Key West After Irma - Dealing with Real Estate Looters

It happened last week, but I was prepared. I had seen this movie before. I would not fall for it again.

I got a phone call shortly before dinner. A man with what I thought was a New Jersey accent introduced himself and started on a very quick exposition about something. He talked so quickly that I thought he was one of those internet website salesmen who call me at least once a week to try to sell something. I interrupted him to ask "Are you trying to sell me something?"

He replied "No! I am a cash buyer.  I am looking for a Realtor to help me buy real estate in Key West. I can buy residential or commercial. It does not matter. I can close next week." Then he added "With all the destruction that happened after the hurricane, there will be a lot of sellers who just want to get out quick. I want to take advantage of that."

I paused for a mili-second.  I had seen this movie before. It did not end well. A few years ago another guy pulled the same maneuver after the FAKE British Petroleum Oil Spill hit Key West as reported by CNN and the Weather Channel. Oh, the BP oil spill was a real disaster and real oil did land on much of the coast of Florida, but it did not reach Key West. But the story got out that the Florida Keys also had been damaged by the oil sludge. The public bought into it. Our tourism business was deeply damaged. Our real estate business was severely impacted as well. We were still recovering from the 2008 real estate collapse. The fake sludge turned our recovering market upside down for a couple of years. There were some "deals" that did occur as a result. I tell buyers that sellers are always dying, getting divorced, moving out of town for some reason. Sellers who have to sell make the best deal they can at the time. Sellers who don't have to sell can wait it out. That's why smart money normally wins out over time.

I had one buyer who was so convinced that the oil spill would ruin Key West's tourist business that he talked about walking away from his pending contract to avoid a loss. He was going to buy a very large and quite special Shipyard condominium unit. His contract price was half of what the existing owner paid for the place a couple of years earlier. That seller who bought as an investment short saled the property thinking the Key West market was jinxed. I convinced my buyer to close the deal. (He sold the  unit a little over a year ago and almost doubled his investment.) Another agent told me about his customer who walked away from a $50,000 earnest money deposit to avoid a much larger perceived loss down the line.

The potential buyer I mentioned earlier did not want to buy a house. He wanted to get a really good deal. He had CASH and he thought his cash was the end-game. He could swagger in, flash the cash, and take some other person's prized property at a bargain price. I sent him various MLS listings and described why the various properties might play into his investment strategy. He ended up not buying anything.

So when the fast talking guy called me last week, I decided that I really did not want to waste my time dealing with someone whose goal was the same. I explained that Key West did not sustain the same kind of real property damage that happened in the Lower Keys. The physical damage shown on national television showed sections of island homes ripped apart to varying degrees. That did not happen jn Key West. Instead, Key West lost many canopy trees, palm trees, and tropical foliage. Some our largest banyans, mahoganies, and royal poincianas were toppled. This is a multi-generational loss.

I told him our housing stock is and has been very expensive for years. Our sellers know the value of their homes, the value of Key West as a destination location, and that almost every home on the island is a beneficiary of our consistent price appreciation that beats the national average year after year. I told him in the few days after Irma there only a few new listings and only a few price reductions. I hypothesized that prices will continue to rise as Americans vote to buy in  Key West rather than far away and more vulnerable locations.

I told the man I couldn't help him. (I could. But I knew he would not listen to what I had to say. He already had his mind made up as to potential bargains galore as Key Westers wallow in pity.  I would be wasting my time and his.)

I have been selling houses in Key West for 23 years - mostly to rich people because it's the rich who can afford to buy here. (Rich to me is anybody who can afford to buy a second or third home for $500,000 or more. Up north, in America, most people don't spend that much on their primary residence.) Most of my buyers are cash buyers, but unlike the guy I turned away, my buyers are looking to buy a home - a place to either live full time or part of the year. They have a dream about living in the Keys. They should all make money on their homes when they sell.  Prices go up, not down, in Key West. And during the in-between years, home owners can have one wonderful time living in Key West.

I had to stop at a stop light today on my way to my office. I noticed most of the mahogany trees on Simonton Street which were stripped bare by the storm have already got their leaves back. 

The clean-up of fallen trees is proceeding ahead. Within a few weeks Key West will look pretty much like it did before except for a lot of tree losses. I found a photo of the county court house taken in February 2017. I went over to th court house this morning to take a photo to show the same viewpoint and a second photo to show the remains of one huge uprooted trees. It is sad to lose so many lovely trees. Our buildings and our old houses survived just fine.  

Key West After Irma - Kudos and Complaints

In an earlier blog I wrote about why I stayed in Key West to weather the storm that Hurricane Irma would unleash on my island home. Later I wrote about the damage to Key West and specifically to the Old Town area which most of my readers are concerned about. I am glad that I stayed but I endured a lot of personal distress. Don't get me wrong, I am not feeling sorry for myself. People who fled Irma to Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Ft Myers, Tampa, and other larger Florida locations had to cope with some of the same losses we had in Key West, principally no electricity, no cell phone service, no internet service, no potable water and really hot temperatures with no way to cool down. People with generators did have electricity for a while, that is until the propane tanks were emptied. This blog does not address the huge losses to the people who live in the other Keys.

Earlier I wrote about going to Searstown to get some ice. I was driving east on Flagler Avenue around 11:45 AM to get to Searstown where ice, food, and water were going to be distributed starting at 12:00. I had 104.1 FM on my radio. I think it was former State Senator Ron Saunders who was conducting a telephone interview of a FEMA spokesman from Washington. Saunders was on the air every time I was in my car driving somewhere. He always spoke rationally. He offered reliable information as to assistance that was available at the moment throughout the Keys. And on that day and time he interviewed the FEMA guy who was the worst example of federal government incompetence. Saunders asked several simple one sentence questions as to what FEMA assistance were readily available now to persons effected by the storm. He pointedly asked about persons who had evacuated and how they could get assistance for temporary housing if they return to a home or apartment that was damaged or destroyed.

The FEMA spokesman told Saunders and the listening audience to go online and register at the FEMA website. When Saunders gently pressed for more information, the FEMA guy said he would get back to Saunders with more competent answers. At another point he offered to discuss certain matters "off air". I was so enraged I shut the radio off three different times in the five to seven minute ride to Searstown. What an incompetent jerk this was. He was the face of FEMA at that moment. His voice of incompetence was being broadcasted the 100 miles of the Keys. He offered nothing - not a scintilla of hope to people whose lives were forever changed by this storm.

Later I hear US Senator Marco Rubio being interviewed on 104.1 FM. He remarked about the lack of electric power, the lack on internet and cellular service in this the most powerful and wealthy county in the world, and the immediate inability of FEMA to be of aid. He remarked that the NAVY (which had positioned help ships in Key West) had power, internet and telephonic communication and said something like we can and must do better.  You think?


Readers of my blog may recall me writing on occasion about the Conch telegraph.  That is a euphemism about how life stories in Key West are communicated - you tell one person something and within minutes it can be all over the island with the true story often getting mangled in the process. That happens anywhere but news and gossip move with light speed in Key West especially when we have cell service.

I think it was the first but perhaps the second day after the storm that someone climbed a telephone pole in Old Town and dropped a phone wire down to ground level where an old fashioned push button phone was affixed to the pole. I found out about the phone and called some of my customers to report the condition of their property. People waited in line for their turn to talk to the outside world who thought Key West might have been obliterated. It wasn't.

The photo at the top of today's blog shows my next door neighbor's once majestic tree that dominated the Casa Marina Area. I used to lay on a raft in my pool and look up at the top of the tree where a hawk sat keeping an eye on everything below. I have not been in the pool since the tree fell. The hawk not sits up on the power line on the opposite side of the street.  The city and the tree clean-up contractors have done a remarkable job in cleaning up the tons of tree debris. Kudos to those hard working men. I am happy to report that the majority of damage to Key West was to our trees and not to our homes and not to our people. We will get past this.  Key West is officially open for business.

CLICK HERE to view photos of Key West pre and post Hurricane Irma.

Hurricane Irma - Key West - Part Two

Earlier I blogged about Key West before the storm hit our town. I used photos to show how Key West prepared to meet what Chad Myers on CNN predicted as a 'catastrophic' hurricane.  He warned of a tidal surge of ten to fifteen feet and winds that would wipe out all the old wood houses in Key West. In my earlier blog I  detailed why I elected to stay in the newly constructed building located behind the soon to open Marquesa 4-1-4 Hotel on Simonton Street. The new building was constructed to withstand winds of 200 MPH. I have stayed in all other hurricanes except one since I moved to Key West 24 years ago. I wasn't worried about the winds as I know our old houses were built to withstand the winds despite what Mr. Myers thinks. His non-stop warning about the ten foot tidal surge scared so many locals that they ended up fleeing on the Thursday and Friday before the storm. My second floor room was beyond reach of a surge if one were to occur.

We lost power around 8:00 PM the night before the storm. Key West. I took a sleeping pill and went to sleep rather than fret about what might happen. I woke up the next morning to brisk blowing winds, but I experienced worse during Hurricane Wilma which were accompanied by driving rain. I looked out and found lots of tree limbs had snapped including ancient mahoganies on Simonton Street. In my opinion Key West stood up strongly to a powerful category 4 hurricane - perhaps a once in a century kind of event. We incurred major tree damage across the island, but we did not suffer building losses and flooding predicted by CNN and others. The storm was massive in size and took several hours to pass by Key West. Around 3:00 PM I left my hotel room to survey what had happened.

Mahogany trees on Simonton Street snapped. A large mahogany in the 300 block of Simonton had toppled. I knew this was not good. Was it an omen of other losses? I walked over to Duval Street. I could see standing water down toward the Pier House and decided not to go there. Instead I walked east on Caroline Street where I found another majestic tree toppled at the entry to the Curry Mansion.

As I head east on Eaton Street noticed the totally exposed renovation going on at 704 Eaton Street (mentioned in my earlier blog about construction projects in Key West). The back end of the house was removed as part of the renovation. This house withstood the winds of our Category 4 hurricane. That is something you did not see on CNN.  It does not fit the scare tactics CNN and other networks use to hype hurricanes. Readers need to understand that TV networks get viewers by making events seem worse than they are. Irma devastated the Lower Keys but it did not devastate Key West.

I walked east along Eaton Street another fifty feet or so and spotted another huge tree at the corner of William Street. As I got close I could see the huge old banyan tree next to the Eaton Street Seafood Market had totally uprooted. Note the propane tank hanging midair.  It took about four days to clear the street from this monster tree. I stopped to talk to a multi-generation Conch who told me to go over to the 600 block of William where three large banyans had fallen. On my way I noticed several banyans at the Harris School on Southard Street at Margaret had also fallen.

I could not believe my eyes when I got to the 600 block of William .  I saw one huge banyan toppled into the street. I looked south and saw another that had fallen against the late Shel Silvertein's former house - about 75 feet up the street. As I walked closer I could see that two separate trees had uprooted and fallen into the house. I went back the next day to take more photos as the pics I took on Sunday were all obscured by the haze and moisture in the air.  I took the photo immediately above in February 2017 which shows the north banyan tree which uprooted and fell into Shel Silverstein's house.

I then walked one block south to the end of William Street. I turned right to walk up Windsor Lane when I notice two more large trees had fallen into the lane. I recognized the house as I sold it a few years ago. It was the former home of writer John Hersey. Even though the trees uprooted on either side of this cottage, it did not appear to have been damaged in the process.

 The day after the storm I walked up and down Duval Street and Whitehead Street to see if either had sustained any significant damage. I can report the buildings stood up strong to wind. Margaritaville and the other icons were not damaged. There were individual businesses that tree damage which may alter the way they appear and function. The buildings were not damaged from what I saw. There is one house located at the far end of Fleming Street which I wrote about a couple of years ago. Two giant banyans stood sentry at the front of the lot obscuring the house from view. Maybe that house will now sell since the banyans are no more. Key West lost a lot of trees - Mahogany, Royal Poinciana, Gumbo Limbo, Sapadillo, and Banyans. But there are many that were not damages or only slightly damaged. Palm trees that were lost can be replaced. They thrive.

CLICK HERE to view more photos some of which do not appear in either blog. Readers may freely use any of these photos.  Readers are encouraged to visit Key West again or to come for the first time. We endured a major Category 4 hurricane. Our homes and businesses withstood the winds.  I have not been outside of Key West yet. I know there is major damage in the Lower Keys but have been told by people who seen the damage that the homes impacted were built prior to the strict building codes adopted by Florida after Hurricane Andrew and subsequent. The use of modern building materials does save property and lives.  Old Town is bouncing back and is already open for business. 

3312 Northside Drive #401, Key West, Florida

Readers up north may not appreciate how expensive it has become to live down here in Key West. Key West used to be a bargain. But popularity of our island paradise has caused housing costs to rise far greater than wages for most full time residents.  Finding a place where you would actually like to live and can also afford is often difficult  As a result many people must rent or share their living space - often with people they barely know. Or maybe they decide to rent a place with a person they know, but learn to despise because of their roommate's habits. A few years ago I took the photo below of an actual rental in Old Town. The tenants had to use the bathtub as the place they cleaned their dishes. I kid you not.

The new Preferred Properties Key West listing at the Santa Clara Condominiums is an affordably priced alternative to roommate living. And after Hurricane Irma the place may become more desirable than before simply because of the existence of such an affordable unit.

The listing broker describes 3312 Northside Drive Unit 401, Key West this way:

"Affordable Key West living. This large studio apartment at Santa Clara has a full kitchen, living room and full bath plus an alcove. The balcony looks out over the tennis courts and pool side of the property. Santa Clara is a secure building which had recent upgrades and is well maintained. There is ample parking, a gated entrance and beautiful amenities including the large pool and two tennis courts. Very convenient location in Key West. Pets are not allowed at Santa Clara. This is a great value."

The asking price on this 408 square foot unit is just $195,000. The monthly condo fees are $358 which cover building maintenance and insurance, pool and common area maintenance, and sewer. This is a large condominium development which is professionally managed. A qualified new buyer may get 90% financing and could potentially own this place for a price cheaper than paying rent.  I found several loan products of $800 +/- per month.  Real property taxes will be about 1% of purchase price or $1950.00 per year. That would equate to a total monthly payment of $1320.  I urge readers to checkout monthly rentals in the Key West Citizen or Craigslist. Compare the price and consider the possibility of owning a place without sharing space with a roommate.  I have not been inside this unit myself (yet) but I am familiar with the building.

 

If you work in the hospitality business or at the hospital, you can ride a bus or ride your scooter to work.  You can be almost anywhere in about 15 minutes any either means of transportation.  The building has a large pool and tennis courts. You can actually layout by your own pool, get some rays,  relax and enjoy your life in Key West and not have a second job (or third job).

Alternatively, if you are simply looking for a Key West getaway place that won't break your bank account, this property may be the one you have been hoping to find. Too many buyers think that being near Duval Street is the answer to all their needs. Houses and condos across the island get to share the same sunshine and great weather. 

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet on  3312 Northside Drive #401, Key West, Florida. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 306-766-2642, to set up a private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

Hurricane Irma - Key West - Part One

About four weeks ago newscasters started to talk about Hurricane Irma forming the waters of the Atlantic. Initial announcements of hurricanes forming catch my attention but do not alarm me as they typically die off or meander through the Caribbean and head north in the Atlantic Ocean.

I have lived in the Key West for 23 years and have been here for every hurricane except Georges in 1998. I was in Miami attending refresher real estate school when that hurricane was announced.

That storm slammed the Florida Keys. I spoke to friends on the phone who stayed in Key West during that storm and was told the flood and wind damage was extensive.  Locals who evacuated were not allowed to return for several days. It took me nearly twelve hours to drive the 120 miles from Miami to Key West. The next day I drove the streets and learned that only certain areas flooded and that while the wind damage was widespread, it was did not cause houses to fly up into the sky like in the Wizard of Oz. Instead, there was massive loss of palm trees and what I call tropical foliage. (In the following years Key West experienced the same type loss of tree damage - mostly to palm and poorly maintained trees.) I decided as a rule it made more sense for me to stay in Key West than to drive 120 miles to Miami or beyond. I don't have children and would not risk the lives of anyone else. I do not believe staying in Key West is life threatening to anyone. 

The year 2005 brought four named storms to Key West including the infamous Hurricane Wilma which caused significant flood damage from a storm surge.  Key West is located at the tail end of the Florida Keys. It is four miles long and about one mile wide. The island is surrounded by a reef which minimizes damages from large waves – they just do not occur. The historic Old Town area is located at the westernmost side of the island.  The Newtown area is located on the eastern side of the island and Midtown is in the middle. Both areas were developed in the 1950s and 1960s when former low-lying areas and former salt ponds were filled and raised to create building lots. Those areas were impacted the most by the storm surge that occurred as a result of Wilma’s devastating impact on Miami. There was no “wall of water”. Instead, water quickly rose from the ground and soon filled the streets and homes with up to four feet of water above grade. Several storms threatened us in the following years following Hurricane Wilma which caused local and state officials to issue mandatory evacuation orders. Schools and businesses closed and families headed north. The police do not enforce the evacuation. People who do stay are warned that if they stay, they are on their own in the event of an emergency. In the twelves since Wilma, none of the named storms ever reached Key West.

I watched CNN and the other networks for several days as Hurricane Irma churned through the Atlantic. I listened to Chad Meyers and others warn of catastrophic winds and tidal surges of ten feet or higher. Irma moved very slowly. There was ample time to leave, but the potential path was so wide it was difficult to decide whether  to go east to Miami or north toward Orlando.

I decided to stay in Key West with a friend at the soon to open Marquesa 4-1-4 Hotel on Simonton Street.  The new building is located behind the historic Kerr House and the former Pilot House guesthouse which are the focal point of the development. The new building was built to Florida’s tough building codes to withstand winds up to 200 MPH. I would stay in a second floor junior suite just in case the highly improbably ten foot tidal surge Chad Myers predicted were to come true.

Two days before the storm I drove along Truman Avenue and North Roosevelt Boulevard to take photos of a few “landmarks” just to note what they looked like before the storm. I guesstimate that seventy percent or more of town had evacuated by that point. We have a lot of single people who do not have cars or funds to go someplace else. Others, like me, find it more convenient to stay and cope with the discomforts of heat and no electricity than to deal with the discomforts of evacuation and re-entry. If you followed the news after the storm, you are aware the authorities restricted re-entry for several days to persons with re-entry passes and Key West identification. 

Duncan Auto Sales ferried most of its car inventory out of harm’s way. The lot was empty except for two kiosks and a few pickup trucks. Both kiosks were downed by the hurricane. Within a couple of days after the storm passed, the vehicles were returned.

I noticed two dredgers were tethered to a dock opposite the Burger King on North Roosevelt. I had not seen any vessel docked at this location before. I got out of my car to take photos including the Burger King. The Burger King store experienced some signage damage which is typical of many businesses on this roadway.  I do not recall seeing any structural damage to any building except for some scattered roof damages. I did not see any lost roofs. 

We have three shopping centers in Key West. I took photos of the Searstown Center because it is the largest. In addition to Sears, there is a PUBLIX grocery, Outback Steak House, Regal Cinema, and Royal Furniture, our number one furniture store. All of the stores and eateries were boarded up.

The days after the storm have melded together. About three or four days after Irma hit, I heard that food, water, and ice were being given out at Searstown. I only needed ice. The first day the lines were so long that I turned my car around and went home. The second day I parked my car and walked up to a local police woman who told me there was no more ice. When I asked her when it might be available, she said when it gets here. So I went home - frustrated. The third day I parked my car a block away. I found a red shopping cart and walked from the far west side of Sears to the east side where I found a massive assemblage of the US military personnel, Florida National Guard, FEMA, and other government and charitable groups. The east side of the parking lot was full of cars and trucks of locals who were waiting in line to get food, water, and ice. I passed through a sea what looked like high school kids in military uniforms, young men and women of every color and race, each cleanly scrubbed with short haircuts and spiffy clean uniforms. I felt so damned old and so damned proud. One young man gave me two cases of bottled water. I moved forward where I was offered ready-to-eat meals which I declined. A muscular 6'2" or taller Marine placed two bags of ice in my cart. I heard a "God Bless You!" My body lunged forward and I grasped the bar with both hands. I was over whelmed with emotion. At that point I had not seen any television and had not heard that much about the damage to the other Keys. But I could sense the magnitude of the event by the number of people who were there.

The day before the storm I went over to the White Street Pier, Higgs Beach, and the Casa Marina Resort to memorialize those sites.  The streets were empty. A murder of crows or some other big band of black birds ominously were perched on electric power lines as if they were aware a big storm was headed our way.

Old Town Fire Station commend center after the storm

Our real estate office is located about 125 feet away from the newly constructed Old Town Fire Station where the City of Key West assembled its battery of service vehicles that would become useful in dealing with the aftermath of the storm. The bottom photo just above shows the same area thirteen days later. FEMA has set up camp here to take claims from persons impacted by Irma. 

I took the above photo of Marquesa 4-1-4 yesterday, September 19, 2017, the place I stayed at during the hurricane, 10 days after Irma hit Key West.  I post this photo to let you know that not only this business but most businesses and homes in Key West were not damaged. My next blog will take readers on a photo tour of Old Town immediately after the storm ended.