Thanks to the Grinches

I want to share a little story with a very happy ending. It's about a couple who had a dream of buying a Key West getaway place with a pool and good location. They had been coming to Key West for several years and made the decision to look for a place to call their own.

We looked at houses in the Old Town and Casa Marina areas. After a couple of trips they found a place in the Casa Marina area they really liked. It was recently built and had a lot of features they liked. They made an all cash offer "near" the over the million dollar asking price. The seller happened to also be a part-time real estate agent with a full time job doing something quite different. A lot of sellers have very confused views of how valuable their personal property is worth. And this seller/agent was most confused. I met with the seller in his/her office and discussed the offer. The seller expressed a desire to get a deal done but who ultimately was not prepared to make any deal.

A couple of months later my same buyers made an offer on another property in the same neighborhood. This property was a delightful small two bedroom home with a cottage and a beautiful pool. It was priced in the "stratosphere" by one of the top agents in Key West. My buyers made an all cash offer on this place, but we were unable to reach a mutually agreeable price.

We looked and looked at other properties and my buyers got very frustrated at the reluctance of the two sellers they viewed as greedy. As the number of quality homes in just under million dollar price range shrank I suggested we look at fixers and also consider building lots. There are different rules for renovation of non-historic houses and for areas not under HARC's jurisdiction. That opened a world of new possibilities to my buyers.

I suggested that they buy a big building lot in the Casa Marina area and build their own dream home. They hired a local architect, found a great contractor, and incorporated several of the things they liked in the two houses they were not able to purchase. They purchased a vacant lot in Casa Marina, and I got to see the finished product yesterday. I have been taking progress photos over the past year as the house was built, but seeing the final home was just amazing. I could not be happier for my buyers. The place is just beautiful.

View from the living room toward the outdoor living area and pool & gardens beyond

View of the master suite

View of the pool and garden from the master bedroom

The separate Writer's Cottage - a world of it's own

Tom Pope did the architectural design; Brent at Teixxeira Enterprises was the general contractor; and Craig Reynolds did the landscape design. The house came in "on time" and on budget. The owners are really happy about the way things worked out. And all of this happened because of other peoples' greed. (By the way, neither of the two houses mentioned above sold.)

So thanks to the Grinches my buyers have exactly the dream home they wanted!