Key West Properties Blog 11th Anniversay

Today marks the beginning of my eleventh year in writing my little blog about Key West real estate.  Eleven years ago while having dinner with a couple I sold a house to a few years earlier one of the two suggested that I write a blog about Key West real estate. I asked "What is a blog?" or something like that. He explained a Realtor he knew in New Jersey was writing a blog. So the next day I Googled "blog" and found several examples. I started b blog on December 29, 2007.  I was surprised anybody read what I wrote. But they did and I continued to write. Then I started to get phone calls and emails from readers. And then a gent in North Carolina bought a house located in the Casa Marina Area from me. That's not a big deal in itself, but he never saw the house. He told me he read my blog and decided I could be trusted. We met in person a couple of years later while I was hosting at an open house. I was impressed by the power of my little blog. Over the years I have met most of my buyers and sellers who were first readers and later clients. Some have begun friends. I owe all of my readers a note of thanks for having kept me busy for these past eleven years.

One of the most viewed blogs was that of a really charming stand alone cottage located at the back of The Key West Writer's Compound on Solaris Hill.  I actually ended up selling this special home. CLICK HERE to see that blog which had 1242 hits on blogspot.  Over the years I have written about several homes in the compound which I find utterly charming. After all, the compound lured notable writers and poets to live nearby and share the beauty of this incredible spot on the island. I sold John Hersey's former home located near the front gate. Shortly after it became safe to walk around outside after Hurricane Irma had left Key West and was winding its way up the west coast of Florida, I walked around Old Town looking at the tree damage. I made my way to Windsor Lane where I saw the two giant trees that once stood sentry on either side of Hersey's house had fallen in the storm. I recently went by the house. The trees are gone, the fence was rebuilt, and the house stands undamaged.

This blog and the photos I take and put up on the internet have helped me reach a wide audience around the world that no regular Realtor website could ever have achieved. Almost every agent I know has one of those - except me. Instead, I write individual blogs about new listings, price reductions, and sometimes properties that are beyond the financial means of most readers. I try to give a good sense of what is for sale to appeal to a broad range of buyers. Most readers are looking for bargains. There are few of them anymore. But sometimes there are and I tell my readers. Our prices have gotten really high so a bargain here could often buy a very nice primary home up north. Longtime readers know I am not one for charts - I rarely understand a charts so I avoid them. But I do understand when the market is hot and when it is soft. I understand trends. I understand and admit when I am wrong. And I only boast a bit when I am proven right. And on occasion I write about my childhood or tell other stories that relate in some way about life in Key West or maybe culture at large.

In the earlier days when prices were dropping and suspicions about the end of the world as we knew it were rising, I got a lot of phone calls and emails from readers. The responses by phone or email usually start by saying "I've been following your blog..."  And then we start the sweet romance of finding the dream house the reader has been seeking.  When I meet these readers in person they often tell me the blogs they like most are the ones not about houses, but instead about the stuff that has happened to me or the machinations that go on inside my old head. That is how they develop a sense of trust in me.

I have three favorite blogs which I later  re-posted when the market was slow just to let my readers know I was still around. The first was Superman and Me CLICK HERE. This is the simple story about who I am told in little episodes in my life as a child and later in my professional life.

Another blog which I really enjoyed writing was The Importance of Finding Ernie CLICK HERE. I made up a silly little story about the Bert & Ernie after they found their way to Key West. The real life fact is that too many people who come here get lost and end up drunks or on drugs or both. I think a lot of people come here thinking they can reinvent themselves or find new meaning for their lives or whatever the heck it is that made their lives so bad up north in America.

The final blog is How Gay Was My Villa CLICK HERE. Earlier this week a nice couple from up north came to look at houses.  While exchanging small talk the gent said he had been reading my blog for years and mentioned a vignette in that particular blog which left him howling. Other readers remember the exact same vignette. It is one experience I will never forget either.

CLICK HERE to read the memoir of Atlantic Shores Resort.That one blog had 14,628 hits on Activerain alone. It's a short read on a big part of Key West that is sorely missed by many.

As of today I have published 2366 blogs on the Blogspot's platform where I have had 1,574,961 individual views. Later when I discovered the Activerain platform, I started to re-post my blog there. To date I have  re-posted 2033 blogs there where I have had 3,172,071 individual views. I have hosted most of my photos on FLICKR where the numbers are astounding - 1,951,385 single hits (not views).

I will end today's pat on the back blog by relating two little stories about readers. A few weeks ago I went over to one of the law offices to pick up something whereupon I introduced myself to the receptionist. She said something like "Oh, you're the Gary Thomas who writes the real estate blog. My husband and I loved your blog on the Writers Compound. When we came to town to look for houses, we looked at the Writers Compound and bought the house you wrote about." 

During a recent home inspection on a house I listed for sale, the buyer mentioned I wrote a blog about a house she bought after reading my blog on it.  She is still using the same Realtor now, but this time I represent the seller so I can profit a bit this time. 

It's been fun. Let's see what happens in the new year.