Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No. 22

From August 16, 2016

The Game of Frowns

A couple of days ago a fellow Realtor told me the story of a recent sale where the agent represented both the seller and the buyer in a real estate transaction. The house sold for a whole lotta money.  The seller's attorney had approved all contract documents including an addendum that itemized personal property the seller was leaving in the property including four TVs mounted to the walls. There should have been no surprises at or after closing. But there was. It seems the seller's moving company removed the four television sets and took them far, far away.  When the agent discovered that the TVs were gone, calls to the seller to return the TVs fell on deaf ears. So the agent bought for new TVs to make the buyer happy. The Seller was happy. The Buyer was happy.  The Realtor was a couple of thousand dollars poorer and wore a frown all week long.

Number Two

Somebody obviously made a mistake. And, no they did not buy too large a roll of toilet paper.

I was recently invited to see a newly renovated house in the Historic District of Key West. I was ready to be impressed. I went inside and was greeted by a wall of sliding glass doors that open out to the new pool with waterfall. And then my heart sank.

I looked out the living room window and saw the pool on my right and the pool equipment directly to my left. A four foot concrete wall with decorative glass block tiles wrapped the pool with a waterfall. The view of the pool equipment killed the pool for me. I spoke to one of the workers who told me he tried to get the architect to move the pool equipment to a different location. The architect said it was too late. 

I went thru the rest of the house and saw several features I really liked. Then I got to the second floor where the spaces were reconfigured. Two bedrooms shared a Jack-and-Jill bath. This is normally  a really good use or space. It was here as well. Both bedrooms had queen size beds and built in nightstands for lights and drinks. This was a good use of space. But then I realized neither bedroom had a closet. The worker told me the owners were going to use the house as a vacation rental. There was not even enough room for a hotel luggage stand.

I remember a very expensive house in the 500 block of Margaret Street that a different architect renovated for a seasonal owner. The architect did not provide closets in that house. It had everything else - a guest cottage, beautiful pool, expensive Italian light fixtures, sleek Viking Kitchen, but no closets,

I will give this house a solid two in design. 

 

 

 

 

Moving Day in Key West

The house at 1003 Seminary Street looks a bit different this week than it did a few months ago. The owner planned to renovate the house and to add a pool. The house sat about thirty feet from the public right of way - further back than most other houses in the area. He got permission from the Historic Architectural Review Commission and the Key West Building Department to move the house forward on the lot which gave him space to do the other renovations he sought.

The front porch was removed but the roof of the porch remained. The porch will be rebuilt later during the renovation. Forms were built the forward part of the lot where the house would be relocated. piers. 

This past Monday morning house movers from Miami arrived. They jacked up the house and built new beams which they attached to the house. The house is located in the X  Flood Zone but will still be elevated just a bit to surpass new FEMA standars. A solid foundation in a new location!

That little green Bobcat moved that house forward onto the new piers. Workers on the sides moved about adjusting long pieces of lumber as the old house inched forward. The house movers were finished by the end of the day.

The piers visible at the front will support the porch which will be rebuilt. The front entry is being relocated to the right side of the house where a new entry hall leading to the new rear addition and pool at the rear will be visible from the front door. The driveway also will be relocated to the right side of the house. The pool is already installed at the rear. The garage visible are the left rear has been converted into a guest cottage with private bath. The piers at the rear will be replaced by new piers upon which the new addition will be built. Stay tuned to see how all of this turns out. 

 

 

 

It Is Over

I was in Miami a couple of days ago helping a customer buy flooring for a house he is building in Key West. I was driving through miles and miles of traffic with cars and trucks speeding by at horrifying speeds. Siri was directing me to drive to our next destination, all the while I had my right hand on my horn prepared to honk to avoid a possible collision. I remarked about how I feel abused in Key West when I have to wait for a traffic light to cycle twice before I cross a street or when it takes me longer than five minutes to get to the grocery store. Driving twenty minutes to go from one store to another at sixty miles an hour was insane. When we got out to the car I said "At least we didn't get shot!" That happens a lot up there - random shootings.

I asked my customer who I have known for several years if he is a US citizen. Yes, he said. I knew that, but for some reason needed to reinforce the fact in my mind. Then I said "America didn't used to be this way" as if I was apologizing for the gun violence, the intolerance between various parts of society, the self-obsessed Snapchat - Instagram generation, the outrageous cost of homes, the scarier than hell traffic, TRUMP - all of it - every last little bit of the way we live our lives in 2018.

My customer is probably ten years younger than me. He grew up in eastern Europe under Soviet rule. I view him as having left an oppressive environment for the utopia America was portrayed as in the movies and TV shows of the 1950s and 1960s. I grew up in a suburb just west of the Denver County line. The Colorado Rockies emerge out of the ground about six miles west. I always knew where I was because the mountains were located to the west. It was more that, though. I knew this place as my home - what to expect - we were alike even if we were each different. It was a whites only world by law. Most of my world was confined to twelve blocks in either direction from my house. My grandmother and my church were five and seven blocks to the east. My grade school was one block west.

I had a quick flashback to a conversation I had with a very close friend a few weeks before. He and I were watching a movie on Netflix when he said something I thought remarkable "I wish I could go back for a week!" The movie was taking place in the 1960s when he was a kid or young teen. Then he amended his wish "No, a month!"  I got it. You could not possibly cram enough of the life we used to live in just a week. It would take a month at the minimum to recapture the essence of our lost lives.

I started this blog three years ago but never finished it. I will do that today. I met with my doctor yesterday. He is older but not as old as I am. I told him we're not going back to the way life was fifty years ago. It is over. He nodded in agreement. It is over.

 

Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No 21

From March 31, 2018

Key West - Is that all you got?

 

I think a lot of people think selling real estate is easy. A Realtor simply sticks a sign in the ground, puts pictures in the MLS, and buyers show up to buy a house.  A Realtor then sends the contract to the title company and a big fat check is wired to the agent. That would be great. But that is not what happens.

I remember the time I had a particularly bad day. (Wait, as I write this I had a flash - when is that not the case? I have so many bad days.)  I got a call from my clients. They had decided to follow my advice and asked me to go to their house to sign the contract I had presented to them much earlier. Many things had happened during the intervening time period, none of which were good, and many which were predictable. I decided to meet with them in person to get the contract signed to reduce the chance of change of heart. I got in my car and headed to my clients' house.   

Key West was particularity busy that day. Tourists were everywhere - in cars, on bikes, walking in streets with go cups, jay walking into traffic taking selfies and dragging kids behind. It was bedlam.

I was sitting at a red light behind a car with tourists. The light turned green. The tourist-mobile did not move. The driver had her left turn signal on and seemed to wait and wait and wait for all the traffic from the opposite direction pass. That is the proper thing to do. Then there was no traffic. Yet she waited. Maybe she had not noticed there was no traffic. I gave a short "beep" as opposed to a blast from my horn. She edged forward but paused long enough that I would have to wait for the next light. She finally turned and stuck her left hand out the window with the middle finger pointed toward God. I accelerated and went strait through the intersection before the yellow light turned red. I simply laughed and said to myself "Is that all you got?"

I got the contract signed and eventually got my commission. I went through a small amount of hell along the way to get that deal done. Some readers will gripe that Realtors make too much money for so little work. When I was a kid I worked hard for every dollar I made. Physical labor is so easy compared to the stuff I go through now.

Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday - No 20

From March 19, 2018

The Key West House I Did Not Sell

I made my first trip to Key West as a visitor thirty-four years ago this month. I have written in my blog about that life changing trip several times over the years and won't bore readers to tell that tale again.  I fell deeply in love with Key West and decided to make this my home. It took a few years, but I made it happen. During the time of the first trip and my move to Key West, I stayed at several different guest houses. Those experiences taught me how difficult it must be for a home owner to lived next to or even near to a guest house.

(The business card above is from years ago and is not the guest house or the location I am writing about today. Besides, most places in Key West now have hot and cold running water.)

I found a particular guest house I really liked and stayed there on almost every trip I made to Key West. The guest house eventually grew from nine rooms to over forty rooms. The owner  purchased adjacent apartment buildings and a couple of single family houses which he illegally rented nightly. He paid the state bed tax and got away with it.

Several years ago a fixer-upper house located very near my favorite guest house was listed for sale. I wrote about that property in my blog and showed it to prospective buyers. It was purchased by couple from New York who had renovated other properties before. They did a total renovation on this well located house for which they were awarded a ceramic star. They sold the place a year or so later and moved on to a new project.

I showed their renovated property to several potential buyers. One couple really liked it. We looked at the place at least twice and maybe three times. They were considering making an offer. I suggested they check out the house at different times of the day and night. I sensed something was not right but did not want to sabotage a sale in the event I was wrong. The ultimately decided not to make an offer and later bought a home through me in a totally different part of town.

Some other buyer bought this particular place. And another bought it a couple of years later. And another someone else bought it. Three different buyers bought the place in a seven year period after it was renovated.

Last week I saw the photo at the top of today's blog on the internet. The photo shows a Dee-jay spinning records at my favorite old guest house where college kids were enjoying spring break.

The real estate axiom "location", "location", "location" is so true. I am so happy I did not sell the single family with the problematic location adjacent to a sprawling forty unit guest house complex to my customer. They would be listening to the music along with the spring breakers and probably the rest of the year as well.

May 2021 UPDATE - I just looked at the MLS records on this particular house. It sold eight times since it was originally purchased as a renovation project. And it sold twice after I originally wrote this blog. Tell me something is not wrong with this location.

Key West Trivia - 1

This is what Key West might look like if it were up to homeowners or apartment owners. I criticize our Historic Architectural Review Commission from time to time. but it has saved Key West from the untrained and the greedy. Take a look and see the different additions someone made to this one time Conch House or revival style home. I don't have picture of the front but I can distinguish the original house from all of the additions. Let's look.

Key West has always been a naval and military town. Always. During World War II many home owners enclosed front porches to create bedrooms and living spaces for military and others. It was an easy and inexpensive fix to a housing shortage. Over the years the enclosures were removed from many of the buildings. 

Some of the original houses did have dormers, despite what HARC believes (508 William Street* has six dormers). But the dormer at this place is awful. 

This is an abomination. What would have been the fourth window was made into a doorway with exterior entrance or emergency exit. The door is out of character with the other elements of the house. If you look closely you will see exterior plumbing supply and sewer lines and electric lines to various parts of the house.

This is clearly an addition. It does not even try to emulate the style of the original house. Only the shutters and unpainted clapboards match other parts of this house. 

Where is this house? Does it still exit? Give me the address and I will edit this post and add a current photo. Go!

* 508 William Street 

 

519 Frances Street, Key West - Just Listed

Just Listed but not be me 519 Frances Street, Key West. I had the opportunity to see this historic home on Sunday afternoon. Locals and tourists were poking around trying to decide if this once lovely home with wrap-around porch could be their perfect little place in paradise. 

I found a photo of the house taken in 1965. I walked around the house yesterday checking the place out. It does not look much different from the 1965 photo The wood siding and windows were in good shape. The columns and trim on the porch have been really well cared for. The wood ceiling of the porch did not show signs of leaking or damage. All but one of the original piers looked to be in very good condition. I noted also the house seemed to elevated a bit higher than I am accustomed to seeing. The house is in the AE flood zone but the higher elevation may make it compliant for X flood zone insurance savings. 

I do not know if the louvers are original to the house. I suspect they are. They provided natural ventilation, light control, and privacy in former days. They still do today. Insurance companies would not give an owner "credit" for them, but they work as they were designed to do. What do bean counters know about heat, wind, rain anyway? These original structures worked well and survived over three centuries till some insurance company actuary came up with a justification for charging more money than is necessary. I digress. 

The Monroe County Property Appraiser records show the house as having 950 square feet of living space a 250 square foot metal garage that sits at the right rear of the property. There is a small building on the opposite at the rear. The listing agent said there is a wood floor in the attic. Some might see that as a potential space to expand the house. I considered it and then decided different. You'd have to use up a lot of first floor space to add a staircase. Not worth it in my opinion. The lot is an irregular rectangle that measures 44.5 ' across and 99' deep or 4,335 square feet in total. I am going to show you the inside and the rear. 

The current house has two bedrooms, one bath, updated kitchen, entry hall, and living room. They are single purpose rooms and probably not what a buyer seeking a place in paradise would envision.

This was never a grand house. I don't think a new owner could make it grand. But he or she could play on the simple lines and create a very beautiful space to call home. Instead of going up, I would open up the the house. I would make the front room the master suite. I would take out existing walls and re-frame the back area has wrap-around porch continues around the rear but with more usable sitting area under the new porch roof. The metal "garage" adds value to the lot because it exists on old maps and it is capable of being renovated. I would create two en-suite bedrooms plus laundry room in this building. I would convert the small stand alone building into a cabana bath with outdoor shower. And I would add a pool and decking in the middle. This has the makings of a pretty swell place.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet for 519 Frances Street offered at $1,200,000. 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. Let me help you find you home in Paradise. 

True Key West Real Estate Related Stories in the Time of Covid-19 - The Eyes Have It

The above photo is from the internet and was not taken in Key West - you can tell that by the trees in the background. Nor is the broken fence typical of a white picket fence one would see in Key West. 

Late yesterday afternoon I received a telephone call from a customer of mine. We discussed the Key West real estate market in general and the state of affairs on his street in particular. He mentioned a new neighbor bought a nearby house who has been making an upgrading an already beautiful home into an even better one. That goes on all the time here. Some people buy perfectly fine homes, take them a part, and remake them in their own image. 

And then he mentioned his neighbor Lacy. He said Lacy has a driving problem - she keeps driving her car into his fence. He opined Lacy's driving problem may be related to her drinking problem. He hesitated to lay total blame on the booze, however. He suggested that Lacy's vision problem may be  affected by all of the plastic surgery she has had - maybe she could not see because of all the sutures.
 

Nanny Cams in Key West

The first time I encountered a Nanny cam was ten years ago. I remember seeing various cameras throughout the house. I "knew" the owners socially.  They bought the house when it was a bank owned property and the renovated it. They furnished the place and rented it as a monthly vacation rental. As I looked around the house I thought it very odd that there were Nanny cams located everywhere. I immediately determined that I would feel violated if I rented a house like this and knew that someone could be watching and or listening to what I did and said. I did not sell that house so my personal suspicions ended that day. Except I remembered them ten years later. In fact I recall them ever so often as I see new versions of hidden cams on television photographing home invasions, thefts, child abuse, senior abuse, dog antics, and more.

Some readers may know that Key West has a lot of seasonal owners. Some people call them snow birds. Many arrive in late October or early November and stay until the end of April or May. A couple of years ago I was showing the house of a snowbird to prospective buyers. The house as quite impressive. Grand in fact. Maybe even over-the-top. I trailed my customers as they went from room to room, floor by floor. I kept noticing cameras everywhere. At the same time I was befuddled by the some of the design elements in the house. It looked like some mad queen from Hollywood played a trick on the owner and got him to do some very gay things. While my customers were looking around on the second floor I asked the listing agent it the seller was "gay". He got a look of horror on his face and said NO. And no thanks for asking. Later I asked other people about that owner. They all told me he was married to a woman as if that is proof of something. I still had my suspicions. But thinking back on the moment I asked the gay question, I wondered if the microphone was engaged. Did the owner hear my inquiry?

I have been seeing more Nanny cams in houses in Key West. I can usually spot them. I don't blame owners wanting to keep an eye on their place. Before I decided to write today's blog I did a quick Google to see if spy cams and recordings are legal in Florida. Cameras may be as long as notice is given. I am not so sure that audio recordings are. I think I taught my self a lesson when I questioned the challenged the style of that homeowners haven. From now on I am keeping my mouth shut and will advise the potential buyer to do so as well. And if I were to represent a seller with such a system, I would suggest they purposefully never watch or listen to someone viewing their home with a Realtor. Hearing what someone has to say about your drapes or lawn is not worth the cost of a lawsuit.