Looking for Roommate/Suggestions NOVA - Summer 17

[Senor_Taylor]

Hey everyone! Richmond was my first choice but I got a great offer from CVENT in Tyson's Corner so I'm looking for somewhere to live and possibly someone to live with. I have 2 cars and a moped already so I need someone where I can keep mulitple cars and have some space. I HOPE to commute in by car so hopefully somewhere avoiding a weird route. Having space for cars and cheap living is more important than me than being able to hop on the metro to go get sauced in downtown DC. I also plan to track ASAP so I may need space for another car as well. I know I'll probably need to keep something somewhere distant from the house, but I need options.

I'm thinking Sterling/Reston area so I can take 7 to work. My offer was pretty good so I don't need to look at somewhere super crappy.

Thanks, guys.

[JustinG]

My buddy is a Recruiting Manager there, or atleast he was last time I checked....

Congrats.

[Jake]

Re: finding a place, chat my dad up. danthiewes.com or facebook.com/danthiewes.

[Senor_Taylor]

Re: finding a place, chat my dad up. danthiewes.com or facebook.com/danthiewes.

I will. Don't worry! Just need to find people to live with.

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[.RJ]

Route 7 SUUUUUUCKS at rush hour. If you are working 'normal' hours you will hate life, but you likely wont find a place in reston for 2 cars and a moped.

If you havent lived up here you cannot comprehend the impact it has on your quality of life. At least you're not going to DC.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Route 7 SUUUUUUCKS at rush hour. If you are working 'normal' hours you will hate life, but you likely wont find a place in reston for 2 cars and a moped.

Tell him again. He didn't believe me when I told him 7 is the worst road on Earth. At like anytime.

[rherold9]

Taylor plain and simply you are looking at 40 minutes to over an hour of commute depending on where you live in NOVA. Unless you live right next to your job it sucks. I know this and don't even live there. After an hour of research on deciding if I wanted to give it a chance I immediately marked it out. It's hard pressed to find space unless you are making some serious money. You will eventually find something but it may not be your favorite option or you are going to be paying $$$$.

After driving on 7 on a Saturday morning and afternoon alone I wanted to shoot myself in the foot at least 5 times. Construction, traffic, and stop lights make for a great driving experience.

If you are looking for a roommate try craigslist. Plenty of action there. Just be sure to meet with the person and other things to make sure they aren't super weird people. You should be able to find other young professionals out there.

[Senor_Taylor]

I know NOVA sucks, which is why I didn't want to work there. You're telling me problems but offering no solutions.

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[Ken]

I know NOVA sucks, which is why I didn't want to work there. You're telling me problems but offering no solutions.

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I mean, if it's anything like NYC area, it's probably because there are no realistic options for that many vehicles.

Quick Zillow-ing i found this - seems like a good deal :dunno: Split that four ways and that's a pretty good deal - at least IMO from what i pay up here.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_rent/Mc...ect/13_zm/

[JPolen01]

I just want to see how much you are going to pay to park 2 vehicles let alone a 3rd unregistered track car in VA. Didn't Joey get fined for parking his untagged in miata in a private parking lot?

[rherold9]

I'll say it again CL is a good way to find people. Some good some not so good but it's a good option.

I thought we learned not to ask advice on these forums. Always ends up in shit posting :roll:

[SlimKlim]

Don't scare the shit out of him with all the doom and gloom now, the poor kid already accepted the offer.

Lauren drives from Ashburn to Tysons twice a week, it's not ideal, but it's also not total murder like a lot of NOVA commutes. My co-worker's wife does Ashburn to downtown DC every day. hock:

If you live in Sterling/Herndon/Ashburn you can take 28 down to the toll road and take that all the way to Tysons, so you're only dealing with legitimate gridlock for the very last leg of your drive in, that's what Lauren does. It's definitely worth the ~$1.50 each way, the gas you'd waste idling on 7 probably offsets a decent amount of the expense anyway.

I just want to see how much you are going to pay to park 2 vehicles let alone a 3rd unregistered track car in VA. Didn't Joey get fined for parking his untagged in miata in a private parking lot?

That was because the apartment complex's parking lot was considered a public street, and I got unlucky. If he does manage to find a place with a garage or private driveway he won't have an issue. The trick with parking around here is to avoid the apartment complexes entirely and try to rend a townhouse or single family.

It also becomes significantly less of an issue the further you get from the city, in the fairfax townhouse we had with Jake we ran a serious risk of just not having any parking spots available if we stayed out too late (and we already had 4 cars in the garage/driveway.) In my Ashburn neighborhood we have unregulated community parking that rarely gets more than half full, I had zero issues finding a space when I was babysitting Dave's E30 a couple weeks ago.

[Senor_Taylor]

I just want to see how much you are going to pay to park 2 vehicles let alone a 3rd unregistered track car in VA. Didn't Joey get fined for parking his untagged in miata in a private parking lot?

Jake does it no problem and he's closer into DC. No reason I can't. I've done my research. I'm just looking for a roomie or two and some suggestions along the same longitude as Sterling to keep the commute reasonable.

[rherold9]

Jake does it no problem and he's closer into DC. No reason I can't. I've done my research. I'm just looking for a roomie or two and some suggestions along the same longitude as Sterling to keep the commute reasonable.

Sure, just be prepared to pay $100+ a month then like Jake does.

[G.Irish]

Try to find a place along the Dulles Toll Road corridor to commute to Tysons. Trying to commute via route 7 is murder.

Your other option is to commute to Wiehle Ave metro, then ride the metro to Tysons via Silver line. Your best bet there is to either drive and park at Wiehle, or take a bus to Wiehle. You can probably find a place within walking distance to a bus stop with a direct route to Wiehle metro. Once you're on Silver line it's a 15 minute ride to Greensboro station, which is right outside of Cvent HQ.

With that strategy you can pick a place in Reston, Herndon, or Sterling. Biggest challenge would be to find a townhome with a garage and ample extra parking. 2 cars is doable, but 3 cars is probably pushing it.

[SlimKlim]

Here I made you this.

EDIT: Looking at it again I clipped off a bit too much of the "Sweet Spot", it should probably extend just to the east of the "Reston" text on the map, but much further than that and you're getting into some crazy property values. Otherwise I think this is a pretty good guideline for where to look given your commute and budget.

[Jake]

Those of you who are speaking from all your Googlefu skills who have never lived up here... calm down. Yes, I pay money to park my cars. I am also compensated well enough at my job that it's annoying but not an issue. Taylor got a job (yay) making good money (more yay) and is looking to make his commute be as not-sucktastic as possible. It is totally doable.

Joey and Gerald pretty much nailed it from a location standpoint. A few other tips that will come in handy as you pick a place...

1. Know your options. If you want to normally take 267 (the toll road), make sure you have other ways to get to work if 267 is all fucked up that day. This can happen because of snow, rain, someone Snapchatting while crashing their Camry into a number of things, or the fact that it's now Spring and the weather is slightly warmer in the mornings.

2. Don't be so high-and-mighty that you won't use Google Maps or Waze. Even once you start knowing your normal commute, and feeling like dammit you live here and this is home now, look up the route every morning and every evening. I can often cut 15 minutes off of my drive home because the internet knows where said Camry drivers have already hit shit.

3. Arlington has red light cameras, don't run yellows there.

4. DC and Maryland have speed cameras, keep an eye on speed limits and don't just go 70 everywhere like I am wont to do.

5. Parking 2 cars can be doable pretty easily. Most apartments will give you one parking space for free and you can pay per-car otherwise ($50/car seems to be the going rate). You may find an apartment complex with private garages for rent (as I have now). In that case, you'll probably pay for the garage and get one other spot for free. Townhomes, obviously, will have parking/garage space assigned per-home.

In all cases, consider your guest parking and look at how they monitor it. Hang-tags? Filled-out passes with license plate numbers? No moderation at all? I've learned that I can slap a "resident" sticker on any car and leave it in a non-guest spot at my place, because the tow truck comes and just looks for the sticker, no fucks given about it being on the right car.

6. Get an EzPass if you don't already have one. It makes life better. Set it to auto-reload, too.

I'll post more as I think of more. It'll be an adjustment for sure, but I think it will be fun for at least a year or two if you decide to embrace the area for what it is, and not pine for what it's not and never will be.

[.RJ]

After an hour of research on deciding if I wanted to give it a chance I immediately marked it out. It's hard pressed to find space unless you are making some serious money. You will eventually find something but it may not be your favorite option or you are going to be paying $$$$.

Its not hard to live next to your job. I havent had a commute longer than 4 miles in 10 years.

[Apoc]

After an hour of research on deciding if I wanted to give it a chance I immediately marked it out. It's hard pressed to find space unless you are making some serious money. You will eventually find something but it may not be your favorite option or you are going to be paying $$$$.

Its not hard to live next to your job if you don't care about what job you have. I havent had a commute longer than 4 miles in 10 years.

FTFY

[Senor_Taylor]

Thanks for the tips everyone. As far living near your job, I will not live in or near Tyson's. I do not like the city and I would rather commute 30-40 minutes than walk 5. I've done it for 5 years anyway.

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