Key West Real Estate Horror Story No. 17

Many moons ago I emailed a new single family home listing located in Old Town to a buyer who had previously purchased several properties from me. The property was a dump but it had a large clean lot with no trees, and a great location. My buyer emailed back, asked a few questions. Then he texted me and later made a sight unseen offer for my. It was a good cash offer with no inspection issues - he knew the building was in horrible condition and that the project would be a total renovation from foundation to the roof. After some back-and-forth with the seller, a deal was agreed to and we closed - still sight unseen. I never actually spoke with the buyer in person or on the phone while making this deal. 

A few months later that I met with buyer's architect at the property. He had done some exploratory demolition to see what could be saved. He said "Gary you've got to see this!" whereupon we went into a shed that had slyly become a bedroom at the side of the house. This happened decades earlier. The filth and dust was decades old.

As I entered the room the architect warned to watch my step. The entire wood floor had been removed. All that remained were some rotting joists. The architect said the wood floor had been laid over a wall to wall shag carpet. The carpet was laid over crumbling old floor system with a big hole in the middle. The carpet in essence was supporting the wood floor. The photo below demonstrates the hole, but is not from this house.While this is scary, it is not why I consider this house a Key West horror story. Read on.

As we left the house a neighbor approached and asked if we were the new owners. I explained who we were and what we were doing. The neighbor had questions about what would happen to the dump and invited us inside to see their house.  The neighbor's house was was totally restored and amazing.

We spoke for ten minutes or longer about the area and the new owner's intentions.  Then the neighbor asked if we were aware that four men had died in the recently purchased house. No. The neighbor said the house had been a drug den for years. The deaths were accidental - probably overdoses. Florida law does not require Realtors or owners to disclosure of death on the sale of any house. Such a disclosure would not have impacted my buyer's purchase. Still it would have been nice to know this.

I was actually shocked to learn about the deaths. On the other hand, I see crazy stuff all the time in this little town located on an island out in the middle of the ocean. I write this story today because of a phone conversation I recently had with a different client who has also bought a couple of properties from me. He told me the story of him visiting a man's home in located in Bahama Village. He described a tropical paradise surrounding the house which had no air conditioning.  Instead the windows were left open like in olden days. This house, he said, also had a big hole in the floor.