Hello! I am looking to purchase a condo at Shadowood. I see from my internet research it had some issues a while back. Is it better now? Would you recommend it for an owner-occupied residency? I'm not afraid to mace jokers in the face. THANKS!

I used buy coke from a guy who lived there.

I don't know how it is now, but six years ago it was pretty bad. Lots of shady looking people and shabby looking condos. If you buy there, you will have to be open to diversity, especially with our friends South of the border. After the 2008 market crash, you could have bought a condo for next to nothing. As a result, lots of investors came in and rehabbed the units. Prices seem to have rebounded. They had a fire in the community center some time ago, which required a hefty special assessment. Presumably, the community center has been rebuilt. And the complex is near the future metro.

If I were buying a condo, I would check on the percentage of rentals in the complex, since that can effect your ability to sell. I would also check on the association's reserves. If you buy a non-rehabbed unit in that complex, plan to put some serious money in to bring it up to date. Good luck.

Thanks, @SomeThoughts. The unit I'm looking at has been rehabbed and looked lovely inside. The outside negatives were the brown exterior door, brown steps, brown building, brownness overall. The windows also looked old and if the HOA is in financial hard times new windows across the community are probably a long time away.

mc6 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks, @SomeThoughts. The unit I'm looking at
> has been rehabbed and looked lovely inside. The
> outside negatives were the brown exterior door,
> brown steps, brown building, brownness overall.
> The windows also looked old and if the HOA is in
> financial hard times new windows across the
> community are probably a long time away.

That's pretty typical of places built in the 70s. Not much you can do about it. The HOA several years ago was very particular about any external changes by the owners; don't know how they are now. And I don't know if the HOA is in bad shape financially, but I would certainly look into it.

My biggest concern if I was you would be the neighborhood. It may have completely turned around now - I don't know. Personally, I would spend a weekend hanging around your prospective condo and see what it's like. Remember the old real estate adage - location, location, location.

STAY AWAY! The place is a slum and it's infested with more section 8 units than anywhere else in Reston.

The pipes leak all the time.

The electric system catches fire from time to time and results in blackouts.

They claim the condo fee is low, but then you get a $300 monthly utility charge on top of the outrageous condo fee.

The snow plowing is a disaster. Takes days and all they do is plow a narrow path through the congested overcrowded parking lots.

If you try to complain, the fat chick who works in the office is a royal bitch. Then try to complain to the management and you are told you have no more than two minutes to comment. When they are ready to hear from you. On a Saturday morning It's a total joke.

There is NO FHA financing because fairfax county owns so many units and fills them with low-income tenants.

There are FAR FAR FAR better choices all over Reston and Fairfax --- STAY AWAY FROM THIS DUMP!

Dilapidated junkers always in the parking lots and even worse jalopies on the street next to the place.

NO VISITOR parking at all -- and if you do have a visitor who stays after 11 PM, it will cost her hundreds to get her car back from the Nazis on the board who claim they run the place.

The landscaping is worse than a ghetto -- bare dirt and erosion everywhere.

Drug dealers galore and thick gangs of blacks with their asses hanging out marauder through the place making everyone feel unsafe.

The place is broke and will sure have special assessments. Look at the windows and doors? Junk!

The management controls the HVAC so you roast in the summer and freeze your nads off in the winter.

Oh, and it's not that close to a metro -- two to three miles at best.

You can hear your neighbors fucking, pissing and shitting through the paper thin walls.

Do you really want to listen to that? Every day? Section 8 tenants are supreme breeders and fuck all the time.

Try the Northgate sq condos in north reston. They are decent in price and the neighborhood is pretty decent.

It will likely get better (and more expensive) when the metro station opens.

It's 71% rentals -- We just tried to refi and that's what the office told us.

The reserve fund has less than $2 million; the condo borrowed $6 million to fund its operations. And they just cut the condo fee, so the crooks can all get reelected.

There is no way it will get better with or without metro. There is no money there to fix things let alone make upgrades.

The cops call the place "Shadowhood". The entrance signs often get defaced with the word wood painted over with hood.

You see all kinds of pit bulls running around off leash, dog shit all over the place, and the busted down playgrounds in overgrown woods. The management never enforces the rules. Kids play in the streets, damage cars, break windows and buildings and never get out of the way.

Parking is very limited and regulated by Nazis. The only way to get a parking permit is during the manager's VERY limited office hours. All of us have jobs, but we have to take time off to meet THEIR demands for OUR community? The same Nazis also control the hot water and ration it. If the hot water goes out on a weekend or holiday, you are screwed. The manager is only there during very limited hours on traditional "business" days.

There are halfway houses here for felons and mentally ill. They residents hang out in the streets, walk in circles and stare you down. No security here at all -- we asked for tapes of the security cameras and were denied.

Flop houses for illegals (of all kinds) with 10-15 people living in these tiny condos.

ROACHES and BEDBUGS everywhere. Doesn't matter what you do in your condo b/c the bugs are in the walls and in the shit-hole next to, above, or below your condo.

If you don't pay your condo fees because you were laid off or have a medical issue, they will turn off your heat, hot water, air conditioning and electricity! Guilty until proven innocent! The arrogant pigs who run the place are pathetic little Hitler wannabes.

Check out the police report for the place. More calls for service there than in any other complex in Reston?

BIGGEST mistake of my life was buying a dump here. Yeah, it's nice on the inside, but the outside is a slum ghetto hood.

RUN, don't walk, away from this place.

Wow --- it's got two registered sex offenders living there too. What a 'hood.

http://sex-offender.vsp.virginia.gov/sor/offenderDetails.html?regId=30427

http://sex-offender.vsp.virginia.gov/sor/offenderDetails.html?regId=22745

Still more horribleness...the incompetent management is allwoing Comcast to come in and QUADRUPLE fees for internet and cable.

I used to pay 30 bucks a month and now the best deal (what a fucking joke!) I can get is $149 for the exact same services.

They won't allow satellite dishes (even though they have a dish farm on the clubhouse for their own use) and Verizon doesn't touch this shithole of a dump.

18. No person may install any wiring, antenna, machine, device, structure, screening or other object or apparatus on the exterior of any building or on the General Common Elements, the Limited Common Elements or in such a fashion that it protrudes through the building or any common element roo

Here's the mail from the management.

Attention: Shadowood Residents

Comcast has informed Shadowood's Management that they will have Sales Representatives in the Community going door-to-door, contacting residents with the best Comcast promotional deals available. Comcast will be in the Community from about 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday, October 11th.

The Shadowood Management fully understands the inconvenience, dissatisfaction and utter disgusts of the many residents who will have their bulk rates and services ending on November 1. We are working diligently with Comcast to offer Shadowood residents the best Comcast deals before November 1.


American Management of Virginia

The assholes can't spell and CAPITALIZE correctly either and door to door soliciting is prohibited by their OWN DAMN RULES!

1. For the safety or all people and property, no one shall be permitted to play, canvass, solicit, sell, congregate or assemble in the parking areas or on the streets at any time.

So what I am hearing is everyone loves the place.

I think there was a ruling back in the early 90s that prevented HOAs from enforcing rules preventing access to telecommunications equipment such as satellite dishes. In fact, I remember one company (maybe DirecTV) had a promotion
that they would take on the legal
costs if you installed and got hassled. I would investigate this if I were you. It would probably only take a phone call to DirecTV or Dish.