726 Olivia Street - Old Town - Key West

726 Olivia Street -Key West - October 2012

The little one bedroom cottage at 726 Olivia Street just may appeal to the buyer who wants to purchase a modest Key West house that sits on a decent sized lot in a good location and which is located within an easy walking distance to  Duval Street. The cottage has 570 sq ft of living space plus the screen enclosed front porch and a rear porch.  The interior is pretty nondescript. It does have some Dade County Pine.  The listing Realtor states that around 2002 the following improvements were made to the property: electric service panel, new plumbing, new piers and new roof over rear porch & gable. CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet on this property.

 If you like old houses as much as I do you may just fall in love with the rustic feel of the old front porch.  Some people pay a lot of money to create that kind of weathered look. This house comes with it for free. I'm not being flip about that. This place has such a great understated grace.  If I bought the house I would take down the concrete block fence and put a proper white picket fence. And I would try like the dickens to get permission to build a little pool in the backyard. Pools are not  necessity and not all potential owners would want to have to pay for maintaining a pool all year long anyway. 

I showed the property on a rainy afternoon and was unable to take the kinds of photos I would have liked. What intrigued me about this house isn't so much the house - I know it can be made into something very sweet.  That happens all the time here.  Instead it was what you can't see from the street and what a casual passer-by will miss - the backyard and the off street parking spot. I dug deep into the old shoe box and found a photo of the property taken in 1965.  What I found was a photo of the back of the house instead of the front. 

726 Olivia Street (rear view) 1965

I went back to the house on Monday and took a couple of photos of the rear so you could see how much it has changed and yet how much it seems quite unchanged. Note the large second floor balcony of the house next door.

Porch photo taken during the rainy day showing

From back step looking south to rear property line (about 1 ft from other house)

The south property line extends beyond the confines of the lot across the rear of the house next door to the east where the owner of 726 Olivia Street shares a deeded ownership interest in the large parking lot.

CLICK HERE to view more photos of this property. As I said, I didn't take interior photos. If you would like to see this house, please contact me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.  Let me help you find your place in Paradise.