1501 Truman Avenue, Key West - Transient Licensed Property

Sometimes we need to look backward to see forward. That's the case for the investment opportunity located at 1501 Truman Avenue in Key West. The listing Realtor, not me, describes this listing as a:

"Great Investment Opportunity. High Visibility On Truman Ave. 4 Units Each With Full Kitchen And Private Bath. Transient Licenses, Pool And Off Street Parking For Two Cars.Original Structure Has Dade County Pine.Needs Tlc,Being Sold As Is."

I recently took some photos for a potentially interested buyer which you can see if you CLICK HERE. I used the pocket camera and the pics are not all that good. You will quickly see that the camera would not have made much of a difference. This place needs work! A lot of it. Let's look back to a couple of older photos of this property.

 This photo shows the house much better than we can see it today because of all the trees and foliage that protects the house from Truman Avenue.  You'll notice the broad front porch which angles back on the right side where there is also one off street parking spot. Note also the exterior staircase to the second floor. That tells us there is no interior staircase. And finally we see a second floor front balcony that appears to have been added.

The above photo shows a banner across Truman Avenue welcoming M.W. Davis H. Wilkinson, Mason Grand Master of Florida to Key West in 1960. You can also see that wrap-around porch. The house has a stately look back then. Today, the beauty of the house is more difficult to see party because of all the trees but also because the place has not been maintained.  A good haircut never hurt anybody. It's gonna take more than a paint job to fix this old place, but it will certainly look much better after it gets a spiffed up.

The site is located at the corner of Truman Avenue and Pearl Street. The lot measures 49' X 88' or 4371 sq ft. The Monroe County Property Appraiser records show the main house plus rear first floor addition and a second rear cottage on the Pearl Street side total 2214 sq ft of living space capable of being air conditioned.  The stairs were removed from the main house. Today these areas are used as kitchens or baths for the three apartments that make up the current building. I think any renovation would remove the exterior staircase and relocate it back in the main house. 

Original staircase area now used as a kitchen.

The above photo shows the second floor apartment. The room on the right is where the stairway would have landed. The opened door leads to the front balcony that overlooks Bayview Park across the street. The views from the balcony are actually pretty interesting.

The three photos immediately above show two sawtooth additions appended to the rear of the main house followed by a rear cottage which the listing Realtor describes as an owner's unit. You'll see a nice pool located just off the owner's unit plus the sunny expanse on the opposite side of the tall white fence.  Each of the three apartments in the main house have a valuable Transient Rental License which permits daily rental.  The street photos also show what the listing Realtor describes as off street parking. CLICK HERE to view the Key West Association of Realtors mls datasheet on 1501 Truman Avenue which is offered for sale at $949,000.

The large building lot located on the far side of 1501 Truman Avenue is my listing at 1430 Albury Street (formerly 901 Pearl Street). This lot measures 50' X 70' or 3500 sq ft.  I think a smart investor might be able combine the two parcels into a single lot and potentially relocate one or two of the transient licenses into structures moved from the front portion to the rear or to build a new structure or structures there. There is actually plenty of room to have three stand alone cottages each with separate pool and parking. A land planner and a real estate attorney would need to advise a buyer whether such a combination is legally permissible and politically acceptable.  CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet on 1430 Albury Street which is offered for sale at $750,000.

I think that the old house combined with new construction could create a wonderful Renaissance project that could work. The transient licenses and the size of the vacant lot provides all sorts of potential for such a project. Please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to schedule a private showing of both properties. Let's look at what exists and explore what might be. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. 

413 Virginia Street, Key West, Florida

A buyer looking for a renovation project in Key West may want to consider the recently listed house located at 413 Virginia Street. The property is listed in the Key West mls as "413-415 Virginia Street". You'll quickly notice that there is only one house, the one with the numbers 413. The other house was razed years ago and is now vacant space. I searched the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps and found 413 Virginia (previously numbered 203) and 415 Virginia (previously numbered 205) on the 1889 map.  Then I looked through my old shoe box and found photos of each house taken in 1965. The photos show the additions of jalousie windows which enclosed the original front porch, scalloped aluminum shutters on the side, a concrete block fence and wrought iron gate and stair rail.

413 Virginia St.

415 Virginia St - now razed

The Monroe County Property Appraiser shows the house as being 705 sq ft and located on a 45' X 84' or 3889 sq ft lot. The house is located about 200 feet west of Duval Street.  I wrote about another nearby house three years ago which went through a dramatic renovation. (See pics below.) I think this house could undergo a similar renovation. The location merits real consideration for a buyer who wants to create a monthly vacation rental. Alternatively, a new owner might renovate 413 Virginia and seek permission to build a new house on the lot where 415 Virgina was located. The city might recognize a ROGO because there is demonstrable proof that a house existed there previously.

I found the aerial photo of Key West that was taken in the 1930s. I added an arrow to point out 413 Virginia Street.  It's nice to see that so many of our old houses have survived the wrecking ball and remain an important part of our lives and commerce today.

The photo below shows 421Virginia Street before it was renovated. The second photo shows the property during construction. And the last photo shows the completed house with new pool and landscaped driveway.

The listing Realtor, not me, describes the 413 Virginia St. this way:

"Location, location, location! Shotgun style conch house with YARD SPACE in prime 'Old Town' Key West spot. X Flood Zone. This residence beckons to be returned to its splendor of the 'Roaring Twenties' and the prohibition era. Lot affords room to expand and build a pool. It even boasts an out house! Historical District locale is walking distance from everything. Half a block off Duval St and five blocks to Southernmost Point. The parcel is surrounded by Spanish lime, mango, avocado & banana trees. Make this Old Town spot your Island Oasis."

CLICK HERE to view the Key West Association of Realtors mls datasheet on this property which is offered at $575,000. Then please contact me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to schedule a showing of this interest property which might very well be converted into a nice vacation rental with pool, parking, and a convenient location near Duval Street and the attractions at the southern end of Key West. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

2601 S. Roosevelt Blvd. Unit 306A - Key West By the Sea Ocean View Condominium

Some pretty sharp buyer is going to snatch-up Unit 306A at Key West By the Sea that is priced to sell at just $439,000. The listing agent describes this 960 sq ft third floor in the A Building located only one unit from the front this way:

"OCEAN and pool views from the living room and balcony of this third floor two bedroom apartment. Unfurnished. Right on Smathers Beach, the main beach in the Florida Keys. Eight acres of lushly landscaped grounds, two pools (one heated), two tens courts, low density, no transient rentals, gated community. Very strong concrete block construction with pre stressed slab between floors, footings into cap rock. The complex has never flooded."

Imagine your furnishings in this space. Imagine waking up in the morning and having your coffee on the deck with the ocean view. Maybe you'll take your pooch (pet's welcome) over to Smather's Beach for the morning walk. Later in the day you might go down to one of the two large pools. CLICK HERE to view more photos of this great listing.

 Key West By the Sea is a professionally managed condominium association. The condo fees for this unit are $525.64 which covers cable tv, building maintenance and all insurances, common area and pool maintenance, security, trash removal, and professional management.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet on Unit 306A at Key West by the Sea. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to arrange a private showing. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.  

 

615 Angela Street, Key West - The One You Have Been Waiting For!

Every now and then I get a phone call, an email, and even a personal visit (usually at an open house) from loyal readers of my little blog. Most are people who have a dream of someday owning a place in Key West. Many of my readers are people of normal means. They work 9:00 to 5:00 jobs and spend a part of workday doing what their company pays them to do and sometimes do a little internet cheating by keeping track of new listings that pop up on Zillow or other real estate search engines that they monitor throughout the day. It's true and you know it is. The more wealthy readers do it too. They just don't cheat their employer.

By now many readers have probably seen 615 Angela Street located in the Old Town area of Key West on the sites they use to search new Key West mls listings. I got to show the property on Monday to a prospective buyer. I thought others might like to know more about this really incredible property. Now, it isn't fancy. It is a simple house. But that is why I personally think it is incredible. It is a blank slate upon which a new owner can create a beautiful new home, garden, and pool in a very desirable location.

As we approached the house I pointed to the second floor front of the house and said that area had previously been a porch that is now enclosed. The listing Realtor walked across the street to greet us.  Introductions were made. He looked up to the porch and said the original porch was open and then enclosed by the family who has lived in this house for eighty years reconfirming what I had just told the potential buyers. (I went to my old shoe box and found a photo of this  house taken fifty years ago so readers can see how it looked like back in the day.)

The original house was built in the 1880s and was just one story tall. The second floor was added as the family grew larger and more space was needed. The Monroe County Property Appraiser shows this house as having 3004 sq ft of living space (measured from exterior walls with interiors only capable of being air conditioned - not including porches or decks). The house sits near the top of Solares Hill (located about 200 feet to the east) on a lot that measures 54' X 134' or 7,169 sq ft. The old photo shows us that the house is built close to the street and that means the back yard must be immense. It is more than that - I must use that word again "incredible".

CLICK HERE to view a GOOGLE MAP AERIAL VIEW of this house and its relation to the topography as well as its nearness to Duval Street and other areas of Old Town Key West. Use the little toggle switch in the right hand corner of the map to zoom down to see not only this house but also other nearby houses like the Phillip Burton house across the street and the Coca Cola mansion at the rear on Southard Street.

We started our tour of this home by first looking at the back of the property where there is room for a pool and possible expansion of the existing garage into something else. The house is large enough, may be too large. I will discuss that shortly. This property is recognized by the city as being a legal duplex. A new owner might expand the garage and turn it into a living space or make it into poolside cabana. The yard is large enough to accommodate expansion of the garage as well as pool, garden, and decks.

The listing Realtor describes the property this way:

"Unbelievable family home (now a legal duplex) atop of Solaris Hill in Old Town. Living room, dining room, kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, wide covered front porch and rear wooden deck leading to huge backyard on ground floor. Living room, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms with Jack n Jill bathroom, plus office and additional room (has been used as a bedroom in the past), rear enclosed porch and outside rear wooden sundeck leading down to the same huge backyard. There is an outside utility room and a detached garage/workshop. Over 3,000 SF in main house. Pull down stairs in upstairs bedroom leads to a full attic. Surprisingly good condition inside."

First Floor Living Room. Note the very tall ceiling height.

Second Floor Living Room - About Eight Foot Ceiling Height

CLICK HERE to view the listing photos of this property. I took pics on my small pocket camera not intending to blog about this house. But after I saw the house I realized readers must see this place. The listing photos are great. Consider the height throughout the first floor. It is impressive. The height on the second floor is  closer to 8'. All interior walls and ceilings are Dade County Pine. There is a huge attic with wood floor. There is room in the attic and under the house to install central air conditioning.  

The house is so big that I think it might make sense to restore the original open second floor front porch and to open a portion of the now enclosed first and second floor areas to create porches that look out to a new pool and gardens. The house is built with balloon framing which I believe would allow a new owner to move existing interior walls into configurations that provide larger bedrooms and bathrooms and to add an interior stairway that does not presently exist.

615 Angela Street is offered at $1,195,000. Please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to set up a personal showing of this (I gotta say it again) incredible house.  I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. This property will sell very quickly. This is the one you have been waiting for! Don't wait!