Proper U.S. Flag Etiquette

The American flag is a symbol of the United States that holds much history and represents our country’s ideals. Coined  “Old Glory” by ship captain William Driver in the 1820’s, the flag’s official colors are now called “Old Glory Red” and “Old Glory Blue”. According to the U.S. State Department, red represents valor and bravery, white symbolizes purity and innocence, and blue stands for vigilance, perseverance, and justice.

Since our flag was introduced in 1777, the design has undergone changes to reflect the admission of new states. Our citizens love the design and symbolism so much that U.S. flags can be found everywhere in our country: in front of houses, on cars, on clothes, in home decor, painted on fences, and more. However, a symbol so dear to our country deserves respect and American flags should be displayed and disposed of with proper etiquette.

 

Etiquette for Displaying the United States Flag

Did you know that there is a proper etiquette for displaying the United States flag? You can see the full U.S. Flag Code here. The American flag is a symbol of our great nation and the many lives that care for and protect it. Here’s how to display the U.S. flag properly.

• Raised briskly and lowered ceremoniously, the flag should be displayed from sunrise to sunset - but not in inclement weather.
• The U.S. flag should always fly in light. If flown outside at night, install a solar flagpole light or have other light directed towards it.
• If there is more than one flag on a pole, the U.S. flag should always fly above other flags and should be the same size or larger than the others, and no international flags should be flown on the same pole.
• The field of stars should be uppermost and to the left of the observer when the flag is displayed against a wall, window, or in a vertical orientation.
• Do not allow the flag to ever touch anything beneath it or dip the flag toward any person or object.
• When the flag is used in ceremonies everyone, except those in uniform, should place their right hand over their heart while facing the flag.
• Public institutions should display the flag daily and on all holidays, weather permitting, near the main administration building.
• Schools should display the flag during school days.
• The flag should be displayed at polling places.
• When put away, the flag should be folded and stored in a triangular fold with the stars showing. See how to fold the flag here.
  
  

Etiquette for Retiring a United States Flag

When a flag has become wind-battered, worn beyond repair, and reached the end of it’s lifespan, how should you properly retire it? According to U.S. Flag Code, “The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”

Check your local fire ordinances and the flag’s materials before conducting a flag burning ceremony at home or other private location. These ceremonies are most often conducted on Flag Day. The ceremony should begin by holding the flag in its customary manner then properly fold and place respectfully onto a fire large enough to burn the flag completely. Do not allow the flag to touch the ground in this process. As it burns, salute the flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance then pause for a moment of silence. When only ashes are left, bury the ashes.

For the best safety and utmost respect when retiring your American flag, visit a community flag collection box. There’s a flag collection box in front of the St. Charles County Administration Building and another at Veterans Tribute Park. By putting your flag in one of these boxes, you can be sure that it will be destroyed ceremoniously.

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The Boehmer Team has deep respect and appreciation for the U.S. flag. We see it in the communities and homes we sell and in the hearts of the veterans, police, teachers and ordinary citizens we help every day. If you want to buy or sell American property or land to fly your very own American flag on, Contact The Boehmer Team.

 

 

References:
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title4/chapter1&edition=prelim
https://www.pbs.org/a-capitol-fourth/history/old-glory/
https://www.gettysburgflag.com/american-flag-display
https://usflags.design/usa/
https://nationalflagfoundation.org/etiquette/when-to-dispose-of-the-flag/
https://www.sccmo.org/1732/Veterans-Best-Practices-Working-Group/VBPWG

Winter Activities in St. Charles County

 

It’s officially the winter season in St. Charles County, Missouri. Despite the cold and short days, we still want to enjoy activities and entertainment. So what is there to do in St. Charles County in the winter? Plenty! We have a large county made up of 17 municipalities filled with parks, rec centers, and entertainment options. While we don’t have room to list them all here, we’ve put together a great list of things to in winter in St. Charles County.

Things to do in Winter in St. Charles County

Note: Click the name of an establishment to go to their website for more info.

Ice Skating

For fun on the ice check out Wentzville Ice Arena in Wentzville, St. Peters Rec-Plex in St. Peters, and All American Sports Complex in St. Peters.

Roller Skating

For roller skating St. Charles County has Great Skate Roller Skating Rink in St. Peters or check out Vetta 70 for their top-notch roller hockey rink also located in St. Peters.

Sledding

The St. Peters Community Park, Blanchette Park , Schaefer Park and Jaycee Park have great hills for sledding.

Rock Climbing

If it’s too cold to climb outdoors, that’s OK, because we’ve got Climb So Ill indoor rock climbing available in the city of St. Charles.

Bowling

Let’s go bowling! One of our favorites is Plaza Lanes Bowling Center & Tubby’s Pub & Grub. Also check out St. Charles Lanes. There’s three options for bowling in St. Peters, MO: Harvest Lanes, Cave Springs Lanes and Bowlero that includes an arcade and billiards. For an unusual bowling option, visit The Corner Bar in old St. Charles that features cocked-hat bowling. This type of bowling uses three regular pins and a candlepin ball (no holes for your fingers).

Movies

There are plenty of great movie theaters for catching a movie in St. Charles County. Catch a flick at: Marcus Theaters St. Charles Cinema 18, AMC Streets of St. Charles 8, Marcus Mid Rivers 14 Cinema, Regal O’Fallon, Wentzville Tower 12, and Marcus Town Square Cinema in Dardenne Prairie.

Arcades, Pinball and More

For a range of indoor activities in one place visit Playtime Arcade and Bar in Wentzville. It features axe throwing, laser tag, mini bowling, a virtual rock wall, indoor playgrounds/inflatables an arcade and bar. Also check out Kokomo Joe’s in St. Peters featuring an arcade, bumbler cars, a trampoline park, laser tag, a laser maze, mini bowling and a café/bar. On Sundays everyone can enjoy a big array of arcade and pinball games at Two Plumbers Brewery and Arcade, the rest of the week is over 21 only. 

Escape Rooms

Want to escape the winter blues? Try an escape room. In St. Charles County there are several options including: Escape on Main located on historic main street in St. Charles, Deadlock Escape, Mastermind Room Escape, and MindBreak Escape in St. Charles, and Unchained STL Escape Rooms in St. Peters.

Casino

For some adult gaming fun St. Charles is host to Ameristar Casino, Resort and Spa. The 130,000-square-foot casino includes a full-service luxury suite hotel, an indoor-outdoor pool, seven dining venues,12 bars, an entertainment venue, and a full-service luxury day spa.

 

Shopping for Real Estate

Of course we had to mention this! If you are hoping to purchase a home in the spring, you’ll want to start the home buying process in the winter to get a leg up on the competition. Same with selling, if you hope to make a spring home sale you need to start preparing for the sale in winter. Contact The Boehmer Team to learn about the home buying and selling process and to get started.

 

 

Unusual Fall 2020 Real Estate Activity

St. Louis and St. Charles County area real estate in fall 2020 has been as unusual as, well most of 2020. Real estate this autumn has been unusually active. In fact some real estate agents are referring to this fall as second spring. Herein we’ll discuss some of the reasons why real estate this fall has been so unusual.

The Pandemic

The Covid-19 virus has kept many people closer to home for longer and more often than previously. Folks are now working from home, going to school at home and moving many in-person events online. This has created more time to look closely at one’s living situation and decide if it is the best fit. Also, some people are moving from more concentrated, populous cities to our area. 

 

Demand Versus Inventory

After a slow spring of quarantines, the busy summer market barely slowed down for fall. With so many buyers wanting to move to better home situations and some sellers unsure about making any changes at all, there has been a higher demand for homes for sale than there have been homeowners listing their homes. This is causing a lower inventory of homes for sale along with rising home values as multiple offers are being made on well-maintained, market-value homes. This doesn’t mean there aren’t homes for sale, it just means that homebuyers may have to look a little longer or at different options to buy a home.  It also means that buyers need to be prepared and ready to move quickly if the perfect home comes on the market.

 

Low Mortgage Rates

At time of writing this, the 30 year conventional mortgage rate sits around 2.5% and the 15 year conventional mortgage rate sits around 2%. These low rates mean that you can get a lot more home for you money than you could a few years ago. And for those who aren’t moving, it’s a great time to refinance.  These rates are historically low and when they are gone it is hard to imagine when they will return.  

 

Increased New Construction Activity is Helping

We help several quality local home builders market their homes and we know the new construction home market very well. We’ve been able to find solutions in the new construction market for many homebuyers. While builders have been doing a great job constructing quality new homes, they are feeling the pressure to keep up with the demand.  New construction should always be considered when searching for a new home.  It affords buyers to be the first owner, select finishes specific to their tastes, select options specific to their needs and to enjoy the benefits of an environmentally friendly and energy efficient home.

- Options for Buying New Construction -

Despite the unusual fall 2020 real estate market we continue to assist homebuyers and sellers to face, understand and prepare for these unusual times every single day.  Despite the challenges, business for The Boehmer Team is up 28% from 2019 and going strong.  If you are thinking of buying a home, building a home, or selling your current home, contact The Boehmer Team. Let us implement decades of combined experience to answer your questions, find solutions for your needs and provide full service as we do to all of our dedicated clients.

 

Essential Fall Home Maintenance For Midwest Homeowners

Fall in the St. Louis and St. Charles County area of Missouri is a fantastic, pumpkin spice filled season. Watching the leaves change color and fall, roasting marshmallows around a fire pit, and enjoying seasonal beverages and flavors come to mind. We are truly lucky to live and work in the Midwest during the harvest season.

Before autumn turns to winter, be sure to turn your attention to your home. Fall is the time for some essential home maintenance tasks to be performed before the deep chill of winter sets in on your home. Neglecting these tasks could add further wear and tear to your home and may lead to damages that would cost much more to fix later. Performing fall home maintenance will keep your home functioning and help uphold the ever-important value of your home. 

 

10 Essential Fall Home Maintenance Tasks:

• Clear Gutters, Downspouts, Window Wells and Drains of Leaves and Debris
• Check Windows and Doors for Gaps or Air Leaks and Seal Them
• Check Your Heating System and Change the Filter
• Check Chimney, Wood Stove and/or Fireplace Function and Cleanliness
• Check Plumbing/Outdoor Spigots and Turn Off Outdoor Valves if Needed
• Check for Foundation, Porch or Driveway Cracks and Seal as Needed
• Inspect the Roof for Loose or Missing Shingles
• Check for Cracks or Holes in Siding and Paint and Replace Caulk if Necessary
• Trim Any Limbs that could Fall on Your Home or Power Lines During Icy Weather
• Winterize Your Sprinkler System

Fall Maintenance Worth Doing if You Don’t Want to Buy New Stuff Next Year:

• Drain and Store Garden Hoses
• Put Away Porch Furniture
• Clean and Store the Lawn Mower & Lawn Trimming Equipment
  
• Winterize Your Gas Grill

Other Fall Home Maintenance Tasks to Consider:

• Fertilize the Lawn
• Drain the Hot Water Heater and Remove Sediment from Bottom of Tank
• Check the Seal at the Bottom of the Garage Door for Damage or Leaks
• Check Your Detectors and/or Change Batteries

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If you can’t perform these important fall maintenance jobs yourself, hire someone to help. Contact The Boehmer Team if you need some suggestions for contractors or repairpersons in the St. Louis or St. Charles County areas of Missouri. And if your home needs more maintenance and help than you want to do, contact us about right-sizing your home or finding a home in an HOA community that provides a variety of maintenance tasks on your property.

 

If you would like to find out the current value of your St. Louis or St. Charles County area home or are considering buying or selling in the area, contact us or visit TheBoehmerTeam.com for more information.

St. Charles County Real Estate 2020 Mid-Year Review

We’re half way into 2020 and boy, has it been a roller coaster ride! A pandemic, a recession, an election year and more have made it a VERY memorable and life changing year. But despite our ever-changing external environment, one thing has stayed constant – the need for a home. The pandemic has caused us to spend more time at home than ever and made housing that meets our needs more important than ever. So despite everything, the housing market has remained strong and a good investment in 2020.

Signs of a strong real estate market are backed up with hard data. Take a look at the below charts showing how the 2020 St. Charles County, Missouri real estate market is performing so far. We hope this information will be valuable for you to make the best real estate decisions for you and your family.

Number of Homes for Sale

This first chart showing active real estate listings by month over the past three years ends on a down trajectory. This means that there are not as many homes available for sale as there have been mid-year in the past three years. The low availability of listings and continued demand from homebuyers point to a continued sellers market.

Median Sales Price

This chart shows that home prices are still growing. If you’ve been thinking about listing a residential property for sale, now is a great time to get a lot of value from the sale. If you’re thinking of buying a home, now is also a great time to take advantage of still low historic rates and purchase a home before housing prices increase even more.

Original Listing Price Versus Sales Price

While sellers like to get the most money they can for their property, buyers want to pay the least they can for a home. Through the negotiation process the final price received for a home is often a little less than the original price the property was listed. The first half of 2020 shows that buyers are negotiating better deals for themselves than the previous three years as the gap of list price to sale price has widened a little.

Days On Market

This chart shows that the number of days a home is on the market tend to be shorter in the warm months than in the cold months. Currently we are seeing shorter days on the market that are similar to the same time last year. A smaller number of days on market is another indicator of a sellers market.

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In summary, this data points to continued gains in home prices and continued competition among homebuyers for the real estate listings that are available. Our friends in the home building industry say they are ramping up home building to help offer more new home options for buyers. If you have a home to sell, now is a great time. If you are buying a home, be prepared to act quickly when you find “the one” as you may face a lot of competition.

Working with a great buyers agent, like the buyers agents on The Boehmer Team, will also increase homebuyers’ chances of procuring the perfect home. Contact The Boehmer Team for expert home selling and buying assistance. We know the St. Charles County, Missouri real estate market and even have information on homes that are not yet listed for sale.

Supporting St. Charles County Small Businesses During Quarantine

As a real estate team, The Boehmer Team members are very involved with many small businesses in St. Charles County. We work with inspectors, plumbers, electricians, home maintenance technicians, photographers, cleaning companies, title companies and local mortgage lenders. We even have relationships with local bakeries and restaurants that supply our open houses and other events.

The current stay-at-home order for Missouri that runs through the end of the April is aimed to keep us safe and healthy. But meanwhile some of our favorite local small businesses are feeling the deepest effects of a clientele in quarantine. So how can we support our local businesses during this time?

1. Order Delivery or Curbside Pickup

With a few precautions people can still patronage their favorite local businesses via delivery or take out. If one doesn’t want to leave the house there are services like GrubHub, DoorDash, Postmates, Uber Eats, Shipt, Instacart and more that can shop and deliver groceries and carryout to you. This will even help those laid off from other industries who have picked up driving jobs. Curious about the safety of delivered items? Read about grocery and delivery safety here.

2. Buy a Gift Card

A great way to show that you care about a local business and want to help see it through coronavirus quarantines is by buying a gift card or gift certificate from them.  It will help inject cash into their business when they desperately need it. Also, it gives you something to look forward to for when quarantine is over.

3. Shop Local Online

Your favorite local business may have moved more of their product and services online during this time. (Heck, we can perform an entire real estate transaction online these days.) Check your favorite businesses website and social media pages to see if they have any special offers or items online.

4. Tip Well

Some local businesses are using tips to pay staff that has been recently furloughed. So tip your restaurant workers and delivery drivers well. They don’t have the luxury of working from home during the Covid-19 quarantine.

5. Say Thanks

Nothing beats a sincere “thank you for what you do” to essential workers during this time. The Boehmer Team would like to express our deepest gratitude for the small business workers still keeping our communities running.

Excellent St. Charles County Small Businesses to Support

Since we’re here discussing helping local small businesses, we'd like to give a shout out to some we think are extra great. We’re surely going to miss some good ones, so help us by leaving a comment with your favorite St. Charles County small business.

• Cork and Rind
• O'Kanes Kitchen
• Sarah Wagner (Fit Rx with Dudas Fitness)
• Extreme Electric
• Survant Heating and Cooling (It’s a good time for a spring HVAC Check up)
• 6th & Market Online Boutique
• Grandma’s Cookies
• Abby Eich Photography

Have a real estate question? Contact The Boehmer Team to for expert advice.

You Don’t Need Luck to Snag a Great Home

With more buyers than sellers in the St. Louis and St. Charles County real estate market, finding a great home for sale can feel like competing in an episode of The Amazing Race. One can scour the national real estate websites and many local sources and find a great home only to learn that it is already under contract or that several other people have already submitted offers. Some folks even write letters to owners selling a home to prove they’re the best buyer, but to no avail. Don’t give up, you're not out of luck – you just haven’t found the right help.

We would like to introduce you to our impressive team of Buyers' Agents. These fastidious Realtors are a combination of Lewis and Clark, Sherlock Holmes and Bill Gates in their abilities to search and discover real estate listings on the internet and in the real world that match their clients wants and needs. These agents are the "luck" you're looking for.

SHANNON KOHNEN

“As Realtors we are not salespeople - we are matchmakers. We introduce people to homes until they fall in love with one. And that is what makes our job so amazing. We find a LOT of homes; new homes, old homes, and coming soon homes to introduce to our clients.“

Shannon is an experienced Realtor and a Buyer Specialist for The Boehmer Team. She brings 17 years of real estate industry knowledge and outstanding customer care to The Boehmer Team's clients. Shannon specializes in finding homes that meet the specific needs of clients in a competitive residential market.  A St. Louis area native, Shannon currently resides in St. Peters with her husband, daughter, two sons and black lab. When she isn't creating great real estate experiences you can find Shannon cheering on her daughter at competitive cheerleading and her oldest son at soccer games and taekwondo.

STEPHANIE PUSZKAR

“Nothing is more satisfying than helping each and every home buyer find and win the right home.  That is what we strive to do every day using our team’s experience, expertise, and relationships with other agents, in addition to applying successful strategies to win in multiple offer situations. Above all else, our clients’ best interests are our top priority.”

Stephanie works as a Buyer Specialist for The Boehmer Team. Her reputation for great customer care and vast industry knowledge has endeared her to many of The Boehmer Team's home buying clients. Stephanie is a St. Louis area native who lives in St. Charles with her fiancé, two kids and her cat, Mr. Kitty. When not serving her real estate clients she enjoys anything outdoors, especially boating and watching football.

KRISTIN TEMPLETON

“In this current market, we are often in multiple offer situations but the collective years of experience our team has enables us to be privy to and share with each other strategies to “win” those homes that other agents just don’t have.”

Kristin is a Buyer Specialist for The Boehmer Team that has over 16 years of real estate experience. She has been the proud recipient of the 5 Star Service Award eleven times for excellence in customer service. Her past experience helping new construction homebuyers has earned her awards from the Home Builders Association of St. Louis and Eastern Missouri. She currently lives in St. Charles County with her husband, Phil, her Big Dog Bell, and her tiny cat, Ninja. She has three grown children: Connor, 26, Anna, 24 and Michael, 22. When not serving real estate clients you can find Kristin reading, hiking, traveling, at yoga, playing tennis or at Bible study.

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Our goal and focus, as Real Estate professionals, is to provide unparalleled service and complete dedication when assisting our clients in achieving their Real Estate goals.  Each member of our team utilizes their specialized skills to provide our clients the personalized service they deserve when making the important decisions involved in buying or selling a home.  We are proud of the steady stream of testimonials, repeat clients and referrals that have allowed our business to grow. Contact The Boehmer Team to see how we can assist you.