Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday - No. 33

from 2015  Nothing to do with real estate.

 I confess: I Wore Blackface That's little me sitting in the right bottom corner of the photo of my first grade class at Mountain View Elementary School in 1954. All of the children in my class and all of the other students and staff and even the entire town were white. Mountain View is located on west side of the Denver County line in Jefferson County, Colorado where it was illegal for Negroes and other non-whites to live in the 1950s. I returned to Denver in 2015 to attend my fifty year high school reunion. On the day of the reunion I drove over to see my old school, went inside, and learned that my old school was a private school for primarily underprivileged Hispanic children. My former lily white suburb had turned Asian and Hispanic and underprivileged. The school administrator allowed me to walk through the school.

When I was a student the school cafeteria was also used as the gym and auditorium where Cub Scout and PTA events were held and where an occasional play was performed. In June 2015 I stood on that stage and looked to my left and remember my part in the school Christmas play that took place in 1954 or 1955 right after school on the Friday afternoon just as we began our Christmas recess.

The setting was an orphanage at Christmas where all of the orphans were white except for one. Students from each grade had a part. Santa Clause was played by an adult male who must have been a parent because we did not have a male teacher until the sixth grade. At some point Santa spoke to me. I think I must have been the youngest to have a speaking line, a line I do not remember, but a line I will never forget.

Earlier one of my teachers burned a cork and smeared the burnt ash all over my face and hands to make me look like a Negro. African Americans or Black People were called either Colored People or Negros in the 1950s. That is why I use that term here. I remember having to learn and speak in a Negro dialect. I seem to recall one of the teachers taught me the diction. I cannot remember my line, but I remember the entire audience laughed out loud at what I said and how I said it.

Put what I did and what my teachers did in context. They painted me in black face and taught me to speak a line in such a way as to make fun of black people - for a gag laugh. This was a school event where all of the teachers and students were present. This was acceptable behavior in my all white community in the 1950s. I was a kid. I did what I was told. I didn't see anything wrong with what I did. Then.

The thing is I remember this event sixty-five years later. How many readers remember events when they were seven or eight years old? I would venture most recollections would involve some type of trauma like losing a family member or extreme joy like getting a puppy. While I now smile at what I did back then, I can't help but think what I did was very wrong. But it was culturally acceptable. That is why I don't agree judging social conduct from years ago by the community standards of today.

A Fixer. What is it Worth?

Two Bedrooms One Bath, 22nd Floor Condominium. Not in Key West.

There is a lot of information about this property available if you are familiar with styles and materials used in the 1970s including the parquet floors, kitchen cabinets, appliance colors, and light fixtures. Styles change but routine cleanliness and maintenance is often not important to some homeowners.

Comment and offer your suggestions as to price, worth, and whatever. Location is Toronto Canada. You could not buy something as large as this in Key West for less than $700,000 even in this condition.

Like most parts of the US the housing supply in Key West is on the low side right now. I expect a substantial increase in available properties in October. A lot of locals are travelings. Schools here are now open. Lives are getting back to as normal as possible. I think we will get to pre-Covid real estate sales patters this fall. If you are looking for Realtor with experience and not some dude with vibes and and signs, consider an agent with experience. Call me Gary Thomas, Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No. 32

from August 26, 2016

My First Loan and What I Learned About Buying on Credit 

The Key West MLS is transferring to a new service provider this weekend. I have a new listing to add but can't because the system is not accepting new listings until Monday. So instead of writing about something I can't share, I thought I would share a memory of my first loan and the lesson I learned.

I have written about growing up in the little suburban town of Mountain View, Colorado - a suburb just west of Denver. I lived in this quite little burb through my formative years until 1960 when we moved a couple of miles to the south and west. The town was two blocks wide and six blocks long. There were a couple of mom and pop stores and my barbershop on Sheridan Boulevard and several small stores on West 44th Avenue including a Army surplus store, a Lotta Burger, a gas station, and an auction house and candy store located at 5410 W. 44th. Through the miracle of Google Maps you can CLICK HERE to view that building that still exists today.

I remember going to the auctions a few times with my parents. I must have been six to eight years old at the time. After the auction company failed a tax preparation company occupied the same space. I went there as well and was as bored as any kid could be while his parents were getting their taxes prepared.

The candy store and toy store were located next door. I would go there by myself to buy penny candy. Yes, in the 1950s you could buy a lot of things for a few cents or a couple of dollars. Every time I think about that store I can smell the sweet aroma that filled the air. One day I found a box that intrigued me. It contained what looked like a metal gun which actually was a movie projector, or so I thought. I was transfixed by it. The price was just $1.25 which is equivalent to $11.49 today. While I had a piggy bank that held my life savings, I didn't want to rob myself of my future by buying the projector. Yet I really felt I needed it.

I went back to the candy store many times to visit my object of desire. I remember the following fairly correctly.  One day I approached the owner and proposed to buy the projector on credit.  I offered a quarter down payment and said I would pay off the balance with my allowance. The owner agreed and saved the projector for me. The weeks passed. I paid off my loan.  I took the projector home and set out to make it work. It did, but it didn't.  It wasn't what I thought it would be.  I lost interest in it very quickly and blamed myself for not being more careful.

A17 12th Avenue, Key West - Waterfront Home

The new listing at A17 12th Avenue, Key West could be almost heaven to some. I mean how many people dream of buying a little place in the Keys where they can just hang out, do some fishing, living the good life, being able to into Key West when they want, hang out some more, not go broke paying for stuff. 

That's Key West in the background, five miles to the west. That's A17 12th Street with the little boat at the bottom right. That is DEEP WATER access to the Atlantic Ocean at your doorstep.

A17 12th Street is a four bedroom two bath single family home with 1,972 Square Feet of living space situated on large 4,800 Square Foot lot that measures 116' X 40' The yard is fenced. There is gated off street parking but ample parking in front as well. The neighbors have similar homes and all share immediate access to the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico within minutes of departure from their private docks.

This home is offered for sale by Preferred Properties Key West at $915,000. CLICK HERE to view MLS datasheet and more photos of this special waterfront home. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. 

826 Johnson Lane, Key West - Newly Listed

Just Listed but not by me 826 Johnson Lane, Key West. I got to see this freshly renovated Old Town home yesterday afternoon. I remember showing the property several years ago when it was marketed as a fixer-upper. Well now it's fixed! 

I dug into my old shoebox and found the black and white photo above. It was taken in 1965. Sadly the property is not located anywhere near the water and no the boat did not float to the property in a storm. I also checked the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps to see if I could determine when this house was built. The Monroe County Property Appraiser shows it was constructed in 1938 during the Depression. We know that is incorrect. I learn (and often forget) so much about Key West houses when I search the maps. The 1889 map did not show this area but we know houses were here because St. Mary's Cathedral is located just a block to the south and some of the Grand Dame houses on Division Street (now Truman Avenue) are located on the much larger and grander lots immediately to the south. 

Johnson Lane only runs one block between Windsor Lane to the west and Packer Street to the east. The 1899 map shows a bunch of many smaller cottages on an unidentified lane running perpendicular to Johnson Lane (then called Jane Street). That entire group of cottages were gone by the 1899 map when 826 Johnson Lane appeared. All but one of those cottages has been renovated. Some vacant lots were built upon and one larger than should-be house was built a few years ago. I don't know how that happened. Two little cottages two doors away were also recently renovated and are now part of a monthly vacation rental program. They are shown below.

 

826 Johnson Lane sits on a 2,9000 Sq Ft lot that measures 116' X 25'. The house sits about 20 feet from the set back giving this home two off street parking spaces. The current owner relocated the entry to the right rear and reconfigured the entire interior of the house. All of the piers were replaced as were all the mechanical features. There is a new metal roof, impact windows and doors, and a fire suppression system. The original wood siding has been replaced with new Novelty siding which is historically correct for the area. Let's look inside starting from the living area.

All of the interior photos are virtually staged. But the shots themselves are the actual rooms. The French doors open out to the main (side) entry where there is room for a pool. There is one large tree and an existing fish pond that need to go. The listing Realtor told me the owner decided to let the new owner decide if he,she,they,them want a pool or not.

There are two bedrooms on the first floor. The master bedroom with en-suite is located midway in the house just past the kitchen.  

The original "front" room in the house is now the guest bedroom. This is a smart reconfiguration of space many renovators use. Unlike the two adorable houses shown above, this house does not presently have a front porch. That is part of th e reason this house has parking for two cars. I don't know if HARC would permit a new owner to add a porch as that would change the historic view of the property. But it would add to the charm and give the front guest bedroom a pretty view of the house across the lane. I wrote about it years ago. It is one one of the most unique homes in Old Town. 

 A full bath plus laundry area is located just past this bedroom. Note the cherry floors, high baseboards, and crispy white trim in each of the rooms. The windows are impact glass. The roof is new metal and the house is tied to the ground. A new owner will get a 30% discount on wind insurance. The house is located in the X Flood Zone where floor insurance is not required for a mortgage.

There's more! There is a second level loft bedroom not included in the square footage shown in the MLS as access is by a ladder located off the second bathroom. This is not a space for your mother-in-law but would be perfect for your brother-in-law (as long as he is not always drunk otherwise forget that). Kids would love this space. It stretches from front to rear. It is legal space. It does benefit from the fire suppression system.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and video of 826 Johnson Lane, Key West Florida offered for sale at $1,375,000. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

 

The Night the Lights Went Out in Key West

I have written before that I moved to Key West to own and operate the Eaton Lodge Guest House pictured above. It was the former home Dr. William Warren and his wife Genevieve. Warren was the town doctor. They were involved in the social and political events of the day. Genevieve and her friend Peggy Mills formed the Key West Garden Club. 

I think I was the third person to own the property as a guest house. The owners that converted the property from a residence to guest house hired professional contractors to do the work. I am sure everything they did was done to code. I just don't think they ever thought what happened twenty-five years ago this month would happen. But it did.

That is a photo of Jessie Porter, Genevieve Warren, Vivian Pierce, Connie McLain who were members of the Key West Garden Club. 

Fast forward to September 1994. Eaton Lodge was a thirteen room guest house located steps away from Duval Street. All but two of the rooms had private baths. Those two rooms could accommodate six people and often did. That particular weekend was "Women's Week" later renamed Womenfest Key West. 

Most guest houses have a required length of stay policy during Fantasy Fest, Chirstmas, New Years, boat races, and Women's Week. I can't recall if we require five or seven nights stay but we did have such a requirement. I do recall we were sold out for the duration of the event. All of the guests were women most of whom were probably in their late twenties to late thirties - except there was one man and wife staying who were not a part of the festivities. 

We hosted a cocktail party every night of the year which ran from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. Most guests would go to view sunset at Mallory Square and return to clean up before they go out to dinner. That particular Friday night something odd happened. All the lights, televisions, fans, air condditioning went out something between 5:00 to 7:00. I remember running out to the street to see if the traffic lights were out. They were not. It appeared the electric outage was confined to the property. I went to the breaker box and got the power back on. I remember one woman guest being pretty feisty about being unable to dry her hair or iron her clothes. I appologized for the inconvenience and assured her it was a one tme affair.

It wasn't. The next night around the same time all the power went off again. This time I went straight to the breaker box and got power back on. We quickly deduced that the guest house though wired for all the lights and gadgets was not equipped to have everything being operated at the same time. 

 

 

Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No. 31

from January 8, 2018

Fire and Fury & Fatbutt

Today's blog has nothing to do with Key West real estate except that if you want to buy a place or sell a place and you want an agent with life experiences beyond self-aggrandizement and self-promotion, you may want to call me. Info below on that.

I want to share a small true tale that may explain why so may people in the White House seem to have made derogatory statements about the boss, Mr. Trump. I think what might have happened was quite insignificant at the time. I did something similar about forty years ago and it changed the course of my life to some extent.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog about negotiating with bullies where I mentioned traveling to Omaha to meet with other creditors of a farmer borrower I called "King". In the late 1970s I was a commercial loan workout guy at a big Denver bank. It was my job to correct the ill advised and unsecuredloan by getting security. The problem was there were other lenders who had also given King money, most of whom were also unsecured lenders.

We (my bank) worked out a plan to take liens on various assets of King including his homestead located in Kansas. We thought the passage of time and a good crop season would put King in a better position to repay a portion of our loan. Our short term goal was to perfect our security interest in each of King's assets against the claim of other unsecured creditors.

I went to Omaha with our bank's new ag lender to attend a creditors meeting to discuss our mutual bad boy borrower. I sat quiet throughout the morning meeting as all to the other lender reps were discussing throwing King into involuntary bankruptcy. Just before we broke for lunch one of the other creditors said something like "Gary, you have been quite all morning long and have not said a thing" (which anyone who knows me is an improbable thing).  He asked if I had an opinion at which time I said I thought we should give King time to take his crops to market to see how much cash he generate to pay to the creditors. What I was really recommending was that they do nothing which would give us the necessary time to perfect our recently recorded mortgages and financing statements.  In a contest between secured an unsecured lenders, we would then prevail over most of the other lenders. We broke for lunch and later that afternoon the group of lenders agreed to do nothing.

That night Howard Fatbutt, the ag lender, and I went to Gorat's world famous steakhouse in Omaha to celebrate our diversion tactics. For those not familiar with the name Gorat's, it is Warren Buffett's favorite steak house. I remember having a couple of drinks and eating a great steak. I have eaten there several times since that night, but that night had consequence for me because I told Fairbutt that my boss was an "***hole". I thought what I said was both a joke and more importantly private.  I assumed that most people think their their bosses are "***holes" to some extent. In point of fact I really liked my boss and respected him greatly. He was a former US government attorney and very smart.   I said something stupid that I should not have said.

The following week my boss invited me into his office and told me Fairbutt reported that I had called him an "***hole". My boss was genuinely pissed and did not care for any defense on my part.  A couple of weeks earlier he had told me about an upcoming promotion. On that day he said the promotion would not happen.  He wouldn't fire me, but he would not promote me either. I couldn't figure out why Fatbutt had told my boss anything except perhaps to recommend a bonus for pulling off a win for our bank. We worked in different areas of the bank and had not had any prior business or personal meetings before. 

I can imagine a scenario where Micheal Wolff, the seemingly ever-present bald guy hanging around the White House, would get a lot of people to make ill advised remarks about President Trump. I can't imagine anyone would have envisioned their quips would have been repeated in a tell all book about the boss. Howard Fatbutt was my Micheal Wolff. 

If you are looking for a Realtor in Key West and want someone with life learning experiences, please consider calling me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 or send me an email at kw1101v@aol.com. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

724 Windsor Lane, Key West - Sold - A Very Little Slice of Heaven

 

I finally sold 724 Windsor Lane a few weeks ago. This was several months after being listed in the Key West MLS during the hottest real estate market in the country. There was nothing wrong with the house nor the location. We offered several price reductions to get to the sweet spot which coincided with the house being the third least expensive house in all of Key West.

Murphy Davis at 724 Windsor Lane in 2009

The 485 square foot house had only one bedroom which limited the universe of potential buyers. All of a sudden I had a lot of "buyers". One couple got to buy 724 Windsor Lane described in THE NEW YORK TIMES as A Very Little Slice of Heaven. CLICK HERE to read the article - it is a fun three minute read.

While working on yesterday's blog entitled HOUSE BUILDING, Google took me to the article in THE TIMES. The article written in 2009 by Donna Paul told the story of when Murphy Davis owned 724 Windsor Lane. Murphy, his former partner, and playwright Terrance McNally bought their first home in Key West in 1997. Later Murphy Davis and his friend Bobbie Watson purchased 724 Windsor Lane which Murphy "renovated".  The piece tells the love story of living small in a fabulous location.

 

 

 

 

House Building

 

Opening Montage - 1895 brick Victorian situated by a lake in upstate New York.

Interior - owner speaks:

I love my house.

Everybody does.

It was built in 1895 and still has most of the original roof.

The wallpaper in the dining room is original too.

So's a lot of the original woodwork.

You'd have to be a fool to change it.

I hope you appreciate detail.

The marble fireplace is hand carved.

The main stairs have a very gentle rise.

Everyone comments how easy it is to climb them.

I like to fill it with my friends.

Over the years we've become more like a family.

It makes me happy to have us all together in our home,

Mine and Bobby's.

They don't build house like this anymore.

The Golden Age of American House-building.

Not architecture mind you House-building.

This house was meant to stand.

Make yourself at home.

Love!, Valour!, Compassion! by Terrance McNally author, seasonal resident and home owner in Key West.

I watched the 1997 movie version of Love! Valour! Compassion! last night and played and replayed the opening monologue too many times. The words rang so true to me especially "They don't build houses like this anymore." That is the attraction of Key West its houses. They don't build houses like this anymore. The fact they were built in Paradise makes extra special.

 

630 Caroline Street, Key West - Not For Sale

I was taking photos for my blog a couple of days ago and passed by 630 Caroline Street, Key West. It was listed for sale a couple of years ago but did not sell and it is not for sale now. I think it is an interesting property and will sell when it is once again offered. The property records show this house as being a 2/2 with 1,176 square feet of living space (including second floor) situated on a 1,774 square foot lot (32.5 X 55') at the corner of Caroline and Elizabeth Street.

I dug down into my old shoebox and found the 1965 photo of the house with a tree in front. The City of Key West recently completed the multi-year restoration of the seaport which now wraps the waterfront to the west to the Truman Annex Park. The rebuilding of the seaport infrastructure not only revitalized businesses in that area, but also spurred the restoration of many of the original homes in the area. The house at 630 Caroline Street is one of the few remaining historic homes that have not been restored or renovated.

I searched the Historic Sanborn Fire Maps and found 630 Caroline Street existed as early as 1889 when it was identified as a "dwelling" at 336 Caroline. The 1889 map shows the house then had a covered front porch and an addition at the rear. The stone veneer is fake and was probably added in the 1950s and certainly before the 1965 photo was taken. Jalousie windows were probably added at the same time. They are definitely not original to this house. The front and rear dormers were likely not original either. The rear addition is much smaller than the addition shown on the Sanborn maps

As I walked back to my car I noticed the fake brick (manufactured in Key West and known here as Indian Stone) was falling off the exterior wall. The close up shot shows the original exterior featured Novelty siding. That type of siding is still visible on the rear shed addition. I look forward to the day when the fake stone, jalousie windows, and air conditioners are removed and this little house is restored. It will happen. Not sure when. But it will.