BILL CHERRY'S GREATEST DALLAS PARK CITIES REAL ESTATE BLOG: BILL CHERRY (BILL CHERRY, REALTORS - DALLAS)

President George W. Bush's plan to salvage the lives of many Americans who were talked into making home loans that they couldn't support, is very worthy if that is all that's available.

However, what angers me is that through this plan, those who introduced and funded those predatory loans will apparently not have to suffer the consequences.  The American tax payer will have to take up the slack.

Any lender who couldn't predict this outcome from the very beginning was not qualified to make loans for their investors.

What are the lessons?

• Offer people money with no immediate responsibility for payback, and a high percentage will take you up on it.
• Credit scores with little attention spent verifying assets, income, work history and income reported to the IRS for at least three consecutive years is a totally incorrect way to analyze credit and make loans.
• Lending large sums of money to people with no or insufficient savings is destined for failure in a large percentage of the instances.
• Lenders need to be held responsible for poor underwriting.

            I'd like to visit with you a moment, especially if you're in the market to sell or buy a home.       

            In Texas, we have a required real estate form thats title is "Seller's Disclosure." Its purpose is to systematically get the seller to give information about the condition of the house so that potential buyers can have their questions answered. 

            When he's finished answering the questions, he signs it and gives it to his real estate agent to copy and give to all who might be considering purchasing the home.  In general, an owner of a single family dwelling must provided a potential purchaser with a copy of this completed form before a sale can take place.

             The problem is that there is apparently no serious penalty for fudging the truth....not to the seller and not to the agent for knowingly allowing it.

            This past week I was given two "Seller's Disclosures." Both gave glowing reports, and neither was even close to stating the truth.  Without anything more than a cursory study, I found incorrect answers, one after another.

            One owner said everything worked.  Let me tell you what obviously didn't that he specifically said did:  the air conditioning was out; the sprinkler system had one head that worked and wouldn't shut down after the cycle was completed; the wiring to the swimming pool pump had obviously been bootlegged in because it was a hodgepodge of indoor Romex and with no conduit; the toilets had white bases and bone tanks; someone had put in a floating wood laminate floor without allowing any expansion space between it and the walls; and on and on.

            Ironically both of these sellers appear desperate to get the sale of their homes behind them.  One has moved to another state and the other has bought another house and moved there.  But they've set their plans up to fail.

            In each case my clients wanted to buy their house.  In each case an offer was made, but it became obvious that the Sellers wanted to deed the house with the fabricated truth rather than the real truth.  And they didn't want to consider making the repairs so that the condition of the house would be consistent with what they had certified.  My clients didn't buy.

            That makes me become more supportive of a requirement that a house be inspected by a professional, licensed inspector BEFORE the house can be put on the market, and further, that a potential buyer has to have seen that inspection report before he can enter a contract to purchase.

            Perhaps if sellers were required to play with a full deck, there would be a more orderly market and more sales.

            In the meantime, if you are planning to sell your home, how about getting a licensed inspector to make a thorough journey through your home, then have the stuff he finds fixed.  Then you can fill out the Seller's Disclosure wth truthful answers and show the prospects the inspectors independent report.

                                                                         INTRODUCTION 

You don't need to tell me that this is an over-worked subject.  What's interesting, though, is that most of what's been written has been by youngsters who have only been in the business for a short time or journalist who dream up a list so they'll have a story.

Go through my list.  You will, no doubt, find redundancies, but you will also probably find some things you haven't heard or read before.  So here we go!

Be Sure It Has Curb Charisma

I've found that the majority of buyers would fit my mother's definition of impatient. They think they need to make a decision fast. If their first view of the outside of your house doesn't impress them, more often than not, they won't want to see the inside. Make sure your front yard and the front of your house are as perfect as you can make them, and keep them that way until the day the buyer moves in. If you possibly can, hire a landscape company to put in a minimum of $1,000 of new plants and shrubs in the front beds. Mulch all flower beds and around all trees.

If the paint's not fresh looking, the windows aren't clean and the shades aren't open during the day, or there are things that need to be taken to the dump, take care of them immediately. A friend will probably see things you may overlook.

Having pets around, especially the overly friendly and aggressive ones, often does irreparable damage to the sales presentation. And the odor of pets is offensive to those who aren't use to it. A thorough cleaning of the floors and carpets with a follow up of Odor Ban (get it at Sam's) is a must. And a clean cat litter box with fresh sand? It goes without saying.

No better way or better investment than a can of paint or two and some elbow grease. And pay special attention to the cleanliness of the woodwork and baseboards.

Make certain there are no dripping facets, running commodes, discolored sinks and bowls or slow drains. These things alone do more to make potential buyers worry about the overall condition of the house than anything else. Invest in an hour or so with your plumber.

Take all of the unnecessary items - ski equipment, ladders and garden equipment, unneeded seasonal clothes - to a storage unit. Your closets and garage need to appear to offer more than adequate storage space.

In the days of energy conservation, many people keep their homes too warm in the summer and too chilly in the winter. That's fine. Just don't do that while your home is for sale. Buyers need to have a rush of "comfort feeling" the moment they walk into your home.

Open every shade and every curtain, turn on every light and every ceiling fan; clean the bathrooms and have fresh linen on the racks; clean the kitchen and have no dishes in the sink or on the counters; turn the TV off and turn on the classical music station, if possible; and vacuum the carpets.  Honestly, nothing looks better to a buyer than the marks of freshly vacuumed carpets. And make sure all beds are perfectly made and the clothes and the kids' toys are picked up and put away. And please don't have the washing machine or dishwasher running.  See your garage?  Please get all of that junk out of it and stored a long way away.

There is no bigger time bomb than to have the homeowner in the house while the prospect is there. And that, by the way, is one of the top reasons homeowners are often unsuccessful in selling their own homes, irrespective of their expertise. I tell my clients to go to Starbucks. My treat!

Copyright 2006 - William S. Cherry

Before he became Hyman Goldman, he was a sheva boy living in Russia. I don't know as I ever heard what his Russian name was.

Sheva is the Hebrew word that means seven. "Sitting sheva" is a Jewish custom whereby the family and friends take turns thanking God for the life of the recently departed, and they do it continually for seven days.

So sometimes young men from the nearby Hebrew school are hired to sit sheva for a family when, for some reason, the family and friends can't fit the whole regimen into their schedules.

Other than go to school to study his religion, that's what Hyman did.

When he was 20, Hyman fell in love with Annie, they married and they fled Russia in a hay wagon for Poland. Soon they were immigrated to the U.S., landing at Ellis Island. That was about the time of World War I.

Hyman looked for work, but what was he to do? His education was Jewish religion and traditions. I suppose he could have been a mohel or a shochet, or perhaps a rabbi or a cantor, but he hadn't completed the schooling necessary to be any of them.

The only secular and practical thing he knew how to do that would put chicken soup on the table was to run a sewing machine.

So Hyman and Annie settled down in an apartment in a Jewish neighborhood of New York, and he looked for a sewing job. He had no trouble finding one, but they all insisted that he work on Saturdays. Orthodox Jews respect Saturday as the Sabbath, and one who engages in any activity that is not a part of worship on Saturdays they believe will bring on God's wrath.

Hyman had no choice. He took a job making clothes that included working on Saturday. When the first Saturday came, and he worked rather than observe the Sabbath, he knew in his heart as soon as he left his job, God would strike him dead.

When that didn't happen, his faith was immediately diminished for the remainder of his life.

Hyman and Annie had begun their family. Soon they learned that there were more opportunities for Jews in Boston than in Manhattan. After all, New York City was top-heavy with immigrants. They moved to Boston. Hyman started his own business, the Bancroft Cap Co.

Bancroft made the fancy crusher caps the Navy and Marine officers wore - the ones with the bills and the fancy braiding on the visors. Scrambled eggs, the servicemen called it. The war was on. There was lots of demand.

It wasn't long until Hyman and Annie had 11 children. When they passed the first half-dozen, they found it harder and harder to find an apartment. Finally, Hyman and Annie bought a home.

And then one of his daughters, Lillian, married Morris Miller.

Morris was intrigued with his father-in-law's business. He decided that he would work to get a contract with the Army to make the regular Garrison caps that the enlisted men wore. They were simple to make, so with a few employees and a few sewing machines, his company could mass produce them. He called his company Bancroft Rellim Hat Co. "Rellim" is "Miller" spelled backwards.

With the caps that Hyman made, he had to have a woman hand embroider the scrambled eggs on the bills. That prevented him from being able to meet the increasing demand for his caps.

So Morris figured out how to make a jig - a three dimensional template - that Hyman could attach to his sewing machines so that the caps could be embroidered quickly, and without the need of an expert doing it by hand. Sales took off.


The subtlety of this is that Hyman and Morris made their living supplying the military who were fighting to bring down the regime that had extinguished many of their relatives and friends, the Holocaust. The forces succeeded, and both Morris and Hyman prospered as a result.

Recently Hyman's family had a celebration. It was the 70th wedding anniversary for one of Hyman's daughters and her husband, and while most of Hyman and Annie's children and their mates are now deceased, what was notable is that all married, stayed with the same spouse and all celebrated more than 50 years of marriage.

More than fifty percent of married Americans have been married at least once before.  Some were married for a short time to their first spouse, others for many years. 

A problem of epidemic proportion grows exponentially among many of those families with each passing day.  Here it is in bold face:

THE BENEFICIARY DESIGNATION ON THEIR LIFE INSURANCE POLICIES, RETIREMENT PLANS, 401-k's, TRUST ACCOUNTS AND THE LIKE, STILL HAVE THEIR FORMER SPOUSE LISTED RATHER THAN THEIR NEW ONE.

Beneficiary designations are private, immediate and are irrevocable by anyone other than the designator.  Consequently, if a person has not changed the beneficiary designation from his former spouse to his current spouse, and he dies, the proceeds automatically go to his former spouse. 

"I LEAVE ALL OF MY WORLDLY POSSESSIONS TO MY WIFE," IN A WILL DOES NOT INCLUDE WHAT HAS BEEN PROVIDED FOR IN SPECIFIC BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS.

Everyone called him Brother Fickett. By 1949, he had been the pastor of the First Baptist Church for next to ever. Before he was called to Galveston, he had been a mining engineer and smelter chemist and Sunday school teacher, all at the same time. Somewhere in there, teaching the word of God had won out over the other two.

What's interesting is that he apparently never earned a degree in divinity, but as a Baylor University alumni, when he applied for and accepted a pastorate at a tiny church in Douglas, Arkansas, Baylor awarded him an honorary doctor of divinity degree. That's when he became formally known as Dr. Harold L. Fickett.

Honorary doctorates for ministers weren't uncommon back then. Across the street from First Baptist at Temple B'nai Israel, Rabbi Henry Cohen's credentials were also an honorary doctorate.

Brother Fickett was a Galvestonian. He had attended Ball High and had been a member of First Baptist as a child. The church had been founded about 1840. All but one of the charter members had been from New Englander.

The first pastor was a fellow named Dr. James Huckins, who was also one of the founders of Baylor University. Rather than use a baptistry in the church building itself to baptize new members, he and the congregation would go down to the beach and hold the service where he'd dunk them in the Gulf.

One of those Dr. Huckins baptized was Gail Borden, the founder of the Borden Milk Co. After that service, Dr. Huckins wrote, "There was to be heard the sound of the ever rolling billows, resembling the distant voice of God. Every heart began to soften and saint and sinner rushed forward to give him (Borden) their hand. Rejoicing, they stood together unable to restrain the feelings of their souls."

When Brother Fickett took over the church in 1929, even though the congregation was over 100-years old, the membership, while very dedicated, was anything but large. By 1949, Brother Fickett had increased the physical plant from three buildings to seven, and the resident membership was 2,200. The Sunday school attendance alone had grown from 442 to 1,000, and he had baptized 1950 people.

And Brother Fickett's church was one of the first to broadcast its Sunday services by radio. He started that in 1937. And First Baptist prided itself on being one of the highest contributors in Texas to the World Emergency Fund. One year they sent over 4,000 pounds of food and clothing for Baptist missionaries to distribute in Europe and China.

But it was in the early 1950s, that Brother Fickett rose to have his finest hour as a persuasive orator. After an influential member of his congregation, a doctor atthe University of Texas Medical Branch, had found his way into the illegal gambling casino and supper club, the Balinese Room.  And he had gambled away a bundle/

He came to Brother Fickett and challenged him to be the spokesman for those who wanted the island ridded of sin. After all, the doctor told Brother Fickett, the owners of the Balinese Room had insisted that he stand good for the losses, even after he had explained that for him to pay them would be a sin.

And even though the owners, a family named Maceo,  had made substantial donations to First Baptist over the years, Brother Fickett and newspaper man Silas Ragsdale, in tandem, officiously put and kept the "rid the island of sin" idea in the heads of Galvestonians as well as Texans and politicians statewide, causing it to gain and keep enormous momentum. Finally, the death knell was sounded.

While there's no question Brother Fickett and Mr. Ragsdale's hearts were in the right place, the doctor who instigated it all had shown that he was not against what he claimed was the flagitious sin of gambling.

In truth, he was nothing more than a poor sport who wanted to hold the Maceos, and not himself, accountable for his decision to roll the dice, then to roll them again and again until he had lost what old timers have told me was nearly $25,000, all in one night.

I've read some of Brother Fickett's sermons, and there's no question he was good at it. But what he was best at was getting his congregation to sing the Sunday service hymns with great bravura and enthusiasm. When we'd turn north in the old '40 Oldsmobile at 22^nd and Broadway on a Spring Sunday, you could hear "The Old Rugged Cross," piano and all, as clear as a bell, from First Baptist, two blocks away.

                                        Copyright 2005 - William S. Cherry All Rights Reserved

It is all so curious.  It is all so curious where we are now.  Abusive relaxed credit underwriting sold many homes, and now those lenders are getting the opportunity to own them.  It was all so predictable.  The train was coming and no one wanted to believe it wouldn't stop in time.

Before the great depression of 1929, little attention was paid to the amount banks had as working capital.  A lot of what they loaned depended on payments and loan settlements being made by other borrowers.

And they made their banks sound really sound.  Many of them had United States and United States of America built in to their names.  One owned by Frost Banks still remains.  It is the United States National Bank.  That practice is illegal today.

When it all crashed and burned before Americans' very eyes, everyone was seriously hurt as the direct result of a small percentage of those who had abused the credit markets.

Some good and solid rules came out of that.  Banks were no longer able to operate but in one state. Savings and loan associations were invented to take over from commercial banks the making of long term home loans.  No more lending long, borrowing short.

The new idea was for lenders to take care of providing an orderly capital market for the area where their depositors lived and worked.  The Fed and correspondent banking were invented to keep the money supply flowing where it was needed and to restrain the overbearing practice of arbitrage.

It was great while it lasted, and then savings and loan associations decided they wanted to be involved in other businesses - businesses that had not been previously allowed by their charters.  Banks wanted to compete with banks that were not only not in their town, but not even in their states.  They started collapsing again.

Now we have reduced that control even further by allowing mortgage companies to sell their paper, collateralized by Americans' home loans, to investors world-wide.

Like the financial institutions of the ‘20s, they thought the money supply would never run out; they thought that their delinquency ratio would be so low when compared to the influx of capital, that it would make no difference, in the scheme of things.

Well now they are all learning the same lesson in banking economics as their forefathers learned.  Money and capital supply require a delicate balance.  A bunch of kids with MBAs and five years of experience in the capital markets are hardly candidates to be making these decisions for themselves, much less the rest of us.

Mr. Greenspan was not our friend.

THIS IS THE PICTURE STORY OF NOTED HOUSTON COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE BROKER

                                                            JASPER E. TRAMONTE, CCIM

Commercial Broker and Texan Jasper E. Tramonte, CCIM, at Tramonte Realty World Headquarters

                                    Jasper E. Tramonte, CCIM & Little Stevie Wonder Sing a Duet

Jasper E. Tramonte, CCI, Sees His Office for the Very First Time (after Cataract Surgery).    

                        He still, however, can't see his desk.  Plans to sue his eye doctor.

ED BERNET'S LEVEE SINGERS TO PERFORM TUESDAY,

AUGUST 28TH AT THE POCKET SANDWICH THEATER

BY DALLAS REALTOR BILL CHERRY

                                                THAT'S OLD ED ON THE BANJO Circa 1965

Although he didn't know it until about a year ago, Dallas' Ed Bernet and I have been close friends for more than 40 years.

Just like Campisi's Egyptian Restaurant, the old Chaparral Club way up on top of one of Dallas' skyscrapers and Texas-OU Weekend, the Levee, a Dixieland joint on Mockingbird, was every bit as important to the city's nightlife.

Ed, a former SMU football player, and later a Pittsburg Steeler, headed the seriously popular Levee Dixieland Seven that for years played most nights at the Levee, a club he built and owned, and always to a packed house.

As a student at the University of North Texas, I quickly learned it was THE place to take a date if you really wanted to make a hit. So I admit that is the basis of our 40 year friendship, and my prayers of thanksgiving for the many times I was able to fall in love for the night with a cute Denton or SMU co-ed.

Ed and his group, now known as the Levee Singers, will perform, banjos and all, this coming Tuesday at a place on Mockingbird near the Central Expressway called the Pocket Sandwich Theater. The address is 5400 Mockingbird.

Those who want to see how Dallas nightlife was in the ‘60s as well as those like me who want to step back in time for an evening, will cheer the performance of Ed Bernet and his Levee Singers.

I'll be the one patting his foot and otherwise making a fool of himself.  My wife, Patty, will be the one in the restroom dying from embarrassment.  She refuses to consider that she was one of them I took to the Levee when I was courting her the first time some 40 years ago.  Back then she thought my behavior was cute.

Times and things change, sometimes for the better.

DALLAS SALES REPORT  

AUGUST 2007

Area                            New Listings              Sold Listings               Average Sales Price

East                             493                              292                              $ 201.471

North                          194                                95                              $ 579,148

North Oak Cliff          271                              151                              $ 118,469

Northeast                   198                              127                              $ 188,575

Northwest                   130                                73                              $ 199,900

Oak Lawn                   284                              124                              $ 246,360

South Oak Cliff            81                                55                              $   81,643

Southeast                    837                              537                              $ 221,049

Park Cities                 160                              107                              $ 772,229

*Provided by Multiple Listing Service.  Assumed to be correct, but not warranted against errors.