BILL CHERRY'S GREATEST DALLAS PARK CITIES REAL ESTATE BLOG: June 2008

One part of Dallas where the more expensive homes are located, has developed the most arrogant approach to sales.  I wonder where these people's heads are.

The MLS listing instructions more frequently than not read like this:  Listing agent must accompany all showings.  Appointments must be made 24 hours in advance.  Owner's baby naps between 2 and 4 so no showings can be scheduled then.  Please do not request showings on weekends or before 11 AM or after 4 PM.

I see these listings expire and renew over and over for months.  No one seems willing to grasp that it could easily be because they are not accommodating the prospective buyer, and quite frankly, in sales, the one with the money to buy is the one who is supposed to trump.

So what useful purpose accrues by expecting the guy with the prospect to deal with the schedule of the listing agent as well as the unreasonable demands of the seller?

Exactly what does the listing agent accomplish by being at the showing other than 1) getting in the way 2) offering a subtle but obvious insult to the showing agent and the client that the listing agent is there to keep them from stealing or breaking something and 3) interfering with the rhythm of the showing agent's sales presentation?

So to reevaluate this scheme, let's do this.  When Mr. Sewell initiates a similar plan in the sales departments at Sewell Lexus, Sewell Infinity, Sewell Cadillac and Sewell Hummer, go for it. 

Until then, the way the million buck home should be presented and sold is no different than the way the Century 21 agent presents and sells the hundred thousand buck home.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

214 503-8563

On the Web

THE GALEN JETER JAZZ ORCHESTRA

As the sun was going down Sunday, Patty and I met our friends (our minister and his wife) Clif and Gig Gardner and (famed radio man) Bud Buschardt at the Village Country Club on Southwestern near Skillman, for the barbeque buffet and three hours of music by the famous twenty piece Galen Jeter Orchestra.

Galen is a retired biology teacher from the Garland ISD, but he's had one big jazz orchestra or another for thirty-five years.  And while he won't tell you this I will: He was with the famed Woody Herman Band along the way.

And he and his guys have played at the Village Country Club most Sunday nights for more than ten years.

Galen Jeter, 2nd from left

This is the real McCoy.  It's a Kenton-style orchestra -- 5 saxes, 5 trumpets, 5 trombones and 5 rhythm pieces.  And all of the members are highly trained and talented musicians, not the kid down the street who's just learning, or his dad who played in the high school marching band.

This coming Sunday night -- June 29th between 7 and 10 -- the Galen Jeter Orchestra will play original arrangements from the Stan Kenton book.  If you like big bands, love Kenton, and long to hear a full orchestra play, here's your chance.

The tickets are 7 bucks a person.  The buffet is 5 bucks.  Drinks cost whatever drinks costs.  (I spent $100 for the five of us, and that included admission, food, drinks and the tip.)

Get there no later than 6:30 so you'll have a good seat because the place fills up to SRO the closer it gets to 7 PM.  We'll see you there.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

214 503-8563

2122 LEANDER DRIVE

$285,000

If you know me, you know my great passion for pianos.  Maybe it's to me what hunting ducks is to my friend, Butch Kelso.

Nevertheless,  I have performed for more than forty years, and I have tuned pianos in spare moments for what, maybe twenty of those years?  Of course all the while devoting my full business time to real estate brokerage.

Well, since we've lived in Dallas until recently I hadn't had much reason to drive to Oak Cliff and explore. But about a month ago, an attorney friend called and asked me to tune his big Yamaha grand. 

He lives in Oak Cliff, and in a most interesting million-dollar home that the contractor has just completed.

"What's the deal?" I asked him. "Successful attorneys are required to live in the Park Cities," I teased.

"Well, do you realize how easy it is to get from Oak Cliff to downtown Dallas?  It's a handful of minutes even at the busiest time of the day," he said as of he were the discoverer of a heretofore secret biblical revelation.

"And look at the parks and golf courses and the big trees and the somewhat rolling terrain that are here in Oak Cliff," he went on. 

"And how about the beautiful architecture that abounds," he said while waving his arms in broad strokes.

It was then that it hit me!  Oak Cliff will be to Dallas what the Museum District and Montrose are to Houston and for the same reasons!  And this gas problem isn't going to go away, and that can't help but bring more and more homebuyer interest to Oak Cliff.  The attorney had found a secret revelation!

Well, my friend the well-known Park Cities builder, Mickey Smith, bought a tudor stone bungalow, and he and his men went in and made it wonderful, and stager Barie Pinnell brought in furniture and accessories to show it off. 

Astounding results.  He's ready to sell it.

2122 Leander Drive.  1941 square feet.  3 bedrooms, two big baths plus a fabulous Great Room. $285,000.

JUST LOOK AT THESE PHOTOS I TOOK

MLS Number 11006202. $285,000.  Call us or your own real estate agent.  Join what's sure to be a trend, and join it before HOT drives the prices up.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

214 503-8563

On the Web

Lake Highlands in Dallas is really a wonderful place to live. 

Because I have spent the majority of my life living in large Victorian homes, moving into a neighborhood that has houses that are primarily 25 to 30 years old is a new experience for me.  But I'm growing to like it very much.  Pretty much the late beginning of an Ozzie and Harriet life-style.

The other day the doorbell rang.  I was here and getting ready to leave to meet a client at the title company.  I went to the door, and there stood a small fellow -- a grown-up --- but an urchin of a man in a khaki uniform that was a bit on the too large side.  He had a huge smile on his face.  I mean huge and sincere.  It makes me smile just thinking about it.

I answered the door, and he told me that he was Charles Dangprasert.  He was cold calling our neighborhood for ACRI Factory to You Windows.  He went on to tell me that almost all of the homes in our neighborhood could stand to have their windows replaced.  I knew he was right...single pane windows in weather-pitted aluminum frames.

He gave me a flyer, and pointed me to the back page.  It was a page full of references.  "Call any of them," he said, "But don't call them until after you've called the Dallas Better Business Bureau.  You'll find that not only are we members, but they don't have one black mark against us, and we've been in business here for years."

I told Charles that we weren't ready for new windows here at our house, but that we would be in a few months.  And I told him we'd call him for a bid.

Real estate people know what it's like to cold call a neighborhood.  Charles did it with such aplumb that I couldn't resist telling you about him and his company.  If you're in Dallas and you need new windows, call Charles Dangprasert at ACR Factory to You Windows.  You can reach him direct at 214 916-7870 or at his office at 214 550-0419. 

Buy from the guy who's doing what you and I hate to do...cold calling a neighborhood.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

214 503-8563

For as long as I've been in the real estate bidniz, and that's now going on 44 years, I've had people ask me this question:

"How long after my listing contract expires must I wait before I am no longer contractually obligated to pay the agent for a sale to one of his clients that he brought by."

And I note that it is one of the most frequently asked questions at the Active Rain consumer Question and Answer site.

You see, for some reason, a lot of potential buyers like to go around their agent.   They call the property owner without the agent's knowledge, and here's what they say: "What if I buy your house after the listing expires?  You won't have to pay the commission, and we can split your savings."

Sellers make the same calls.

Listing contracts usually address those who are tempted to go that route, by saying, for an example, that any sale that results from a showing during the term of the contract will accrue the commission if the agreement is made within 90 days of the contract's expiration.

But why have we as a society let ourselves be led to believe that our legal obligations and moral obligations are one and the same?

I simply don't understand or accept that rational.

If your work results in a benefit for me, I need to pay you for it.  It is corrupt logic for me to attempt to figure out how I can "legally" get out of doing it.

And I'll bet in your heart that you know that the same goes for you.

BILL CHERRY, REALTOR

DALLAS

214 503-8563

There are some components of a real estate transaction that separate it from so many of the others:

• A listing agent who knows what he's doing
• A seller who rabidly does exactly what his listing broker instructs
• A buyer's agent who knows what he's doing
• A buyer who rabidly does exactly what his buyer's agent instructs 

Yesterday, Dallas agent, 20-year Keller-Williams veteran Cindy Huitt and I completed our representation of our respective clients in what was an extremely complicated deal from beginning to end.  Without going into the details, we sold and closed my listing to her clients for full price.  Very few agents could have replicated our success, I'll promise you.

And that happened in a neighborhood of other for-sale homes that have remained unnoticed by potential buyers during the two months my client's home was listed until it sold and closed.

Ironically, for the heck of it I went to one of Craig Proctor's free real estate sales seminars last week.  The leader of our group told us and then reinforced many times throughout the seminar, "It doesn't matter whether you like Craig's wording of this ad.  We know the ad works.  Why would you change it?"  And so it goes with the mechanics of a real estate transaction. 

And that's what came to my mind yesterday as my client, Miss Dorothy and I completed our visit to the title company.  From the day she and I met for the first time, the day that I gave her my listing presentation, until yesterday when she got her check, she had done exactly what I had asked her to do.  Exactly.  Some complaining, I'll admit, but nevertheless, she let me win every time.

Yesterday the reward and how we got it was apparent.  Miss Dorothy had let me do my job, and Cindy Huitt's clients had let her do her job.  Neither interfered.  Simple.  A formula I always recommend to anyone planning to sell or buy a home.

"A Realtors's Secret Weapons" is an hour-long CD of a radio question and answer program I did with KAAM-AM's famed Money Doctor, W. Neil Gallagher.  We send copies with our compliments to anyone in the U.S. and Canada.  It tells you exactly what you should expect from your Realtor and how to work with him.  Email or phone  for your copy.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

Our 43^rd Year Selling Texas

Dallas

214 503-8563

J.P. and Hank Ideker are twins, and live in our neighborhood, in fact at the top of Rustleleaf Drive just off of Robin Hill.  They are sophomores at Jesuit College Preparatory School.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Jesuit, it's a great pedigree.

Today I was puttering around a bit before I went to a listing appointment, and I saw one of the boys and his dog walking up our front walkway.  He had a hand full of paper, so I figured he and his dog-pal were going to leave one of them at our door.

Sure enough when I checked later in the day, there was the boys' flyer.  They're looking for summer jobs around our neighborhood.  Full lawn service, for an example.  They'll water the plants and take care of your pets while you and your family are on vacation.  They also have the supplies and the stencils to paint addresses on the curb.

So why pick them?  "Customer satisfaction is our highest priority, and we have a flexible schedule.  We do the job right with reasonable prices for each job." 

Now J.P. and Hank have been providing all of these services for a long time, and they've collected "multiple references." They'll be glad to show them to you.

Here's their phone number:  214 340-7948.  Hiring them will put your mind at ease.  And P.S.:  Realtors, these guys can take care of your vacant listings, too.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

214 503-8563

Real estate training great, Petey Parker, has joined Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, Mark Leader, Joy Ohayia, Jim Gottfurcht, Wally Hauck and a handful of others to total 14.

The book, Blueprint for Success is a series of pointed interviews regarding what it takes to succeed in business in this new century. 

Petey sent me a copy last week and I've just finished reading it.  You'll want to, too.

Petey still has the poise of the airline hostess she was when she first entered the business world, but the business experiences that followed found her as a sought after trainer for major corporations.

You see, Petey was a major force as an executive with Ebby Halliday Realtors.  She's got a lot to say, especially how to market to the new adults - the ones she calls the YLs...the "Young Lions.

The book is 19.95.  In addition to bookstores and Amazon.com, you can order your copy from

Petey Parker

Parker & Associates

1717 Arts Plaza, Suite 1907

Dallas, Texas 75201

Petey is the perfect keynote speaker for state real estate conventions and a perfect trainer for real estate companies.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

Dallas

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

214 503-8563

One of the major paradoxes of real estate brokerage is rarely, if ever, mentioned.  Yet, it seems to haunt every agent and every real estate company.  It especially bonds and hangs onto those who work the hardest; those who are the most creative in marketing themselves.

            You see what most of us do is to take the conventional marketing wisdom - sending out cards and newsletters, cold calling neighborhoods, even putting expensive ads in magazines - and tinker with it.  A splash of door hangers here, a mailing out of football schedules there, becoming very active in Rotary and the church and the PTA and the Junior League, and on and on. The things that are guaranteed to put you in the public's eye.

            Lo and behold, one inch at a time our real estate prospects began to increase, our business seems to be on its way to gaining the momentum it needs to satisfy our goal. And darned if we don't soon get to the point where we are riding high.  Some of us even fall into the trap of bragging to the public that we are at the top.  No other agent is Up There with us.

            "My hard work paid off.  My tinkering with the formula of the conventional marketing wisdom has put me on top.  I deserve it."  That's what we smugly say to ourselves.

            And then, although we are continuing to follow our hybrid of The Conventional Marketing Wisdom Formula, our number of sales and listings begin to diminish.  Not only do they diminish, but we realize that another agent, another company has risen to take our place.

            What happened and why?

            In the Old Testament, God is referred to as YHWH.  His name is thought to be representative of the sound of the wind.  But since it can't be pronounced in English because it lacks vowels, the Masoretic bible spells it Yahweh.

            And in the Old Testament, as Yahweh is trying out different ideas of how to get along with man, and how to teach man to get along with Him, often times an individual or group finds itself having spurts of Yahweh's favor followed by his disfavor. 

            So I've chalked my own bouts of real estate good favor and real estate bad favor to the will of Yahweh, not the result of my own doings.  I think His purpose may be to help me keep my feet on the ground and understand the importance of being humble.

            Because if I remain patient, soon I begin rising toward the top once again.

Copyright 2002 - William S. Cherry

www.billcherrybroker.com

For a rather brief period twenty years ago, I was a major investor in a marine park similar to the famous Sea Worlds.  Our park was about to celebrate its twenty-fifth year in business when we purchased it from the original owners.

Since the marine park came with about thirty acres that were undeveloped, we had envisioned adding as many as four hotels plus some other entertainment attractions. 

However, we quickly discovered something we hadn't expected and from that we learned a valuable business lesson.  Our marine park was self-liquidating, and we hadn't realized it when we bought it.

While revenues at the park had increased most years since it opened, in reality the five or so years before we bought it, those increases had not been the result of more visits, but of raising ticket prices.  In reality, the public was liquidating our investment for us because they weren't coming.

The reason was a simple one:  Entertainment attractions have to rely, to a big part, on return visits, return visits year after year.  The easiest example of this?  The carnival has to add a new ride. 

And the only way that number of return visitors can be quantified and kept is to offer new attractions and continually monitor the results.  Who are your customers?

The prior owners of our marine park had chosen to not make any significant changes throughout their ownership.  And we weren't knowledgeable enough at that point to know what to add.  It was the perfect set-up for us to crash and burn.

So what's my point?

It's that lack of attention to the "Add a New Ride" rule is taking its toll on several businesses you know -- businesses that are not all appealing to entertainment.  And the owners/corporate management obviously are or were not prepared to meet the challenge: 

• The Sharper Image
• Six Flags
• Linens 'n Things
• Zales
• Pier 1
• Burger Chef
• MCI
• Montgomery Ward
• Lionel Trains
• F.W. Woolworth
• E.F. Hutton
• RCA Victor
• Compaq
• Any number of national theme-restaurants 

Everyone who depends on a business to achieve good net income, whether it be as an owner, stockholder or employee, should be cognizant of the business' adherence to the Add a New Ride Rule.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

Dallas

214 503-8563

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry