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
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
Not the real house |
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.
From October 4, 2017
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.
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.
My dad did not get eaten. He continued to dumb things forever. The End.
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.
EASTER SUNDAY
724 Windsor Lane
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Let's see if he appears. Regardless,
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"
I am better at making pies than pie charts. I did not make the apple pie above. I found the photo and added the graphic to show I can do elementary math. The pie looks delicious.
The first three months of 2021 were extraordinary in so many ways. I was watching MSNBC on January 6th when I saw live footage of the first protesters walking around inside the capitol. I was shocked by the first views and transfixed by what happened for the next few hours. I watched late into the night trying to understand what and why what happened was allowed to happen. The day was so unbelievable and horrific for our country. It was like 911 all over again.
A couple of weeks later President Biden was sworn into office. Many policy changes were announced in the following days. The rhetoric changed. The political tone changed. People started to get vaccinated. Then millions and millions were vaccinated. It started to feel like we would actually get out from under the pandemic and maybe there would be less anger toward each other.
At the same time people from what seemed like all over America were coming to Key West to escape the pandemic and find a way to recreate. Others came here hoping to find a new place to call home or maybe to buy that second home they had dreamed of owning. Many people discovered they could work from home and decided they would prefer to live in Key West than Peoria - or wherever. I started to get emails and phone calls from potential buyers. So did just about every Realtor in Key West. Our typical selling season was anything but typical. Many properties went under contract within days of being listed. And some very old stale listings went under contract as well. The intensity of the sales played out daily.
I searched the Key West MLS for sales to single family homes from January 1st until April 1st. I only considered houses on the island of Key West. I went through the sales and eliminated sales on Stock Island and beyond. There were 132 single family homes sales that closed during this time period.
The least expensive house was a 460 Sq Ft house at 817 Terry Lane in Bahama Village. It was listed at $499,000 but sold at $460,000 or $1, 095 per Sq Ft. The same house re-sold the same day for $525,000. The statistical average house was 1,836 Sq Ft and sold for $1,453,800 or $786 per Sq Ft. The most expensive home was located at 13 Sunset Key Drive on Sunset Key, of course. It had 2,480 Sq Ft and sold for $5,200,000 or $2,097 per Sq Ft. Consider the view from the master bedroom.Old Town by my definition includes White Street west to Truman Annex Waterfront Park and United Street north to the Gulf of Mexico. I included Sunset Key, but it is a diffident animal. I did not include any sales in the Meadows - the houses are essentially the same as Old Town but the streets are more narrow and the buying public view the location as too far from where they want to be. There were 50 single family home sales that sold at an average price of $1,649,000 or $917 per Sq Ft. I must always point out there is no such thing as an average price per sq ft because every house in Old Town is different in size, condition, lot size, location, and so on. Agents tell buyers not to make decisions based on price per sq ft yet many agents list houses based on this factor. Or at least they consider the price per square foot multiplier and figure out how to justify it to the public.
517 Elizabeth Street - 2013 |
This is a real photo taken in Key West way back when - when there were not as many tourists as there are today. Speaking of today, the Island of Key West has been invaded by thousands of people seeking a few days away from the reality of the pandemic. Singles, couples, families, and herds of spring breakers are here. Some are wearing masks and others are oblivious to anyone but themselves. The Key West International Airport has planes jammed up with no place to park. Go to Bookings.com to see what one night in Key West will cost you today. You will be shocked.
This is a true story about real people and real estate in Key West. Several years ago I worked in a large real estate office with headquarters in Key West and several offices throughout the Florida Keys.
The Key West office had a lot of agents including several "top producers". One of the top producers was a woman I will call Mary - Mary Contrary. Mary was big on the social scene. She was at a dinner or function all the time. She was easily recognizable in any crowd. She had many listings and many buyers. She was a whirlwind of activity. She had a female assistant (who I will call Karen) to help manage her thriving business. Karen worked for Mary for several years and did the chores assistants do. One year Karen got her Christmas bonus. She never came back to work. She gave no notice. She just did not return to work.
Mary found a new assistant who I will call Eric. Mary found a winner in him. He had a real estate license and excellent computer skills. Eric was quiet. He had his own office where he immediately took over the control of Mary's life and business. When you are top producing Realtor your life is your business and vice versa. Eric worked for Mary two and one-half days. He went to lunch and did not return. He didn't work long enough to get a Christmas bonus. He didn't work long enough to meet many of the people who worked in the office. He didn't work long enough to give Mary a chance.I can't remember exactly how Mary figured out what happened. She was not a hands-on type of person. But she did. Before leaving Eric destroyed all of Mary's computer files - her listings, her old files, her contacts, her emails, HER LIFE.
I don't have a moral for this story. I do not understand how one person can take such advantage of another. People do it tall the time in business without blinking an eye.