1200 Whitehead Street, Key West - Buying Oppotunity!

Just Listed, but not by me, 1200 Whitehead Street, Key West. I saw and photographed this classic eyebrow house yesterday afternoon on one of the few "gray days" we get in the Florida Keys. I apologize for the lack of color.  I also did not use a tripod so the photos are less than perfect.  Half of this home has been renovated and the other half remains to be completed. Use the photos and your imagination to see in your mind's eye what the property could become.

I dug into my old shoebox and found a photo of 1200 Whitehead Street that was taken more than fifty years ago. I took a similar photo yesterday. The architecture of the original house still reigns supreme on this ample 7496 sq ft (74. 58' X 100.5') lot at the corner of Whitehead and Catherine Streets.  Two large Royal Poinciana trees anchor the lot from either side.

Eyebrow houses are particularly unique to Key West. They are two story homes which vary in height, width, and size. These houses get the name "eyebrow" because the second floor windows are sheltered by the front roof eave which extends out over the house and supported by columns or posts.  Before electric fans and later air conditioning, shade and natural air flow cooled homes. The windows of an eyebrow house can be left open during rain storms which allows air to flow to cool the rooms.

The MLS datasheet shows this house was built in 1948. This information is drawn directly from the Monroe County Property Appraiser records which we know are sometimes (often!) misleading or downright incorrect. 1200 Whitehead Street first appeared on the 1892 Sanborn Fire Map. A substantial two story addition was added to the property after 2005. That addition was never completed. Let's take a brief look at the original house.

The original eyebrow house is 1,617 sq ft consisting of living room, two bedrooms with en-suite bath rooms, a bonus room (theater) with adjacent bath outfitted in travertine marble. The original portion is in move-in condition except that there is no complete functioning kitchen.

The addition has 2,242 sq ft of new unfinished space under air. While I am not a contractor nor inspector, I can attest the framing impressive both in size, dimension, and craftsmanship.

I understand the concept behind the addition was to create large living spaces for the owners. The roughed-in second floor master suite is one of the largest I have seen in Key West. The listing agent told me a new owner could remove the wall at the rear of the great room to expand the space. The addition includes a ground level sitting room space plus two story stairway to the master suite. The agent suggested an alternate use might be to add a floor in the two story space which would then allow for the creation of another bedroom and bath. CLICK HERE to view photos of the property.

CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and listing photos of 1200 Whitehead Street, Key West. 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. This is a lot of house for the money. I do think there are ways to deal with the size of the house to make renovation economical sensible even for Key West. 

1200 Whitehead Street, Key West - Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda

 

Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda - The Key West Real Estate Lament

Key Wester Shel Silvertein left us with many  memories including Woulda-Coulda-Shoula to which I add  the Key West Lament

All the Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
Layin' in the sun,
Talkin' bout the things
They woulda-coulda-shoulda done...
But those Woulda-Coulda-Shouldas
All ran away and hid
From one little did.

Yesterday afternoon a new listing popped up on my Key West MLS. The first image was so startling I had to study it for a few seconds and then I realized what house it was - 1200 Whitehead Street. I had written about the property when it popped two years ago when it was listed for just $912,000. Let's look at the 2019 image and compare to 2021 so you can share my glee in the transformation. 

2019 

 

2021

I took the grayish photo in 2019 and a professional photographer took the recent pic. His pic  is better by far. But its not the photography at issue here. My 2019 photo showed the potential about which I wrote in the earlier blog. The house was a project home for the former owners. Times got difficult. The project was abandoned. The house was half-finished. The bank foreclosed. When it was offered for sale lots of potential buyers surfaced. I went over to take photos for a potential buyer and also my blog. I was not surprised to see four or six other agents roaming around with their customers or cameras taking photos or doing Facetimes. 

One of the challenges of this property was its size. The house was 4,179 square feet which is massive by Key West standards. The  corner lot was good sized - 2,495 square feet and located just a couple of blocks north of the famous Southernmost Point. Half the house was sort of done with finishes the former owners preferred and that a new owner might have to replace to create a cohesive design aesthetic. That could mean ripping out perfectly fine marble, tiles, walls, and floors. A new owner might have have to follow the design plans of the already framed rooms or tear down the framing and start anew.

One of the faults I had with the "before" property was that the owner had created such a large house and left only a small space for a pool personally would have preferred a larger pool and garden area. That 's the problem when Realtors substitute their preferences for what new owners may prefer. Some of the best agents in town shut their moths and let their buyers make up their own minds. I should do the same. Below is a before pic of the space left for a pool and then the actual pool.

CLICK HERE to read my original blog on 1200 Whitehead Street, Key West. It was bank owned and  listed for $912,000 but sold for $1,351,000 in sixteen days after a bidding war before that was actually going on everywhere.

1200 Whitehead Street is now offered for sale for 3.599,000. CLICK HERE to view the Key West MLS datasheet and many excellent listing photos. Then please call me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642. to schedule a private showing of this one-of-a-kind eyebrow houses in a great Old Town location. I am a buyers agent and a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties Key West. Don't be a Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda on this. You'll regret it for the rest of your life. 

 

Recent SOLD Bank Owned Homes in Key West

I have written three blogs since the first of January which discussed bank owned homes in Key West. I thought readers would like to see the actual price the banks received. Let's take a look. Click the address to read the blog. This will help readers appreciate the bargain the buyers got - well that two buyers got.

3222 Riviera Drive, Key West. Offered at $1,190,000. SOLD at $1,225,000. Multiple offers. Sold immediately.

1200 Whitehead Street, Key West. Offered at $912,000. SOLD at $1,351,000. Multiple offers. Sold immediately.

909 Southard Street, Key West. Originally offered at $629,900 and reduced to $614,900. SOLD at $597,000.  This house has a good location on an excellent street. It had a small lot and no off street parking. It needed work - a lot of work.

I realize that a lot of prospective buyers think that they can get a "deal" by buying a bank owned property. Some buyers do get deals. Some actually show up at the courthouse steps and bid on properties when the county sheriff sells them. That's always risky. Very risky.  I don't care how many sales presentations you go to hosted by tv personalities, buying something you have not been inside or have legal knowledge about can be perilous. Banks and foreclosing law firms do make mistakes and buying blindly is fraught with disaster. But sometimes buyers who take big risks get big rewards.

I think it makes more sense to work with a knowledgeable and experienced Realtor when buying any property but especially when buying some other person's loss. There is normally a reason why a person lost a property to a bank instead of selling it himself.