BILL CHERRY'S GREATEST DALLAS PARK CITIES REAL ESTATE BLOG: December 2011

“Ever since hedge fund honcho Eddie Lampert bought Sears and merged it into his already-owned Kmart back in 2005, the combined Sears-Kmart chain has been a business in decline. Same-store sales numbers have dropped consistently since the retailers linked arms.

“Explanations for the decline vary. Professional analysts will tell you Sears' problem is that it doesn't invest enough in store upkeep. If your average chain store spends $6 to $8 a year per square foot of retail space, then Sears' lackluster maintenance budget of $1.90 guarantees that its stores will be dingy, dark, and generally lacking in Christmas cheer.

“Other industry watchers blame CEO Lampert, who famously dismisses investor obsession over "same-store sales," and tells folks to focus instead on how he grows the firm's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. (Note to Eddie: We have been watching... as your EBITDA dropped from $3.6 billion in 2007 to a projected $400 million this year.)

See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/vsPGYe

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When I came home from college for the Christmas Holidays – let’s see, that was about 1960 – my daddy came home for lunch one day and went straight to the telephone.

I heard him tell his broker, Don Frye, “Don, sell all of my Sears stock.”

My daddy had accumulated Sears-Roebuck & Co. stock on a regular basis for at least fifteen years.  And now he wanted to sell it all.

I asked him, “Daddy, what caused that call to Mr. Frye?”

Daddy told me that Sears stores had been successful because their store managers ran his store as if he were a local merchant.  His wages were based on the store’s net profits, and because of that, Sears let him merchandise the store.

So several times a year, Sears managers would go to the Sears “market,” look at and pick and order the merchandise that their store would carry in the coming season. 

"After all," Daddy said, "Who knows better what the locals will buy than the guy who runs the local store?  What does a fellow working at the Sears home office in Chicago know about a beach town off of the coast of Texas?"

He continued, “I saw Ernie Norton today (Mr. Norton was the Galveston Sears store manager), and he told me that he had decided it was time to retire.  Sears is going to send his store what they think he ought to sell, and from now on, they’re going to pay him a straight salary with a small achievement bonus.

“They are tinkering with the very formula that has made them successful,” Daddy went on.

“I assure you that from now on, they will see their place in corporate America continually diminish.”

For nearly 50 years, what Daddy said would happen, has.  And Eddie Lampert apparently hasn’t cared enough to research his company’s history.  His problem is obvious to everyone but to him.

BILL CHERRY, REAL ESTATE BROKER

Dallas – Park Cities
Since 1964

214 503-8563

There is an air conditioning company that serves the Dallas area where the owner acts as the spokesperson in its radio ads – and that company runs lots of them.  His name is Ray.

One of the mysteries of any ad campaign is what will make it bring the best results for the least amount of investment. 

Radio is an especially tricky medium for non-professional spokespersons to tackle.  One very successful non-professional is Men’s Warehouse owner, George Zimmer, who adds a tag at the end of every commercial, “You’re going to like the way you look…I guarantee it.”

<<=== George Zimmer

Zimmer is a handsome, bearded man with a very assuring and resonate voice, and he’s posed to be telling someone off camera that the customer will be happy with his purchase.

But in the case of the Dallas air conditioning company owner, his voice is aggravating, the copy is poorly written, and his pitch – at least for me – is unbelievable.  The main message year after year is that he’s bought too many air conditioning systems from the manufacturer, and now needs to dump them. 

And since “I need to keep my men busy,” he’ll sell them at cost and without any profit. 

But those radio spots must be working, and that’s the hitch.  Perhaps Ray thinks his copy and performance are the reasons.

I would surmise that his ads are working simply because of their repetitiveness.  What if by having them professionally written and delivered, he could get more responses for a lesser investment?

That same question permeates web site designs, print media advertising, signage, and even the email and snail mail campaigns we initiate.

It is important to continue to evaluate the results.  Be a George Zimmer, not a Ray.

BILL CHERRY, REAL ESTATE BROKERS

Dallas – Park Cities
Since 1964

214 503-8563

For many years I wrote stories about Galvestonians and the city’s rich history.  The average length was about 1,250 words.  The pieces appeared one day each week in the Galveston County Daily News. 

I’ve never counted, but a quick mathematical calculation says more than 600 were written.

In 2000, a Texas press, VanJus Press, contracted with me to publish a book, Bill Cherry’s Galveston Memories, which would be a 300 page anthology of about sixty of the first columns.

For about two months, VanJus’ marketing manager, Lynn Branch, scheduled book signings in stores around the Galveston-Houston area, and offered me as a program for various clubs and churches.

Bill Cherry’s Galveston Memories sold many thousands of copies for $19.95 each.  The book is no longer in print, but interestingly, used copies evaluated as “gently worn” bring $88.55 up, and new copies that were apparently hoarded by a distributor are offered for sale at $319.09.

The brother of a Galveston newspaper columnist retained me last year to put together a collection of his brother’s column, written circa 1947.  Christie Mitchell, the writer’s name, was a well-known and liked fellow who promoted the city’s tourist industry.

He was called The Beachcomber.

We tried to get two of the Texas university presses to publish the book, but without success.  We thought that to be unusual since Christie Mitchell was an alumni of the University of Texas, and his brother was an alumni and the largest individual benefactor of Texas A & M University.

Finally, we decided to go the self-publishing route available through amazon.com.  For about $1,000 an author can get his book published and on the market by using amazon.com’s Create Space Publishing Co.

The Night Owl  became available for sale in July.  However, unlike the publisher of my previous book, Bill Cherry’s Galveston Memories, at Create Space there is no counter-part to VanJus’ Lynn Branch.

What I can tell you is that book selling depends very heavily on the marketing.  In the case of The Night Owl sales have been only a fraction of what we experienced with Bill Cherry’s Memories.

While it suits other authors, I would never again consider one of the self-publishing routes.

Bill Cherry, Real Estate Brokers
Dallas – Park Cities
Since 1964

214 504-8563

My lifelong friend, Elaine Mitrovich, sent these words of wisdom to me today.  They are quotes from Thomas Jefferson (1743-1836). 

Jefferson was a Founding Father and served as the 3^rd president of the United States.  And appropriately and paradoxically, he died on July 4^th.

*************************************

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe .

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.
A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

And then he said in an address in 1802 he said,

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation,then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

BILL CHERRY, REAL ESTATE BROKER
Dallas – Park Cities
Since 1964

214 503-8563

 (This column I wrote for Texas Escapes Magazine and the Galveston News is repeated every year.  And for those of you who have read it via ActiveRain, forgive me for adding it to the tradition.)

Every Year at Christmas Time I Miss My Friend, Mel Torme

By Bill Cherry

            I’m never sure exactly when it’s going to happen, but every year at sometime during the Christmas season I realize how much I really miss my friend, jazz singer Mel Torme. 

            Mel knew more about the mixing of cord harmonies than anyone did before or has since.  He was the one who taught that art to bandleaders Les Baxter and Artie Shaw, and singers Ginny O’Connor (Henry Mancini’s wife), the Hi-Los and the Manhattan Transfer.  He’s the one who wrote the arrangements for Chico Marx’s band when Mel was but a teenager.

            And no one sung the songs of Christmas with more interpretive passion than Mel, even though he was Jewish.

            Mel’s also the one my business colleague of twenty-plus years ago, Carol Todreas, and I tromped on  many bitter-cold snowy nights from our Central Park South hotel to a small jazz club on Manhattan’s east side called Marty’s, to hear him front the George Shearing Trio, in a packed house that held no more than 70. 

Marty’s was carved out of the first-floor corner of a multi-story parking garage.  It was New York City’s best kept secret.  No way did the owner make any money, and it’s for sure Mel and Shearing were working for not much more than a free meal. 

But for them it was the perfect gig.  For the audience it was the venue of success d’estime.

            Mel Torme wrote the tune and most of the words to the Christmas song that goes, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire; Jack Frost nipping at your nose.”  And he did it when he was just 22-years old. 

The following summer he appeared to a packed house in the Marine Ballroom at Galveston’s Pleasure Pier. 

And he had one successful appearance after another at the Island’s Balinese Room, although his name never seems to be included in the list of the B-Room’s star performers – entertainers like Phil Harris, Myron Cohen, Frank Sinatra and the like -- when someone speaks or writes about those days.

            Every year symphonies throughout America give their annual Christmas Pops concerts. The houses are always packed.  But interestingly, when you look around to see who’s in the audience, you would think that every senior citizen within a fifty-mile radius was there, while the young people were obviously somewhere else.

            The orchestra plays arrangements of many of the favorites – “Adeste Fideles,” “Little Drummer Boy,” “Deck the Halls,” “O Come All Ye Faithful.” and so on. 

            I remember that one time the vote on my wife, Patty’s, and my row was that a Davis/Custer arrangement of “Silent Night” was the best of the entire performance.

            It may have been.  But before that, they had played my old friend Mel’s song.  And I sung along in my head, “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.  Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Yule time carols....” 

            And that time like every other time, while the orchestra and the rest of the audience moved on in the program, they left me behind, as they always do, to think of Christmases of the past when Mel was still singing his songs, Carol and I were tromping through the Manhattan snow to hear him at Marty’s, and all of the members of the Cherry family were still alive and together awaiting the wonderful celebration of Christmas.

            Those are all of the reasons in the world for me to miss Mel Torme.

Copyright 2009 – William S. Cherry

   Bill Cherry, Realtors

 SERVING TEXAS SINCE 1964

214 503-8563

(This piece is my Christmas Day column for The Galveston County Daily News and Texas Escapes Magazine.)

A Ghost of a Past Christmas

By Bill Cherry

The Christmas of 1980 was a hard one for my family.

On December 17, 1980 without any warning, my daddy passed away two months before his seventy-second birthday.

I couldn’t believe it.  Everyone is supposed to recover from their first heart attack, I thought.  How could this be?

While my daddy’s full name was William Wallace Cherry, he had signed his name as W.W. Cherry on thousands of documents.  Probably only the IRS saw his name signed as William Wallace Cherry.

From Hopkinsville, Kentucky to Shreveport, Louisiana to Monroe, Louisiana and finally to life in Galveston from 1935 to December 17, 1980, Daddy was W.W. Cherry. 

For the majority of his entire business career he proudly spent it leading the national sales team of American National Insurance Co.

The Great Depression’s lessons about what it’s like to be poor and to be at wit’s end as to how to solve it, made profound marks on Daddy and Mama.  They generously supported their church, the poor and the otherwise less fortunate, and expected me to.

And I do.

Last year, on December 17^th, a letter came to our Dallas home from the local Union Gospel Mission.  It was addressed to W.W. Cherry and it was asking for a donation to buy Christmas dinners for the homeless.

That was the exact date marking the thirtieth anniversary of my daddy’s death, it was addressed to his preferred moniker, and to a home address in a city where he had never lived.  

And the letter was appealing to his specific charitable passion.

To me it was a message from Daddy to me, asking that I step in and take care of his earthly business since he was no longer able to. 

It was a nice Christmas present, hearing from him.

I quickly wrote out and sent a check to Union Gospel Mission and noted on the check that it was from their friend, W.W. Cherry.

Copyright 2011 – William S. Cherry

Note:  This is the original draft of the piece I wrote for Texas Heritage, the magazine of the Texas Historical Foundation.  It is in the Volume 4 2011 issue.

This morning, Bank of America’s common stock’s price is less than $5.00 per share.  Chase bank hasn't anything to brag about either.  It's common stock has fallen 40% from its 2011 high. 

Wells Fargo's common stock traded at a high of $34 this year.  It's now hovering at about $26.00 per share. 

One reporter says these low scores are because of world economy unrest.

They may be.

But I’ll bet it has more to do with how the administration of Bank of America and Chase and Wells Fargo and other banks run their businesses. 

A lot of the public doesn't like it.

In fact, a lot of the public doesn’t like the monster they feel nationalized banks have become.

Last week a fellow gave me his personal check drawn on Chase for $100.  I preferred to be paid in cash, but accommodated him by accepting his check instead.

He said to me at the time, “I’m paying my monthly bills now.  To be sure the check is good when you cash it, I’d suggest that right now you take it directly to the nearest Chase branch.”

He was serious.

So rather than deposit it in my account at another bank, I presented it to the teller at a Chase branch near my house.  She said, “There’s a $6.00 fee for cashing it since you don’t have an account with our bank.”

The fundamentals of banking make such a charge questionable.  The bank has a relationship with its customer, not with me. 

The customer and the bank’s agreement is that it will keep safe money that he deposits, and that it will pay money from his account when he formally orders them to.

So my friend ordered his bank to pay me $100.  It didn’t say for them to pay me at non-par.  The bank decided that on its own, so it chose to violate its customer’s instructions.

If the bank wanted six bucks, that charge should have come from the customer’s account. 

If the bank was accommodating anyone, it was their customer, not I.

Of course the bank knows if it were to charge customers such outrageous fees, it would lose customers.

I chose not to cash the check, but to deposit it in my account with the bank I use.  It cleared. 

In the meantime, I checked with the bank I use for its policies.  It, too, charges non-customers similar fees.

BILL CHERRY REAL ESTATE BROKER

Dallas - Park Cities

Since 1964

214 503-8563

 <<== Maya Angelou (Marguerite Ann Johnson)

The public assumes anyone who uses the prefix title “doctor” before his name has formally and successfully completed the appropriate academic course study, and has been awarded a doctorate degree by an accredited university.

A growing problem is the huge number of Mickey Mouse honorary doctorate degrees that have been given to heavy hitting financial patrons of universities as well as those that have been granted by non-accredited colleges.

Many who receive those “degrees” immediately append the “doctor” title to their names, and do so with no disclosure that there is no appropriate educational achievement backing them.

<<== Rev. Mike Murdock

Perhaps it is time for schools to stop issuing these things, for the government to regulate how the recipients use them, and for the recipients to take it upon themselves to discontinue alluding to the public that they possess academic credentials that they don’t have.

<<== Rev. Billy Graham

Here are some examples that come to mind. 

Poet Maya Angelou's birth name is Marguerite Ann Johnson.  She has no college degrees and it is possible that she did not graduate from high school.

She has used her 40 or more honorary degrees to somehow bypass the standard university requirements to be a faculty member.

The Rev. Mike Murdock, a TV minister, graduated from high school and attended a little known bible college for one semester.  His honorary doctorate was issued by a non-accredited college.

The Rev. Billy Graham has an undergraduate degree from an accredited university.  His doctorate is honorary.

<<== Rev. Bill Winston

The Rev. Bill Winston, a TV minister, apparently did not attend nor graduate from college.  His doctorate degree is honorary and awarded by a non-accredited college.

And then there are those who actually have accredited doctorates but they are not in course studies that are related to the profession in which they practice. 

Two local examples in Dallas are financial advisers W. Neil Gallagher and Bill Clark.  Paradoxically, Gallagher's advanced study was in ethics and critical reasoning.  Clark's was in psychology.

So how is it possible to rationalize to those who earned their doctorates by successfully completing the appropriate course study at an accredited university, that it is OK for those who didn't to water down the value of the real doctors' accomplishments?

Perhaps those considering using the services provided by those who use the doctor prefix should see what the person's verifiable credentials are before engaging their representation.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

Dallas - Park Cities

Since 1964

214 503-8563

The Reverend Robert Schuller’s church recently lost its world-famous Crystal Cathedral to bankruptcy. The ministry had accumulated debt of about $60 million that it could no longer service.

The church's signature building was designed by Philip Johnson, arguably one of the top ten architects in the world.  It was completed in 1980 at a cost of $18 million.  The campus is located in Garden Grove, California.

“On November 17, 2011, a federal judge approved selling the Crystal Cathedral to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange for $57.5 million.

"The diocese plans to lease the facility to Crystal Cathedral Ministries for three years, after which Crystal Cathedral Ministries may relocate to a smaller facility nearby that currently houses a Catholic church.”

The diocese intends to hire an architect to renovate the Crystal Cathedral to make it look like a modern Roman Catholic Church.

So much for a once powerful church and worldwide TV ministry that surely will now morph into an amoeba.

One rule of marketing that the life insurance industry has understood since almost the beginning of time, is that the failure to honor legitimate policyholder claims because of financial woes of the issuer, would seriously discredit the trust of other life companies.

Consequently, in the main, when a life company is failing, other underwriters step in and acquire the failing company’s policies.  The idea is to prove to the public that their trust in life insurance is a worthy one.

What has happened to Dr. Schuller’s ministry lurks to some degree over all one-man-band denominations.  For an example, who’s to say or know what will happen to Houston-based Lakewood Church when there is no longer a Joel Osteen at its helm?

So it’s odd to me that these mega one-man-band churches didn’t see the need to join together to financially bail out its brother Dr. Robert Schuller's church.

As it is, one could easily extrapolate that every non-denominational church and their TV ministry could easily evaporate into non-existence with the loss of its public leader or the loss of his credibility.

Relatively few have ever survived more than one generation after that of its founder.

The life insurance industry would advise that it would be in all of the non-denominational churches' best interests to keep failing ministries financially viable, rather than to allow them to crash and burn without orderly liquidation.

God bless Robert Schuller, his dream, and the members and supporters of the Crystal Cathedral Ministries.  I think he did a great job of bringing millions to believing and having a better understanding of Christianity.

All Christian churches profited as a result.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

Dallas - Park Cities

Since 1964

214 503-8563