913 White Street, Key West

Just Listed, but not by me, 913 White Street in Key West, Florida. This vernacular style home sits back from White Street behind a solid fence and gardens. The gated front drive provides off street parking for several cars, a rarity in this Old Town location. The wrap around front porch hearkens back to another century where this might have been grandma's house. Would it were true. What a place this must have been back in the day.

The above photo was taken at the 1928 May Day Parade in Key West.  I added a graphic to show where 913 White Street can be seen in the photo.  I searched through my old shoe box but this is the only photo I found that even suggests a nearness to 913 White Street. While the streetcars and funny looking trucks are gone, most of the houses in the above photo still exist eighty-seven years later including 913 White Street which is now offered for sale at the asking price of $1,799,995.

A recent but not current owner of this property was film and stage actress Kelly McGillis. I got to go to attend a party at this home when I first moved to Key West around 1994.  I had only memories of the back yard which you will see shortly and you may cause you to appreciate why I remembered this property for more than twenty years. It is to use one word: sensational. But first let's look at the house which according to the Monroe County Property Appraiser is 1339 sq ft under air. This square footage does not include any of the covered deck areas or rear second floor balcony. You enter the home through a door that really reminded me this is an old house. You step into a two story entry hall and immediately see the newer stairway that leads to the second floor. The hallway is quite large and occupies a lot of potential living area. What may have been the original parlor is at the front of the house. You will be please to see lots of Dade County Pine in this house as well as high ceilings. 

When you walk past the front entry hall and enter the great room your eyes are immediately drawn through the room out to the back gardens. To get to the gardens you must pass through the casual living area and the kitchen and dining space.  You will see three sets of French doors which open out to the covered rear deck that overlooks the garden and pool beyond.  A small guest cottage comes into view and lures you see what this is all about.

The small cottage is located on the side yard which is actually a separate building lot that has an ingress and egress easement through a neighboring property on Truman Boulevard. The lot roughly measures 60' X 77' and is large enough you could build a separate house in this space. The size of this side yard and the ability to build another structure on it adds tremendous value to the overall property.

The current guest cottage is a good place for the self-indulgent teen who can rock out, play music until dawn, and take selfies all day long. The view from the front steps of the cottage is of the pool, hot tub, cabana with bar, bath, and shower. The view from the hot tub will remind you why you bought this place - it is to use that word again - sensational.

There is a ground floor bedroom with large bathroom and extra large closet area. This suite or rooms might be reconfigured along with the 'parlor' I previously mentioned. These spaces were probably modernized before Kelly McGillis bought this house. The ground floor spaces including the kitchen are all in fairly good condition but could possible benefit from a renovation that might reallocate how the spaces are used. A really good decorator could use the current rooms and make this place much more attractive. I am not saying it looks bad. I am saying it could look much better.

The master suite is located on the second floor rear. A set of French doors open out to a rooftop deck which overlooks the gardens and pool. The interior space is quite large and may provide enough room to add a little morning kitchen where you could brew coffee and a place to grad a late night snack. Another bedroom is located over the front part of the house. The ceiling here does not provide much headroom. But the room has a lot of closet and storage space tucked under the eaves of the house. I think this area would definitely benefit from some remodeling.

CLICK HERE to view the photos I took of this property which offer a variety of views of this intriguing property.

913 White Street sits on a huge parcel of ground. The main lot measures 50' X 150' or 7500 sq ft. The side lot where the guest cottage is located is an irregular 60' X 77' or 4122 sq ft that could legally be sold off or developed further by adding a lager house. CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet and then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing.  I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West.

1316 Whalton Street - Key West Short Sale!

I first wrote about 1316 and 1315 1/2 Whalton Street in May 2009 when it was offered for sale as a Short Sale property. I re-read that blog and decided I did a pretty good job in describing the property, the location, and the intrinsic value of this property. So I opted to re-post some of what I previously wrote to help potential buyers to see what this property offers for the asking price of just $575,000.

We are getting to a difficult point in real estate pricing in Key West. Many of the bargain properties are gone (not all). Many of the properties that remain are either located in bad locations (you decide what that means) or the properties seem over-priced (we all know what that means).

I am fortunate enough to have some active buyers that want nice houses priced just under one million. They want a good neighborhood, good neighbors, and a very nice house. You would think for a million bucks that would be easy. It isn't. Not in Key West. That's not to say we can't make it happen, but there are not a lot of properties priced to sell at that magic number.

In the 1980's and 1990's industrious buyers sometimes bought neglected properties and renovated them to get create the Key West treasure they wanted. As Key West became more popular and the price of real property increased, the cost of doing renovations or new construction has skyrocketed. This ocurred as a function of more city oversight of development plans and construction; higher priced development properties, increased construction costs from contractors and subcontractors, and higher materials cost as a result of inflation and or in the higher quality materials used, and delivery costs to Key West.

In 2009 I wrote "There are individual properties in Old Town and Casa Marina that I think a serious buyer should consider as an option to buying a house already completely 'done'." I need to update that observation by saying that today there just are not that many properties actively offered for sale in any price range. The stagnant market of 2008 - 2011 is long gone. The values from that era no longer exist. However, this new listing of 1316 Whalton Street is a genuine throwback buying opportunity with a price that relates back to what one could have paid six years ago for this highly sought after location.

1316 Whalton Street is located between Seminary Street and South Street just one block west of White Street. Click GOOGLE MAP for an aerial perspective of the location which I mention because many locals don't even know where Whalton Street is located. Think of Whalton Street as an extension of Frances Street on the south side of Truman because that is what it is. It's a five minute walk to Higg's Beach, a three to five minute walk to most of the gyms and yoga studios, and even a short stroll to upper Duval Street.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West mls datasheet which let's us know there are two separate homes located on two adjacent lots which are offered for sale as one property which could be renovated into two separate homes or alternatively both houses could be razed, the lots combined into one new lot that measures 55' X 90' that is located in the X 500 flood zone. This property is a Short Sale meaning the asking price is less than the amount the seller owes to the lenders and that the sale is conditional on the lenders agreeing to accept the offer price. Since I wrote about this property six years ago, I have had numerous phone calls from prospective buyers who have seen the property pop up on non-Key West mls websites that gave the false impression the property was available for purchase. While it had been listed, it went under contract right away. I mention this because there will be a huge number of buyers who know this property and the value of this location. I would anticipate many offers being made on this property.

In my opinion the highest and best value of this property is to take down the old houses and build new. The photo immediately above was taken this morning on the front step of the existing house. You will note the breadth of the lot and the swaying palms in this neighborhood. The classic bungalow house next door to the north has a huge Royal Poinciana Tree with a canopy that drapes the north side of this lot. That tree will explode in May and June with millions of tiny red flowers that will make this lot pop with color. There are numerous houses within a one block radius of this home valued at over $1.5 and higher. The property behind this on Grinnell Street was featured in Architectural Digest a couple of years ago.

Higg's Beach and Salute on the Beach are a few minutes away. You can walk to Louie's Backyard in the same amount of time. Both are great Key West eateries, but one is decidedly less expensive and has the same awesome ocean views.

Please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 to discuss making an offer on this property. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Let me help you grab this real buying opportunity.

 

Key West Real Estate Horror Story No.2

I rarely watch any of the new horror genre TV shows because I just don't like to get scarred. I loved them when I was younger because I knew the stories and all the gore was fake.  Back in the 1950s when I was growing up we did not have mass shootings, terrorists, and madmen running amok. As I have grown older I realized that the things that really scare me the most are the things that area real, not things that are imagined. Back in the 1950s people with mental problems were often confined to state run institutions. The courts later decided that institutionalizing people was not right and set those people free. Not all people that are homeless that walk the streets are mad, nor are all the people who own homes sane. Maybe losing one's home can make a person a bit crazy, or maybe some people stress out too much in life and end up losing their homes. Today's blog is about a real life house of horror in Key West which became a bank owned property.

A few years ago an agent put up a "For Sale" sign in front of a rather attractive house in Old Town Key West. I drove past the sign for several days and kept waiting for the property to get entered into the Key West mls. I was sure I might have an interested buyer because of the style and what I perceived to be condition of the house. The house was located on one of the better blocks in Old Town. The house next door had sold for over two million dollars a couple of years before. The house across the street likewise sold in excess of two million dollars. I knew this particular house had been foreclosed. I was eager to find a buyer for this place before it hit the market.

I called the listing agent who told me the bank owner was not ready to list the property yet. She offered to let me go inside to take photos for my buyer. She told me a history of the property and warned me to be careful as the house had all kings of things I could fall over. I accepted the offer and went over and photographed the house.

The property was a two story revival style house with a lot of gingerbread on the outside.  For some reason the gingerbread was not used as architectural trim in Key West like it was in other parts of the United States.  There are instances of it to be sure. But most of our period architecture was linear clean lines whether the house was a cottage or a Grand Conch House.  So this particular house stood out a bit. When I opened the front door I saw a staircase on the right wall that lead to an exposed second floor landing that wrapped that space. The stairway was cluttered with junk and cobwebs draped downward from the ceiling.

The doorway from the main entry into the original parlor or front room was blocked off. I made my way towards the rear and came back through a maze of boxes and piles of "stuff". The downstairs area had been gutted as if it were in the process of being rebuilt. But it appeared as though no real construction had been done inside this house for years. I moved to the front of the house. That's when I saw the cages. Cages on the floor and cages lining the walls. Cages where rabbits were housed. There were no living animals in any of the cages when I entered the property.

 I decided to see what was on the second floor. Something happened as I walked up the stairs - something almost surreal. You can see it in the way the photographs changed. I did nothing to the camera. I did not notice anything until I returned to me computer to upload the photos. The photos from the stairway up and around the second floor seem to be possessed in some way. I'm not a believer in ghosts, but something evil happened here.

I have been inside a lot of bank owned properties over the years. I used to manage commercial workouts for a national bank in Denver. I have seen many places where people lived worse than animals. This place topped them all. The master bedroom with en-suite bath was located at the rear of the second floor. The bed was soiled from ages of someone having slept in the same confined spot without washing the sheets: there was no way to put new sheets on without cleaning up the room. Heaven forbid cleaning up the room. 

I made my way back to the hallway and moved to the front bedroom. After I saw the master bedroom I knew nothing could be worse. I was wrong.

I saw the first cage just off the hallway as it expanded to the right. The cage was located just in front of the laundry. The cobwebs are real as is the dried animal waste on the floors. The floors were littered with so much waste that I had to breath through my mouth. I had to take photos to document this place. I could not leave before I took enough photos.

The little fury things on the photo two above are dead rabbits. The little black things are rabbit waste. The cages are where the rabbits lived before they died in this house of horrors.

The property was sold to a party who gutted the entire house and drove out all the bad spirits. The place was beautifully renovated.  A fellow agent sold it  a couple of years ago for in excess of $1.6 million.