THE FAMOUS 50 QUESTIONS LIST

Many have asked for and gotten the complimentary copy of my CD "A Realtor's Secret Weapons."  This is the list of 50 Questions we discuss during one segment of the program.  Meanwhile, your free copy of the CD is waiting for you.   All you have to do is email, write or call and we'll pop one in the mail to you right away.   -- Bill Cherry, Realtor. 

Financial Planner Doc Gallagher, Engineer Steve Simmons, Realtor Bill Cherry

Broadcasting a KAAM-AM "Money Doctor Show"

Saturdays, 10-11 AM  

THE 50-QUESTION POP QUIZ YOU'LL WANT TO GIVE ME - AND ANY OTHER REAL ESTATE AGENT - BEFORE YOU PICK WHO WILL REPRESENT YOU

By Bill Cherry

Bill Cherry, Realtors

214 503-8563

  Company Image and Statistics

1. How many years has your company been in business? How about you?

2. How many listings does your company have?

3. Where does your company rank in the Annual Amount of Closed Sales in the entire Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex?

4. How many families used your company's services last year?

5. Where does your company rate in the National Relocation Top 350 Power Brokers Annual Report?

6. Does your company have a relocation division? How much business is generated through that source? (Many people are "assigned" a real estate broker by their employer when they are moving them from one town to another)

7. Who are some of the companies and corporations your relocation division works with in relocating buyers?

8. Is your company a member of a world-wide and successful real estate network?

9. Which referral networks, relocation companies, pre-marketing and third party companies is your company affiliated with?

10. Does your company have a Web site that advertises the entire MLS inventory?

11. What is your company's current market share in my neighborhood?

12. What is your company's past market share in my neighborhood?

13. What is the "Law of Agency" and how does it affect me by using your company?

14. Does your company offer a comprehensive Seller's Disclosure Notice to help me reduce my liability as a seller?

15. Does your company have a real estate attorney specialist on staff or retainer who is available for legal guidance when needed?

16. Does your company have an in-house mortgage lending service and of what value would it be to me as a seller?

Agent's Competence

1. Are you a full-time Realtor?

2. What kind of real estate training have you had?

3. What is the difference between a Realtor and a licensed Real Estate agent?

4. Do you recommend pre-sale home inspections?

5. Do you recommend that I take out a Seller Residential Service Contract while my house is on the market for sale?

6. How would you guide me if a potential buyer has a home to put on the market and that he must sell before he can close on the purchase of my house?

7. What are today's insurance concerns and how can they affect me?

8. How do would you arrive at the listing price you suggest for my home?

9. Will you provide me with a written and current Competitive Market Analysis?

10. Will you be honest with me in what you feel the market will truly bear, or will you list my home at any price I ask you to try?

11. Will you share with me your educated opinion of the condition of my home?

12. Will you give me tips for better staging and showing my home to prospective buyers?

13. Tell me about your negotiating skills?

14. What is your personal list price to sales ratio? Your company's?

15. Will you pre-qualify prospects before showing them my home?

16. What will you do to assure my home will appraise for the contract price for the buyer's lender?

17. What will my closing costs be?

18. Will you provide me with an itemized statement of my approximate closing costs PRIOR to my signing the contract?

19. What services will you provide me once a contract has been negotiated?

20. Will you attend the closing at the title company with me?

21. Once I list my home with you, how often will you communicate with me?

The Marketing of My Home

1. Who will be putting the information and pictures of my home on the multiple listing service, and when?

2. What will you offer as a Buyer's Agent Commission?

3. Will you be furnishing property picture brochures and mail-outs in the marketing of my home, and how and where will they be distributed?

4. What feature of my home will you emphasize in the marketing?

5. Do you have the ability to photo gallery (at least 10 pictures) my home on-line?

6. Do you have a "precise and customized" marketing plan for my home?

7. Will you be doing a virtual tour of my home?

8. What special marketing programs does your company have to offer in helping to get showings on my home?

9. How often and where will you advertise my home in the media?

10. Who will write the ads, and who pays for the advertising?

11. Do you use "target marketing?"

12. If your company has a Web site, what tools are available on your site to market my home?

13. How many "hits" does your Web site get a month?

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry

 BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS, TEXAS

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

214 503-8563

I'm not certain when the gated community concept began to take a hold in Texas, but the first time Patty and I owned a home in one was about ten years ago.  It was in South Shore Harbour, a community near Houston.

Ours didn't have a guard at the gate, but rather a box that allowed coded access and also for visitors to be able call their host so they could be allowed entrance.

We hadn't bought our home because of the gated community concept, but rather because the builder had done an exquisite job of executing the plans of a very talented architect.  However, the more we lived there the more opinionated I became - issues for and issues against - so I took out my legal tablet one day and did the debit and credit bookkeeping.  It produced interesting results, results I could have never gotten had we not had a couple of years living there under our belts.

What I did learn and observe was that the gate restricted weekend drivers searching out For Sale signs.  So not only did it keep those just beginning their "new city driving around" from getting a feel for our neighborhood, but it also kept them from having an idea as to which agents and companies had listings there.  Intuitively I didn't think that was a good thing.

And I then began to notice that homes behind the gates and walls sold substantially slower than those in subdivisions without those restrictions even though both sets were comparably priced. 

So, at least in our area, the homes in the gated communities not only didn't bring a premium because of the perceived safety, but they sold slower.  So I proposed to our homeowners association that the gates be left open on, say, Saturdays and Sundays.  No soap.  I was never sure why.  There was little to no crime in our city and the police were sure anyone caught speeding was on a crime spree so they would all but follow them around night and day. 

I don't know what an acceptable solution is, but I do know that before a prospective home buyer considers purchasing within the seclusion of walls and gates, he might want to take out his legal tablet and enter the debits and credits, and then realistically evaluate what it will mean to him as well as his family's lifestyle, their ability to be gracious to their arriving visitors, how they will handle access by service people, and how their Realtor will be able to market their home should they decide more elsewhere.

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry

All rights reserved

Bill Cherry Realtors

Bill Cherry Wikipedia Biography

E. DOUGLAS MC LEOD - DEAN FOR THE DAY - MARCH 14, 2008

The announcement came in last week's mail.  It was from the South Texas College of Law in Houston.

On March 14, 2008, my life long friend, E. Douglas McLeod, was named the college's Dean for the Day.  That's quite an honor, but it's very definitely one that's properly placed and noted.

<<=== E. DOUGLAS MC LEOD

I've written before about Doug along with my friends Victor, J.E. and Ward.  We've been a support team for a long time.  Far more than fifty years.  Here's that story.

In real life Doug is the Director of Development for the billion dollar Moody (Charitable) Foundation.  And he's an officer and director of many of the insurance companies that are owned one way or the other by the Moody Family, all descendants of William L. Moody, Jr., who built a fortune in cotton, insurance, banking, ranching and hotels, and then with his wife, Libbie Shearn Moody, gave most of it to the Moody Foundation for the purpose of making life better for the people of Texas.

Doug's sister Ann is the wife of the current family patriarch, Robert L. Moody.  Mr. Moody has exercised an uncanny ability to pick the right people as the caucus for taking the foundation's assets and exponentializing them.  Doug was one of his choices.  Forget he's Ann's brother.  I assure you that was nothing more than a coincidence.

Doug has overseen the building of the very famous Moody Gardens in Galveston, a multi-million dollar investment that includes a botanical garden, hotel and conference center, water park, and on and on.  It's Galveston's most famous and popular tourist attraction.  Hundreds of thousands come there every year.

But here's what's interesting.  Doug decided a couple of years after joining the Moody Foundation that he ought to have his own profession; one that would allow him to stand apart, stand alone and stand on his own laurels. Through night school and studying during the lunch hour in a law firm's library, Doug attained his law degree and followed it up with a Masters of Laws in international economic law. 

After getting the law school's announcement, I Googled Doug's name, and nowhere did I find anything that really told about him or listed his accomplishments.  So I decided I'd not only write about him, but list his affiliations.  Here are some of them:

• Former State Legislator - Texas House of Representatives
• South Texas College of Law - Member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee and Distinguished Fellow
• Phi Delta Phi International Legal Fraternity - Member and Past Inn Magister
• College of State Bar of Texas - Member of the Board of Directors
• State Bar College - Honored Endowment Fund Scholar

Epilogue:  Just before Thanksgiving in 2000, my book Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories was put in bookstores.  I was very apprehensive when my publisher insisted that I do the obligatory book signings in the stores.  I had never figured the book had any merit in the first place, much less that very many people would actually buy a copy.  In fact I had seriously speculated that VanJus would be lucky if they could dump 500 of them.  Interestingly, the thing has sold many thousands.

The first book signing was on a Saturday, and the rain was coming down very hard.  The streets were flooded, and Patty and I, trying to be troupers, made our way to the store for the signing.  We knew no one would show up, and we would be horribly embarrassed.  Interestingly a lot of people did come, but the ones I remember the most were Doug and our friend Victor.  They both weathered the storm to make sure I wouldn't be there alone. That's friendship that's the result of personal character; it can't be bought or affectively encouraged.

So congratulations, Dean Doug McLeod.  The South Texas College of Law Board of Directors along with Mr. Alfini the president and dean, and Mr. Jordan the school's chairman, made a superb choice.

GOD Blesses!

By Dallas Realtor, Bill Cherry

Our 44th Year Selling Texas

http://www.billcherrybroker.com

214 503-8563

 My daddy, W.W. Cherry, was a thinker.  And interestingly, once he had reasoned something out, he was comfortable with his conclusion, and he was no longer afraid of the unknown.  That method was one he followed and taught to all who would listen. 

Most of us never seem to be able to teach our minds to not automatically race toward a negative, albeit, fatal conclusion when we are unable to assure ourselves what answer the passage of time will provide.

That one frailty makes us miserable when we don't have to be.

Claire called me last week.  Charlie passed away last year, and for the first time she's been left to make most decisions by herself.  And she's very scared.  Fortunately if she picks the "My decision is to continue the status quo," as her answer, her financial and comfort risks are as close to zero as even Warren Buffett could formulate.

But she's still afraid.  She's afraid because people are reenforcing her fear.  The political candidates are talking about how bad things are now and how their plan will correct them.  The newspapers and magazines and the Internet and the commentators on the radio and TV news and talk shows blab more and more, and that reinforced her uneasiness.

So I said to her, "Claire, do you remember Daddy?"  Of course she did, she told me.  She worked for him from the day she graduated from high school until he retired.

"What would he tell you?" 

She started a nervous laugh, "He'd tell me that I haven't lost money or made money until I actually sell."

"That's right," I said, "And he'd also ask you how many people do you know who have their homes for sale right now, and you'd say what?"

"One," she said in a somewhat weak voice.

"And do they or you have to sell now if you don't want to?

One more weak voice reply, "No."

"Well, you and your friend are like a huge majority of the homeowners throughout the United States.  You've been living in your home for a number of years, you like where you live, and there's no reason that you have to move now."

Let me assure you that like they are for Claire and her friend, the chances are there is no real estate crisis for you or anyone you know, and there probably won't be. 

The status quo remains your answer just like it is for Claire.  Before Robert Young played the part of Jim Anderson, I had already learned that Father knows best.

GOD Blesses!

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry

NEW ORLEANS & KATRINA - MEAN SPIRITED OPINIONS (edit/delete)

IF YOU LEFT NEW ORLEANS BY FOOT BEFORE AUGUST 29, 2005, YOU HAD TO GET ACROSS THIS BRIDGE TO GET TO THE MAINLAND FOR SAFETY

Almost from August 30, 2005, I have been receiving emails opining that the black residents of New Orleans were somehow responsible for the outrageous prediciments that resulted to themselves and to the city as a result of Hurricane Katrina.  August 30^th was the day after Katrina struck the gulf coast.

I am very familiar with New Orleans, its people and its culture.  Not only have I visited many times over the past sixty years with my family, but I lived there for awhile as a student at Tulane University, and I worked there as a radio personality.

The latest tretise I received is a very mean spirited piece that is attributed to the authorship of a "The Rev. Jesse Lee Patterson." In my view, it is appalling.

Like the others -- in 100% of the cases -- the opinions are broad brush stuff that can't be supported in specifics by factual evidence. 

Here's what we do know.  The hurricane landed just two days before many people's payday.  Let's say you're poor and/or you're just about out of money.  Payday is two days away.

Or let's say you depend on public transportation to get places, which a huge portion of New Orleans people do.  You either don't have a car or the one you have isn't reliable.

How are you going to leave? 

Start walking and pushing grandma in her wheelchair on your way to no safe destination? 

Assuming you are able to walk the distance from your home across a bridge to the mainland, is your plan to knock on strangers' doors until you find someone willing to take you and grandma in to ride out the storm?  Look at that picture at the top of the page and tell me how you're going to do that?

But let's say that works out.  The hurricane arrives and the town received major destruction, you luck out because your home is saved.  But jobs evaporated on August 29^th.  Yours is one of them.  Now what?

The primary problem probably was that no one had ever prepared for anything like this to happen; consequently, there was no plan of action in place to 1) get people out 2) get people situated after the storm, in places where life could resume (including employment) and 3) get the fiscal assets of the town back to normal as quickly as possible.

I have a number of friends who went over there to help after the hurricane.  Some were members of the Dallas Rotary Club.  Others were members of my church.  None...not a one... came back with the opinion that The Rev. Patterson has.  They couldn't believe their eyes that something like this had happened in America...not the hurricane, but the lack of preparedness and lack of compassion that followed.  I can't either.

Please, no more hateful emails about these Americans.

MY SUBDIVISION'S REAL ESTATE MYSTERY

One of my competitors attracted a listing in my subdivision several months back.  I can't help but look at this package when I drive in and out.  As the listing has ticked along, a homemade lattice baffle around the air condition compressor has blown over.  Day after day, it lies on the ground.  It's been just like that for more than a month.

For periods of a week or more at a time, the agent's sign will sit with tall grass and weeds growing up the stakes.  Either he doesn't check or personally show his listing, or he doesn't see the need to spiff things up.  Could that be a reason the house remains unsold?

About three months after he listed this house, I'll be darned if a neighbor a few doors down didn't list his home with him.  It, too, has joined the ranks of the unsold, day in and day out, weekend after weekend.

Now here's the real kicker.  While all of this has been going on, a guy across the street was spending a month or more trying his hand at FSBO, even tacking illegal signs on utility poles and having Sunday open houses.  

Apparently it didn't work. 

I noticed this afternoon that he has now listed his home with the same fellow who has been unsuccessful in marketing either of the neighbor's houses.  Yes, you heard me!  He listed it with Mr. Unsuccessful!

One can only wonder what rational any one of these three listing clients used to pick this guy out of the some 15,000 Realtors who work the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Among my blogs is a list of 50 Questions one should ask an agent when you interview him or her to determine if they should represent you.  If you or one of your friends is planning to list your home for sale, use the list.  Click here and print it out.

I also have available for you a forty-five minute interview the KAAM-AM "Money Doctor," W. Neil Gallagher, Ph.D. did with me.  It's titled "A Realtor's Secret Weapons."  Your totally free copy is waiting for you, whether you live in Dallas or anywhere else in the U.S. or Canada.  Just email me your name and address.  (cherrysells@aol.com) You'll be glad you did.

Meanwhile, I'd love to personally market your Dallas home, or to help you find an agent in your own hometown who abides by my personal standards.  My phone number is 214 503-8563.  My email address, again, is cherrysells@aol.com.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

214 503-8563

Meet me on the web

Over the years, she's gained the nickname of Madam President.  Her true name is Gerry Hunter, and while she's an octogenarian, I promise you'd never guess it if you saw her.

Madam President got her name because she's devoted two rooms in her home to a collection of memorbelia celebrating the lives and presidency of every U.S. president, beginning with George Washington.  She has other collections throughout her home as well.

Teachers, Sunday school classes, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Campfire girls, and just moms and dads and grandparents bring children by to see these exhibits.  And Madam President always has her special homemade cookies waiting for them, hot from the oven.

Gerry's home is in Richardson, one of the big next door suburbs of Dallas.  Visiting her and her Presidential Rooms is free.  You just need to call and make an appointment a week or so in advance.  Her number is 972 234-3645.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

214 503-8563

The Income Tax Rebate & Why It Will Actually Help

            From the beginning of time - well not for that long, but at least from the mid-1700s -- those who studied and postulated on the pseudo-science of economics were sure that the whole thing could be summed up in two laws:  The Law of Supply and Demand, and The Law of Diminishing Returns.

            The idea was that no extraneous thoughts or encouragements from the outside could influence or change the inevitable.  Those who bought into this theory, and those who buy into it today, are what many of us call neo-classical economists.

            But it is difficult to rationally discount that the public can rationally or irrationally affect the economy.  When that happens, neo-classicists, like the rest of us, have to watch to see what the outcome will be.

            The law that the bipartisan congress passed giving many families a windfall is one of those outside influences, and it's the message that Americans seem to always fall for:  As a country, we can spend ourselves into prosperity.

            The father of this thinking was an economist named John Maynard Keynes.  He not only said that the populous can seriously influence economic outcomes, but that when the country becomes excessively cautious in its spending and, thus, sends the economy into a tailspin, government must temporarily come to the rescue.  The idea is to create the false impression that everything is alright afterall.

            This Keynes theory was at the foundation of the New Deal.  Increased government public spending and tax cuts kept the economy going until the consumers and business leaders decided that the depression was over.  Of course once they decided it, the prophecy became self-fulfilling.

            The more intelligent economists doubt that the Keynesian fiscal policy works.  And when it does appear to work, it is primarily the result of an accidental occurrence.  You see, trying to fine-tune the economy usually comes in efforts that are too small, or they don't get there in time.  You tinker with the resolution of one problem, and one or more new ones squish out and need to be handled.

            But oddly this one - the bipartisan one that was dreamed up and signed into law in early February - may actually work.  Here's why:

            The affluent will not get the benefit of the stimulus package, but their taxes will pay for it.  Consequently, those benefits will more than likely come in the form of money that would have otherwise been saved.  So the affluent will in essence give the middleclass money to spend from the affluent's savings. 

            This time the income tax rebate is not being financed by government borrowing that will have to be paid back by those who got it.

Copyright 2008 - William S. Cherry

From the beginning of time – well not for that long, but at least from the mid-1700s -- those who studied and postulated on the pseudo-science of economics were sure that the whole thing could be summed up in two laws:  The Law of Supply and Demand, and The Law of Diminishing Returns.

            The idea was that no extraneous thoughts or encouragements from the outside could influence or change the inevitable.  Those who bought into this theory, and those who buy into it today, are what many of us call neo-classical economists.

            But it is difficult to rationally discount that the public can rationally or irrationally affect the economy.  When that happens, neo-classicists, like the rest of us, have to watch to see what the outcome will be.

            The law that the bipartisan congress passed giving many families a windfall is one of those outside influences, and it’s the message that Americans seem to always fall for:  As a country, we can spend ourselves into prosperity.

            The father of this thinking was an economist named John Maynard Keynes.  He not only said that the populous can seriously influence economic outcomes, but that when the country becomes excessively cautious in its spending and, thus, sends the economy into a tailspin, government must temporarily come to the rescue.  The idea is to create the false impression that everything is alright afterall.

            This Keynes theory was at the foundation of the New Deal.  Increased government public spending and tax cuts kept the economy going until the consumers and business leaders decided that the depression was over.  Of course once they decided it, the prophecy became self-fulfilling.

            The more intelligent economists doubt that the Keynesian fiscal policy works.  And when it does appear to work, it is primarily the result of an accidental occurrence.  You see, trying to fine-tune the economy usually comes in efforts that are too small, or they don’t get there in time.  You tinker with the resolution of one problem, and one or more new ones squish out and need to be handled.

            But oddly this one – the bipartisan one that was dreamed up and signed into law in early February – may actually work.  Here’s why:

            The affluent will not get the benefit of the stimulus package, but their taxes will pay for it.  Consequently, those benefits will more than likely come in the form of money that would have otherwise been saved.  So the affluent will in essence give the middleclass money to spend from the affluent’s savings.