Are Andresen

Archive for April, 2011

Tysons Corner West Park Transit Station Expected To Close

According to the Fairfax County Transit Development Plan, the Tysons Corner West*Park Transit Station will cease operation when the Silver Line starts operating. The transit station is located across from the Fountains at McLean at the corner of Jones Branch Drive and Spring Hill Road. Read the rest of this entry »

Foreclosures – A Tale of 5 Communities

The Washington D.C. metro area has done extremely well compared to the rest of the country. Still, foreclosures and short sales have had a dramatic effect on the real estate values also here. The effect is often hyper-local with the number of foreclosures varying greatly from one county, city and community to another.

In Tysons Corner the effect has not been as dramatic as in for example Herndon, Chantilly or Manassas. To give you a general idea of the foreclosure activity in the Tysons Corner area I put together a quick comparison of the number of distressed sales in 5 communities.

Pimmit Hills Built in the 1950’s, the 1,500+ single family homes typically have a quarter acre lot. The community is located off Rt 7 in Falls Church close to Tysons Corner. Home prices range from the low $300’s for a rambler with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom and upwards to $1M homes.   The number of distressed sales seem to have peaked in 2009. Very few shortsales – still some foreclosures.

Read the rest of this entry »

Finding Great Tenants – 7 Questions You Are Allowed to Ask

So, you created a great Craig’s List ad like we suggested in the last post. Now, your inbox is filling up with emails from prospective tenants that would like to see your property. How do you respond? Do you email them back with a time to meet? Do you rush out to your property to meet them?

Well, you could do that. But, to save yourself and the prospects lots of time, why don’t you try emailing back a response that goes something like this:

Dear John,
I will be happy to set up a showing of my property with you.

Before we confirm a time though, please answer the following questions for me:

1) When are you looking to rent (right away, a specific date) ?
2) How long of a lease are you looking for (minimum 12 months) ?
3) Do you have pets (number of pets, type, size) ?
4) How many persons will reside in the property ?
Read the rest of this entry »

Idylwood Road Bridge is Open – (count on it!)

If you live on Idylwood Road on the west side of Leesburg Pike you likely have noticed an increase in traffic the last few weeks. For about seven months the traffic was noticeably less due to the closure of the Idylwood Bridge. The whole bridge was demolished to build a new one that would allow for the I-495 with the new added HOT-Lanes.

The 15,000 vehicles that use the bridge on a daily basis now have a wider bridge with wider sidewalks. The parts of Idylwood Road is still missing sidewalks and bike lines so the pedestrian traffic is unlikely to increase for now. Read the rest of this entry »

Tysons Corner Metro Stations – What’s In A Name?

While most of us have gotten used to the temporary placeholder names for the 4 new metro stations in Tysons Corner, the final names for the stations have started to take shape.

The proposed new names are as follows:

Tysons East => Tysons-McLean
Tysons Central 123 => Tysons I & II
Tysons Central 7 => Tysons Central
Tysons West => Tysons – Spring Hill Road

The other 4 stations will be named:
Reston-Wiehle Ave
Reston Town Center
Herndon-Reston West
Herndon-Dulles East

The above names were approved by Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ - they are still subject to final approval from Metro’s Board of Directors.

Dunn Loring Metro Station To Get Harris Teeter

Harris Teeter finalized a lease for a 52,000 square foot grocery store on the ground floor of a new residential building at the Dunn Loring Metro Station. Construction of the mixed use building is scheduled to start this spring (2011.)

As a part of the development there will be new bus bays and a new parking garage with space for about 2,000 cars.

What Is The Zip Code For Tysons Corner?

Up until last week Tysons Corner did not have its own postal address. However, the U.S. Postal Service has now approved Tysons Corner or Tysons as an official address that can be used with zip codes 22102 and 22182 (you may recognize those addresses as being for McLean and Vienna.) 

Tysons Corner has yet to be approved for its own dedicated zip code but will likely qualify for one in the future based on projected growth. Regardless, those living in area will finally have the option to associate their home with Tysons Corner as opposed to having to use Vienna or McLean.

Attracting Goldfinches To Your Backyard

American male goldfinch

I set my sights on getting goldfinches to visit my backyard, so I got thistle seeds, which is like candy for them ….

I got a finch feeder, which has smaller holes so that the seeds don’t fall out.

However, sparrows also find thistle very attractive. They descended on the feeder and would not allow the finches close to the feeder.

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