Pete's Meats Off the Streets of Key West

Pete's Meats on Duval Street in Key West

Pete's Meats now located at an undisclosed 

location far from Duval.

What happened?

3930 South Roosevelt Blvd Unit E 211 Key West - Just Listed

Just Listed by Preferred Properties Key West, that's where I work, but this is not my listing: 3930 South Roosevelt Blvd Unit E 211 in the Las Salinas Condominiums. This 807 square foot second floor units has been freshly renovated and is price to sell in today's crazy real estate market.

I don't know if the brand new kitchen with quartz counter tops and new stainless steel appliances will catch your attention first or if it will be the view of the Salt Ponds. Las salinas translates as the salt flats. The Key West salt ponds are a naturally occurring feature on just a short distance from the Atlantic Ocean. It is an expansive area with bright views to the south, west, and north but still only a four mile ride to Old Town.

Both the master bedroom with en-suite bath and the living room open out to the deck. The windows and doors have been replaced with impact glass which has made the condo fees much more affordable - just $377 per moth. Fees include building insurances, building and common area maintenance, and cable television. 

The unit has new flooring throughout and two new bathrooms. The unit also has washer and dryer located in the kitchen. There is also coin operated laundry on each floor. The building has an elevator and multiple stairways. There is exterior and inner courtyard of each building feature palm trees and tropical foliage. 

The community pool is a long time feature of this complex but the gym was recently added. South Roosevelt Boulevard curves around the east and south sides of the island as it makes its way to the Key West International Airport and Smathers Beach. Take a left when you leave the complex, head north and you will soon arrive at the three shopping centers, Home Depot, or head west toward Old Town. 

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 3930 South Roosevelt Blvd Unit E 211 offered at $459,000 by Preferred Properties Key West. Then call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, to schedule a private showing. I am a buyers agent and full time Realtor at Preferred Properties. This unit is priced to sell. Don't wait. It will probably go under contract within the first week. Look at the photos above and below. People from all over the world come to Key West to see the beaches and enjoy the life in the Keys. You could live here all year long.

Key West Real Estate Throwback Thursday No 34 with a Twist

from October 15, 2010

901 Packer St - Old Town - Key West  

The Twist Part follows the original post.

The Key West Cemetery as viewed from 901 Packer Street

 

901 Packer Street in Old Town Key West is located directly across the street from the Key West Cemetery and is in desperate need of The Re-Animator. The listing Realtor describes this property thus:

"Great Old Town Key West location within walking distance to Duval Street and all of the Key West attractions. Perfect renovation project on a corner lot with off street parking. Located in an X500 flood zone, this is one of the highest elevations on the island."

This house was built in 1948 or 1953 (there are two different dates in county records). The relative newness means the house is not a contributing structure and that means a new owner could tear down this property and build all new. A caveat to tearing down and building new is that the current building codes and set backs will control what can be built and the lot coverage area. "Re-animating" or renovating this house would permit the new owner to keep the existing lot coverage and setbacks in place. CLICK HERE to view the Key West Association of Realtors mls data sheet and listing photos. Let me share my thoughts about the house. Unlike The Aadams' Family mansion, this house is no museum. The house itself is ooky and the layout is kinda kooky. I don't know that I'd say its mysterious and spooky, but it surely ain't imperious.

"it surely ain't imperious"

This place will need lots of work. These are things I think it needs: new doors and windows, a new roof, new electric and plumbing, new interior layout which means all new interior framing and drywall, a new kitchen and one or two new bathrooms. The existing covered parking is nice but it looks like the roof may collapse. There is an old homemade addition to the Olivia Street side of the house that looks awful from the outside and it looks terrible from the inside. There is spauling across the north side of the kitchen. (Spauling is prevalent in many Key West houses of that vintage. It's repairable but the cost depends on the condition of the house and how much area has been compromised.) While the house is capable of re-animation (lol), it is a better candidate for demolition in my opinion. A good architect or contractor could help a potential new buyer determine what could be done on the 27' x 58' lot. 

I personally think a new owner could build a nice two story Conch style home on this lot. The 1566 sq ft lot may sound small compared to the big sized lots you readers who live up north in America have, but down here a lot this size in Old Town is quite common. What is less common is the view across the street. I recently took photos of the property. It was a gloomy day in Paradise, that day. CLICK HERE to view. A lot of potential buyers absolutely refuse to consider a property that overlooks the cemetery. Some would see that location as gloomy forever. I think not so. That refusal to consider the location is their loss in my opinion. Of course the area is quiet at night. No pun intended. It really is. And that is a great feature in any neighborhood. Having quiet neighbors that do not party all the time is a blessing compared to those that do. 

Olivia Street is a small one-way street that runs parallel to the south boundary of the cemetery. That street is primarily used by locals and is not normally used by commercial vehicles or Conch Trains. That keeps street noise to a minimum. More than the quietness of the location is all the sunshine one normally gets. If you love Old Town houses as much as I, you know that most houses are built so close to each other that there often is little space between properties. Since most houses are densely landscaped and typically have trees on all sides, natural light is often minimalized. The result is that many homes only have direct sunshine for a few hours a day. And most Old Town homes do not have clear open views of the beautiful Key West skies. The house at 901 Packer Street has a vast sweeping view looking north across the Key West Cemetery. Locals appreciate such views because so few in Old Town have them. 

The house at 901 Packer Street was originally priced at $249,000 and recently reduced to $219,000. I have my own opinion of what it will sell for, and that price is nowhere near the asking price. If you would like to see 901 Packer Street please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642, or contact me by email at kw1101v@aol.com. I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Coastal Realty, Inc. in Key West, Florida. I believe in Re-Animation, Renovation, and Innovation. But I am not a witch!

The above post is 11 years old. The house is NOT FOR SALE. Don't go bothering anybody about this. 

A couple of years ago I noticed some fixing-up going on and started to photograph the progress. Progress in Key West takes months if not years to complete whether it is a home handyman or a licensed contractor. Perfection takes time and a lot of money. This is how it looked midway through the project.

I drove by this house for months. Something was always going on but nothing substantial until just recently. Now it looks great! Congrats to the homeowner for a classy re-animation.

Key West Real Estate Trumps Fake

I found the photo below on an architecture site I follow. I am pretty sure it was staged to look like something a homeowner would create only to realize how impractical the design was.

I saved the photo because it reminded me of several condominiums with transient rental licenses in Bahama Village. Most of the condos rent nightly to budget minded tourists. The 144 square foot one bedroom units sold in the $285,000 range prior to the pandemic. I have no idea what someone might pay for such a place these days.

A couple of months ago I blogged about the lucky lady that married the guy who made her drag her luggage from the ferry to her guest house or hotel. Maybe she ended up here - or maybe on the beach. It is even cheaper. 

 Gary Thomas, Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West

 

Birds of a Feather Creep Together

I have written several blogs about the creepiest house I ever saw in Key West. I won't post the address of show the front of the house because it was saved and restored and what once was is not more. There were pens with little dead animals and feces all over the place. The owner's bed was the filthiest thing I ever saw. 

 I had a pocket Panasonic camera with me when I entered the house. It worked fine until that date. I took photos of both floors, the stairway, and the exterior. The photos all came out bizarre and distorted. Only the above photo came with clarity. 

A couple of days ago I saw the two images above of a different home on another site. They reminded me of the house in Key West. I guess some people are too smart for their own good. They don't have time to clean up after themselves. 

I will get back to writing about Key West houses for sale when something stays on the market long enough. Almost every house that goes on the market goes under contract withing a couple of days. This market is on fire.

Over Asking Solds

 

I check the Key West MLS HOTSHEET multiple times throughout the day - every day.The HOTSHEET shows MLS changes in real time including new listings, price changes, back on the market, contingent show, contingent, pending, and closed listings plus text changes. 

Last Friday afternoon I noticed three more solds posted since earlier in the day. I looked at each sold to see the property, the price paid and the agents involved. It was only after I looked at each sale that I noticed all sold over asking. Then I recalled seeing several over asking solds earlier in the week. 

We all know that homes are selling over asking across the nation. So what is going on here is not an anomaly. This year I personally sold three houses over asking. I also know that the Key West real estate market exploded in sales this spring and that sales from then are still posing.

I decided to look back at single family solds from April 1st to August 23 and found we had 242 homes sold in Key West. The median home sold for -4.14% under asking. For years the number has averaged between 5 to 6%. That's not a huge drop but it tells us that demand is driving sales prices up and we already know that our sales prices are up significantly over the past two cycles. 

Then I examined each MLS sold to see the house, the location, and the price paid in relation to asking price. Percentage numbers in the raw don't make sense to anybody but statisticians as far a I am concerned. What I found confirms what I have told my customers and written in my blog for years. The most in demand homes were located in Old Town and Casa Marina and that most of those sales were either full price or within a few thousand of asking (plus multiple over asking). The New Town area homes sold lower. 

I went back and found 33 of the 242 sold homes sold over asking. That is 20.9% of the solds during this limited time period. I have never experienced anything like this.

 

 

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.