A house, a hut and a hunch; A few changes help a Siesta Key house sell quickly after it had stagnated on the market.(SUNDAY REAL ESTATE)

Who would have figured a $1,500 investment in a tiki hut would help generate a $680,000 sale in Siesta Key's Sandy Hook?

Jim Thompson would. The house he and his wife, Realtor Jerry Thompson of Coldwell Banker Previews, bought last January for $490,000 was snapped up two days after he hung out Jerry's "for sale" sign - even before it appeared on Multiple Listing Service. The sale closes April 3.

The 3,500-square-foot, 1968 house at 95 Sandy Hook Road South had been on the market for a year when the Thompsons bought it last January.

"If a house has been on the market that long, I figure something's wrong," Jim Thompson said. "But I could see past the …