RA COVENANTS ADVISOR TO HCA DEPARTS @ FRI MAR 4

Updated May 16, 2022

RA and HCA will lose the substantial knowledge and experience of RA Covenants Advisor Vern James when he leaves to take on new and greater responsibilities nearer his home as the Ashburn Village Community Association, Inc. Resident Services Manager, effective Friday, March 4.  Unknown to most of us during his RA tenure, Vern was also an accomplished writer with nine novels and more than 50 short stories published over a period of 26 years.  

RA is currently in the process of seeking a replacement.  Until that person is on board and trained, the temporary Covenants Advisor for Hickory Cluster is Catherine Castrence, nicknamed "Cat", ccastrence@reston.org.

Vern joined RA in September 2013 and simultaneously supported up to 30 Reston clusters, including Hickory Cluster, for almost nine years.  He became an expert in RA Covenants, Codes, and Restrictions, RA Maintenance & Use Standards, RA DRB Design Guidelines, and HCA Cluster Standards.  He tirelessly helped HCA Members maintain and improve their Goodman Houses, the majority of whom value compliance with protective rules that enhance daily quality of life, Goodman architectural integrity, and resulting property value growth.  And he did this in a friendly manner, even in the face of a heavy workload and unfortunate opposition from a small number of residents who believe RA protective rules, to which they agreed when they purchased their Reston homes, do not apply to them.  Vern was an effective professional, a friend of Hickory Cluster, and a valuable Reston asset.  He will be missed.

BLOCK 2 GOODMAN HOUSE PRICE RECORD @ FEB 3

Updated February 25, 2022

The Payton Residence, an almost fully renovated Hickory Cluster Block 2 Model A2B Goodman House with a near-perfect rear southern exposure to central HCA Common Area, sold for a record $745,200 price yesterday following the July 2021 departure of a beloved long-time medical professional homeowner and her late husband, a highly-regarded journalist, bureau chief, and executive editor.  They met as college students, married, and lived together in Belgium, Israel, Italy, France, and most recently Reston.  Both were serious modern architecture, rock music, foreign film, and Porsche 911 fans.  

A realtor who rarely resells Hickory Cluster Goodman Houses initially sold the home as an off-MLS private sale to an investor buyer in September 2021 for $480,000.  After homeowner out-of-state relatives managing her affairs decided the home was a deferred maintenance "money pit," and to cash out the estate asset as quickly as possible, the realtor they chose did so by representing BOTH the homeowner seller AND investor buyer as what is termed a "dual agent." But as a prominent Hickory Cluster realtor expert diplomatically understated, the dual agent realtor did the homeowner seller a "disservice" by not allowing typical full and open price competition.  Even the realtor's own brockerage company advises that, according to a recent MLS study validated by two Ph.D. economists, "The median sales price for homes sold on-MLS was 16.98% higher than homes sold off-MLS."  In other words, the homeowner seller and her estate lost an estimated $81,504 through an off-MLS sale with no competition among an otherwise huge market of highly-motivated buyers who also could have renovated the home and lived in it.  

But wait, there's more:  As part of the initial deal, the very same realtor arranged to represent the investor as seller during the on-MLS, three-day, six-offer, $745,200 second transaction in February 2022.  She ostensibly earned both a 6% September 2021 commission (homeowner seller 3.5% + investor buyer 2.5%), but also the 3.5% February 2022 investor seller commission.  So who benefited most from this apparent conflict of interest?  With full on-MLS price competition for their follow-on resale, the realtor and investor got the real deals.  The homeowner, with no MLS price competition for the initial resale, did not.

Increased resale prices also mean increased annual assessed property values and property taxes for everyone else.  For one nearby Block 2 Model A2B Goodman House, the 2022 Notice of Real Estate Assessment Change dated February 22, 2022 reports an increase of 15.11% from 2021, no doubt in part due to this February 3 resale.  Corresponding property tax amounts tentatively increased $878.88 from $5,815.44 to $6,694.32, subject to final county tax rate decisions and possible homeowner appeal.  See the real estate sales page of this website for comprehensive Hickory Cluster resale data covering all 2013-22 resales.  

The house was the subject of almost continuous work from September 2021 through January 2022, and the all-too-frequent blocking of a fire hydrant and resident cars by contractor trucks for hours at a time despite clearly marked fire lanes and a clearly visible fire hydrant.  Hickory Cluster fire lane signs do not say "except for contractors."

The investor team repaired substantial drywall water damage and other deferred maintenance, and remodeled bathrooms and kitchen with trendy, contemporary flat-pack DIY cabinets, fixtures, and hardware, all sadly not Mid-Century Modern in design or color.  The ground floor kitchen was reconfigured to be a more open and space-efficient with a useful pantry barn door, but in a simplistic, boring, white-on-white color scheme contrasted by stainless steel appliances and black fixtures and hardware.  Lack of a breakfast bar as part of the new kitchen cabinet divider waterfall counter top was a missed, but still possible, opportunity.  In the process, priceless original 1960s Fresnel lens ceiling and other light fixtures, original butterfly bathroom fixtures, and original kitchen appliance and cabinet components were lost forever rather than offered for reuse to other homeowners. 

Contractors refinished and repaired original Hope steel-frame awning and casement windows and original aluminum frame sliding glass doors, but they also absurdly painted the originally removable awning window screen units to the fixed window frames.  Both types of operable windows and the sliding glass doors will require eventual replacement with more modern alternatives to prevent typical excessive air infiltration and heat loss.  The contractors also added a trendy rear patio high-smoke fire ring sure to be popular with nearby neighbors.  New mixed warm white and cold blue ceiling lights will need overall color consistency, typically on the warm side.  Replacement of the old front main entry door house number plaque with a new and original-design-consistent plaque was a good thing, however, painting the replacement front entry white-anodized window aluminum door and window frames foolishly made previously paint-free elements now regular maintenance items requiring paint to match.

Hardwood floors throughout were significantly repaired and refinished, as was the rear patio brick surface.  The investor removed and replaced original ground floor wood parquet tiles attached by black mastic asbestos adhesive with dark tiles that can provide passive solar heating, but laid diagonally rather than orthogonally as did International Style Goodman.  This was a huge mistake.  Goodman used wood for at least one good reason:  concrete slab floors are and feel VERY cold during Winter months, and wood provided much less heat loss than denser vinyl or tile.  So now to compensate, the new homeowner must buy large and expensive rugs, which of course defeat passive solar heating by shielding the tiles from direct sunlight.  Or, as other homeowners did before not after floor material replacement, the investor could have installed a radiant floor heating system between the slab and new tile.  Or, he could have simply refinished the wood tiles as have many other Goodman House homeowners.  And then there's the issue of possible asbestos fiber contamination if not properly managed during tile removal.

Also sadly, it appears the RA resale inspection and disclosure document team neglected to fully follow its own Design Guidelines, Maintenance & Use Standards, and HCA Cluster Standards during both 2021 and 2022 resales of this home.  Such negligence results in unfair treatment of other HCA homeowners who were previously cited for and invested in repairing the very same non-compliant conditions elsewhere, including:  rear mid-level non-original as-built design gutter and downspout addition, upper roof deck non-original as-built design replacement light fixture, and rear top concrete beam black mildew caused by a seriously overgrown tree next door.  In addition, rear patio staggered board fences are non-compliant designs according to current HCA General Resolution 6 Fence Standards, an RA Cluster Standard, which allows four specific options, and the standard does not allow exposed hinge hardware.  According to previous HCA legal counsel guidance, such violations persist whether cited or not, and new homeowners inherit related remediation liability.  RA and HCA standards inspection and disclosure negligence also contributes to a growing accumulation of non-compliant elements, and a death spiral in individual and community Goodman House architectural integrity.

Regardless, Hickory Cluster continues to benefit from a strong real estate seller market with low supply, high demand, and historically low mortgage rates.  Goodman Houses sell quickly, with large cash down payments, almost sight unseen, and without buyer contingencies.  The overall financial success of this project for the realtor and investor is a reflection of those current conditions.  However, further continuation of this success for all stakeholders will still depend on diligent support of unique original as-built Goodman House architectural integrity by both RA and HCA, and the resulting market appeal and value to enlightened and motivated homebuyers who will pay premium prices to own an original Reston, Mid-Century Modern, Hickory Cluster Goodman House.