When I was in high school, Galveston Ball High School Class of ’58, our speech and drama teacher, Arthur Graham, insisted that to be and remain educated and cultured persons, there were three requirements that should be at the top of the list.  They were that we subscribe to and read the Sunday edition of the “New York Times,” the “Saturday Review (of Literature)” and “The New Yorker.”

So for most of the past fifty-two years I’ve done just that, save and except the “Saturday Review” which stop being published in 1986.

But I’ll admit that from time to time I’ve become so disenchanted with “The New Yorker” that I’ve discontinued my subscription, sometimes for several years at a time.  I think I'm at that point again.

In the June 23^rd issue, writer Peter J. Boyer brings pseudo-intellectual political commentator, Keith Olbermann into commentator sainthood.  Olbermann's credentials are that he was a sportscaster and has a vulgar mouth.

My problem is this:  “The New Yorker’s” paid subscription audience is made up of people of all political and religious persuasions, yet rather than to inform and inform with a neutral agenda, the magazine chooses to represent and hawk only one side, its side. 

Paid readers aren’t buying the magazine for its one-sided political editorializing.  I think it’s time for me to let my subscription run out again without sending in a renewal.  I'll go back to subscribing to "New York."

BILL CHERRY, REALTOR

DALLAS

Our 43^rd Year Selling Texas

214 503-8563

In the early 1960s I lived in St. Louis and worked for a bank in Clayton, a suburb.  I was fascinated that the U.S. was moving toward total non-isolationism and what was sure to end up being a member of a very active global economy.

The bank was very generous with its financial assistance of employees who wanted to continue their education, especially if it had to do with banking and business.  So I decided I’d take them up on their offer, and go to a local university to explore what this new economy could have in store for America.

Interestingly, we learned that Mexicans would probably devour our culture as they would move by droves into the U.S. for employment and a better life for them and their families.

And we learned that the U.S. was certain to trip up by not producing commodities it needs to all but sustain life.  Sources of power would probably be the major one, the professor speculated.

So here we are.  More than forty years has passed, and by golly, it’s exactly as predicted.

This was one time when the old joke about how economists make predictions – “On one hand blah, blah, blah; but on the other hand blah, blah, blah” – didn't hold up.  What was predicted was straight forward and exactly what occurred.

1. Most people think their banks give them good service at a fair price
2. Most banks are continually looking for ways to raise and add fees

From the time we were just children, most of us were taught that our character as well as the degree of our acceptance in society are greatly influenced by the company we keep.  "Hang around kids who use drugs, and you soon will, too."

That’s why it’s such a mystery to me that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has managed to accumulate a list of people with questionable backgrounds as what seem to be his only close friends.  It's shocking.  It really is.

Of them, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright seems to be the most incendiary in the minds of those who are uncomfortable with Obama.  For most people who are members of conventional denominations, Mr. Wright’s preaching is offensive. 

One explanation that seems to crop up over and over is that the big mega-churches that direct their messages to blacks are primarily sympathetic to Mr. Wright’s style.  We are told that we shouldn't be concerned about whether or not Mr. Obama is sympathetic to Mr. Wright's theology, teachings and opinions.  All of the successful black-based churches are teaching the same things.

That simply isn’t true.  There are no black congregations in America who have received better spiritual leadership than the 30,000 members of Bishop T.D. Jakes’ The Potter’s House in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff.   Bishop Jakes ministry would make a great subject for a doctoral dissertation by a theology student at say, Yale or SMU. 

FOLLOWING YOUR REALTOR'S LEAD -- THE MAP TO SUCCESS

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 Dallas 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 told her to do.  Exactly.  Some complaining, I'll admit, but nevertheless, she let me win every time.  That tact was primarily because she is a good business woman.  Intuitive.

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

THE IDEKER TWINS -- LOOKING FOR SUMMER JOBS IN LAKE HIGHLANDS

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

The phenomenon of commercial radio broadcasting hasn’t really been with us for very long.  In fact, the first station in Texas, WRR, began as an AM station, and it was owned by the City of Dallas just as it is today, 87 years later.

“Licensed in August 1921, the station (WRR-AM) was originally housed in the Dallas Fire Department and touted as the latest in firefighter communications. When firemen had no blazing fires to battle, however, they blazed the broadcast trail by playing music or telling jokes.

“WRR was the brainchild of inventor Henry Garrett, a Police and Fire Signal Superintendent for the City of Dallas who began tinkering with radio in his off-duty hours. Garrett envisioned radio as the modern way for firefighters in the field to communicate. And he sold city officials on the efficiency and safety value his concept could offer,” so explains the station’s web site.

When radio broadcasting was first regulated in 1927 and then in 1934, the Federal Communications commission made radio broadcasting’s purpose quite clear.  Stations were to operate in the public’s “convenience, interest or necessity….”  So the medium's primary purpose was to inform…to provide news.

But there just wasn’t enough news to fill the daylight hours, much less the nighttime, too, so before long, features were added.  Music, drama, comedy and the like.  But because the stations’ broadcast practices were strictly overseen by the FCC, broadcasters, in the main, made certain that they were conforming by keeping programming in the public’s “convenience, interest or necessity.”

Radio became a trusted influence.  And while it was a business that was paid for by advertisers, U.S. stations and the personalities who appeared on them did their best to police the competence of the products and services that were advertised there.  The snake oil hawkers did it by high powered stations just across the border into Mexico, stations that could be picked up in the U.S.

But as these 87 years have passed, the purpose and the credibility of radio broadcasts have diminished, and that has been in direct proportion to the FCC’s relaxation of the rules and its policing.

I began an avocation as an announcer when I was fourteen.  That was in 1954.  And I have continued it off and on, with my last position being a feature reporter for a Houston television station.  In "real life" I am a Realtor.

Interestingly, announcer/personalities of my vintage can no longer find work in that medium that we grew up and understand.

Copyright 2008 – William S. Cherry

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.  They're 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

The Add a New Ride Rule:

The Rule that Keeps Many Businesses from Going Broke

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 bough it.

While revenues at the park had increased most years since it had 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 if it plans to keep, much less, increase ticket sales.

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 obviously are not prepared to meet the challenge: 

• The Sharper Image
• Six Flags
• Pier 1
• 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

It is long past time for the fifty states to discontinue licensing chiropractors and osteopaths as professions.

If, in fact, osteopaths complete the same course studies and licensing exams that medical doctors do, then they ought to be licensed as M.D.s.

In the case of chiropractors, in general they have done such a poor job of policing themselves, that they should be required to complete the curriculum of physical therapist, called physical therapist, and their treatments specifically prescribed by medical doctors.

Calling chiropractors “doctors” needs to go out the window once and for all.  It gives them perceived credentials they don't have the education for or deserve.

My daughter-in-law has had a serious back problem since her baby was born.  She went to two different chiropractors for treatment.  Both told her that their chiropractic treatments would resolve the problem.  It didn’t.  It got worse.

If you have an opinion on either of these, I'd like to hear it.  And if you have had similar experiences, perhaps you should contact your state repreentatives.

HOW TO PROTEST TEXAS PROPERTY TAX APPRAISALS -- Deadline May 31, 2008  By Dallas Realtor-Broker Bill Cherry

The property tax appraisal logic in Texas is this:

• One entity will decide the appraised values of every taxable property in the county.  These are called Central Appraisal Districts.  There is a chief appraiser overseeing each district.
• Using computer models and site visits, every piece of taxable property is given a value by the CAD.  Those values are then published as public record.
• A period of time is then allowed for taxpayers to compare the value that was assessed to their property with assessments of comparable properties.
• If the taxpayer can show that the value assigned to his property is not in line with the comparable properties, he can file a formal written protest with the CAD.  That protest must be filed by May 31 of the tax year.
• An informal meeting is then scheduled between a CAD appraiser and the property owner.  At that meeting the property owner shows his evidence of value to the appraiser and the appraiser shows his evidence of value to the property owner.  A compromise is offered.
• If the property owner is not satified with the offer made by the appraiser, he may request a hearing before the Appraisal Review Board.
• The Appraisal Review Board is made of up of other taxpayers in the county; taxpayers who are not employees of the CAD, and whose determinations cannot be overturned by the CAD.
• The ARB committee listens to the evidence presented it by the property owner and the evidence presented by the appraiser.  The ARB members ask questions of both, then they determine what the value will be.  The CAD must accept that value.
• Home owners who remain unsatisfied with the assigned value have one more option outside of filing suit against the district. They can request binding arbitration.  There are several hundred real estate professionals who have been certified by the Texas Comptroller to act as arbitrators.  They can hear cases for homes worth less than $1 million.  The cost of the arbitration cannot exceed $500, and the loser pays the fee.

The question you must ask is this:  How does the CAD's appraised value of my home compare with their appraised values of other like homes?  It has nothing to do with what homes are selling for or have sold for,  It has nothing to do with whether or not you think the value is too high or that you can't afford the amount of your taxes.

Again, the question is this:  How does the CAD's appraised value of my home compare with their appraised values of other like homes?  If yours is higher, then you protest.

The CAD mentality is this:  We'll do our best to appraise and assign accurate values.  If the property owners do not file protest, then they must agree.  If they agree, then our apprisal is correct.

All of this research information is available at the CAD office in your country and they are required to give it to you.  It is also available at the web sites of each CAD.  You can Google search by putting in the name of your country followed by CAD.  For an example, "Dallas CAD."

If you have further questions, I am a former Appraisal Review Board member and committee chairman, and I am an state appointed arbitrator.  Email me at www.cherrysells@aol.com.

**Please forgive spelling errors and transpositions.  The spell check feature is not working today.

BILL CHERRY, REAL ESTATE

DALLAS

OUR 43RD YEAR SELLING TEXAS

214 503-8563

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry