Main Line Homes Blog

My wife Trudy sent this to me today, as well as to a young Marine departing on a six month deployment, and our son who is preparing to deploy to Iraq for a second time. It is comments written by Isaac Asimov in 1991. As a newer citizen this touched me, especially as my home before was Britain.

By Isaac Asimov

Introductory Note. Unless you're already well acquainted with our "national
anthem," this interesting piece by the late Isaac Asimov will be an
eye-opener. It was for me. It's especially appropriate at a time when
there is much talk of tossing out this difficult-to-sing and
difficult-to-comprehend old song in favor of something that better suits Ray
Charles' voice. You'll understand the song much better after you read Mr.
Asimov's explanation.--Hardly Waite, Gazette Senior Editor.


I have a weakness--I am crazy, absolutely nuts, about our national anthem.

The words are difficult and the tune is almost impossible, but frequently
when I'm taking a shower I sing it with as much power and emotion as I can.
It shakes me up every time.

I was once asked to speak at a luncheon. Taking my life in my hands, I announced I was going to sing our national anthem--all four stanzas.

This was greeted with loud groans. One man closed the door to the kitchen,
where the noise of dishes and cutlery was loud and distracting. "Thanks,
Herb," I said.

"That's all right," he said. "It was at the request of the kitchen staff."

I explained the background of the anthem and then sang all four stanzas.

Let me tell you, those people had never heard it before--or had never really
listened. I got a standing ovation. But it was not me; it was the anthem.

More recently, while conducting a seminar, I told my students the story of
the anthem and sang all four stanzas. Again there was a wild ovation and
prolonged applause. And again, it was the anthem and not me.

So now let me tell you how it came to be written.

In 1812, the United States went to war with Great Britain, primarily over
freedom of the seas. We were in the right. For two years, we held off the
British, even though we were still a rather weak country. Great Britain was
in a life and death struggle with Napoleon. In fact, just as the United
States declared war, Napoleon marched off to invade Russia. If he won, as
everyone expected, he would control Europe, and Great Britain would be
isolated. It was no time for her to be involved in an American war.

At first, our seamen proved better than the British. After we won a battle
on Lake Erie in 1813, the American commander, Oliver Hazard Perry, sent the
message "We have met the enemy and they are ours." However, the weight of
the British navy beat down our ships eventually. New England, hard-hit by a
tightening blockade, threatened secession.

Meanwhile, Napoleon was beaten in Russia and in 1814 was forced to abdicate.
Great Britain now turned its attention to the United States, launching a
three-pronged attack. The northern prong was to come down Lake Cha mplain
toward New York and seize parts of New England. The southern prong was to go
up the Mississippi, take New Orleans and paralyze the west. The central
prong was to head for the mid-Atlantic states and then attack Baltimore, the
greatest port south of New York. If Baltimore was taken, the nation, which
still hugged the Atlantic coast, could be split in two. The fate of the
United States, then, rested to a large extent on the success or failure of
the central prong.

The British reached the American coast, and on August 24, 1814, took
Washington, D. C. Then they moved up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore. On
September 12, they arrived and found 1000 men in Fort McHenry, whose guns
controlled the harbor. If the British wished to take Baltimore, they would
have to take the fort.

On one of the British ships was an aged physician, William Beanes, who had
been arrested in Maryland and brought along as a prisoner. Francis Scott
Key, a lawyer and friend of the physician, had come to the ship to negotiate
his release. The British captain was willing, but the two Americans would
have to wait. It was now the night of September 13, and the bombardment of
Fort McHenry was about to start.

As twilight deepened, Key and Beanes saw the American flag flying over Fort
McHenry. Through the night, they heard bombs bursting and saw the red glare
of rockets. They knew the fort was resisting and the American flag was still
flying. But toward morning the bombardment ceased, and a dread silence fell.
Either Fort McHenry had surrendered and the British flag flew above it, or
the bombardment had failed and the American flag still flew.

As dawn began to brighten the eastern sky, Key and Beanes stared out at the
fort, trying to see which flag flew over it. He and the physician must have
asked each other over and over, "Can you see the flag?"

After it was all finished, Key wrote a four stanza poem telling the events
of the night. Called "The Defence of Fort M'Henry," it was published in
newspapers and swept the nation. Someone noted that the words fit an old
English tune called "To Anacreon in Heaven" --a difficult melody with an
uncomfortably large vocal range. For obvious reasons, Key's work became
known as "The Star Spangled Banner," and in 1931 Congress declared it the
official anthem of the United States.

Now that you know the story, here are the words. Presumably, the old doctor
is speaking. This is what he asks Key

Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
W hat so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, do es that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

"Ramparts," in case you don't know, are the protective walls or other
elevations that surround a fort. The first stanza asks a question. The
second gives an answer

On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep.
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!



"The towering steep" is again, the ramparts. The bombardment has failed, and
the British can do nothing more but sail away, their mission a failure.

In the third stanza, I feel Key allows himself to gloat over the American
triumph. In the aftermath of the bombardment, Key probably was in no mood to
act otherwise.

During World War II, when the British were our staunchest allies, this third
stanza was not sung. However, I know it, so here it is

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.



The fourth stanza, a pious hope for the future, should be sung more slowly
than the other three and with even deeper feeling.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n - rescued land
Praise the Pow 'r that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto--"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I hope you will look at the national anthem with new eyes. Listen to it, the
next time you have a chance, with new ears.

And don't let them ever take it away.

--Isaac Asimov, March 1991

When it was a strong seller's market, do you remember that, we had countless seminars on how to write an agreement of sale that was attractive to the seller. Well, now we are in a strong buyer's market and what can we do to help our sellers make their home or their counter offer attractive to a buyer. Here are just a few that I have thought of, if you know or think of others let me know.

1. Before listing your home have it inspected, find out what might be wrong and get it fixed. Make that inspection report available along with receipts for repairs to any potential buyers. A good idea even if you are not selling your home is to get an inspection say every 5-7 years.
2. Have your home staged, how you live in a home is not how you sell a home. It is not just a matter of clearing clutter but making your home the most attractive home on the market. A small investment can bring big rewards.
3. Provide a home warranty for 1 or 2 years if your heater and a/c are older, remove the fear of the cost of repairs for the buyer from the equation. there are many home warranty companies and each warranty works slightly differently so investigate or ask your realtor what is best.
4. Think about paying for the transfer tax for the buyer. It may be only a small concession 1 or 2% but it can add up on top of all the other closing costs.
5. Closing costs, if the mortgage company allows it the seller can give a seller assist towards closing costs, especially helpful for young couples who may be stretched with rising interest rates and a lack of savings.
6. Pay down the mortgage to help the buyer with a lower rate and help them have a lower rate.
7. Price it right to begin with, think about how buyers search and try to be the cheapest in the bracket.

Any other ideas? let us know.

So here we are in the depths of July, many people away on vacation and we are still getting good traffic at Open Houses.  I was again sitting a home we have for sale in Devon and Trudy sat a wonderful farmhouse we have for sale in Glenmoore set on 5 acres. Both have great views for different reasons, the Devon home is nestled between trees close to Jenkins Arboretum and has beautiful views from the deck and the home come the fall the colors are going to be magnificient. The farmhouse just bring to mind how Chester County used to be with rolling farmland and slower pace of life.

Now I admit the Devon home has been drawing more people than the home in Glenmoore consistently, but still we have been surprised by how many buyers are out in the middle of July looking at homes.

What are you finding, how have your Open Houses been going? If you are a buyer are you really finding a surplus of homes on the market?

Tuesday is our Broker's Open tour day, here on the Main Line, where as a Realtor you can get to see recently listed homes or those homes that have been on the market for a while and the agent is hoping to re-energise and remind you about. Each area has certain times when homes are open so you can plan your route and catch as many homes as possible. Over the summer these times are not always held to by the agents as there are less Realtors out working or so it seems as I see less agents out and about.

I try to view every home in the Tredyffrin and Easttown townships that comes on the market, whether I have a client for it or not. I try to do the same for Radnor as well so that if a client calls on one of these homes I have seen it. Obviously, having your own listings makes this hard to do on Broker's Open and then I make appointments for myself and my wife to go visit so we have seen the homes.

This week I was surprised by how few homes were on tour, plus how many of those on tour I had already seen before.  I ended up going to see 6 homes, from town homes to multi million dollar homes.

The town home was of particular interest as it was in a development where I recently sold a home in Chesterbrook, priced at $374,900 I thought it seemed a little high, and these thoughts were confirmed when I visited. The home was much smaller than the unit I sold and although it shows very well, it is described as a 3 bedroom unit, which it is not, it has two bedrooms plus an open loft area which can be enclosed to make a third bedroom. The unit I sold had a walk out lower level backing to open space, this had a very small yard, backing up to another unit, mine also had a wonderful large deck that wrapped around the unit as it was also an end unit. So it will be interesting to see what develops with this unit over a slow summer season.

I visited two other homes in Berwyn, one on Potter Ave. which was recently re-listed and has a lot of potential but the location leaves a little to be desired, but some work on re-habbing and curb appeal will go a long way, a low offer on the $349,900 asking price may also be needed. The other home on Midland was a new listing by a friend Linda Theuer from Prudential Fox and Roach, nice street, filled with split levels, priced well at $399,900 for a roomy home but with the summer season the timing may be against it, so price may end up dropping to get it sold.

I moved from here to Wayne visiting an old colleague Linda Lee who had just listed a very nice home on Maple Glen Road for $1,250,000, five bedrooms three and a half baths with a very open floor plan which is the result of remodelling and additions. It felt a little choppy where the dining room has been placed, but overall the home felt well looked after. The bathrooms were still a little tired and probably needed some more work on them as well. However, the home lacked a formal sitting room, which I read more and more is a wasted space as less people want it, but there was a member of the public looking at the home whilst I was there who seemed to feel this was important. I always wonder how often people use their formal living room and how much a great or family room attached to a kitchen.

From Maple Glen I went to visit some new construction town-homes on Exeter, the model was lovely but these homes were priced the same as Maple Glen and had only two bedrooms, possibly three if you used a room on the ground floor as a third bedroom. It felt a lot of money for what it was.

My final home of the day was over on the other end of Tredyffrin on Weadley, the home came on the market at the end of last week and was already under offer. This gives me a moment to discuss the new way our MLS lists homes that are under contract. We have removed the Active with Contract designation and homes are either active or pending. Lots of people are still confused by these different designations but simply put if the home can still be shown it is active, if not it is pending. What is declared is that if it is active but has an offer subject to a contingency this is shown more clearly. So a home is active if the listing has received an offer but it has a home for sale contingency attached, or a home inspection or mortgage contingency. The home showed well in the photos, in reality it seemed a little tired, with bathrooms and kitchen needing some freshening up, but was well priced at $619,000.

We had two homes open to the public yesterday. Both were open from 2-4 PM. I was sitting  a home in Devon, PA that we have have had listed for about 90 days, originally priced at $455,000 it is now priced at $415,000. I had four groups of people through in the first hour with several people taking some time to wander round the house and the almost 1 acre of land. Situated close to Jenkins Arboretum it sits up on a hillside with plenty of trees and shrubs providing shade and privacy with steps down to a flat grassy area for kids to play ball of some sort.The second hour brought just one group through. Overall a good open house with excellent feedback and some good interest in the property.To see photos and a virtual tour go to http://235foresthillscircle.vandekarteam.com.

My wife Trudy sat a lovely property we have listed out in Glenmoore, PA. Five acres of land with a farmhouse dating from the 1880's and a barn and several other related buildings including a spring house and lambing pen, $460,000. Lots of opportunity here for you to make a wonderful retreat in the heart of Chester County yet close to major routes. Although she had only two groups through both showed serious interest in the property and the possibilities for working from home and restoring the barn for use. To see photos and a virtual tour go to http://1460pottstownpike.vandekarteam.com.

We will be having both these properties open again next week end July 22nd from 2-4 PM so if you are interested in seeing either of these porperties for your self we look forward to meeting you then. Agents, we will honor your clients, so give us a call and send them along.