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

A fellow emailed me about two weeks ago, and told me that he would like to visit with me about listing his house for sale.  He had picked me from an Internet ad.

I sent him some information, even visited with him by telephone.  We set up the appointment for the morning time a few days later.

So I prepared the Comparative Market Analysis, Listing Agreement, and other supporting materials, and the next morning I drove about twenty miles toward his home.  Just as I was turning onto his street, my assistant called and told me that my prospective client had just called and canceled the meeting.

When I got back to my office, there was an email from the man saying that he was very ill and he didn't want to expose me to his sickness....that he would get back with me as soon as he recovered.  I sent back my regrets, and told him I would be ready when he was.

I knew in my heart that he was telling me what the world calls a White Lie, that I wouldn't hear from him again, and that he didn't see anything wrong with his behavior -- the bad behavior he had displayed by causing me to invest my time and energy without the benefit of garnering The Promise -- delivering my prepared presentation. 

My psychotherapist wife says her profession refers to this common behavior among many young adults as, "It's all about me."  They are amazingly narcissistic, she says.

So Monday I looked to see if he had listed his house with someone else, as I had suspected he had.  Yep.  He had.

Now here's my question.  I have noticed that more and more people feel little responsibility for honoring their promise if they later decide that they don't want to.  And to make matters worse, rather than just call and say they have changed their mind, they fabricate a lie. They think of it as White.  It's still a lie.

So I started thinking about what he had told me when we had first visited by phone, and wondered if I had discovered an irony.

He had told me that he had lost his good-paying job unexpectedly just after he and his wife bought this home.  He had found a lesser-paying position, but he no longer earned enough money to comfortably keep the mortgage.

I wonder if the reason he was chosen to be the one his company let go was because of his inability to tell the truth?  Perhaps those who weren't let go had a reputation with the employer of "my word is my bond."  They didn't use the White Lie.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

WEB

I recently wrote a piece for Active Rain for the purpose of letting those living in Dallas know that a famous American theologian and Duke University professor named Stanley Hauerwas would be giving several lectures at my church, The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation. (Click here to read it: Stanley Hauerwas.)

Last evening Patty and I invited our friends, John and Cindi Burnside, to join us for an early dinner and then a quick trip to Incarnation for the service and the performance of Dr. Hauerwas.

Dr. Hauerwas was ill-prepared, he rambled, he wouldn't look at his audience, he used vulgar and profane language in our church's sanctuary, and quite frankly he was a total bore.  I was embarrassed for those at the church who chose him and for him, himself for his bad behavior. 

The bottom line is this:  the man is a pacifist who opines about God's wishes without sighting Bible references to back up his opinions.  Thus, his arguments lack sufficient evidence.  I regret that the format wasn't a debate with a Bible scholar.  He would have been smashed like a helpless ant.

A lot has changed since I left college life for the last time in about 1967.  Dr. Hauerwas is a member of that large group of college and university instructors who have generated such outrage from parents and friends of their students.  It's time for change.

I apologize to anyone who attended any of Dr. Hauerwas' lectures on my recommendation.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

WEB

One of my friends, an old dude like me who's been involved in real esate for eons, called the other day.  Here's what he told me:

• Bank lobbyist are pushing for legislation which will prohibit a person who owns a home from selling it and taking back the mortgage.  The buyer will have to get his financing through a commercial, licensed lender.
• Soon it will be impossible for mortgage brokers to remain in business; all or the majority of the loans will be required to be made through a borrower's commercial banking relationship.
• The new rules requiring appraisers to be retained from a pool that is controlledby a third-party "appointment service" has a) raised the cost of the appraisals to the buyer and b) lowered the amount the appraiser nets.  For an example, Wells Fargo owns a company that is one of the newly required appraisal "booking agencies."  They charge upwards of $500 for an appraisal for which they pay the appraiser $200 to $300. It's projected Wells Fargo will net $500,000,000 the first year from this riskless venture.

Whether or not I have reported this precisely and totally accurately isn't the point.  That banks and their lobbyist continue to tinker with the real estate business is the point.  Taking free enterprises out of the components of loans is a bad idea.  Making the rules more complex and the time to close a transaction longer is not to the public's benefit, much less Realtors.'

There are an enormous number of people -- Realtors -- paying dues to local, state and national associations.  Do those groups not understand that their most important charge is to represent us as a group before lawmakers?

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS - PARK CITIES

Our 45th Year

214 503-8563

WEB