Downtown Cocoa Beach Pub & Restaurant Crawl

I'm happy to report that there is plenty of life in the Banana River contrary to some recent sensationalist social and mainstream media reports. The stone crab claws pictured came from the Banana River this week along with many dozens more not pictured. There appears to be no trace left in late April of the brown tide that killed off thousands of fish in March. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't continue our efforts to reduce our nutrient rich runoff that triggers the algae blooms. Our river is special and beautiful and as we found out, delicate. Despite the brown tide event, it has produced quite a few tasty meals for me this week. I like mine dipped in a little honey-mustard sauce.

Other than Post Office boxes, all of Cocoa Beach including areas north and south of the city limits  share one solitary zip code. We are all 32931 but there can be quite a bit of difference in specific areas. I often talk about this. There is the one that attracts the bulk of the tourists that is centered on the Pier and Ron Jons area and seems to be most outsiders' image of Cocoa Beach. The other Cocoa Beach, the one that I love, begins at the Kelly Slater statue at the fork in the road at 4th St. North as one heads south.

Despite the small size of downtown Cocoa Beach, there is quite a bit there. How many restaurants and bars are there in downtown Cocoa Beach? I used to say more than three dozen but thought I'd take the time to walk the four block area of downtown and make a list. Turns out there are more than I thought. I have provided links to everyone's websites or lacking that a link to their Yelp review page. If one finds themselves thirsty, hungry or wanting to hear live music in downtown Cocoa Beach, there is no good excuse to do without.

Exiting my office just north of 1st St. North on Brevard Ave. I walk a half block north past Jonathan's Pub and The Elks Lodge to N. 2nd St. and east around the corner. On the corner of Orlando Ave. is Jazzy's Mainely Lobster seafood market and restaurant. Taking the sidewalk north up Orlando, immediately next door is The Pig and Whistle British Pub . A half block further north and we're at Burger Country. Right across the street is Slow and Low BBQ and just beyond in the same block is the Surfers Pub and Bruno's Pizzeria. Since I'm keeping this to just the downtown area I walk one block east to Barrier Jacks Restaurant and then turn back south. First I come to the Cocoa Beach Brewing Company and right next door, Pineapple Point bar and restaurant. A couple of buildings down is The Mango Tree fine dining restaurant. I cross the street now to the ocean side and continue south past 1st St. North and first up is The New Habit, sandwiches and ice cream. Around the corner on Minutemen to the beach and we have everyone's favorite dive bar and music venue, The Beach Shack on the ocean and right across the way, also on the ocean is Coconuts, restaurant and bar. Immediately west of Coconuts is one building housing Hunker Down Bar, Fat Kahunas Restaurant, Cafe Playa Cuban Restaurant and shortly to open, The Thirsty Oyster oyster bar. Just across Atlantic Ave. and just south of the currently closed old Surf Restaurant is Venice at Cocoa Beach, bar and restaurant and the Subway sandwich shop. In the first block of Minutemen west of the ocean we have Yen Yens Chinese restaurant, Heidi's Jazz Club, The Heidelburg Restaurant,  Minutemen Tavern and the Cocoa Beach VFW. Just around the corner across from City Hall on Orlando Ave. is Twin Finnegans Irish Pub. Continuing west on Minutemen on the north side across the street from City Hall we begin with Cocoa Beach Thai and Sushi on the corner and then Casablanca bar. Next door in the Mai Tiki Market we find The Fat Donkey ice cream and desserts, The Tiny Turtle Caribbean Fusion restaurant and Wahoo Coffee Company. Across the alley behind Mai Tiki is Coastal Produce, produce market and deli and across Brevard Ave. is Jenna's Breezeway  restaurant. Walking back east up the alley (Wayne Coombs Way) behind Mai Tiki Market we get to Slingers Cocoa Beach Chicago-style hot dog joint on the right and Roberto's Little Havana Cuban Restaurant on the left. Across Orlando Ave. is Oasis Shaved Ice and The Florida Key Lime Pie Company. Heading north towards N. 1st St. we have the Surfinista, smoothies. coffee and health food and right across Orlando Ave. is Juice and Java Cafe. Around the corner on N. 1st St. behind the Surfinista is The Green Room Cafe health food restaurant. Continuing north on Orlando towards N. 2nd St. we pass Simply Delicious Cafe & Bakery and Surfer Joe's Tropical Ice before passing  Cocoa Beach Sports Pub with the attached Mexican grill. At 2nd St. North I retrace my steps to the office where we find our last eatery directly across Brevard Ave,, the always excellent,  Pompano Grill fine dining.

If I missed any, please let me know. By my count 18 of the over 40 listed have live music at least some of the time and only eight or nine of the 40 plus don't serve any food. If your image of Cocoa Beach is tourists, T-shirt shops and traffic it may be time to venture south..

"I'm sorry about last night. The next time I act in a willful or vain manner, you have my permission to put poison in my food, if you are not already planning to do so. Were you actually involved in a bank robbery? I think one of us is crazy. It's probably me. Take care. Your loving husband, Hack"
__from The House of the Rising Sun by James Lee Burke

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How You Can Make Money On Selling Your Property

How You Can Make Money On Selling Your Property
Make a profit when you sell your property. If you have decided that now is the time to sell your own home or commercial real estate holdings, you will want to come out on top. Use the simple real estate tips in the following article to maximize your potential for profit.

Consider the costs. Listing your property, hiring a real estate professional, having inspections, and filing paperwork can be time consuming and costly. Make sure you are prepared for these expenses ahead of the property being sold.

Get to know your mortgage. If you have never examined the fine print of the mortgage agreement you have with a banking institution, now is the time. Look for any clause that may hinder or complicate matters when it comes to selling your property.

How You Can Make Money On Selling Your Property

Weigh your options. Think about how much time you have to dedicate to the sale. You will need to be present for many mundane activities, unless you hire a realtor. Consider the value of the time you will not have to be at the property or consulting with buyers.

Look over the contract. Should you go with a real estate broker, you will need to know what they will be doing for you, and how much it will cost. Determine the right contract for you before you decide to sign your name on the dotted line. It is hard to get out of a contract once it is in effect, even if you did not know its contents.

Know your market. Do a little research to see what homes and commercial properties comparable to your own have sold for. This will give you a better feel for your local values and market trends. A property priced over market may linger for long periods of time. Those under priced will sell quick but have minimal profitability.

Advertise. No one will be interested in your property if they do not know it is for sale. Take out some local ads, ads on the internet, and invest in some signage. This will generate leads and interest in your real estate faster.

Don't forget the taxman. Taxes will be due on any financial transaction you make. Know how much money will be needed and to whom. Sometimes local jurisdictions need their fees on top of the fees charged by the state and by the federal government.

Take your time. Do not jump into the first thing that sounds good, as this may not be the best thing. Take your time when making any decision that could impact you or your property.

Decide to carry a loan. You will sometimes be asked to carry a loan for a buyer. Know the risks involved with this before you extend it as a possibility. Carrying loans can help you sell faster in a less active market.

Selling a piece of property you hold can be daunting when you are getting into doing it for the first time. Whether the transaction will be for a beloved family home, or an old commercial shop, you will need to know what you are doing before you put it on the market. Use the real estate tips you learned here to make the sale easy and profitable.

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How To Stage Your House Effectively To Get Top Dollar

How To Stage Your House Effectively To Get Top Dollar

When you have made the decision to sell your house, no doubt you want to get top dollar for it. There is an average sales price for houses in your neighborhood that are similar in size. To get an offer at the upper end of that range, you need to stage your house properly to attract a buyer's interest. The following tips will give you some ideas on how you can stage your house effectively.

Curb appeal of your house is the the first thing that you should think about. When an agent drives up to your house with a potential buyer, your house and its surrounding landscaping make an immediate impression upon them. You want this first impression to be a very positive one.

How To Stage Your House Effectively To Get Top Dollar

Look at your landscaping. Your lawn should be manicured with no brown patches. Trim back trees and shrubs that have overgrown. If you feel like your front yard lacks color, you can get various small flowering plants that you can plant in empty spots. Keep the path to your front door clear of yard debris.

As for your front door area, give it a good sweep. Brush away any spider webs around the windows and door way. Wipe down your front door. If it is made from natural wood, you should clean it with a wood polish. Your door fixtures should not be tarnished. Shine those up if possible. If the fixtures are badly rusted, you may want to replace them. Make your front entrance as inviting as possible. If there is room on the porch, add in a large potted plan or an attractive bench for sitting.

You should remove all clutter from the interior of your house. Each room should only have your basic pieces of furniture, accessories and some wall art. You should not have any personal items strewn about in the living room. Open up all the shades to let in as much natural light as possible.

Buyers are attracted to simplicity because they want to be able to envision their own decor in the space. If you have a lot of person items that you don't use too often, this is the time to pack them away.

The two most important areas that should be spotless are your kitchen and your bathrooms. These rooms are the most heavily used. If your kitchen or bathrooms are less than clean, that will make a bad, lasting impression on the buyer and can erase any positive feeling he may have had about the house.

Fix anything that is broken if you do not have to invest a lot of money into the fix. A broken light fixture, torn curtains, nail holes on the walls, etc. are little things that can discourage a potential buyer.

Keep your home smelling fresh by using home fragrances judiciously and sparingly. Do not over use them because a lot of people do not like heavy scents.

There are other tricks in staging a house for sale that can maximize your profits. Start with these simple ideas, and you will see the difference.

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How To Sell Your House Fast Without Losing Money

How To Sell Your House Fast Without Losing Money

When you own your own home, at some point in your life you may have to sell it for one reason or another. Maybe you have a new job and need to move to another part of the country, or maybe your girlfriend is moving in with her kids and your current property won’t be big enough. Whatever the reason, sometimes a house needs to be sold fast. The last thing you want is for the house to be left empty, especially having heard stories of metal thieves stripping empty houses. You also don’t want to end up with a mortgage on a new property, when you are still paying the one on the old property.

Some people can sell their homes quickly, especially if you can attract a first time buyer who already has all the finances in place, but the real estate market is seldom that easy. You also do not want to reduce the price below its market value in order to get a quick sale, you want at least the area average for it. So what can you do to not only attract buyers but also get the people that visit your property to put in a bid?

How To Sell Your House Fast Without Losing Money

Sell It Yourself?

With the internet available to most of the population these days, you can advertise your house directly to other people by making use of the many property sites, there is no reason to use an estate agent. You could actually put your house on an auction site with a reserve, if it doesn’t sell you only lose the listing fee. Many people still advertise their property in the local newspapers, and this doesn’t cost much. If you don’t want all the hassle of arranging everything yourself, or you do not have time, then employ an estate agent to handle the sale for you, but they rarely sell things fast.

Do Up The House

If you have done no work on your house for years then it is going to look lived in and that means scruffy to people viewing the property, even if you think it is a work of art. If you have a garden make sure it looks great, if you can’t do it then employ a gardener, as first impressions really do matter. Give the whole house a coat of paint, and complete any DIY jobs that need doing as they will be noticed. If wallpaper is dirty or torn then replace it all, and have all the carpets washed. Re-grout the bath tiles if they are moldy, and the same for any in the kitchen.

If you want to take things a step further then you can install a new bathroom and kitchen suite, just use something really cheap, but if it is new then prospective buyers will be impressed with the fact they are buying a house with new suites in it and think they are getting a bargain.

Remember that the cleaner, tidier and newer your house looks, then research has shown that it will sell much quicker.

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How To Sell Your House Fast

How To Sell Your House Fast
Selling your house? Need to sell it fast? There are a number of things that you can do to make your house more appealing to every buyer that walks through the door. It's not that hard, just take this one step at a time and get your house sold quickly.

When buyers drive up to the front of your house, they are hoping to see a house that is well taken care of and a yard that is landscaped and manicured. If the front of your house does not look good, the buyers will immediately assume that the house has not been maintained and that there will be hidden problems inside. Believe me, this is not the first impression you want to give to potential buyers. So step number one is to make sure that your front yard looks great!

How To Sell Your House Fast

Okay, your front yard looks great and the potential buyers have moved up to the porch and into the front door. When buyers enter your front door, you want your home to look like a model home. What does this mean? First off, there should be no odors emanating from your house. With the possible exception of the scent of cookies baking, smells are really a distraction to buyers.

When visitors look around your home for the first time, they should see a clear and unobstructed view that is clutter free. Think of a luxury hotel that you have visited - there are not a lot of knickknacks or personalized items sitting around. Try to emulate that feel in your home. Put away your personalized pictures and small mementos. Make your home more generic so that it appeals to a much wider variety of people.

Is your furniture in good shape? Do your walls have a fresh coat of paint? If not, consider either replacing the furniture or covering it with a neutral slipcover of some kind. Fresh paint on your walls can make a huge difference to the perceived value of your home. If you are repainting specifically to help you sell your home, be sure you select a neutral color for the walls such as a light tan or beige color.

Is your flooring in great shape? Flooring is another big issue with many buyers. If buyers come into your home and realize that they immediately have to replace the flooring, they may scratch your home off of their list immediately. Flooring can be very expensive and flooring that needs to be replaced is a huge deterrent to buyers. In light of this, do whatever you can to make your flooring look better. Hire a professional to steam clean your carpets and so on.

Other things you can do to make your home more appealing to buyers is to keep all of your personal possessions neatly tucked away. It is not okay to shove everything in your closet just so it is out of view. Remember that buyers are going to be opening every closet door and looking inside to determine how much storage capacity you have. If you have a great many things, it actually might be best for you to place everything that you do not absolutely need into a rented storage unit while your home is on the market.

If you follow these tips on how to sell your home fast, your home should sell very quickly and at top dollar. A little work ahead of time will make all the difference in having a smooth and easy real estate transaction.

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How To Sell Your Home With Ease

How To Sell Your Home With Ease

Marketing is the biggest factor that is going to determine how many potential buyers you get interested in your home. This article is going to help you figure out strategies for how to get your home to sell within a time period you designate. Many home sellers would like to sell their home in 3 months or less. Some people must sell a home much sooner because of a new job opportunity elsewhere. Whatever your reason for selling your home it is a good idea to fill your brain with new ideas that can help sell your home.

How To Sell Your Home With Ease

Create flyers that include a picture of the front of your home and relevant information that can interest buyers. Flyers are highly overlooked these days but they can come in handy. Put information like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the amount of square feet, garage information, and other interesting facts that you feel will appeal to a buyer. Pass out the flyers during an open house so people have something to physically take home and refer back to if they are interested in your home. Consider handing out the flyers around your neighborhood to inform people that your home is for sale. A neighbor might know someone like a friend or family member that is interested in moving into the area and can help you find a buyer.

Marketing online is very easy and is a must when selling a home. Make sure your house looks presentable and then take pictures of the outside and inside of your home to post online. Allow people to view a virtual tour of your home. You may also want to take a video of the property to catch the interest of people. Once you are finished taking pictures and videos upload them to Craigslist and Facebook. Post a Craigslist ad and inform people on Facebook your home is for sale. Do not put any sensitive information about such as your home address or personal contact information on Craigslist. Let people contact you through email to discuss matters concerning the purchase of your home. A lot of people purchase homes online in today's world, so give yourself more of a chance to sell your home by putting it on the Internet.

Contact a realtor so that they can put your home up on the MLS. MLS stands for multiple service listing. This is an online database of homes that are for sale. Other real estate agents have access to this information and can view it to help their clients purchase a home. The good thing about another real estate agent is that they can bring in clients that are genuinely interested and capable of buying your home. Real estate agents pre-qualify their clients to determine what type of homes they're capable of purchasing. Potential buyers elsewhere may have the ability to purchase your home, but a buyer through a real estate agent is typically more reliable. Contact your local realtor today to get your home on the MLS if you haven't done so already.

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How to Sell Your Home Fast

How to Sell Your Home Fast

In today’s market, selling your home can be quite challenging, especially if you require a quick sale. There are a variety of factors that need to be considered in how to sell your home fast. Typically, the most common problems that require selling a home today are the loss of a job, a job transfer, or significant health care bills. No matter what your specific reason for selling your property, there are basic steps that need to be followed to ensure you can sell it quickly, and for the correct price.

The biggest challenged individuals face when they need to sell their property fast is the sense of desperation they feel. Sometimes, a potential buyer can recognize this, so it is important to maintain a poker face when talking to them directly.

How to Sell Your Home Fast

Talking to a real estate agent is the easiest way to understand the starting point for selling the home. They will be able to offer your variety of options that can help you sell your home quickly. They will have the skills, tools, and availability to potential buyers.

Another consideration for using a realtor to sell the home quickly is that they can help you find comparables in the neighborhood, or previous homes that sold for specific price. These comparables will have the same features and amenities as your home, so that you can price the real estate properly.

No matter what real estate agent you choose, make sure he or she has the experience of using online tools and effective marketing strategies that go beyond traditional selling. Ask them to bring along the flyers of homes that have previously sold by them. This will ensure that they are proving that they have the ability to sell your home, and so it quickly.

Staging is another key component to selling your home fast. This means removing any clutter out of the garage, the basement, the attic, or filled rooms. Cleaning out the closets is also a good idea.

Staging also requires rearranging the existing furniture, or changing it out with rented furniture to make the home look more aesthetically appealing. The home should be beautiful and neutral, so that any potential buyer can visualize their own furniture in the home, or enjoy looking at the furniture that already is there.

Clean the entire home inside and out. This means keep the landscaping fully groomed, by removing debris around plants and shrubs and keeping the lawn trimmed at all times. In addition, make sure that the kitchen and bathrooms are sparkly clean. This includes scrubbing the grout, and keeping the countertops looking good. If the shower curtain is in need of replacement, do it, to ensure that there is no negative aspect when potential buyers walk through the property.

Have the carpets and flooring professionally cleaned. Once the entire house is clean, the landscaping is manicured, and the clutter has been removed, the realtor can hold an open house. An open house can offer you the ability to have a lot of potential buyers arrive at the same time. This ensures a quicker sale.

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