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My St Augustine

If I told you that St Augustine real estate is my business, my profession, it would be true. You could easily verify it. It would also be true if I told you that the beach is a place where dirt meets water. Undeniably true, but oh, so misleading.

St Augustine Beach is 15 miles of sparkling white sand (we call it “sugar sand”) mostly 200-300 feet wide and mostly flat, and eternally lapped by 1-3 foot waves sent from the Azores. Dirt meets water. It’s what you would call a “dramatic event.” It’s why we often see road-weary people dipping their California bicycles in the surf to signify completion, what better place to end such a trip?

Let me offer you some more misleaders:

There are some old buildings here. Castillo de San Marco
Clarifier: St Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S., started in 1565. Most of the original stick-and-mud huts didn’t last that long, but the Castillo de San Marco, a huge fort made of local shell-stone (coquina) still stands, still on guard, still available for your inspection and exploration, as is Fort Matanzas, located at the far end of that sugar-sand beach. Yes, there are “old buildings.”

Aviles Street Art Galleries

You can buy nice art here.
Clarifier: There are several dozen full-time dedicated art galleries here with artists working in a wide assortment of materials. We have resident artists with world-wide recognition making sculptures and blown glass creations and jewelry and oil paintings and metal objects for sale and display. We have bucket-loads of local talent laboring at the mills of inspiration and selling their creations in the park, at the farmers’ market, in the shops. “Nice art.”

It looks like a pretty nice place to live.
Clarifier: There are numerous cultural events happening every week and they are widely advertised. You can hear a professor speak about sunken Confederate ships, you can hear a string quartet argue Mozart, you can see the mock pirates stage a raid on the city to remind you of the olden entertainments. Live music is playing a short distance in any direction you choose, and if you are addicted to the clanking of rigging against masts, visit the waterfront. Tennis, golf, and any number of water sports await your participation. “Not a bad place to live.”

Yes, you could say St Augustine real estate is my business, and you would be correct. But actually I am more of an ambassador for this town. I recognize it as a bright spot on the east coast where a sort of European flavor floats in the streets, where the charm and intrigue of history is nurtured and where the dominant civic personality says “small town.”

So, when people come to me looking for the right home or condo or business and want me to help them, they get the works. Yes, I show them properties, but I also show them where the best bread can be bought, and where the boat ramps are, and where the herb farm is, and later I hook them up with the best plumber in town, and the surveyor who can come this week, not next, and the mortgage broker who will push their application forward until Katy bars the door.

Real estate is the language I speak, and I’m talking about St Augustine. Want to discuss it? Come on down. “It’s my business.”

Clarifier: You are going to like it here.

Irene Arriola Real Estate, Inc.
81 King Street, Suite B Saint Augustine, FL 32084
Email: [email protected] | Office phone: 904.829.2002
Cell phone: 904.669.0691 | Fax: 904.829.2029