A nice middle aged couple from Georgia walked into my office last week and said they loved Key West and asked to discuss housing prices here. I asked if they were familiar with prices in the slightest and they said no. I explained our houses are very expensive. The gent said he would prefer to buy a place that he could renovate and create exactly what he wanted rather than to buy a place renovated to some other person's standards. So I did an MLS search and showed them what was available starting at the lowest price point. It wasn't until we got in the $1.5 million range that they saw anything that appealed to them. Again, he was looking for a fixer and not a finished home.
This reminded me of a blog I wrote in December 2014 copied below. As I looked through the photos I noted several of the houses which are shown in photographs were later renovated and re-sold to buyers from across America.
A
few days ago I wrote about a very beautiful home in the Casa Marina
Area of Key West. It's priced pretty high because it is very special. We
have a lot of special homes in Key West. Most of our houses are
expensive compared to other parts of the country, and some are much more
expensive than others. We have many smaller places that still come at
high prices considering their small size. Many of the buyers I work with
say they are willing to do a little work to buy a place that is more
affordable. They think they can buy a place that's a bit less expensive,
do some of the work themselves, and thereby save a lot of money. I was
rooting thru my shoebox and found some photos of places that were
fixers. I thought I'd share some pics that show how the other half of
Key West lives - the half that primarily live in rental houses offered
for sale. .
I
showed the house at the top of today's blog several years ago to a gent
who was thinking about buying a fixer. This little two story located on
Frances Street in Old Town was priced right. We went inside and found
the place in pretty much a disarray. There were old brown grocery bags
everywhere. Piles of clothes and stacks of newspapers and magazine were
stacked and strewn everywhere. The lady of the house invited us to go up
to the second floor. My buyer started to climb the stairs and turned
around to tell me the place smelled horrible. I softly said to hold your
breath and move quickly. He hurried up, turned around, and hurried
down. He didn't buy it. Someone did. The place needed much more than
piles of debris to be removed. The house was basically torn apart and
totally rebuilt.
This
house had a combination kitchen and bath in one room and in one place.
The bedroom and living room were every bit as pretty.
The tenant here had moved out. I don't know why. The color scheme was so Key Westie. The living room had a big hole in the wall.
Some
places lack closets and storage places. Tenants must improvise. There
was an illegal rental at the rear. Two older men shared the bedroom
space in single beds. Neither spoke English. I think a total of six or
seven non-related and probably non-Americans lived in this property.
Tenant in this house created a way for his dog to get outside to do his business.
Putting on the Ritz!
A little clutter never hurts anybody.
The tenant left after he did this. Tenants burning down a house is Key West is not uncommon.
This
is a two-part post. The above picture is of a child's bedroom at the
golf course. The picture below is the same house. It shows a picture of
termites eating their way through the house. This was at the Key West
golf course.
The
tenant here took not only all of the appliances but also all of the
kitchen cabinets, ceiling fans, and about anything else of value. The
owner had put in new kitchen cabinets and appliances, new bath fixtures,
light fixtures, and fans. All went away when the tenant left.
The
"second bedroom" some Realtor as described by a listing real estate
agent. I have seen several where you need to access this "bedroom" by
climbing a ladder. I have even written about places like this. I point
these things out. I ask you: what moron would spend half a million
dollars or more to buy a place that you need to climb a ladder to go to
bed. Think about it. If you get sick or need to go to the bathroom in
the middle of the night you gotta climb down a ladder. Consider the cost
and amount of real floor space you need to take up creating a stairway
to space like this.
The
above loft space probably adds nothing to this otherwise cute cigar
maker cottage that already had a pool and a very large backyard that
offered potential room for expansion. I showed this place several times.
Buyers focused on the loft and super small bedroom off the kitchen and
missed the bigger picture of how really cute this place could become if
the rooms were modified and the kitchen rebuilt. I see buyers that
fixate on the negatives and who often overlook real potential.
This
place was priced right but offered challenges a lot of buyers could not
embrace. It was located less than 100 feet from Truman Avenue and close
to a gym. It had a neighbors on either side who properties that were
not well maintained. It had a spiral staircase and late 1980s or early
1990s interiors. The spiral staircase lead to a second level loft that
was actually quite large. The house had a pool and off street parking.
You will see this place in an upcoming blog.
The
above photo shows the living room and kitchen of one of two apartments
that were a part of a larger Casa Marina Area home that had a large
pool. The income from the apartments pays taxes and insurance for the
owner. If you cherish your privacy buying a place with built-in tenants
may not be your cuppa tea. But if you don't mind the occasional tenant
who forgets to pay his rent until the 14th day of the month, a place
with a rental might work out for you. Not all tenants are bad. And
certainly not are all good.
Sometimes
some owners convert legal spaces into rental units that the city is not
aware of. There is a difference in owning a legal rental and a
non-legal one. I won't give any reader legal advice on the efficacy of
owning and renting an illegal rental unit other than to say if you get
caught, you are in trouble. More than that, however, is the fact that
converted spaces are often neither well conceived nor executed.
The
real bad boy in the above photo is not the missing fascia but instead is
the concrete spalling on both sides of this house. Spalling is the
visible deterioration of concrete whether it is cracking, flaking, or
pitting. The above photo shows cracking. What cannot be seen is the more
probable corrosion of iron rebar inside the concrete. Spalling repairs
can be very expensive.
The
new owner of this previously bank owned property ultimately decided to
take the house down rather than to fix the spalling. I tell people all
the time that just because a property is bank owned does not mean that
it is a "deal". There is often a reason properties become bank owned and
that is that there is an underlying problem with the house that makes
them very, very difficult to sell. Buying at a cheap price is not
indicative of getting a good deal if you have spend oodles of new money
to fix something or to build new unless the new property is worth a
whole lotta money.
I
showed this apartment multiple times but I only went inside this space
twice that I remember. I do remember the smell of the huge dog that
lived and crapped in this place. I don't have any idea why a landlord
would allow some moron to have a big dog in such a small apartment.
See
the black cat on the bed? You would not believe the odor that cat left
in this otherwise really nice apartment. If you buy a place with cat pee
smell, you may very well have to remove the wood or tile floors to
eliminate the odor.
What
do you expect for $1500.00 a month for a one bedroom apartment like
this? A lot of people do. Rent in Key West is very expensive.
Tenant came home late one night. Fell asleep. Burned the house. Killed her dog. House torn down.
I
knew the couple who lived here. She was an administrator at a public
facility. He was a carpenter. I had no idea they were such slobs. Not
one straight line in this house. This became bank owned. I had a young
couple that thought about buying it. I told them they would be pouring
money down the drain. I may have been wrong, but I doubt it. I think
most houses can be fixed but is the price worth it, especially if the
city won't let you add a pool or if you cannot create off street
parking.
Three pic series below. Big house in Old Town. Very good location.
Photos
show the master bedroom, guest bedroom, and
dead pets on floor in one
single house. The stains on the bed were from unwashed sheets. Can you
imagine living in that filth - sleeping across the hall from a roof
filled with caged animals with poop all over the floor?
Alive and kicking in this little house just a couple of blocks from Duval Street.
Lame swag drapes in a rather cramped bedroom in Old Town.
I
can still remember the stench of dog pee and poop from this once grand
Old Town house. Two old ladies lived in this mess oblivious to the odor
or the mess. It was truly like something out of a movie.
This house sat on a very large lot on a small Old Town lane. The owner lived there with his teenage daughter.
This
place was a bit out of the ordinary. It was a Key West
funeral home and
licensed contractor shop. I have no idea what went down that drain.
The pool at this Old Town property needed a little work.
The
tenant in this third floor walk-up applied some
creative paint
treatments throughout the apart. You can tell the really adored the
color blood red.This is why you need a deposit. However, I really doubt
any deposit could repair the damage this tenant created.
This is the second floor bathroom in a golf course home. Lots of termites in this place that sat vacant for a couple of year.
The smell of mold was so bad in this place that I had to
run out of the place to catch my breath. I eventually had to go back inside to lock the doors. Somebody bought this place.
There
are many nice places where local owners and renters live that could be
improved. The above apartment was super clean and tidy. It was smallish,
but that kind of space often works well for single people who do not
need big spaces. The potential problem for a new owner who wants to make
a space like this "his own" is that a small house is a small house is a
small house that is often located on a very small lot with little or no
room to increase the size of the house.
The
photo above is not a rental but it is representative of an issue all
buyers may face and buyers that purchase a fixer property need to
understand before they buy a house. This photo shows an old cut pier
that supports an historic house. You can see how a wood wedge was driven
into place to help support the floor joist. The reasons so many old
houses have faulty flooring is that the piers have failed. Replacing
piers can be very expensive - very expensive. Do fixing is often much
more than adding new kitchen cabinets and light fixtures.
Sometimes
some locations can be challenging. The top photos shows Bare Assets on
Truman Avenue. I point out the location whenever I show a place near
there. The guys always know what goes on inside. Consider locations near
schools and restaurants. Schools often have the sounds of kids playing
during the daytime. If children laughing bothers you, don't buy a place
near a school or daycare facility. Some of the more interesting views
come from the Bahama Village area which is located by several landmarks
such as the old lighthouse.
I have watched a lot of TV shows on
HGTV and other networks that make it look like redoing an old house is
easy. It is not. And it is not easy in Key West where we have often have
multiple layers of governmental bureaucracy to deal with. Renovations
are not for the poor nor the faint of heart.
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