Doubling Down...
Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 6:22 pm
I've been struggling a bit to word this announcement in a way that doesn't come off as privileged, or out of touch. It's fair to say that all of us here on this forum are quite smitten by St. John, and work as best we can to figure out how to get back there again. Back story first: We were introduced to St. John in 1999, traveling with a friend from school's family, whose matriarch (joining us on the trip despite being over eighty) had built a home there in the early 80's, sadly only to have it damaged by Hugo in 1989, and totally destroyed by Marilyn in 1995. We were gobsmacked by the extraordinary natural beauty of St. John, and began regular pilgrimages, renting villas at various locations across the island. In 2001, we bought a lot up on Mamie Peak with spectacular Coral Harbor and BVI views, but despite occasional efforts with local architects, we never quite worked up the courage to pull the trigger on construction.
It was in 2010 that my wife noticed that house prices were trending down. This seemed at first to be unbelievable, but the impact of the great recession did in fact even affect St. John. It was then that we found Coconuts, which we purchased that summer. It had suffered from neglect during its nearly four years on the market, but we launched an aggressive expansion and remodeling, and are really thrilled with how everything turned out. For those of you who have yet to see the renovations, do check out its web site: http://www.coconutsvilla.com. We are happy to arrange visits for forum members when we are on island; if anyone is interested, PM me.
That brings us to this January. We were down at the time for two weeks, during which the Gifft Hill Homeowner's Association was holding its annual meeting at Plumeria, the villa whose lot adjoins Coconuts. We had been aware that Plumeria was for sale, as it had been on the market since before we bought Coconuts. In the last two and a half years, during which time its price had been steadily declining, this merely registered as an interesting side note. At most, we wondered who our future neighbors might be. At the GHHA annual meeting, Plumeria's owners, long-time island residents Paul and Alyce Jordan, mentioned that they were determined to sell the villa one way or another in the very near future, and began listing a descending set of prices that they would consider. This did get our attention, although only to note that I knew a business associate who had just sold his company, and whose family had enjoyed two stays at Coconuts; I said that I would mention this opportunity to him. I had meant to write that email during the following week, but in the flurry of home improvement projects that we had going on, I never quite got around to sending it. Towards the end of our stay, I began to sense another source of my reluctance, and when I compared notes with my wife, it turned out that we had both been thinking the same thing. We see-sawed for a day or two between "this makes sense", and "are we nuts?", but on the night before our departure, we decided to go for it. Departure mornings are always crazy hectic; every project needs to be wound down, all the tools put away, all trace of our existence totally erased, oh, and I had to go down and bring my sailing kayak back up to the villa, AND still make the noon ferry. I barely manage to hastily edit, print, and drop off a sales contract with Paul, to his surprise, and by the time I was back with the boat, the Jordan's had agreed to our offer.
We still question our sanity from time to time, but yesterday, we officially closed on the sale, and are now the proud owners of both Coconuts and Plumeria! Unlike Coconuts, which was really in need of a lot of TLC, the Jordan's had doted on Plumeria, so we bought it in rental-ready condition. The grounds are lushly landscaped, with abundant flowering Plumeria (aka Frangipani). The two villas were built at the same time, and share a nearly identical floor plan that emphasizes indoor-outdoor living. Plumeria's former owners did connect the kitchen to the great room, which adds a nice touch. Back when these villas were built, they were considered a bit of a gamble; they were the first re-introduction of Danish colonial separated pod architecture to the vacation villa market, with the modern update to add a pool to the courtyard (back then, most adults couldn't swim). There was real uncertainty as to whether this design would be accepted, and there was yet another other concern: would anyone really be willing to drive "all the way out to Gifft Hill"? The pod architecture proved to be a big hit, and we now regard Gifft Hill as a quite near-in suburb of Cruz Bay.
We will be adding a number of the amenities that help differentiate Coconuts, such as a solar heated pool with LED color lighting, a good telescope, binoculars, a massage table, a full set of Penzys' spices, etc, (and a spa, if we can find the right place for it), but are unlikely to initiate any major construction. Plumeria already has a very nice outdoor covered porch living area that faces the view, which was what gave us the idea to add the one we did at Coconuts. Having two villas side by side will allow us to host larger groups, and we will add a locked gate between the two grounds for those occasions. Coconuts has proven to be a popular rental, so popular in fact that we have to plan our visits well in advance, and we have had many potential guests frustrated to find their preferred week already booked. Plumeria offers a less fully booked calendar (at least so far), so we hope that forum members will consider it in their villa selection process. I'm pleased to announce that forum member "Bonny in CA" and her husband, hailing from the Bay area, are the first folks to rent Plumeria with us. Its VRBO site (http://www.vrbo.com/341389) needs a better set of photos and some text edits, but will give you a sense for the place. We have reserved the URL http://www.plumeriavilla.com, and will soon create a dedicated web site there that will be graphically richer than the VRBO format allows. Anyone interested in renting Plumeria can either connect with us on VRBO, or simply PM me here on the forum.
So we now find ourselves with rather more real estate, and for that matter more mortgage indebtedness, than we would have expected at this point in life. Owning a villa on St. John is a challenging investment to say the least; wind hazard insurance runs about $13K per year, and our $600 a month electric bill has been known to spike to over $1000 when guests leave the A/C on, or the spa cover open for much of their stay. The large investment in expanding and remodeling Coconuts is now behind us, but the whole enterprise is and will remain a net loss for the foreseeable future. Our mortgage balances would improve a bit were we to sell our acre and a quarter lot up on Mamie Peak. We are likely to wait to do this until property markets recover, and inventories shrink a bit, but if anyone is looking for a nice view lot, do keep us in mind. This addiction to St. John is one serious jones, an' no mistake. We can absolutely sympathize with folks who carefully wring their budgets to cover the cost of their next visit.
But the island beckons, and we must return...
All the best,
Kevin and Danielle
It was in 2010 that my wife noticed that house prices were trending down. This seemed at first to be unbelievable, but the impact of the great recession did in fact even affect St. John. It was then that we found Coconuts, which we purchased that summer. It had suffered from neglect during its nearly four years on the market, but we launched an aggressive expansion and remodeling, and are really thrilled with how everything turned out. For those of you who have yet to see the renovations, do check out its web site: http://www.coconutsvilla.com. We are happy to arrange visits for forum members when we are on island; if anyone is interested, PM me.
That brings us to this January. We were down at the time for two weeks, during which the Gifft Hill Homeowner's Association was holding its annual meeting at Plumeria, the villa whose lot adjoins Coconuts. We had been aware that Plumeria was for sale, as it had been on the market since before we bought Coconuts. In the last two and a half years, during which time its price had been steadily declining, this merely registered as an interesting side note. At most, we wondered who our future neighbors might be. At the GHHA annual meeting, Plumeria's owners, long-time island residents Paul and Alyce Jordan, mentioned that they were determined to sell the villa one way or another in the very near future, and began listing a descending set of prices that they would consider. This did get our attention, although only to note that I knew a business associate who had just sold his company, and whose family had enjoyed two stays at Coconuts; I said that I would mention this opportunity to him. I had meant to write that email during the following week, but in the flurry of home improvement projects that we had going on, I never quite got around to sending it. Towards the end of our stay, I began to sense another source of my reluctance, and when I compared notes with my wife, it turned out that we had both been thinking the same thing. We see-sawed for a day or two between "this makes sense", and "are we nuts?", but on the night before our departure, we decided to go for it. Departure mornings are always crazy hectic; every project needs to be wound down, all the tools put away, all trace of our existence totally erased, oh, and I had to go down and bring my sailing kayak back up to the villa, AND still make the noon ferry. I barely manage to hastily edit, print, and drop off a sales contract with Paul, to his surprise, and by the time I was back with the boat, the Jordan's had agreed to our offer.
We still question our sanity from time to time, but yesterday, we officially closed on the sale, and are now the proud owners of both Coconuts and Plumeria! Unlike Coconuts, which was really in need of a lot of TLC, the Jordan's had doted on Plumeria, so we bought it in rental-ready condition. The grounds are lushly landscaped, with abundant flowering Plumeria (aka Frangipani). The two villas were built at the same time, and share a nearly identical floor plan that emphasizes indoor-outdoor living. Plumeria's former owners did connect the kitchen to the great room, which adds a nice touch. Back when these villas were built, they were considered a bit of a gamble; they were the first re-introduction of Danish colonial separated pod architecture to the vacation villa market, with the modern update to add a pool to the courtyard (back then, most adults couldn't swim). There was real uncertainty as to whether this design would be accepted, and there was yet another other concern: would anyone really be willing to drive "all the way out to Gifft Hill"? The pod architecture proved to be a big hit, and we now regard Gifft Hill as a quite near-in suburb of Cruz Bay.
We will be adding a number of the amenities that help differentiate Coconuts, such as a solar heated pool with LED color lighting, a good telescope, binoculars, a massage table, a full set of Penzys' spices, etc, (and a spa, if we can find the right place for it), but are unlikely to initiate any major construction. Plumeria already has a very nice outdoor covered porch living area that faces the view, which was what gave us the idea to add the one we did at Coconuts. Having two villas side by side will allow us to host larger groups, and we will add a locked gate between the two grounds for those occasions. Coconuts has proven to be a popular rental, so popular in fact that we have to plan our visits well in advance, and we have had many potential guests frustrated to find their preferred week already booked. Plumeria offers a less fully booked calendar (at least so far), so we hope that forum members will consider it in their villa selection process. I'm pleased to announce that forum member "Bonny in CA" and her husband, hailing from the Bay area, are the first folks to rent Plumeria with us. Its VRBO site (http://www.vrbo.com/341389) needs a better set of photos and some text edits, but will give you a sense for the place. We have reserved the URL http://www.plumeriavilla.com, and will soon create a dedicated web site there that will be graphically richer than the VRBO format allows. Anyone interested in renting Plumeria can either connect with us on VRBO, or simply PM me here on the forum.
So we now find ourselves with rather more real estate, and for that matter more mortgage indebtedness, than we would have expected at this point in life. Owning a villa on St. John is a challenging investment to say the least; wind hazard insurance runs about $13K per year, and our $600 a month electric bill has been known to spike to over $1000 when guests leave the A/C on, or the spa cover open for much of their stay. The large investment in expanding and remodeling Coconuts is now behind us, but the whole enterprise is and will remain a net loss for the foreseeable future. Our mortgage balances would improve a bit were we to sell our acre and a quarter lot up on Mamie Peak. We are likely to wait to do this until property markets recover, and inventories shrink a bit, but if anyone is looking for a nice view lot, do keep us in mind. This addiction to St. John is one serious jones, an' no mistake. We can absolutely sympathize with folks who carefully wring their budgets to cover the cost of their next visit.
But the island beckons, and we must return...
All the best,
Kevin and Danielle
Congrats on the great deal! That's pretty exciting~ Pam