Sales in the City

I have received e-mails and phone calls from potential buyers asking about specific properties I have mentioned here as being buying opportunities. Two separate properties just closed that I had written about, so I decided to let you see how the market acted.

1103 Virginia was wild. It was a bank foreclosure and was listed at $499,900. GO HERE to read what I wrote about the property. What I did not write is that I showed it to several potential buyers, two of which were interested. I told each buyer to go to the City offices to investigate how the City would respond to certain legal issues that affect that property. The prior owner allegedly renovated large parts of the house without building permits and the City had imposed a huge fine on the property. There was also a theoretical possibility that the City would require that the covered parking be removed since it was constructed without permit and in violation of HARC rules that disallows such structures in HARC areas. I also did not write about my observation of building code violations regarding the structure itself. I'm no contractor, but there were many problems with the work the prior owner did. And I questioned how difficult it would be to obtain a certificate of occupancy given those problems.

The listing broker told me she had 5 or 6 written offers within the first few days the property was listed. The property went contingent 14 days from the listing date. It listed for $499,900 and sold for $606,500--$106,600 more than the listing price.
The sales price could be real sweet, or it could be problematic.

831 Johnson Lane is a totally different property. What a beautiful group of cottages that make up such a delightful place to call home. The property was listed at $1,295,000, reduced to $1,195,000, and just sold for $1,100,000 or $556 per sq ft. The property is not typical of Key West, yet nothing is. But the price may be a good benchmark for future sales of quaint homes with pools. Works for me. CLICK HERE to read what I wrote about the house before it sold.

If you snooze you lose. The nice houses are gonna get purchased. The dogs are gonna get purchased as well. Somebody will buy everything. For a price. Someday the market will return. And new millions will be made off of the losses of others.

Bank Foreclosure 1103 Virginia Street Key West

Bank Foreclosure at 1103 Virginia Street. Four bedroom, two bath house with no kitchen--looks like somebody took it away. Central A/C, beautiful pool and deck area, covered off street parking, some nice decorator touches and some work left undone. The tax records show this house as 1626 sq ft and sits on a very large 3515 sq ft lot. The house has new siding, new windows and doors, new floors, new drywall, new electric, and new plumbing. The asking price is $499,900 or $307 per sq ft. That sounds too good to be true for Key West.

CLICK HERE to read what the listing Realtor has to say about this property. The listing Realtor is not local and did not have any pics posted. So I took some pics and you can see them HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

1103 Virginia is located one block west of White Street and one block north of Truman Avenue in the south portion of Old Town. Fausto's Market is one block to the east. The Truman & White Chevron is a block north and a block east for reference points. The Wesley House Child Care facility is one half block to the east and the Montesori School is one block south of that. The area is a mix of long time Conch family homes and recent renovations. There are several compounds in the immediate area as well.

For a buyer looking to get a big piece of property with a pool and who doesn't mind installing a new kitchen, doing some painting, and completing the landscaping this may be the house for you. The Prior owner paid $1,000,000 for this property on September 2005.

If you are a serious buyer I think you should act quickly. I would suggest making a cash offer with a quick close contingent only on a home owner's inspection within ten days of the agreement. This is a lot of house for the money. Call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to see this house. This property will not last long at this price.