Key West and Affordable Living

Price Reduction

We first advertised our houseboat for sale in early June on Craig's List for the Florida Keys in early June of this year.  We listed it for $175,000, realizing that the price might be somewhat high for the current market.

But we aren't under pressure to sell.  We find it affordable to live here.  We've even been able to put some money aside to help replenish our retirement fund.  We used some of that fund to buy the Betty Sue 3-½ years ago.  We're comfortable here.  The best weather of the year lies just ahead.  We enjoy the company of our year-around neighbors, and eagerly await the return of the snow birds, the part timers who will be coming back soon.

So you might ask, "Why?  If it's so great there why would you want to leave?"  It's a fair question.  Here's how we came to the decision to leave.

This is the 19th separate address we've shared since marrying 52 years ago.  We raised two fine daughters and have two beautiful grandchildren.  We've lived in four states, and in one foreign county, that being Ireland, for a time.  We are, if anything, roamers, travelers, but we're not nomads or wanderers. We are definitely not settlers.  Wherever we went we made it a point to become involved in that community.

Jobs, family, curiosity, adventure, these were often the triggers that set us off on the next part of the great journey.

We are fortunate to have been able to live in Key West for almost 13 years.  I always thought, or at least hoped, that we'd be able to live out our retirement years in Key West. Three and a half years ago we expected that we'd always be renters, not owners, because the price of buying real estate had gone way past what our modest income and savings would allow.

There were several triggers this time.  In no particular order, they are health, family, curiosity and adventure. Jobs fell out of the mix because we now live on a fixed retirement income, consisting of social security and an annuity purchased from retirement benefits from a company I worked for during the 70's and 80's.

Health came into the picture because we've both grown older and are experiencing the vicissitudes of aging.  The fact that Janet has both vertigo and diabetic neuropathy limit her ability to make full use of a two-story house.  We both have to receive medical care away from Key West on occasion and that typically involves travel to the mainland,  a 300+ mile round trip.

Two years ago our daughter Betty and son-in-law Lee relocated from New Hampshire to the Gulf coast of Florida and bought a home in Whiskey Creek, just outside of Fort Myers.  And that now becomes a factor.

10/9/2014
(to be continued)

Update

It has now been just over two months since we first offered the Betty Sue for sale, on Craig's List for the Florida Keys.  About two weeks ago we put a small For Sale sign in a window, visible when walking on Marlin Pier.

Some people have inquired about buying our home but only one of the inquiries has, so far, developed into anything even semi-serious.  It was an offer well below our selling price and we choose to wait for a time longer.  It's very nice here on the pier right now, quieter than it will be once it begins to get cold up north.

I refreshed the Craig's List listing.

We'll be waiting.

And life goes on.

Yellow Houseboat

This is our floating home in Key West, Florida.  We've lived aboard the Betty Sue for the past three years and it is without question our most favorite home ever.

"We" are Bob & Janet Kelly.  We came to Key West in 1999 to take an end-of-career job and we're still here, but the time has come for us to return to "civilization", that is the mainland where we can once again have access to the several things that require we drive the 160 miles to Miami, mostly the medical care that we seem to need more often.  It also gives us the opportunity to live closer to one of our children who is a registered nurse and also quite the handy woman when she has to be that.

So we're now offering the Betty Sue for sale, reluctantly, but with a degree of practicality that wasn't quite so important 15 years ago when we first came.

We've chosen this method to create an on-line brochure for the sale, because we can direct inquiries here from such places as eBay, Craig's List, Facebook and the like.  We're going to advertise Betty Sue for sale widely, in the belief that it is very likely that a buyer might be found in France or Buenos Aires or Tokyo as likely as here in Key West or South Florida.

We have a price in mind that we believe is justified by current market conditions and by the unique opportunity to have a home in Key West that is actually affordable for much of the 99%, the average individual or family who have the same dream we once had and followed.

We'll share here what we know about this home, this 'neighborhood', and this city.  We'll tell you more about houseboats, marinas, Key West, and living on the water than you might ever need to know.

So, if we now have your attention and have piqued your curiosity, read on.

Even if you aren't our eventual buyer, we think that you'll discover some things that we bet you never knew, or even thought about.


This has been our dream home for the past three years.  It is arguably the finest houseboat at City Marina in Garrison Bight in Key West.  Some might say that it's the finest in Key West, period.  And we certainly wouldn't argue with that.

Here's on-the-water living at the center of fabled Key West in an historic residential live-aboard community of nearly 100 other such homes.

It's a houseboat of twos: two stories, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and two outside decks.  With 1120 square feet of living space, this beautiful home was built in 2002 by skilled craftsmen to meet all building code requirements for a floating home, and then some.  It is all wood inside, giving it an air of of old Key West.  The spacious salon on the upper deck merges inside and outside into almost 450 sq. ft. of space for entertaining.

The boat has been inspected twice by registered marine surveyors, once in 2002 when it was built, and again by another surveyor in 2011 when we bought it.

City Marina, as the name implies, is a city-owned marina constituting five separate areas.  The residential marina is four separate piers with a total of 96 slips.  Across the road is Historic Charterboat Row where fishing boats leave every day to bring visitors to the many fishing areas for which Key West and the Florida Keys are world famous.  Nearby are docks for recreational boats of many sizes and types.  And finally there is one dock for transient boaters who are passing through on their way to and from the Caribbean and points north and south.

City Marina also supports a nearby mooring field for those wishing to live 'on the hook' but want the convenience of on-shore laundry and bathing facilities and a dinghy dock.

City Marina lies between Old Town Key West and its historic neighborhoods, restaurants, guest houses and music bars, and New Town Key West, the city' main commercial area of stores, hotels and restaurants.

Houseboat and floating home communities can be found either on inland waters or in coastal areas.

For reasons that are largely historical coastal communities formed more often on the west coast than on the east.

Here's an article published recently in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that offers insights into a well-developed west coast community.

Key West Houseboat For Sale

This has been our dream home for the past three years.  It is arguably the finest houseboat at City Marina in Garrison Bight in Key West.  Some might say that it's the finest in Key West, period.  And we certainly wouldn't argue the point.

Here's on-the-water living at the center of fabled Key West in an historic residential live-aboard community of nearly 100 other such homes.

Garrison Bight
Key West

Residential Docks
City Marina, Garrison Bight

City Marina, as the name implies, is a city-owned marina constituting five separate areas.  The residential marina is four separate piers with a total of 96 slips.  Across the road is Historic Charterboat Row where fishing boats leave every day to bring visitors to the many fishing areas for which Key West and the Florida Keys are world famous.  Nearby are docks for recreational boats of many sizes and types.  And finally there is one dock for transient boaters who are passing through on their way to and from the Caribbean and points north and south.

Parking for up to two vehicles per slip is provided for residential tenants, as well as bicycle and scooter parking, just steps away from the docks.

A bathhouse and laundry facilities are nearby.  Trash and recycling facilities are included in rent.  Pump-out stations are adjacent to each slip and are also included in rents.  Water and electric are metered and the responsibility of each tenant.  Television and high-speed internet services are available from both Comcast and AT&T dockside.

City Marina also supports a nearby mooring field for those wishing to live 'on the hook' but want the convenience of on-shore laundry and bathing facilities and a dinghy dock.

City Marina lies between Old Town Key West and its historic neighborhoods, restaurants, guest houses and music bars, and New Town Key West, the city' main commercial area of stores, hotels and restaurants.

It's a houseboat of twos: two stories, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and two outside decks.   This beautiful home was built in 2002 by skilled craftsmen to meet all building code requirements for a floating home, and then some.  With 1120 square feet of living space, it is all wood inside, giving it an air of of old Key West.

UPPER DECK

The upper deck consists of the living room or salon, (23 x 14), an outside deck (10 x 14), a bedroom or office (7 x 8-½), and a full bath with shower (7 x 4-½)

Upper Deck

CONDITION
The boat has been inspected -- twice -- by registered marine surveyors, once in 2002 when it was built, and again by a different surveyor in 2011 when we bought it.  It is in overall good condition.  We welcome, and in fact encourage qualified buyers to make their offer conditional on a survey and/or inspection at their own expense.  We are selling in as-is condition.



We offer our Key West home for sale at $175,000.  This is a firm, cash-only price.  Prospective buyers will need to furnish evidence of ability to pay the listed price before we welcome them to visit us for an inspection.