Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No. 41

from January 16, 2014

3529  Sunrise Drive,  Key West, Florida

Matthew Broderick and Tom Cruise were born in 1963.  3529 Sunrise Drive in Key West Florida was built in 1963.  Each will become 51 years old in 2014.  The two movie stars take good care of themselves and probably look better than a lot of people their age.  Men and women who workout and take care of their bodies, skin, and hair normally look better than those who don't.

A lot of my buyers are in their fifties. Many probably grew up in a house built in the 1960s when contemporary design was the trend.  The house at 3529 Sunrise Drive was custom built by the owner who has lovingly maintained this property ever since.  The house is big. The Monroe County Property Appraiser shows this house as having 3378 sq ft of interior living space. The house sits on an 8937 sq ft lot (138' X 65') just across the street from the Riviera Canal that ends a few blocks to the east where water flows into the Atlantic Ocean.  The houses across the street benefit from being located on the water.  This house is every bit as nice or nicer than most of the original houses in the area.  And the houses across the street all cost a whole lot more than this house.

The home at 3529 Sunrise Drive incorporates many of the features of large suburban homes built during the early 1960s including multiple living levels, large rooms, vaulted ceilings, and large outdoor living areas. The listing Realtor describes the property this way:

"Everything you want in Key West living. Plenty of room both inside and out for entertaining or just relaxing with the family. Vaulted ceilings and large rooms make the interior exceedingly livable. A walled lot, lush landscaping, large pool and several covered outside seating areas along with offstreet, covered parking make this an ideal property. This is a home that you can live in tomorrow or add personal touches to create your own island oasis."

Events, styles, trends, fads, they all last for a while but many impact our lives for years or decades into the future. When you are young, you tend to live in the moment. As you get older, you learn that not everything in the world revolves around you. As you get much older, you may learn that what you do or say or think is of no consequence to anybody. That's sort of what happens to styles, trends and fads-they get ignored or displaced or even replaced. Styles that were hip become passe. Maybe that's why for many people buying a house in the Old Town area of Key West is so safe: old is always popular there. Even cherished.

If you are old enough to remember the 1960s you will recall the space race and the New Frontier. You will remember the forward thinking we embraced. Our TV, our culture, our furniture and home goods, and our architecture reflected the hopes and dreams as aspirations of that time. Some homes today still have fallout shelters that were built in the 1960s, a different and sad face of the culture of that time.

The home at 3529 Sunrise Drive incorporates many of the features of large suburban homes built during the early 1960s including multiple living levels, large rooms, vaulted ceilings, and large outdoor living areas. It is time for buyers to consider houses like this that have plenty of good years left as alternatives to much more expensive homes in the Old Town and Casa Marina areas.

The listing Realtor describes the property this way:

" Everything you want in Key West living. Plenty of room both inside and out for entertaining or just relaxing with the family. Vaulted ceilings and large rooms make the interior exceedingly livable. A walled lot, lush landscaping, large pool and several covered outside seating areas along with off street, covered parking make this an ideal property. This is a home that you can live in tomorrow or add personal touches to create your own island oasis."

3529 Sunrise Drive is a big house located a on a large lot on the east side of Key West- just about four blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. It is far removed from the hub bub of Old Town. This is a family area and this is a very nice family home that has been well maintained during its lifetime.  CLICK HERE to view a slide show with lots of photos of this home. This property is listed by Preferred Properties, but it is not my listing. It is offered at $899,000. And CLICK HERE to view the Key West Association of Realtors mls data sheet.

If you would like to see this blast from the past, please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to schedule a visit. I am a buyer's agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Coastal Realty, Inc. in Key West, Florida.


UPDATE

This truly was one of my favorites house in Key West. I wrote about it many times because it was such a wonderful example of 1960s American architecture. It was listed for sale by several different agents starting in 2004 when the asking price was $1,699,900; It finally sold in 2021 for $1,080.000. I don't know if I mentioned the reason it took so long to sell. The owners had dozens of trophy animals they killed from around the world. They had rugs, mounted heads, and stuffed animals.They killed many of th animals with bow and arrow. I guess that made it "sport"except the animals were defenseless.

If any actually read the post I hope you pick up on how I deal with aging. I had no ireal appreciation for what happens to you as you age. i thought I did. But i was younger then when I wrote it. Count that up to not knowing what you are talking about. 

Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No 34 with a Twist

from October 15, 2010

901 Packer St - Old Town - Key West  

The Twist Part follows the original post.

The Key West Cemetery as viewed from 901 Packer Street

 

901 Packer Street in Old Town Key West is located directly across the street from the Key West Cemetery and is in desperate need of The Re-Animator. The listing Realtor describes this property thus:

"Great Old Town Key West location within walking distance to Duval Street and all of the Key West attractions. Perfect renovation project on a corner lot with off street parking. Located in an X500 flood zone, this is one of the highest elevations on the island."

This house was built in 1948 or 1953 (there are two different dates in county records). The relative newness means the house is not a contributing structure and that means a new owner could tear down this property and build all new. A caveat to tearing down and building new is that the current building codes and set backs will control what can be built and the lot coverage area. "Re-animating" or renovating this house would permit the new owner to keep the existing lot coverage and setbacks in place. CLICK HERE to view the Key West Association of Realtors mls data sheet and listing photos. Let me share my thoughts about the house. Unlike The Aadams' Family mansion, this house is no museum. The house itself is ooky and the layout is kinda kooky. I don't know that I'd say its mysterious and spooky, but it surely ain't imperious.

"it surely ain't imperious"

This place will need lots of work. These are things I think it needs: new doors and windows, a new roof, new electric and plumbing, new interior layout which means all new interior framing and drywall, a new kitchen and one or two new bathrooms. The existing covered parking is nice but it looks like the roof may collapse. There is an old homemade addition to the Olivia Street side of the house that looks awful from the outside and it looks terrible from the inside. There is spauling across the north side of the kitchen. (Spauling is prevalent in many Key West houses of that vintage. It's repairable but the cost depends on the condition of the house and how much area has been compromised.) While the house is capable of re-animation (lol), it is a better candidate for demolition in my opinion. A good architect or contractor could help a potential new buyer determine what could be done on the 27' x 58' lot. 

I personally think a new owner could build a nice two story Conch style home on this lot. The 1566 sq ft lot may sound small compared to the big sized lots you readers who live up north in America have, but down here a lot this size in Old Town is quite common. What is less common is the view across the street. I recently took photos of the property. It was a gloomy day in Paradise, that day. CLICK HERE to view. A lot of potential buyers absolutely refuse to consider a property that overlooks the cemetery. Some would see that location as gloomy forever. I think not so. That refusal to consider the location is their loss in my opinion. Of course the area is quiet at night. No pun intended. It really is. And that is a great feature in any neighborhood. Having quiet neighbors that do not party all the time is a blessing compared to those that do. 

Olivia Street is a small one-way street that runs parallel to the south boundary of the cemetery. That street is primarily used by locals and is not normally used by commercial vehicles or Conch Trains. That keeps street noise to a minimum. More than the quietness of the location is all the sunshine one normally gets. If you love Old Town houses as much as I, you know that most houses are built so close to each other that there often is little space between properties. Since most houses are densely landscaped and typically have trees on all sides, natural light is often minimalized. The result is that many homes only have direct sunshine for a few hours a day. And most Old Town homes do not have clear open views of the beautiful Key West skies. The house at 901 Packer Street has a vast sweeping view looking north across the Key West Cemetery. Locals appreciate such views because so few in Old Town have them. 

The house at 901 Packer Street was originally priced at $249,000 and recently reduced to $219,000. I have my own opinion of what it will sell for, and that price is nowhere near the asking price. If you would like to see 901 Packer Street please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, or contact me by email at kw1101v@aol.com. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Coastal Realty, Inc. in Key West, Florida. I believe in Re-Animation, Renovation, and Innovation. But I am not a witch!

The above post is 11 years old. The house is NOT FOR SALE. Don't go bothering anybody about this. 

A couple of years ago I noticed some fixing-up going on and started to photograph the progress. Progress in Key West takes months if not years to complete whether it is a home handyman or a licensed contractor. Perfection takes time and a lot of money. This is how it looked midway through the project.

I drove by this house for months. Something was always going on but nothing substantial until just recently. Now it looks great! Congrats to the homeowner for a classy re-animation.

Key West Properties Blog 11th Anniversay

Today marks the beginning of my eleventh year in writing my little blog about Key West real estate.  Eleven years ago while having dinner with a couple I sold a house to a few years earlier one of the two suggested that I write a blog about Key West real estate. I asked "What is a blog?" or something like that. He explained a Realtor he knew in New Jersey was writing a blog. So the next day I Googled "blog" and found several examples. I started b blog on December 29, 2007.  I was surprised anybody read what I wrote. But they did and I continued to write. Then I started to get phone calls and emails from readers. And then a gent in North Carolina bought a house located in the Casa Marina Area from me. That's not a big deal in itself, but he never saw the house. He told me he read my blog and decided I could be trusted. We met in person a couple of years later while I was hosting at an open house. I was impressed by the power of my little blog. Over the years I have met most of my buyers and sellers who were first readers and later clients. Some have begun friends. I owe all of my readers a note of thanks for having kept me busy for these past eleven years.

One of the most viewed blogs was that of a really charming stand alone cottage located at the back of The Key West Writer's Compound on Solaris Hill.  I actually ended up selling this special home. CLICK HERE to see that blog which had 1242 hits on blogspot.  Over the years I have written about several homes in the compound which I find utterly charming. After all, the compound lured notable writers and poets to live nearby and share the beauty of this incredible spot on the island. I sold John Hersey's former home located near the front gate. Shortly after it became safe to walk around outside after Hurricane Irma had left Key West and was winding its way up the west coast of Florida, I walked around Old Town looking at the tree damage. I made my way to Windsor Lane where I saw the two giant trees that once stood sentry on either side of Hersey's house had fallen in the storm. I recently went by the house. The trees are gone, the fence was rebuilt, and the house stands undamaged.

This blog and the photos I take and put up on the internet have helped me reach a wide audience around the world that no regular Realtor website could ever have achieved. Almost every agent I know has one of those - except me. Instead, I write individual blogs about new listings, price reductions, and sometimes properties that are beyond the financial means of most readers. I try to give a good sense of what is for sale to appeal to a broad range of buyers. Most readers are looking for bargains. There are few of them anymore. But sometimes there are and I tell my readers. Our prices have gotten really high so a bargain here could often buy a very nice primary home up north. Longtime readers know I am not one for charts - I rarely understand a charts so I avoid them. But I do understand when the market is hot and when it is soft. I understand trends. I understand and admit when I am wrong. And I only boast a bit when I am proven right. And on occasion I write about my childhood or tell other stories that relate in some way about life in Key West or maybe culture at large.

In the earlier days when prices were dropping and suspicions about the end of the world as we knew it were rising, I got a lot of phone calls and emails from readers. The responses by phone or email usually start by saying "I've been following your blog..."  And then we start the sweet romance of finding the dream house the reader has been seeking.  When I meet these readers in person they often tell me the blogs they like most are the ones not about houses, but instead about the stuff that has happened to me or the machinations that go on inside my old head. That is how they develop a sense of trust in me.

I have three favorite blogs which I later  re-posted when the market was slow just to let my readers know I was still around. The first was Superman and Me CLICK HERE. This is the simple story about who I am told in little episodes in my life as a child and later in my professional life.

Another blog which I really enjoyed writing was The Importance of Finding Ernie CLICK HERE. I made up a silly little story about the Bert & Ernie after they found their way to Key West. The real life fact is that too many people who come here get lost and end up drunks or on drugs or both. I think a lot of people come here thinking they can reinvent themselves or find new meaning for their lives or whatever the heck it is that made their lives so bad up north in America.

The final blog is How Gay Was My Villa CLICK HERE. Earlier this week a nice couple from up north came to look at houses.  While exchanging small talk the gent said he had been reading my blog for years and mentioned a vignette in that particular blog which left him howling. Other readers remember the exact same vignette. It is one experience I will never forget either.

CLICK HERE to read the memoir of Atlantic Shores Resort.That one blog had 14,628 hits on Activerain alone. It's a short read on a big part of Key West that is sorely missed by many.

As of today I have published 2366 blogs on the Blogspot's platform where I have had 1,574,961 individual views. Later when I discovered the Activerain platform, I started to re-post my blog there. To date I have  re-posted 2033 blogs there where I have had 3,172,071 individual views. I have hosted most of my photos on FLICKR where the numbers are astounding - 1,951,385 single hits (not views).

I will end today's pat on the back blog by relating two little stories about readers. A few weeks ago I went over to one of the law offices to pick up something whereupon I introduced myself to the receptionist. She said something like "Oh, you're the Gary Thomas who writes the real estate blog. My husband and I loved your blog on the Writers Compound. When we came to town to look for houses, we looked at the Writers Compound and bought the house you wrote about." 

During a recent home inspection on a house I listed for sale, the buyer mentioned I wrote a blog about a house she bought after reading my blog on it.  She is still using the same Realtor now, but this time I represent the seller so I can profit a bit this time. 

It's been fun. Let's see what happens in the new year.

Key West Oceanfront Luxury - 20 Sunset Key Drive

20 Sunset Key Drive is located on Sunset Key, a private island just a five minute boat ride from Key West. The guest cottage, above, looks somewhat similar to some of the cute little cottages that you might find in Old Town Key West. That's where the similarity stops because this place is a show stopper. The cottage isn't little and it is only a small part of  a much larger manse with the very best oceanfront location on the island. A pergola connects the cottage with the main house. The pool and spa are on the west. The luxuriant garden paradise is everywhere.

The guest cottage is very informal and relaxed. The living room soars two stories with a gallery on three sides. The main floor bedroom has French doors that open out to the pool. The second floor bedroom is like an old garret - all cozy and cute. Both bedrooms have en-suite baths. Wherever you look, there is superb attention to detail.  CLICK HERE to view 164 photos I took of this incredible property.  You will not be disappointed.

The main house fronts the Atlantic Ocean. This house, the one next door to the west, and the large vacant double lot next to it are the three best lots on Sunset Key. They have incomparable views of the ocean and sunset. Whether sitting on the first floor porch, peering out from the second floor master bedroom, or searching the skies from the rooftop widow's walk, this property offers amazing views that will delight owner and guest from morning until night.

Inside this gracious home you will find formal and informal living and dining areas,water-view guest bedroom,  a huge kitchen, and laundry/pantry area. The two story atrium like entry leads to the second floor master suite which include a sitting room, the bedroom chamber with waterfront view, the extra large master bath and dressing area.

The 24 hour per day launch will speed you from Key West to Sunset Key. Residents have use of the community pool and tennis court. And, of course, very quick access to the amazing Latitudes Restaurant and the spa at the Westin Sunset Key Resort which are about a three minute walk from the front entrance at 20 Sunset Key Drive. Dang!

The 24 hour per day launch will speed you from Key West to Sunset Key. Residents have use of the community pool and tennis court. And, of course, very quick access to the amazing Latitudes Restaurant and the spa at the Westin Sunset Key Resort which are about a three minute walk from the front entrance at 20 Sunset Key Drive. Dang!

CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet and listing photos of this incredible oceanfront estate.  Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to schedule a very private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Let me help you find your place in Paradise!