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"

. 

 

Key West First Quarter 2021 Real Estate Sales Report

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.

For years it seemed that most seasonal buyers wanted to buy a home in Old Town or Casa Marina. As prices grew higher and higher, some buyers decided to expand their search areas to Mid Town and New Town. I believe those buyers were shopping by price more than location. And as we know the universal key word in real estate is location. So let's look at the sold prices for single family homes in those three locations.

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

I blogged about 517 Elizabeth Street (above) when it was listed for sale after being freshly renovated in 2013. In that blog I mentioned Charles Olivieri, a former resident at 517 Elizabeth Street. He was a night - caller, whatever that was, back in the day. 517 Elizabeth Street sold for $1,975.000 in 2013. It re-sold in January 2021 for $2,550,000 or $50,000 over asking price. It never even hit the MLS. I assume this was a pocket listing. They still occur. They occur frequently.

Several houses in problematic locations in Old Town sold during this three month time period. Some houses priced over one million dollars that do not have parking finally sold. Some houses in the boondocks sold. Just about every house in every price range with every type of size or condition issue sold. The supply of single family homes shrank to near nothing. Many new listings went under contract within days of being listed.

I searched the Casa Marina Area which I define as White Street west to The Reach Resort and United Street south to the Atlantic Ocean. There were 13 single family homes that sold during this three month time frame. The least expensive was 907 South Street, a cheerful 720 Sq FT house with no pool on a small lot. It sold for $850,000 or $1,167 per Sq Ft. Remember, no pool!

I will do a shameless plug at this point. I have had a very good start to 2021. I sold three properties, each cash, since January 1st, including 727 Washington pictured above. It sold for $3,250,000 or $843 per Sq Ft. It is huge - 3,855 Sq Ft on an enormous 15,336 Sq Ft lot in the heart of the Casa Marina.

1100 Flagler Avenue was the most expensive sale during the first three months of 2021. It sold for $3,800,000 or $1,079 Per Sq Ft. This same property sold at $4,500,000 in November 2019. The new owners added personal touches and then decided Key West was not the place for them. It sold at a loss. Not because of the house or location. Well, location I suppose. It is located in Key West and that is where that owner decided was not the right spot. Go figure.

I combined the Mid Town and New Town single family homes sales into one search. There were 60 such sales with an average sales price of $1,111,511 or $627 per Sq Ft for a 1,760 Sq Ft home. Most of these home were renovated and several were recently renovated a second time. The renovated house at 2600 Patterson Avenue sold in one day on the market at asking price of $949,000 or $598 per Sq Ft.

Ten of the Mid Town and New Town homes sold for $2 million or higher including 1214 Olivia Street pictured above. That house is bigger than most people need. Many buyers might find the location too far from Duval Street while others would say the farther away the better. The 4,152 Sq Ft house sold for $3,455,000 or $832 per Sq Ft.

0 and 2 Go Lane were originally listed for sale at $5,269,500 and were required to be sold as one sale. That was revised and the price later reduced to $4,469,500 for 0 Go Lane. It was later reduced to $2.999,000 and eventually sold at $2,600,000. I never had to opportunity to show this home built in 2019. It is located on the highly desirable convergence of the Riviera and Sunrise Canals at the end of the Island of Key West.

There are 96 single family homes in the Key West MLS currently identified as contingent or pending sale. Prices range from $539,000 for 1707 South Street to $6,200,000 for a waterfront manse on Sunset Key. That is quite a disparity. Consider that $539,000 would buy a pretty substantial home in many parts of the country. I tried to show the $539,000 property. The agent said he had multiple cash offers over asking. The place is a tear down. I presume a new house will be built on the lot and re-sold for a lot of money in a year or two from now. This is life is Key West real estate in 2021 - pay high now or pay higher later. 

If you are thinking of buying a place in Key West and are not working with a Realtor, please consider working with me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 or by email at garyethomas@aol.com. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Buy a house from me and I will bake you a pie. Or something better.

In Honor of April Fools Day I Present

 

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.