BILL CHERRY'S GREATEST DALLAS PARK CITIES REAL ESTATE BLOG: March 2010

"Medical City Dallas Hospital offers an unparalleled breadth and depth of medical care in North Texas.  If you have concerns for your health, that of a family member or even a friend, look here for the most relevant and thorough information possible right at your fingertips. Click on the links above in red for more information on a specific area of expertise.

"We hope that from the moment you walk through our doors, you notice the Medical City difference.  Our staff is passionate about their work and your care.  This has allowed Medical City to become a place where healing, compassion, humanity and simple kindness are celebrated daily."

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My friend, Lori's mother is 99-years old.  And while her body has deteriorated and her weight has dropped, making her nothing more than a spot of what she was on, say her 90th birthday, she still has 100% of her marbles.

She keeps up with current events, talks about things in both the present and past tenses, and muses about what the future might bring.  She regularly plays bridge and other complicated card games, playing against those nowhere near her age, and slam-dunking frequent wins.

Her only enemy is that her body is wearing out.

Her bone mass has deteriorated, and she's now in excruciating pain.  Almost immobile, even with the use of a walker or wheelchair.  But she keeps on trucking. 

She's only lived with her daughter for the past couple of months.  Before that, she was completely on her own at a retirement community.

Early this week, she awoke in such pain that Lori knew she had to get her to the hospital.  She called her mom's doctor, he told her he'd call the hospital with instructions and to take her there immediately.  One of the doctor's instructions would be to administer an MRI immediately.

They arrived.  Several hours past.  Lori's mother had not been checked in or seen.  She was in a semi-fetal position in a hard chair, trying to relieve as much of her discomfort as she could by leaning on the chair's arm.  No amount of pleading from Lori brought help from the staff, and the room was loaded with others who needed quick attention.

Lori's mother seriously asked Lori to take her home and let her die.

The phone rang.  Lori asked Patty if she could bring her mother a pillow to rest between her mom's arm and the chair's arm.  It seems the hospital didn't want to provide her one.  Patty left, and two hours later, called to tell me, "I totally lost it!  I pitched such a fit that they called security to remove me.  But they did get her a room." Patty said that in her opinion it fit the legal definition of elderly abuse.

Late into the evening, they hadn't done the MRI.  Why? Lori asked.  "The doctor didn't order one," the person said.  It was then that Lori looked down and saw the order for the MRI on the person's desk.  "Oh, I must have overlooked it," the hospital staff member said.

The two paragraphs that begin this blog are verbatim from the hospital's web site, and they are the beginning paragraphs.

No one in that admitting room with Lori's mother that day would agree with the hospital's written analysis of itself.  Certainly Lori's mother wouldn't, and my psychotherapist wife, who has dealt with and in the medical world for more than 35 years, wouldn't either.

Until hospital licenses require third-party patient advocates cruising the admitting rooms, talking with patients, observing conditions and monitoring patient handling, and until those advocates have the authority to over-rule hospital staff decisions, conditions like those experienced by Lori's mother will continue to taint the care provided by many of America's medical facilities.

That would be a good place for Mr. Obama and his plan to begin their work.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

Back when I was thirty and was still sure I knew everything anyone needed to know about how to build fame and fortune, my investment partners and I bought a remaining un-built-out section of a famous north Houston subdivision.

Our plan was to keep about one-fifth of the lots to build for-sale spec homes on, and divide the others up among four well-known builders who had proven track records.

We thought that associating with the Big Dogs would bring us like-credibility, and prospective home buyers would quickly discover our homes and love them more than those of the Big Dogs.

No matter what your age, as you read this, you can see the overwhelming cockiness and idiocy of this plan, but at least remain sympathetic for the moment, because at sometime in everyone's life they do something just as silly, although hopefully not of this size or of this financial magnitude.

We hired the most famous residential architect of the time -- the guy who was inventing floor plans and designs that were being copied throughout the nation.  His name was Barry Burkus, and he was from California.

So Barry sent us about eight different models with four or so elevations each.  But before we began building them, I decided I'd make a few changes that I felt sure would make the designs better.

Then I instructed our superintendent, a fellow we called Matt Dillon, to build one of each.  What a disaster!  Prospective buyers hated them.  So then Matt remodeled them to coincide with the original plans that Barry had sent us.

This was more than thirty years ago, now.  And since then, I've been involved with the building of hundreds of homes and have listed and sold thousands of others.  From experience, I've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't work.

I can't tell how often I am called to list a home and the moment I walk in I see the mistakes and errors that are the work of amateurs -- and it can be the homeowners, the architect, the builder or any combination. And more often than not, those quirks will cause no amount of pain in trying to find the next buyer for the home.

The facts are, the tract home builders -- the successful architects and the long-time custom builders -- have paid the price for knowing what will work and what won't work. Misakes cause them unwanted financial pain.

Unless a homeowner is planning to stay in the new home for many years, designing his own is usually a dumb idea.  For my money, D.H. Horton home designs have about as much universal appeal as one can probably get.  Patty and I bought one in South Shore Harbour, on the coast of Texas, and we still talk about how much we wish we could live in that exact home in Dallas.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

WEB

If you've been reading and posting on Active Rain for any length of time, there are those whose names have gained household recognition among the rest of us.  Let me give you a handful.  How about Jo-Ann Smith, Jim Crawford, Steve Shatsky, Joanie Mirantz, and Brian Block to name a few?

Now other than through their photos, the only one I've ever laid eyes on is Steve Shatsky. 

We had lunch during a Realtor seminar once, and he was just as knowledgeable and articulate as I had known he would be.

But the irony is that while I would like to have met each of my Active Rain friends in person, it's not really necessary because we've become close friends as a result of our postings and comments on Active Rain.

Brian Block up in Washington, D.C.-Burke, Virginia' Re/Max Allegiance office has answered this question in his office."Does anyone know a good Realtor in Dallas that I can refer my client to?"  Brian has said, "Bill Cherry."  So I've been the surrogate broker for his colleagues' clients.

Recently, Tom Vesolich asked Brian that exact question, and as a result I got Eula Miller, who wanted to sell her $400,000 Dallas-area home and move back to the Washington, D.C. area.  She been working as a contract negotiator for Raytheon...a highly responsible position.  Her services are much in demand.

The other day, we closed Mrs. Miller's home sale.  Tracy Horne and Pam Callahan in the Plano office of Republic Title of Texas handled the title work.  Bob Gray, Jr. with Network Funding provided the home loan for the buyers, Mr. and Mrs. John Zachary.

Tom's 20% referral fee check was issued by Republic along with my commission check, and his went into the mail to him that very day.  Meanwhile, I'm sending Mrs. Miller back to Tom with a fat equity check in her hand, ready for him to help her find her new Virginia home.

Active Rain is an excellent place to pick referral agents.  They're not just names, they're people you know and that you can trust.  Thanks to Brian and Tom for thinking of me one more time.

Meanwhile, just like Brian and Tom do, I send my referral clients only to Active Rain members.  It gives me the assurance that they will be well-represented.

If you're buying or selling a home anywhere in the U.S. and Canada and you would like help finding a fine Realtor, contact me.  I'll be glad to make a few recommendations.  It's a free service to you.  Other Active Rain members will do that for you as well.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

WEB

I've been thinking about Home Inspectors.

This past year, several of my clients lost the sale of their homes, and in each case it was caused by the report and verbal rhetoric of the home inspector the buyer had retained.  And the bad stuff that hurt the sales turned out to be the home inspectors aberration, not a reality.

Of course, as you can imagine, each of the inspectors picked by the buyers were not chosen because the buyer knew them, had used them before, or a friend had recommended.  It was by a pseudo-lottery.

In one case, the market in the area was falling.  We lost the sale because the inspector reported that one seperation of a 10 foot drywall tape drop in a corner was caused by foundation problems.  A licensed structural engineer, then hired by my homeowner client, came out and said there were no foundation failures.

But the buyer was so spooked by his inspector's report that he did not exercise his option to buy.  By the time we had another contract on the home -- less than two months later -- the value had dropped by nearly $50,000. 

So the inspector had collected his $350.00 fee and all was well with him.  The homeowner not only lost a sale because of false testimony, but $50,000 because of the falling market that took place between the two contracts.

So last year, home inspectors' faulty reports ruined four of my clients' sales, and they cost me about $60,000 in commissions.  How can that be equitable?

PROPOSAL

So I began wondering the other night if the law shouldn't be changed to require each party -- the buyer and the seller -- to be represented contemporaneously by an inspector of their choice.  In my plan, the two inspectors would go through the property together, then write a single opinion.  Differences would be listed and defended. 

If we have become so paranoid about dual agency, why aren't we paranoid about one inspection?

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

 WEB

For the entire time I've been a home and business owner, I've had monitored burglarand fire alarms to secure the properties, and they have been professionally installed and maintained.  Servers have included Brink's and ADT along with hometown owned and state licensed firms like Alert, Vanskike and Smith.

Interestingly, the monthly monitoring fees haven't changed much over the years, but in many cases the service and security provided has been tinkered with.

Patty's and my current contract is with Brink's Home Security who recently changed its name to Broadview so that it could sell that entire facet of its business to ADT without confusing the public.  Brink's will still provide business security services.

Several months back, we changed our land line telephone provider from AT&T to Time-Warner Cable.  Everything appeared to work fine.  The phone rang and you could dial out.  But the reality was that the alarm could no longer be monitored.

But neither Brinks aka Broadview or we knew it.  And this lack of security at our home went on day after day, week after week, for at least three months.

One day we had a power outage and after awhile, the battery pack that temporarily operates the alarm was finally drained of juice.  So when the power was restored, the alarm tried to reset, and it gave a message that there was trouble.

When I called Brink's, the woman gave me instructions on how to test the line.  I followed them, and sure enough, Brink's wasn't then nor had it been getting a signal from our house.  She told me to call Time-Warner and tell them they had screwed things up.  SHe said if a Brink's technician had to come out and correct the matter, it would cost us $100.

Here's what I learned, and it's what I want to pass on to you:

• If your alarm system is monitored through telephone lines, the likelihood is that if an intruder snips the line at the Interface -- the box that's on the outside of your house -- the alarm service won't know it and they will not get a signal when the intruder breaks in.
• When such an alarm is installed, the technician wires the device so that if you're on the telephone when the alarm goes off, your telephone connection will be disconnected and the signal to notify the alarm company will be sent.  That's what wasn't working on ours.
• And most disturbing, the alarm company has no way of knowing if your alarm is prepared to notify them of a breach.  If the thing is malfunctioning, mis-wired, or has been purposely cut off by the intruder, you're all alone to fend for yourself it someone has gotten in your house or if the house has caught fire.

And of course throughout their history, alarm companies have been plagued with accidential set-offs.  City governments began charging them when the police answered calls from a false alarm, so the alarm companies discontinued putting loud horns/sirens on the outside of the homes so they could cut down the complaints.

So in Patty's and my case, we were charged for several months of service that Brink's didn't provide.  I want an adjustment.  They are threatening, instead, to discontinue monitoring our system and to pull out the equipment, which, by the way, we bought from them.

I told them to have at it, because unless they were able to assure us that their monitoring service was operating properly at all times, we didn't want it.

And then I remembered the first alarm system we bought at least thirty-five years ago.  When we would set the alarm, we'd wait a few seconds.  The alarm service would send back a signal letting us know that it was properly functioning.  When we entered after being away, and turned off the alarm, we had to telephone the alarm service and give them a code. 

And there was a big siren on the outside of the building.  Interestingly, our neighbors had the same kind of system and from the same provider.  One evening about 9, the siren on their home went off.  I called the police and the alarm service within seconds.  Both already knew that someone had broken in, and the police were on their way.  They caught the intruders.

In our current case here in Dallas, Brink's aka Broadview is either going to have to rework this system so that it is tamper proof and that they automatically know when it is malfunctioning, or we're going to find a company that can.

So far, Brink's aka Broadview hasn't chosen to respond.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

WEB

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 

Stick with me for a minute.  This story is amusing and interesting.  It's about the Queen of England and the U.S. Postal Service.

Just before the Bi-Centennial I begun buying and renovating 19th Century homes in Galveston.  My whole motivation was that it would supplement my small wage as a savings and loan vice president.

Interestingly, very few investors throughout America were doing that back then, so I was judged the expert by news organizations looking for the story.

Since I had spent years in radio and TV, and was a better than average public speaker, it was a piece of cake for broadcast journalist to pick me to interview.  Now mind you, I'm fully aware that it was primarily a lazy streak in their bones that caused them to pick me rather than someone else with a lot more knowledge.

Before long, I was also adaptively restoring 19th Century commercial buildings in old down towns, and that was also a new idea.

Well, I went to New York to appear on one of the network morning news programs.  A few weeks later, a letter was delivered to me in Galveston.  In the upper left-hand corner was written Her Majesty the Queen, and the fancy embossed emblem was below it.

The letter was address to: Mr. William S. Cherry, U.S.A.  No town, no street address, no numerical address, just "Mr. William S. Cherry, U.S.A."

It seems Her Majesty and her colleagues were trying to figure out how to use a bunch of railroad stations that had been built in England's major cities when their government was trying to work its way out of economic depression and unemployment.  The problem was that when the trains began using them, the citizens complained because it made the areas so noisy, so the trains were rerouted and the buildings vacated.

Could they engage me to give them some ideas as to how they could be adapted for other purposes? her letter asked.

Well, I said, "Sure," she sent representatives to Galveston to speak with me, and I did give them some ideas.  Perhaps a year or so later, a big box came to me.  Again, from Her Majesty the Queen, and addressed to Mr. William S. Cherry, U.S.A.  Inside was a framed letter of thanks from the Queen, along with photos of the first of the train stations they had restored.

It hung on my office wall for years.  It's now packed up around here somewhere.

So twice, the post office figured out how to get mail to me without so much as a state, city or street address on the package.

This past week, I bought a photo on ebay from a nice fellow in a small town in Florida.  He lives in an apartment project.  I had all of his address correct on the envelope, but I had inadvertently left off the apartment unit number.

The letter was returned to me by the U.S. Postal Service for insufficient address.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

WEB

This photo was taken when I had just begun what turned out to be a 55-year avocation in radio and television.

You're right if you think Marconi had just invented the medium and I had just invented the programming idea of broadcasting records.  (Notice, a 45 rpm on the left turntable and a 78 rpm on the right one.)

I've written about my radio days in my blogs a number of times.  It included a stint as the host of the New Orleans WWL broadcast of the iconic "American Airlines Music 'til Dawn" program while I was a student at Tulane University.

And it flipped into television about ten years ago as I did historical features stories for TV station, News-24 Houston.

Mitchell, a commercial real estate agent in Florida called this morning to ask if I thought advertising on the radio would be of value to him and his business.

Of all of the different mediums I've used throughout 45 years as a Realtor, the only format that has beaten yard signs, for me, has been radio spots.  The rest, in order of value, have been direct mail, sign boards, the Internet, magazine ads, newspaper classified ads and at the bottom of the pile, Yellow Page ads. 

While there is a trick to properly using radio, nevertheless with professional assistance, anyone can learn to use it effectively for marketing themselves as The Realtor to call.  I am planning to write a blog or so that will address the components that, properly executed, can make you an instant "professional."

Meantime, let me shore up the photo above.  That was taken in 1954.  I sold the time on my show to Poll Parrot Shoes, and interestingly made far more money than any other person working at that station.  I was 14.

Now here I am so many years later.  This time doing a segment of News-24 Houston's most popular feature.  That's my cameraman, Ricky Hightower on the left, and the producer-director, T.J. Aulds, on the right.  The two of them single-handedly taught me television!  I loved every minute of it.

I'd do it again if TV stations hired gray haired, slightly wrinkled talent.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

214 503-8563

web

Here's the scoop.

I have a client who has put in a contract to buy a $350,000 home.  He's putting down $150,000 plus the closing costs, thus borrowing $200,000.  The home he and his wife currently live in is in a nearby city, it's paid for and they don't want to sell it.  They're buying the new home to live in...in Texas talk, to be their new "homestead."

The underwriting of this loan has been continuing for just shy of a month.  And I know from experience that this kind of foolishness is standard these days when it comes to home loans.  Take my word for it,it has never been this ridiculously tedious in the 45 years I've been in business.  I for one am tired of it.

How is it that an industry as big as ours has allowed our clients and us to be held hostage by a barrage of senseless rules that have done nothing but endanger the viability of the home market?

If you are a frequent reader of my ActiveRain posts you know that I often muse that we seem to have little representation in congress..we're pushed around as if we have no right to demand to be heard. 

And that makes me wonder if it isn't time for Realtors to demand and get a full report from the National Association of Realtors as to exactly, precisely how much of our dues goes toward lobbying and why our representatives are not more successful.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

WEB

The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University provides interesting state-wide real estate news to those who subscribe to their e-mailed newsletter.  I found three of their articles in the latest newsletter of special interest.

DOTZOUR'S HEADLINES FROM THE FRONT LINES

COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) - Chief Economist Dr. Mark Dotzour is crisscrossing the nation delivering his economic message and collecting valuable data for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

Among the comments he heard this week at meetings of the National Association of Business Economics in Washington, D.C., were:

• "Clearly there is virtually no threat of inflation in the next two years."
• "There's virtually no chance of the Fed increasing interest rates (maybe a symbolic small move aside)."
• "The last recession, the Fed waited until unemployment was 5.5 percent before tightening."
• "We won't get to that level for several years."
• "The threat is for deflation across the globe, with the exception of China."
• "China's money supply is up 30 percent from last year. Our M3 (the Fed's measure of the money supply) is virtually unchanged from a year ago, and available credit is less than last year."

"The Congressional Budget Office said the United States is going to be unable to pay for the social contract with America," said Dotzour. "It's only a matter of when and how the adjustments for failed promises have to take place. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cannot be funded at current levels of spending."

WHOLE FOODS SELLS FROM PARK LANE

DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) - Whole Foods Market will open its biggest store in North Texas on Monday at the Park Lane development.

The Austin-based natural and organic grocer has created 350 jobs in its 64,000-sf store, which fronts Greenville Ave. It has also brought the retail occupancy at the one-year-old Park Lane project to 60 percent.

Two more North Texas Whole Foods Markets are under development. One site opens at the Village at Fairview in early fall, and a Tarrant County store is waiting for roads to be built. These will be the region's eighth and ninth Whole Foods Markets.

Park Lane is a 33.5-acre, $750 million mixed-use development that includes 750,000 sf of existing office space and 700,000 sf of retail, restaurant and entertainment space.

OUTSIDE BUYERS FINDING DEALS AT AUCTIONS

DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) - Nonlender buyers looking for a deal on a house are heading for the foreclosure auction, where they paid an average of 56 cents on the dollar for foreclosed homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in first quarter 2010, according to Foreclosure Listing Service.

Dallas County foreclosed homes sold to outside buyers at an even cheaper 48 percent of the appraised value, far less than the average 60 cents on the dollar paid in September 2008.

The average sale price of an auctioned home was $91,851 in the first quarter, compared with $103,629 in 2008.

Foreclosure Listing Service reports that about 6 percent of foreclosed homes are directly purchased at foreclosure auction and that out of 13,259 foreclosures filed in DFW during the first quarter, only 263 homes were sold.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

WEB

I suppose everyone who's been in the real estate business for any length of time -- especially those of us in Texas -- have directly benefited from the real estate marketing innovation of EBBY HALLIDAY.

<== Ebby Halliday at 99.

Her company is a mainstay in the parts, having been formed over sixty years ago by a woman whose prior sales experience had been selling women's hats in a local department store.

Today there are offices all over the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex and there are some 1,400 agents manning the phones in them, all told.  Annual sales are market in billions.

So what did she do that influenced you, you ask?  Well one thing was she was a major reason Texas agencies and agents began co-oping their listings through an ingenious invention called the Multiple Listing Service.

She taught the world that women could sell real estate and that agencies owned by women could compete and often times outdo what had been a predominately men's business.

And on a personal note, she gave me guidance when I opened my first real estate office many years ago.  Because of her, we were an instant success in a market that had not had a successful new agency in many years.

So yesterday, March 9th, Ebby Halliday celebrated her 99th birthday...at her office as she is every day.  And the she went to the Mavericks game before she went home, called it a day, and went to bed.

Ebby Halliday is not only an active icon, but the Energizer Bunny Icon.  We all hope she'll celebrate many more birthdays with us.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

WEB