True Tales of Key West Real Estate in the Time of Covid 19 - Part Ten

This is a true story about real people and real estate in Key West. Several years ago I worked in a large real estate office with headquarters in Key West and several offices throughout the Florida Keys.

The Key West office had a lot of agents including several "top producers". One of the top producers was a woman I will call Mary - Mary Contrary. Mary was big on the social scene. She was at a dinner or function all the time. She was easily recognizable in any crowd. She had  many listings and many buyers. She was a whirlwind of activity. She had a female assistant (who I will call Karen) to help manage her thriving business. Karen worked for Mary for several years and did the chores assistants do. One year Karen got her Christmas bonus. She never came back to work. She gave no notice. She just did not return to work.

Mary found a new assistant who I will call Eric. Mary found a winner in him. He had a real estate license and excellent computer skills. Eric was quiet. He had his own office where he immediately took over the control of Mary's life and business. When you are top producing Realtor your life is your business and vice versa. Eric worked for Mary two and one-half days. He went to lunch and did not return. He didn't work long enough to get a Christmas bonus. He didn't work long enough to meet many of the people who worked in the office. He didn't work long enough to give Mary a chance.

I can't remember exactly how Mary figured out what happened. She was not a hands-on type of person. But she did. Before leaving Eric destroyed all of Mary's computer files - her listings, her old files, her contacts, her emails, HER LIFE.

I don't have a moral for this story. I do not understand how one person can take such advantage of another. People do it tall the time in business without blinking an eye.

1200 Whitehead Street, Key West - Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda

 

Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda - The Key West Real Estate Lament

Key Wester Shel Silvertein left us with many  memories including Woulda-Coulda-Shoula to which I add  the Key West Lament

All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
Layin' in the sun,
Talkin' bout the things
They woulda-coulda-shoulda done...
But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
All ran away and hid
From one little did.

Yesterday afternoon a new listing popped up on my Key West MLS. The first image was so startling I had to study it for a few seconds and then I realized what house it was - 1200 Whitehead Street. I had written about the property when it popped two years ago when it was listed for just $912,000. Let's look at the 2019 image and compare to 2021 so you can share my glee in the transformation. 

2019 

 

2021

I took the grayish photo in 2019 and a professional photographer took the recent pic. His pic  is better by far. But its not the photography at issue here. My 2019 photo showed the potential about which I wrote in the earlier blog. The house was a project home for the former owners. Times got difficult. The project was abandoned. The house was half-finished. The bank foreclosed. When it was offered for sale lots of potential buyers surfaced. I went over to take photos for a potential buyer and also my blog. I was not surprised to see four or six other agents roaming around with their customers or cameras taking photos or doing Facetimes. 

One of the challenges of this property was its size. The house was 4,179 square feet which is massive by Key West standards. The  corner lot was good sized - 2,495 square feet and located just a couple of blocks north of the famous Southernmost Point. Half the house was sort of done with finishes the former owners preferred and that a new owner might have to replace to create a cohesive design aesthetic. That could mean ripping out perfectly fine marble, tiles, walls, and floors. A new owner might have have to follow the design plans of the already framed rooms or tear down the framing and start anew.

One of the faults I had with the "before" property was that the owner had created such a large house and left only a small space for a pool personally would have preferred a larger pool and garden area. That 's the problem when Realtors substitute their preferences for what new owners may prefer. Some of the best agents in town shut their moths and let their buyers make up their own minds. I should do the same. Below is a before pic of the space left for a pool and then the actual pool.

CLICK HERE to read my original blog on 1200 Whitehead Street, Key West. It was bank owned and  listed for $912,000 but sold for $1,351,000 in sixteen days after a bidding war before that was actually going on everywhere.

1200 Whitehead Street is now offered for sale for 3.599,000. CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and many excellent listing photos. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642. to schedule a private showing of this one-of-a-kind eyebrow houses in a great Old Town location. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Don't be a Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda on this. You'll regret it for the rest of your life. 

 

724 Windsor Lane Key West - Open House Not on the Prairie

This is the deal. 724 Windsor Lane is bigger than the little house on the prairie - a lot bigger. It is a  460 square foot one bedroom, one bath house with large eat-in kitchen with vaulted ceiling. The bathroom has an old fashioned claw foot tub with shower surround. It has a great front porch for people watching and a sunny rear deck for sunning (no neighboring views). Plus it has off street parking. A lot of million dollar-plus houses in Old Town would love to have parking. They don't. This does. 

People have lived in this house since before 1889. That's 140 years of living in this small space. It does work. It has Dade County Pine walls and ceiling and the all important metal roof. Most important is its location - on Solaris Hill - the highest point in Key West. There are bakeries, bars, and baristas within easy walking distance. It's an easy three block walk to Duval Street and a similar walk to the Historic Seaport. St Mary's is two blocks away, Old Town Gym a block further. 

You could look elsewhere and find a cheaper little house like the one on the prairie, but then how much fun would that be? That little place looks really cute but pretty lonesome. 

 

724 Windsor Lane, Key West - Uneventful Open House

 

Spring Break is upon us in Key West. The streets are filled with tourists - everywhere. The weather forecast for today is 83 Degrees with Sunny Skies. Life is sorta coming back to normal. People are buying houses like there is no tomorrow. There is till today.

Yesterday I did what I never do  - I walked over Duval Street to run an errand. I stopped by the Duval Street Psychic to discuss the future. The swami said good fortune will come to those who avoid the beach in Key West this weekend. I told him that's good because I am hosting an Open House in Old Town this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. He told me I would be safe.

OPEN HOUSE

724 Windsor Lane | Key West

11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Saturday & Sunday

Cute Conch Cottage with Off Street Parking

I've heard this guys knows his stuff. My advice is avoid the surf and sand, come to my open house, then walk over to Duval Street or the Seaport and have a nice uneventful lunch. Why chance it?

 

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Key West Real Estate - Aroma Therapy

I have the good fortune to sell houses to people with fortunes - at least some of my buyers have fortunes. A few have many houses in several cities. A couple have houses on multiple continents. People who have made money in real estate like to buy more real estate. And that's where I come in.

One special customer found me off my blog. We talked a couple of times on the phone and then started email correspondence. She would send short one line questions about a specific property. We did this for weeks and maybe months. I educated her in the ways and whys of Key West real estate. I looked at houses offered for sale in out MLS. I sent her photos with my comments. Eventually she bought a place and renovated it. Now she is looking for a second second home in Key West.

The lady is like so many people - she lives on Zillow and knows whenever some new property hits the Key West MLS. She will send me one of her one liners asking my opinion. She recently sent me an email about a new listing that caught my eye that same day. I made an appointment to see the place. Several other agents were scheduled around the same time I was there I moved from room to room taking it all in. I looked for reasons not to buy but I found more positive things than negative until I spotted it. It looked like a dehumidifier. Mold, I thought. 

I asked the listing agent what the device was thinking it was a dehumidifier. Wrong, it was an electronic air cleaner.  The above photo is Samsonite luggage. But it looks like the device. Then I asked whether the house had flooded in Hurricane Wilma - it had, but the damage was fixed. Earlier I looked for tell tale signs but found none. The agent then volunteered the owners have a couple of dogs. I said I did not smell any dog odor. But I was standing in the dining room with doors opened out to the back yard. Besides the machine actually worked and eliminated (or hid) the odor of Rover.

I exited the house and stepped out to the covered rear deck to checkout the backyard. The spread the width of the house. There was a shed addition on the right. I could see the washer and dryer. I walked over to see the inside and was overwhelmed by the stench. I loved dogs. Some smell. Those dogs smelled really bad. The shed might have to be torn down. 

I sent my email and photos to my customer. I offered positive comments on the property as a whole, but warned of the awful odor. She independently decided it was not the place for. 

 

 

 

Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No. 19

From September 30, 2016

Knowing the Value of Money

 

I was in New York City a few weeks ago during a truly unbearable hot spell. I had no idea how hot the city gets in the summer. I know now and won't repeat my mistake. I made my way to China Town for Dim Sum then walked around in Little Italy wishing I had gone there instead. Later I found my way over near the Flatirons Building when I passed the ancient ATM machine pictured above.  It looked like a cousin of R2D2 or some patron of the STAR WARS bar. And that reminded me of a dinner in I had in Key West a year earlier. 

In February 2015 I  had dinner with a couple of New Yorkers who were friends of a friend before the four of us went to see NEXT FALL at the Waterfront Theater. I had not met this gay couple before that night, but after listening to them speak for a short time I assumed they are among the 1%. If they aren't, they are pretty close. One is a writer and the other is a really Big Shot at one of the big three television networks. I remember asking the TV executive about the cost of living in the city. I referenced BRAVO's Million Dollar Listing New York and asked what regular people had to pay for housing. He said a million dollars minimum. I tried to clarify my question by referring to busboys, bartenders, sales clerks at Macy's, and people that work for tips or an hourly wage. He restated his answer:  a million dollars. I said that can't be right. He insisted it was.

Now I know busboys and shoe salesmen at Macy's can't afford to pay a million dollars for a place to live. I am sure they rent - I just don't know where or how much they pay. But that's not the point. I wondered what kind of reality must these two men live in to not understand that real people can't afford to live in a million dollar universe.

I have had the same feeling about most of those yo-yos in congress and candidates who think there is no need to raise the minimum wage. I haven't been paid an hourly wage since my third year in college - that was a very long time ago. I still remember making decisions on what I could afford to buy to eat based on how long I had to work to pay for it.  I can't imagine how difficult it is for people who work for $7 or $8 per hour to pay for a place to live and feed their children.  In Key West you'll have to pay $3.99 for a loaf of bread and about $4.50 for a gallon of milk. That's more than a sales clerk on Duval Street makes after W2 deductions. I just don't get how people who have so much can have so little understanding of people who have have so little. It's as if the 1% live in an alternate reality not unlike the patrons of the STAR WARS bar.

If you are thinking of buying a place in Key West, please consider working with me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. I am grounded in reality and know the value and limitations of money.

 

Update Marcy 25, 2021. I met with a couple I sold a fixer house to a few years ago. The place is finally done. It looks great. It cost more than they planned. I warned them. But it worked out. They told me they laughed at something I kept telling them "It's only money!"  I realize money really is a big deal. Not to the rich. They piss it away. Money means a whole lot to people who have to work for it to take care of themselves and their kids. 

I wish I could go back to New York, heat and all. I miss the theater, restaurants, looking up, looking down, fearing subways, getting annoyed by just about everybody.

Key West Cracks Down!!!

 

Over the years I have posted photos of various locals and tourists who get arrested and held in the Monroe County Jail. I am not doing that today but will soon. I am, however, reporting on one guy who got busted on 18 Felony and 45 Misdemeanor charges for reportedly not paying sales and transient rental taxes on three homes he owns in Key West.  

A couple of days ago I was going through the mugshots and saw the photo of the guy who looked normal (as opposed to some of the zoned-out or beat-up people I have previously posted). Then I looked at his profile. Accountant - but not in Key West - in another city. But with a local address in Key West - in Truman Annex - at a house I showed a couple of weeks ago that is for sale for a whole lot of money. HMMM.

The Key West Police Department arrested the guy who is reportedly "infamous" for illegal transient rental violations and Key West Code Enforcement Violations of $1.2 million and who reportedly failed to appear before the Special Magistrate to address code violations.* 

I did some more digging. I found other properties this guy owns or owned. I had shown a waterfront condominium he owned in Truman Annex. It had incredible ocean views.

The bottom section of the mugshot for this guy shows the charges and arraignment date. I may show up to see if he shows up and wonder what may happen to him. Look carefully. This is no joke.

• Charges:
• 42 Felony Count(s) of 212.15.2a LARC - SALE TAX FAIL REMIT UND 300 DOLS 3RD SUBSQ OFF
• 3 Felony Count(s) of 212.15.2b LARC - SALES TAX FAIL REMIT 300 DOLS UNDER 20K DOLS
• 3 Unknown Count(s) of 888888 COUNTY ORDINANCE VIOL - UNLAW RENTAL OF VACATION RENTAL W/O PERMIT
• 15 Felony Count(s) of 212.12.2c TAX REVENUE - FAIL FILE 6 CONSECUTIVE TAX RETURNS
• Arraignment: 04/01/2021 at 08:45 
  

Several years ago a local real estate broker got busted for doing something sort of similar. Every time I showed one of his listings he would be incredibly suspicious of every question I asked as if he  was the target of another undercover police squad investigation for illegal rentals.

 

*Source: Key West Citizen March 23, 2021.

526 Grinnell Street, Key West - Just Listed

Just Listed 526 Grinnell Street, which the listing broker describes the property this way:

"Located in one of the most desirable blocks in Old Town Key West...Grinnell Street between Southard and Fleming Streets, this beautifully appointed Conch cottage is perfect in every way. The welcoming front porch, ideal for watching the world go by, opens to the living room with gorgeous wood floors, white shiplap walls and vaulted ceiling with cove lighting. Adjoining the living room is a beautiful high-end kitchen with stainless steel appliances, quartzite countertops, designer tile backsplash and a custom-made walnut topped bar. The chic bathroom is adjacent to the downstairs bedroom. The bedroom opens through French doors to a small private porch. The upstairs has French Oak flooring with an ample sized guest bedroom and enough room for an office area. This is the perfect winter getaway or full time home. Most furnishings convey."

I showed this charming little home several times the last time it was on the market. It is a little doll house. And it sits amid a bunch of other perfect or near perfet homes in a great Old Town location. I wrote about 920 Cornish Lane two weeks ago. It sold in just a couple of days on the market. This one probably will too. 

Talk about street appeal, this home has that. The front porch sits up to provide perfect people viewing perspective of the comings and goings on this street. 5 Brothers is located up at the corner of Southard Street, Azur is located down on the next corner at Fleming Street, and Old Town Bakery is located at the end of that block at Eaton Street. The Historic Seaport and all the shops, entertainment, and restaurants are a couple of minutes further. Ducal Street is an easy five to ten minute walk depending on how long you stop to take a selfie. 

The charm continues when you enter the house. It's a small house but it presents itself very well. Everything is perfect. The ceiling in the living area is vaulted expanding the spatial feel of that space. The kitchen is bright and cheery. And there is space for more than two people to actually prepare meals or cocktails at one time. 

I checked the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps to determine the approximate age of this home. It appears in the 1889 Map when it was identified as 235 Grinnell Street. The street number changed to 526 by the time the 1892 map was published. Cornish Lane is located about 25 feet north of this home The 1889 and 1892 Maps show a swath of empty space identified as Goats Retreat. Remember way back then this island was pretty much self-sustainable. I presume those grazing grounds became guest cottages, pool, and gardens in the years that followed. This property did not expand in lot size. The outdoor space consists of that super attractive front porch and this shelter back area. 

Recent improvements to this house include new roof and new air conditioner. Most of the furniture conveys. This place is in move-in condition.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and numerous listing photos of 526 Grinnell Street offered for sale at $849,000. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642. to schedule a private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Don't wait.