Help Protect Our Hippie Grandparents

I got my real estate license and started to sell houses in Key West in 1996. Most of the people I worked with were my contemporaries - they were foremost baby boomers and several came with a dash of hippie. The closet I ever got to being a hippie was a pair of bell bottom jeans, hair a bit over my ears, and a mustache. 

My customers grew up in the fifties and sixties. Some of my buyers did well for themselves. Some did exceptionally well. And it wasn't just my buyers, but the slew of people who came to Key West during the past quarter century to be apart of this place that is not like up north in America. In the beginning there still were Conch Cruisers, dilapidated houses, and bars where you could buy a Miller Lite for a buck. Those were the days my friend.

A strange thing happened this past Sunday at an open house I was holding. This guy with white hair started asking a lot of questions about the house, the town, the laws, and so on. That happens all the time. And then he asked how old I was. I thought that odd. Nobody had asked me my age in years and certainly not in the context of selling houses. I told him and he said something like "We're almost there". Then he confessed he was a commercial real estate broker up north - in one of those really big cities on the east coast. I think he said he'd been in the business over fifty years. He and his wife have been coming to Key West for years and years and are finally starting to look at buying a place here - them and everybody else. Good luck on that. Seriously, there are so few choices left.

The past year has caused a lot of us to accept our mortality. Not the kids - they will live forever. But the hippies and the never-were-hippies can see what awaits them. Many have decided the prefer Key West to the big cold cities up north with millions of people. The End!

 

 

 

1215 Grinnell Street, Key West - Developer Home Now Available

Just Listed by Preferred Properties Key West, that is where I work, but this is not my listing:                   1215 Grinnell Street. This stand alone home is located at the center rear of the Grinnell Gardens Compound created in 1990. This home was retained and lived in by the developer who created this unique community of three stand alone houses built on postage stamp lot and two side-side town homes that replicate Grand Conch Revival architecture found throughout Old Town. The compound has a secured front entrance and mailbox station. The focal point upon entering the compound is the shared community pool with large open sunning and seating area.

The focal point is the pool of the compound is the sunny pool and tropical setting. 1215 Grinnell Street is tucked behind the pool for privacy. 

I have written about homes in this compound for over a decade. Yes my blog is getting old but I have photos that go way back and show how the houses and grounds have fared over the years including two photos that show 1215 Grinnell with more detail than the current listing photos - voila!

2011

 

2016

Two of the free standing homes have private pools. All share the community pool pictured above. I know a lot of potential buyers want a place of their very own and have never thought of living in a compound. I "get" the resistance argument. But there is also a separate universe of potential buyers who appreciate having full time neighbors who will keep on the place when the owners are not in town. I recently sold the unit pictured above. The owner is one of the full time residents. Association fees are only $250 per month and include cable,  pool and grounds maintenance.

This stand alone house is 1,535 Square Feet. The developer retained this unit for himself. Now it has three bedrooms, three baths, and would benefit from a renovation. I'll share just two pics. 

I think most American adults would agree that turning 30 years old was frightful. Then they got on with living their life. The kitchen and baths are from another era. The tiles and floors are varied. The wall colors go from white to vibrant. Styles change. Houses get older. People grow wiser. Mostly.

Grinnell Gardens is located four blocks east of Duval Street and a short stroll or bike ride to Higgs Beach or South Beach.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS database and listing photos for 1215 Grinnell Street, Key West which is offered for sale at $949,000. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing to to discuss this property. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. This should sell very fast. Don't wait.You will regret it. Even if you have to paint and replace a few things, this a buying opportunity.  

Taco Tuesday - The Value of Location

Last week while photographing some ongoing construction for my blog I suddenly got a whiff of garlic. It wasn't totally am unpleasant smell but not the kind of smell I normally encounter in Old Town. A few days earlier I picked up my completed federal income tax returns from my accountant. His office is  located on North Roosevelt Blvd in one of our shopping netters. As soon as I opened the door I got a whiff of the Subway Sandwich shop located next door. The smell made me think of food. It was both pleasant ad distracting. I commented on it to my CPA. He said you get used to it. Why should anyone have to get used to the smell of somebody else's business?

A few years ago a woman who reads my blog called me to talk about looking for a new house. I knew where she lived. I blogged her house before she bought it. Her house is located about 75 feet from the back door of a Key West eatery. The woman told me she gets awakened every morning as the cleaning crew scrubs pans out side the back door of the restauand. She said she hears the workers speaking, the pot and pans clonking, and chickens screeching - EVERY DAY. When the cooks arrive she starts to smell the aroma of garlic and onions as it hovers over the nearby homes. EVERY DAY.

A few days into the new year I got a phone call from a man who GOGGLED an address and up popped a blog I wrote. He called me to discuss the place. I pointed out the pros and cons of the place. I had shown it a few weeks earlier so I had a fairly clear recall of the place. I liked the house and felt the price was reasonable but pointed out that it was located perilously close to a restaurant and warned of the smells, noise, and foot traffic he might expect. He said he liked the place. I told him a lot of people buy places they like. But there comes a time to sell and selling difficult locations is, well, difficult. 

I am not saying buying a house located near a restaurant is bad. It is, but I am not saying that. I believe in the value of location as a key reason to buy a place. Or to not buy a place. Taco Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, all day, all night, everyday without pause can get annoying. It may prevent an owner or his or her heirs from selling what may be their biggest investment of their lives. Think before you buy. Consider who will buy what you "settled" to buy.

Gary Thomas, Realtor, Preferred Properties Key West, 520 Southard Street, Key West, Fl 33040

Duked Out and Heading to 724 Windsor Lane Open House

Open House Today

Sunday - April 11th

724 Windsor Lane 

11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

New Price - $649,000

Small Cute Cottage

Off Street Parking

Great Old Town Location

Go to Dante's to show off your body

 

Sarge

 

Not the real house

A very pretty but assuredly run down house was listed for sale several years ago. Unlike so many the houses located in the Historic District of Key West, this property actually had an historic past. I mention this because much of nothing ever happened in most of the homes real estate agents list as "historic". This property actually had a pedigree and story. And when it was listed also had a disengaged owner who only wanted money and lots of it for his prized but ill-treated property.

I wrote about the property in my blog and showed it to several potential buyers. Three of them made cash offers on the property that were in line with what would have been a good pay day for the seller at that point in time. Each offer required the seller to deliver the property vacant of any tenants.

The property was once a beautiful single family home that had been carved into several long term residential apartments. As I recall it had more apartments than legally permissible, but that would get cured during renovation. The seller would not agree to making the tenants leave. He feared the buyer would back out of the deal and he would be left with an empty building. The seller's head may have been so full of smoke that he failed to appreciate the fact that nearly all of the buyers who wanted to buy his property were asking the same thing in their contracts - deliver the property free of the tenants.

I recall one apartment quiet well. It was located on the right side of the first floor. You entered into a one bedroom apartment through the kitchen door. Upon opening you were overwhelmed by dog stench - pee, poop, and mange. And then the dog himself would rush to eat you, I mean greet you. I don't remember his name, I will call him "Sarge". Sarge was a big black Labrador-mix. He would woof and attack with dog slobbers as soon as the door opened. The listing agent would warn potential buyers of each predictable onslaught. I avoided going inside on most showings. It really was that horrible. And a real person (not saying a human being) lived in that stench. I wonder what happened when he brought home a date. Nah, that probably NEVER happened.

The building was eventually purchased. The buyers paid the price and got the trophy property. He spent a couple of years renovating the place. I write about this because so many potential buyers create a no-win situation for themselves in the offers they make. If a seller would not agree to give notices to vacate in one contract, why would another buyer think the seller would do it for him? In Key West buyers sometime need to accept they may be required to take risks they detest in order to buy the property they want. 

Someday I am going to write about this one particular buyer I worked with for a couple of years. He always found some reason to not get a deal done. I think any real estate deal has some degree of risk. That guy wanted no risk and low price and high gains. Not much. The buyer who got Sarge's house got a trophy property (after spending a whole lot of money and time) in a great location. The right buyer got the property. One of the people who made an offer bought a different property from me. It was all fixed up and required no repairs. She and her dog Harley moved right in.She later told me it all worked out right in the end. 

Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No. 15

From October 4, 2017

The Accidental Bodybuilder

 The Accidental Bodybuilder

Several years ago I worked at a Key West real estate office with a young lady whose boyfriend was a house painter and a semi-professional bodybuilder. I remember meeting him for the first time:  the guy was massive. He had shocking red hair and a surprisingly tanned body. I guess when you work outside most of the day with your shirt off, you can get pretty tanned. Nobody could could overlook his amazing body. All people might not admire his physique, but nobody could miss seeing it.

One of my favorite true stories about life in Key West involves this bodybuilder boyfriend. One day he was standing on extension ladder at the corner of Simonton at Fleming Streets were he was painting the exterior of the Marquesa Hotel. That particular corner has a stop light. We all know that drivers are supposed to stop to allow traffic from the alternate street to pass through the controlled intersection.

On that particular day the boyfriend was wearing only a pair of fairly short shorts and shoes. His massive body loomed large seemingly suspended in air exposing his huge back, arms, and legs. The inevitable happened: some driver paid too much attention to the big muscular guy on the ladder and not enough attention to the stop light. Two vehicles collided.  

Staying Alive

If you watched any of the HALLOWEEN or SCREAM movies you know never to investigate strange noises in the woods; never to search for a missing friend by yourself; never to go upstairs or to the basement when the lights are not working; never to leave leave Jiffy Pop on the stove, and so on. In general you learn never to do dumb things. You learned valuable life lessons by witnessing what happens to people who do dumb things. Doing dumb things can have really bad consequences.

My dad was born in 1908. He was the oldest of three boys. His little brothers learned about life from him. That is the way life works. He was born almost before movies were invented - seriously. Saturday afternoon movies had not been invented when he was a kid. There were no SCREAM-type movies movies to inculcate him. Nobody taught him not to do dumb things. He had no idea of the concept of unintended consequences. He only knew about instant gratification of doing something for a laugh. He passed this on to my brother. I was born just after television became the focal point of almost every American home. I learned not to do dumb things. 

During the last two weeks of August before I entered the first grade, I accompanied my parents on a road trip from Denver through the northwestern United States. The trip lasted about two weeks. My dad drove our new 1952 Studebaker up through Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, with a brief visit to Canada. We visited every national park we could. We went deep sea fishing in Vancouver. My dad got sea sick. So did I. We returned about a week after first grade began. I never caught up. 

I remember Yellowstone National Park most of all. Smelling Old Faithful is a rite of passage. Seeing moose on the loose is inspiring. But seeming my dad getting eaten by a bear was terrifying. There were other fathers who apparently missed out on valuable life lessons learned in the movies. I found several photos of similar incidents. The photo below includes a Studebaker. Not our car. But may be related. Donno. 

So this bear was walking down the middle of the road. There were signs everywhere warning people DO NOT FEED THE BEARS.  My dad was an independent thinking man. He rolled down the driver's side window and held out an unwrapped Jolly Rancher piece of candy to the bear. The bear was excited to get the gift and tried to get inside the window to give my dad a big old bear hug. My dad landed on my mother's lap. I was in the back seat pinned against the window terrified at what was happening. 

My dad did not get eaten. He continued to dumb things forever. The End. 

 

FOR SALE BY OWNER in Key West - Are You Tempted?

Have you ever been tempted to buy a house from an owner? I think the theory owners use is that they know their property and can sell it as well as some real estate agent, save the commission thereby increasing the cash in the seller's pocket. That sounds reasonable. 

Last week a customer who is looking for a new place in the Key West area sent me a link to a house she found on Trulia. Truila is a real estate search engine acquired by Zillow. They share the same information but put it out in the universe just a bit differently. Both acquire listings located in the Florida Keys from the three Florida Key associations of Realtors as well as other MLS sites which post listings for properties located in the Keys. This is legal. I called the listing agent located far away from the Florida Keys to set up a showing. "The property is no longer available", he said. He added "I should take it down". He should. I just checked. He didn't. The MLS link is still up.  Is the guy forgetful, inept, dishonest, unethical?

Shortly after viewing this listing I decided to search For Sale By Owner sites. Several sites post FSBO online including  Zillow and Trulia do FSBO. I think the owner pays to be listed. Not sure. Houses do appear there. The photo at the top is one of the FSBO houses available in the Keys. I gotta say it makes the house look tempting. Would you be tempted to buy from a For Sale By Owner or an out of area "forgetful" sales guy?

If you are looking for a home in Key West I think it makes more sense to work with a knowledgeable local Realtor in Key West. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

Will He or Won't He?

Key West is filled to the brim this weekend. There are thousands of people here - everywhere. I have not seen so many people in town since Christmas two years ago. It may or may not be a good day for an Open House. We have had a couple of cooler than normal days with a bit of wind. The skies have been sunny with an occasional cloud.

EASTER SUNDAY

724 Windsor Lane

11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Let's see if he appears. Regardless,

 

The Pie Hole

 

I often write about the charm of living on one of the slow lanes in Key West where there are cute little cottages, little to no traffic, and peaceful surroundings as contrasted to the hullabaloo associated with Duval Street. There are a few streets which provide the same type of serene environment including the one shown above. It's not just the lanes and streets that makes life in Key West so appealing, it is the way we live. A lot of us came here from somewhere else to find a better life. To be accepted. To be less judgmental of others. Key West is sort of a nesting in place kind of town. It is cozy, inviting, and private all at the same time. This is the true story of two neighbors who share a fence.

A fellow Realtor and her mother share an Old Town home with the Realtors mother - Mom. Mom is old school. She makes food the old fashioned way - from scratch as opposed to from store bought pre-made whatever. Mom bakes pies. Really great pies.

The Realtor became friends with the man who lived behind her on one of the cute little lanes in Key West. It turns out he likes pies and he liked Mom. Mom liked him back and started to make him pies. It became a habit. They cut a hole in the wood fence that separates the two properties so that Mom could share her pies with her appreciative neighbor. They dubbed the opening "The Pie Hole"

.