Last May I wrote a blog about directions not taken. An ex read it and thought it was about him. Exes think like that. It wasn't - mostly. There are several places I go on the internet when I get up each morning including the Monroe County Sheriff website to see if I know anybody who got arrested the day before; the Key West Citizen news to find out who is getting taxpayer money for some private deal and if I know anybody who died; and the Denver Post Obituary to see if anybody I knew as a kid or young man had died. I have found too many names of people in the Post that have brought me to tears. This is what happens as you get older.
The above 1959 Mercedes Benz 300 SL red roadster belonged to me for a couple of months in the early spring of 1979. I worked in a bank in Denver where the consumer lending department was auctioning off this car along with two others that were repossessed. I was the low bidder of the three people who submitted secret written bids. The first guy backed off. The second guy couldn't come up with cash to pay for it. I got it by default. For $10,500. For Real!
I remember driving it home. I left the bank parking garage and headed home. I was getting looks from everybody but mostly guys in cars - admiring.
On another day I drove it on the West Sixth Avenue freeway almost to Golden, Colorado. I turned it around and headed back to Denver. When the coast was clear, I floored it. I had it over 100 MPH in no time. Wow! I got over that pretty quickly and went back to normal speed. I actually remember stopping at a red light at the corner of Speer Blvd at Sixth Avenue. A guy in the right lane looked directly at me and smiled - not at me but at my car. That reminds me of a lesson I learned in college. I was at a park sunning myself. A good looking guy arrived at the park and brought his puppy. Several different girls had to go over and talk to this guy. Puppies are chick magnets. My roadster was a guy magnet.
I had recently split from my first partner with whom I purchased the house behind the hedge in the photo. I had a 1976 Mercedes 450 SL in the garage that I was still making monthly payments on. I couldn't really afford two cars and the house payment. My intent was to re-sell the roadster and make some easy money.
I had no idea what the roadster might be worth. By chance one day during the lunch hour I was in a magazine store where I found an automobile magazine with an almost identical car as its cover photo. I bought the magazine to try to figure out how much my car was worth. I knew about the Blue Book but don't recall if I had looked at it or not.
I divined the asking price of $16,500. I put classified ad in the Denver Post. I had several tire kickers come be my house. They wanted to see it, but not to buy it. A couple of weeks went by and I was getting nervous about having to pay for this big red car. I decided to put a classified ad in the Los Angeles Times for the following Sunday.
Around 9:00 AM on Easter Sunday I got a phone call from a Continental Airline pilot in Los Angeles who asked me a bunch of questions about the car. I remember the time because it must have been around sunrise out there. He said he would fly to Denver in a couple of days and begged me not to sell it. I said I wouldn't. He called later to confirm the exact time he would be at my house.
The day arrived. We took the car out on the road. We returned to my house and made a deal. Even though I made deals every day of my life for the bank where I worked as a mean son-of-a-bitch commercial loan workout guy, in real life I am a pretty decent guy. I ended up selling the roadster to the pilot for around $15,500. He asked and I let him sleep in my guest room. He was a cheap-son-of-a-bitch. But I got what I wanted, and he got what I wish I had not sold.
This is one of the biggest regrets in my life. I deal with people all the time who have dreams about buying a place in Key West. So many of them dream but have difficulty letting go of their money. They, like me, only see future expense. They don't think about future enrichment. My experience has as a Realtor has taught me that home prices in Key West appreciate year after year at ta higher rate than most of the United States. And like a fast red car, you can use it.
I used my gains on the sale of the red roadster to pay off my Ready Reserve account at the bank and pocketed the rest. I achieved my goal of selling the car at a profit. Readers may wish to GOOGLE 1959 Mercedes 300 SL to see what that car is worth today.
If you are looking to take your life in a different direction by purchasing a place in Key West, please consider working with me, Gary Thomas, 305-76-2642 or contact me by email at kw1101v@aol.com. I am a buyer's agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Coastal Realty, Inc. The only regret I have about moving to Key West is that it took me so long to do it.
