Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No. 40

from July 1, 2018 

Key West Realtor Understudy

 

I was searching the Key West MLS yesterday when I noticed a new listing that reminded me of a nearby property that I sold a few years ago. My buyer and I arrived at the house on an early Saturday morning to be present during the home inspection on the house he had under contract. We met the inspector who set out to poke, prod, test, and photograph various parts of the house.

Remember this was an early Saturday morning - not anywhere near cocktail time - not even near lunch. Or even brunch.  The listing Realtor was present. She was wearing heels and a tight fitting dress with a very short hem.

The home inspector opened the access panel to the attic and went up. The listing agent followed. I was standing below with my buyer. We both looked up as we were preparing to follow. Imagine the photo above but without the tights. Or anything under the dress.

Things that have been seen cannot be unseen.

Update:  A few weeks ago I was talking with a fellow realtor. The name of the above mentioned agent came up. I asked if she was still selling in Key West. No she moved away. And then he mentioned he had seen her dress the same way - no undies. 

533 Petronia Street, Key West - JUST LISTED

I just listed 533 Petronia Street, Key West. I held a Broker's Open House yesterday and everybody was delighted to see the home.The remembered back a couple of years ago when an older version of the house was sitting atop wood blocks waiting to be relocated forward on the lot.The relocation of the house allowed room to expand the residence to the rear and a guest cottage and a cool pool. Oh, it's cool. Let's look at a couple of the original house and during renovation. 

CLICK HERE to see an album of photos showing the progress photos.

The house was designed by architect Matthew Stratton. His name appears here quite often. He's good. Really good. The pool and gardens were designed by Craig Reynolds Landscape Architects.  He is really good, too! The front door stayed in place and two guest bedrooms with en-suite baths are located up front. Almost every agent who entered the house walked quickly past he bedrooms to see the pool. They stood in the living area looking and then out to the pool. They all said about the same thing: This is what buyers want.

The poolside guest cottage has killer view of the pool which is both heated and chilled depending on the time of the year. There is an outdoor shower on the backside of the cottage. 

Each of the four bedrooms has an elegant marble bath. Dade County Pine was salvaged from the original house, planed, stained, and placed on teach bathroom ceiling. All of the cainets were made by Hansen & Bringel in Key West. The counter tops are quartz. Kohler top of the line fixtures used throughout. 

The counter top on the kitchen island is Leather Granite. Marble frames the area behind the induction cooking top. The floors are reclaimed heart pine meticulously re-planed by NIPPERS PAINTING. Wolfe and SubZero  appliances (including wine cooler and ice maker) complete the kitchen.

533 Petronia Street Key West is offered at $3,495,000. CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and more photos. Please call or text me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to arrange a private showing. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. You better act quick. I don't think this will last on the market for very long.

 

 

410 Louisa Street, Key West - Just Listed

Just Listed 410 Louisa Street, Key West. The listing Realtor describes this home thus: 

"This traditionally styled home was new built in 2002. It is on the one-way block of Louisa Street which does not go all the way through to Duval, so it is right downtown but still kind of secluded. It has a pretty front porch and off-street parking. The rear porch runs all the way across the back of the house and overlooks the heated and chilled swimming pool and covered dining lanai. There are three bedrooms and three full bathrooms, including a spacious and well-appointed master suite with walk-in closet.  This home is only a short stroll to the Southernmost Point and the galleries and restaurants of Lower Duval Street. It was recently painted and has new air conditioners and pool heater. The pool was resealed and resurfaced."

French doors at the rear of the great room open out to the covered rear porch and pool area. 

The 2002 Sq Ft home has three bedrooms and three baths. The current owner is using the first floor bedroom as a sitting room. The master bedroom and en-suite bath are located on the second floor.You'll be surprised at how large the master suite is. The second floor guest bedroom and bath also quite large. 

First Floor Bedroom used as a Sitting Room

Master Bedroom

Second Floor Guest Bedroom

 

This home has it all: pool, parking, location near but not too near Duval Street. 410 Louisa Street is offered for sale at $3,150,000 by Preferred Properties Key West. CLICK HERE to view eh Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos. Then please contact Gary Thomas at 305-766-2642 to arrange a private viewing. 

Coming Soon to the Key West MLS

Photos were taken yesterday afternoon at the soon to be listed restored Conch House located at an undisclosed location in Old Town. I can tell you this much: three bedrooms in the main house, a fourth bedroom in the poolside guest cottage, off street parking, pool and gardens by Craig Reynolds Landscape Design, and interiors by Ben Teague Design. That's important because this beautiful home comes furnished. More next week.

True Tales of Key West Real Estate in the Times of Covid 19 - No. 15

Several years ago I was working with a married couple who seriously considered buying a prominent Conch House located on one the best blocks in Key West. While it was not the house pictured above, that is the style of the house which also had a guest cottage, large pool, elegant outdoor living area in the rear, and off street parking. The wife flew down to Key West to check the house out. She noticed something I had not considered - an office building located across the street.

A lot of buyers will not consider buying a house across from the cemetery or on a well traveled street. Some won't buy a house next to or even near a restaurant.The office building in question was well maintained and looked attractive from the street as far as I was concerned. The wife told me the house would be a no sale as far as they were concerned because the tenant was a Realtor. 

As it turned out the couple bought a large house on a busy street. It had a guest cottage, pool, parking and a restaurant as a nearby neighbor. That tells you something about the Realtor.

Key West Real Estate Thowback Thursday No 39

from 1-30-2014

1012 Fleming Street, Key West - Investment Property

But updated today

I watched the Goldie Hawn move CrissCross couple of days ago and remembered that I referenced it in a blog post. I am copying that part immediately below and added new comments below that.

The charming five unit apartment building located at 1012 Fleming Street in Key West was just listed by Preferred Properties Key West. That is where I work, but this is not my listing. The listing agent describes this particularly well located property this way:

"Conch House Multi Unit in a great location on Fleming across from the Eden House Hotel. 4 Rental Units and an owners unit all with their own utility meters. Great opportunity for a buyer who likes the income aspect while enjoying his owners unit."

 I checked the Sanborn Fire Maps for Key West to determine when this building was built. I was surprised to see that it was constructed after the 1889 map and before the 1912 when it appeared on the same lot as 1010 Fleming street. The two properties share a common property line that carves 1012 Fleming apart from the yellow house viewed above. I then dug down inside the old shoebox and found a photo of 1012 Fleming Street taken back in 1965.

Today the building consists of five units that rent at modest rates as compared to other long term rentals I have seen in Key West. The current owner resides in one unit and rents the other four. The building is 2995 sq ft of living space divided among three floors. There is a small garden area at the rear that may have room for a dip pool or hot tub.

The movie CRISSCROSS was filmed in Key West in 1992. The Eden House, located across the street from 1012 Fleming Street, was the home to Goldie Hawn's character and her son. Many locations at the nearby Key West Seaport also played integral parts in the movie.

When Goldie exited the Eden House movie set her view would have been similar the photo below.  Other than painting and perhaps new shutters, the houses in this block look pretty much the same today as the did in 1992 and decades before that.

UPDATE:     

Locals and long time visitors to Key West may want to watch CrissCross as it shows how much the streetscape and the seaport have changed. First, the houses across the street appear in a couple of scenes but they look forlorn in the movie. They were not "dressed"to look forlorn, they were. Another scene showed the deplorable condition of sidewalks upheavaled by tree roots and decades of disrepair. The piers and boardwalk at the seaport had not been renovated. Today the seaport is more Disney than dreary. I watched the credits which state it was actually released in 1991 which suggests it was filmed in 1990. Invest two hours of your life to see a little piece of old Key West. 

La Bodega Cayo Queso

 

I reveled watching IN THE HEIGHTS on Netflix. It will make you want to sing and dance and care about someone other than yourself. You will smile and wonder how they did that. The production, photography, scenery, acting, singing, and dancing are memorable. Much of the principal action takes place in a bodega - a small grocery store especially in a Spanish speaking neighbor hood. This particular bodega is the heart of the neighborhood which is changing. The plot deals whit the lives of the people who live in that neighborhood and how they adjust to the changes in their community.

The move got me thinking of all the old bodegas in Key West I had noticed while studying the studying the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps. The Maps shows the houses and commercial buildings between 1889 and 192. The maps chronicled the buildings - the size and location of the buildings, how and where it sat on the lot, and its use; the street names (they  sometimes changed); and the particular address (they changed too). The maps often revealed vast areas of land with no building referenced other than as stable, pin, or dairy - all within blocks of Duval Street which is a beehive of commercial activity.

The Maps showed numerous small grocery stores (bodegas), cafes, bakery's, cisterns, and ovens that within a block or so of each other. People lived in tight area and relied on fresh home grown staples, fruits, vegetables, and bread. The elite of 2022 buy high priced fresh shrimp, grouper, and crab which was regular fare a century ago and much more affordable. Other business like sponging, cigar making, and shipping brought cash to Key West to buy the food stuffs. The big business owners lived in grand house The workers lived in little cottages segregated by race and job. Unique to Key West? No. The same thing happened then and now in New York City where In the Height was filmed.

 

We had lots of bodegas in old Key West. Let's take a look back and an occasional present day photos. The people that lived here 130 years ago did not have cars and probably not bikes. They walked to their nearby places of work and shopped at nearby stores. Over the years they were converted to other uses.

829 Simonton Street - Corner of Olivia Street at Simonton Street. I remember buying a sandwich in this bodega on Superbowl Sunday 1987. It was one of the few times I went inside way back in the day. Later I wrote about it after it was renovated and then became a bank owned property. A Realtor bought it then sold it. Today it is a spa and apartment building.

1221 Duval Street  Corner of Duval at Louisa Street

The Conch house at the corner of Duval Street and Louisa Street eventually became a coffee and tea shop that also sells high priced rolls and sandwiches.

Salgado Bros. eventually became Old Town Bakery which sells amazing baked goods at amazing prices. Not complaining. They do it right.

--

800 Olivia Street has been a bodega all of its life. The original building was taken down and replaced by a concrete block building. The good thing is there is a Robin Bailey collectable that commemorates what used to be. 

 

 

The Sanborn maps show a bodega and a community with an oven behind it and a cafe nearby. There was a cigar factory around the corner where the factory and worker cottages were. The cottages were often very small and did not have kitchens as we know them. Workers and families may have taken their meals at the bodega, a cafe, or a bakery or bought bread and tookit home. 

Key West used wells and cisterns as water supply for decades until potable water was brought in from up north. The Sanborn Maps noted the location of cisterns public and private. .The first property I owned in Key West was 511 Eaton Street - Eaton Lodge Guesthouse. The property was previously owned by Dr. Warren. The house was grand in its day and included matching Venetian chandeliers, a huge safe, and three cisterns including one at the rear which reached two stories high. 

I had no idea how much maps could teach us about the lives of people from earlier generations simply by identifying the size, use, and location of houses and buildings. I listed 1007 Thomas Street a week ago. The 1889 map shows the adjacent neighboring building on the corner was a Negro bar. Subsequent maps showed the building as a Chinese laundry. The maps are peppered with ethnic references as to the ownership or use by ethnic groups. 

I have been away the past few days. I am back now and hope to have more houses to write about soon. In the meantime Happy Valentines Day.