than the builder or added rooms that worked better for your family. When you build custom, you can get the home gym or even cigar room (I’ve seen that built!) that you’ve always wanted.
Building a custom home is very rewarding but it can be time consuming. Finding the right lot, tearing down the existing home and building new can take up a lot of time in your already busy schedule. There are many choices to be made and depending on your situation, you are carrying expenses for two households until the home is completed.
Unless you plan on paying cash, custom home building also requires a construction loan. A construction loan is a short-term loan used to build. The lender pays the money out in stages or draws. This loan has a higher interest rate than a typical conventional loan due to risk and is usually refinanced at the end of the build.
Living in the D.C. metro region means there are always plenty of spec homes being built. There are advantages to buying a spec home also. If you don’t want to worry about making any choices at all or waiting to move into your new home, you can find a home that has already been built.
If you want to make some choices for your new home but don’t want the hassle of finding a lot, interviewing builders and carrying the costs of building new construction, finding a spec home already under construction is a great option.
In this case, you can choose finishes and even change certain features of the home but can use your conventional loan to purchase upon completion. Both options are great and either way, you will live in a beautiful home.
Check out this spec home currently being built in Vienna Woods and a home customized by a client from this builder just 2 years ago. It’s amazing what you can do with a little customization!
For more information on building a custom home or finding a spec home to put your special touch on, contact me at 571.263.0206.
Check out all of this week’s Luxury for Less listings here:
- 1655 Strine Drive McLean (Reduced $20,000)
- 1130 Daleview Drive McLean (Reduced $100,000)
- 2616 West Street Falls Church (Reduced $60,000)
- 10420 Van Patten Lane Great Falls (Reduced $50,000)
- 1781 Chain Bridge Road #205 McLean (Reduced $25,050)
- 9709 Brookstone Lane Vienna (Reduced $54,900)
The properties listed are a small selection of properties available in the Tyson’s Corner area. For a full list of properties listed on MLS and private exclusives, please contact Brandy Schantz.
Falls Church a city almost exactly 100 years older than the first daguerreotype cameras. It was a recruiting station for the American militia in the Revolutionary War and the scene of minor skirmishes throughout the American Civil War.
But even so, it’s a city that’s gone through numerous changes over the last 80 years of Fairfax County’s aerial photography.
Unlike most of nearby Tysons, Falls Church already has the visible bones of a small city by the photography from 1937. The familiar street network is in place, with several homes situated along the intersection of Broad and Washington Streets.
By 1953, the Winter Hill neighborhood was built, and the cookie-cutter pattern of American suburbia was starting to stamp down on fields around the town.
The aerial photography is spotty after that, with no coverage in the 1960s or 70s, but returns in 1980, when downtown Falls Church’s transition to strip malls and small shopping centers was in full swing. New streets, like Annandale Road, also connected businesses along Washington Street to homes and other businesses along Broad Street.
There was less change between 1980 and 1990 though, when most the changes took place at the western end of the downtown area where new apartments and new shopping centers were built closer to Lee Street or with new northeast of Broad Street.
Like nearby Vienna, the pace of development in Falls Church slowed dramatically after 1990. Very little of the town’s shape and structure changed between 1990 and 2007, and less between 2007 and 2017.
One of the most visible changes in downtown Falls Church was the construction of the Harris Teeter in 2016, the first grocery store in the city’s downtown in three decades.
Previous Then and Now features from around the area include:
This regularly-scheduled sponsored Q&A column is written by Val Sotillo, Northern Virginia-based Realtor and Falls Church resident. Please submit your questions to her via email for response in future columns. Enjoy!
Question: We are new homeowners and we’re trying to breathe new life into our outdated poorly-functioning kitchen. Do you have any tips for us?
Answer: The kitchen is my favorite room in the house, and not just because that’s where the food is! I believe the kitchen is the heart of the home and I think that’s a great place to start with your home updates.
I spoke with Caroline Goree, a Project Leader with BOWA, a local design build firm that specializes in luxury renovations from kitchens to whole-home remodels. Here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions about kitchen renovation projects:
How Much Does It Cost To Renovate My Kitchen?
There are many different factors that go into the cost of a kitchen renovation. The size of the space, level of finish, design details, appliance package, remodeling partner and trades needed (plumber, electrical, engineer, etc.) all impact what you will spend on your project.
Thinking about what you should invest in your kitchen remodel is about understanding your needs, scope of work and what is the appropriate level of finish for your home. If you want to avoid “budget creep” throughout the project, I recommend finding a partner that spends the time planning up front rather than making decisions as the project is being built.
Laura Schwartz is a licensed Realtor in VA, D.C. and MD with McEnearney Associates in McLean. Reach the office at 703-790-9090.
There are so many good restaurants in and around Tysons, but not all of them are known for their obnoxious birthday celebrations, especially for kids.
Where can you take your family to celebrate a birthday where they’ll totally embarrass you, your kids, but give everyone a good laugh? Here’s a list of places to go if you’re celebrating a big day!
Most are chains, so if you know of a hidden gem that should be mentioned, please mention it in the comments below.
Sakura: Hibachi — Always fun!
Maggiano’s — Candle in any dessert you order.
Chuy’s — They give you a huge sombrero and sing, along with ice cream.
Uncle Julio’s — Chocolate Pinata!
Guapo’s — The waiters sing loudly with instruments and give the kids a large sombrero.
Editor’s Note: This biweekly column is sponsored by Dominion Wine and Beer (107 Rowell Court, Falls Church). This week’s Guide is written by Arash Tafakor of Dominion Wine and Beer.
Making beer is no different than cooking food.
Cooking and brewing are no different than a chemistry experiment. Heating, freezing, mixing and blending are all processes used in the kitchen, brewery and the laboratory. So, what happens when two MIT graduates in environmental engineering come together to open up a brewery? An equilibrium of course.
When Ricardo Petroni and Peter Oates decided to open up Equilibrium in 2016 they set out to make better beer than the rest based on “scientific principles focused on balancing drinkability and massive flavor.”
“It’s about achieving equilibrium in each beer,” said Oates.
Did I mention these guys got their PhDs at MIT? Peter Oates literally started home brewing by building his own automated brewing system… making six batches of beer a day… just for fun.
Peter who claims brewing beer is seven eighths science, one eighths art, is part of a new breed of brewers (Sapwood Cellars) that are literally laboratory scientist studying “distributions of thousands of compounds and which one does what and how it effects your sensory profile.”
Sounds good to me.
Since opening, Equilibrium has quickly amassed a huge following in the craft beer community and quite frankly, Equilibrium Brewery is one of the best and most exciting breweries in the game right now.
Currently holding one of the highest overall average ratings on Untappd, world-wide. A widely respected brewery within the industry, with a reputation for producing highly sought after world-class hazy IPA’s, fruited wild ales/sours, stouts and more.
With that said, we couldn’t be more excited to share their work with the DMV this Saturday, March 23 at our sister store Downtown Crown Wine and Beer in Gaithersburg starting at 10 a.m. We will have seven of their canned beers for sale as well as three bottled and seven drafts on tap.
Cans available:
- ‘Photon’ American Pale Ale
- ‘Vulgar Dsiplay of Flower’ DIPA
- ‘MC²’ DIPA
- ‘Intermediate Dance Moves’ DIPA
- ‘Fluctuation Wave’ DIPA
- ‘One Time For Your Mind’ DIPA — Finback Brewery Collab
- ‘Dreamwave Fluctuation’ DIPA — Other Half Brewery Collab
More details can be found here on our Facebook page Downtown Crown Wine and Beer.
Welcome to Luxury For Less, a weekly column highlighting the best deals in luxury real estate. Written by Brandy Schantz of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, Luxury For Less offers tips and tricks navigating the competitive real estate market and securing the home of your dreams. To learn more, visit ttrsir.com.
Urban Turf, a local D.C. real estate blog, wrote an article in December of 2015 declaring that $2 Million is the new $1 Million in D.C.
They wrote this article based on a blog post by District Measured that asserted $1 million should not be used as a threshold for the luxury market because it is now too commonplace. The Tysons Corner area is certainly not Washington, D.C. but the real estate market is quickly becoming just as expensive, maybe just with some extra space.
It’s difficult to define luxury because it is so subjective. When I moved out of my college dorm room into an apartment, that two-bedroom apartment with its own kitchen and my own bathroom was luxury as far as I was concerned. As I’ve aged, I now look at luxury with a different lens; high-end professional appliances, great location, my own gym in the house and separate closets and bathrooms for me and my husband.
I have worked with clients whose idea of luxury is no less than an unobstructed view of the Potomac and every luxury imaginable including a wine cellar, elevator in the home, a kitchen for the family and another one for the caterer, and private space for each member of the family and guests.
District Measured’s Steve Giachetti justified the new threshold with the fact that in 2015, over 18 percent of all single-family home sales in the District were over $1 million compared to 3 percent in 2001. In that same year, only four percent of homes in the District were over $2 million, making it a more “luxurious” price point.
In the Tysons Corner area, which I’m defining as Falls Church, McLean, Vienna and Great Falls, there are currently 557 detached homes on the market. Detached homes are most often considered the standard for suburban living so I’m using this type of home for the purposes of looking at luxury in our area. The lowest priced detached home currently on the market is priced at $437,000 in Falls Church. The highest priced detached home currently on the market is priced at $24 million in McLean. The chart below shows the breakdown of detached homes currently on the market in the area.
Over half of all detached homes currently on the market are listed for between $1 million and $2 million. Since only 30% of detached homes on the market are under $1 million while almost a quarter are over $2 million, it may even be said that luxury in the Tysons Corner, that $3 million is the new $1 million.
Don’t worry, there are still deals to be found and there are still some pretty great homes on the market well under $2 million. This week I’m featuring a home that I also featured last week with an amazing backyard. 8518 Wedderburn Station is now below $2 million and still just as breathtaking.
Check out all of this week’s Luxury for Less listings:
- 8518 Wedderburn Station Drive Vienna (Reduced $187,000)
- 1412 Wynhurst Lane Vienna (Reduced $15,000)
- 6928 Butternut Court McLean (Reduced $76,000)
- 316 Riverbend Road Great Falls (Reduced $10,000)
- 9890 Windy Hollow Road Great Falls (Reduced $50,000)
The properties listed are a small selection of properties available in the Tyson’s Corner area. For a full list of properties listed on MLS and private exclusives, please contact Brandy Schantz.
Virginia Tech’s Evening MBA program moved up three places to No. 14 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 rankings of the best part-time MBA programs.
The Northern Virginia-based program now ranks as the top public university part-time MBA in the Washington, D.C. metro area. The report assessed more than 300 part-time MBA programs across the country on factors such as student quality, peer reputation and the ratio of part-time to full-time students.
“This marks the fifth consecutive year that the Evening MBA has featured in the top 20 programs nationwide,” said Dana K. Hansson, director of MBA programs. “We believe the faculty expertise and high level of flexibility we offer are key factors in continuing to attract high quality students to our program.”
The Evening MBA is one of three MBA programs offered by the Pamplin College of Business. With many shared courses and faculty, the Executive and Professional MBA program options offer a similar academic experience to the Evening program, but with alternate formats and locations to better serve a range of students.
“What we did at Virginia Tech a few years ago was to say that we really want to focus on the working professional — someone who wants to enhance their career or make a change in the direction of their career, but not at the expense of continuing to be a business professional,” says Pamplin Dean Robert Sumichrast. That allows those students to come into the classroom, he adds, “and use what they’ve learned as part of the experience of the MBA program.”
This commitment to serving part-time students contributed to Virginia Tech’s highest ever overall score in the ranking. Another contributing factor was a strong appraisal by other programs.
“We’re particularly proud of the peer assessment score given the high quality of other programs in the nation,” said Dr. Parviz Ghandforoush, associate dean for graduate programs at Pamplin. “In part, we believe the high rating is due to our commitment to offering cutting-edge courses in areas like innovation and entrepreneurship, machine learning/AI and cybersecurity that aren’t available to students in more traditional MBA programs.”
This is a sponsored column by attorneys John Berry and Kimberly Berry of Berry & Berry, PLLC, an employment and labor law firm located in Northern Virginia that specializes in federal employee, security clearance, retirement and private sector employee matters.
By John V. Berry, Esq.
If you hold or are seeking a security clearance, and you own or work in the ever-growing marijuana industry, you are likely to have difficulties obtaining or keeping a security clearance.
We have been counseling clients about this issue since at least 2010. This principle also applies to individuals that work part-time or are otherwise involved in marijuana-related businesses.
Owning stock or working for a marijuana enterprise is a reportable clearance activity when holding a security clearance and can lead to the loss of a security clearance or in one obtaining a clearance. The current marijuana policy comes from the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), by way of an October 2014 memorandum which explains current government policy.
Investments in marijuana-related companies can constitute involvement in illegal drug activities. This can be the case even where the individual does not directly choose their individual stocks and even in states where marijuana businesses are completely legal. The federal government’s current view is that an individual has a duty to know about their investments and to be knowledgeable about federal drug laws.
2014 Memorandum and Other Federal Directives
The 2014 memorandum led to Security Executive Agent Directive (SEAD) 4 in June of 2017 which provides the current basis for not granting or revoking a security clearance based on drug involvement, including investments in marijuana under Guideline H:
- Conditions that could raise a security concern and may be disqualifying include:
. . .
(c) illegal possession of a controlled substance, including cultivation, processing, manufacture, purchase, sale, or distribution; or possession of drug paraphernalia;
. . . .
Marijuana stocks have been touted as the new Amazon investment, according to a number of articles. However, the problem is that until the federal government changes federal drug laws or creates a caveat for marijuana businesses, individuals that invest or otherwise become involved in marijuana investments can put their security clearance (and career) at risk.
We have seen a lot of confusion on this issue since at least 2012 when a number of states started legalizing the use of marijuana. We have represented many clearance holders who have traveled to Colorado or elsewhere, where marijuana is legal, to simply try it. In some of these cases, the experimentation has cost the individual their security clearance.
It is advisable that individuals seeking to hold or obtain a security clearance refrain from investing in marijuana stocks until federal law changes. Eventually, we believe that the federal government will change their position on this issue, but for the moment investing in companies or stocks that are involved in the dispensing of marijuana can cause one to lose a security clearance.
Conclusion
If you are in need of security clearance representation, please contact our office at 703-668-0070 or through our contact page to schedule a consultation. Please also visit and like us on Facebook or Twitter.
Welcome to Luxury For Less, a weekly column highlighting the best deals in luxury real estate. Written by Brandy Schantz of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, Luxury For Less offers tips and tricks navigating the competitive real estate market and securing the home of your dreams. To learn more, visit ttrsir.com.
If you are searching for a home right now or know someone who is, you know how difficult this market is.
Homes are going under contract quickly and often with multiple offers. I’ve heard of as many as 30 offers on a single home. Inventory is very low and demand does not seem to be waning. I am advising all my buyers to be ready to see a home the day it goes on market or, if possible, before it goes on market.
Unfortunately, if you wait to view homes on the weekend, the homes you are interested in will probably be under contract. A well-priced home will sell quickly in this market so this week’s reduced listings largely give us a peek into how the other half lives.
There are fewer buyers in the higher price ranges so these homes tend to take longer to sell. This week, there are a lot of motivated sellers for some very luxurious listings with some very drastic price cuts.
In Vienna, 8518 Wedderburn Station Drive features a breathtaking backyard that must be seen. Spend your summer lounging by the pool during the day and sitting in the hot tub at night. This 6 bedroom, 5.5 bath home is meant for relaxing. The basement even has a sauna and wine cellar!
The home was originally listed for $2,600,000. This week, the home was reduced to $2,100,000. The home was built in 2013 but new builds of this size and quality sell for significantly higher prices.
In McLean, 906 Turkey Run Road has the most dramatic price cut of all of our featured listings. This home was just reduced by $1,400,000. It was originally listed for $11,400,000 and now is being sold for $9,500,000. This custom built Mediterranean home has its own gym, theater and state-of-the-art wine cellar.
The backyard is as magnificent as the home featuring a pool with jets and a fire pit. Turkey Run Road is a prestigious neighborhood in McLean and features some of the community’s most lavish homes.
Check out all of this week’s Luxury for Less listings:
- 8518 Wedderburn Station Drive Vienna (Reduced $129,000)
- 1707 James Payne Circle McLean (Reduced $34,000)
- 828 Springvale Rd Great Falls (Reduced $24,000)
- 11325 Fox Creek Farm Way Great Falls (Reduced $100,000)
- 11324 Fox Creek Farm Way Great Falls (Reduced $200,000)
- 906 Turkey Run Road McLean (Reduced $1,400,000)
The properties listed are a small selection of properties available in the Tyson’s Corner area. For a full list of properties listed on MLS and private exclusives, please contact Brandy Schantz.
Nightlife may be one of Tysons’ weak spots, but local music in the area has a long history — and a wide-open future.
The Fairfax scene is very diverse, drawing on artists who are local to the county as well as those from elsewhere in the greater D.C. area.
Emblematic of that diversity is an upcoming performance on Saturday, March 23 at the VFW post in west Falls Church. Six different acts will be playing music — two punk groups, three rappers representing a variety of styles and an indie rock four-piece.
D.C. is famous for its historical punk scene, with names like Fugazi that defined a sound across the entire country — but much of that scene happened on the southern side of the Potomac. Although not all of its current residents are aware, Northern Virginia has a strong tradition of independent music. In the 1980s and ’90s, most of that tradition was being made in Arlington.
The little county was home to the nationally-successful punk group Minor Threat, whose frontman Ian MacKaye later starred in Fugazi, as well as many other bands. It also boasted the Dischord and Teenbeat record labels and the Positive Force activist group, which was closely associated with the “Riot Grrrl” feminist movement.
These groups were often based out of houses, dotted across Arlington. The county was successful musically because it was cheap and offered easy access to the city — but, unfortunately for the punks, the rest of society caught on.
Today, the median home on the Arlington market is listed at over $700,000, and there aren’t many places left in the county for young musicians living on a shoestring budget. In the words of Positive Force co-founder Mark Andersen, “there was another Arlington that existed, and that was a much more humble Arlington.”
In some ways, Fairfax carries on that tradition. By offering (relatively) affordable performance spaces, a large population of potential audiences and a wide network of musical collaborators, the county has a lot to offer a young musician.
There are some major differences, though: today’s scene isn’t only about punk music. Also, it’s less tied to D.C. than it used to be, and has more potential to define itself as “NOVA” music. It does face some obstacles, though, including the drain of talent and attention to nearby cities like Richmond and Baltimore, and, as in Arlington, the difficulty of coexisting with some of the most desirable residential neighborhoods on the East Coast.
To understand what it’s like to record and perform in Fairfax today, Tysons Reporter spoke with Jason Saul, a melodic rapper native to the area.
Tysons Reporter: First, how did you get to be making music in VA? Are you originally from the area? When did you start rapping, and what’s driven you to the style you use?
Jason Saul: I was born & raised in NOVA. I started writing music when I was 13 but it was never anything super serious… Once I turned 20 I realized there wasn’t anything else that brought me the amount of joy that making music does. So now I’m seeking to make music my career. My style comes from influences of music that I listened to when I was young. I’ve always enjoyed storytelling or making music the correlates with the listener. To me, music is all about feeling. Eventually I started to make more melodic music since that’s what I always gravitated towards.
Tysons Reporter: Second, what should I know about the NOVA scene in general? How does it compare to other scenes around the D.C. area — does it have a particular identity compared to, say, D.C. or Maryland? Is it known for particular styles, or for particular venues? Do you want to stay around here, or, if not, where would you go?
Jason Saul: The NOVA scene is very interesting when it comes to music because I see it as a big question mark on the creative map. No one can really say NOVA has a particular sound, and I think that stems from no one really making it out on to the mainstream platform yet. I know there’s Kali Uchis but that’s just one artist. I respect D.C. a lot because it’s so rich with culture but I would definitely separate NOVA from D.C. just because it really feels like two different worlds. MD in my opinion is known for their raw rapping which is great. It’s up to NOVA to see what we come up with now. I’d love to stay here and I probably will but I also enjoy the weather in the west coast.
Tysons Reporter: Third, it’s pretty cool to see this wide a mix of sounds at a single show. Is that standard, would you say, or is this unusual? If it’s unusual, what helped bring it together this time?
Jason Saul: It’s very exciting to see a show like this going down because it’s bringing different groups of people together. I wouldn’t say it’s the ordinary but it’s definitely going to be a good show and should happen more often. What helped bring it together was the relationships some of us have outside of music, just knowing each other really. This gives the audience and artists a great opportunity to discover some music they never thought they’d listen to.
To listen to some of Fairfax’s local musicians, check out these artists, who will be performing at 6:30pm – 11pm on Saturday, March 23, at the VFW Post #9274 (7118 Shreve Road), just 10 minutes from Tysons on Leesburg Pike. There will be a $5 cover charge, and Respawn Thrift will be selling vintage clothing.
Desperry (NoVA, Hip-hop)
Holographic (NoVA, Hardcore punk bootgaze)
Jason Saul (NoVA, Melodic hip-hop)
Needle (D.C., Grind punk)
Wisteria (MD, Indie rock)
Lil Dynamite (NoVA, first show)
