I want to tell you of two recent and interesting experiences.

While in "real life" I am a Realtor, for years I have also tuned pianos. Why? Because I have always loved pianos. And I've played side gigs for more than 40 years. Why? Because I love pianos.

Now the way you find me is from a referral from one of your friends or from my piano tuner web site wee.billcherrypianotuner.com

And the web site makes clear what the price is, that I only take cash or check, and that there is no credit for anyone. Period.

And when people call to schedule my services, I tell them the price and that I must be paid by cash or check at the time of the tuning. No credit cards, no accounts payable.

Individuals understand this. And until recently, hotels did as well.

However,during the past two months both a Marriott brand and a Hilton's Doubletree in Dallas called at the last minute begging that I come quickly and tune the hotel's piano...they had a function that required the instrument be in tune.

I rearranged my schedule each time and tuned the pianos. And that's when the person who hired me told me that it was against the hotel's policy to pay at the time of service.

I would have to turn in my invoice and a 1099 and wait for a few days before the check would be sent to me. Nevermind that wasn't our deal!

"You knew the deal. You chose to deceive me"

And then I said, "You know if I brought six people in for dinner in your dining room, and when the waiter brought the bill, I told him I'd send my personal check in a few days, you would call security, wouldn't you?

"And that would be because I had no credit arrangements with you.

"Now you made no credit arrangements with me, yet I'm supposed to play by your rules because you are a national hotel chain."

So how did things come out? The Marriott took more than a month to pay me. The Hilton Doubletree near NorthPark still hasn't.

Dr. Michael DeBakey, RIP

 

By Dallas Realtor Bill Cherry

OBAMA VS. MC CAIN OR.....

It's Time to Consider Your Pocketbook
  

 

INCOME TAX  (find your bracket)

MCCAIN         (no changes)
 
Single making 30K - tax $4,500 
Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $31,250
 
OBAMA  (reverse all tax cuts)
 
Single making 30K - tax $8,400  
Single making 50K - tax $14,000  
Single making 75K - tax $23,250  
Married making 60K - tax $16,800  
Married making 75K - tax $21,000  
Married making 125K - tax $38,750
 
Under Obama, your taxes will more than double!
           
INHERITANCE TAX
 
MCCAIN   0%     (No change, Bush repealed this tax)
 
OBAMA               Restore the inheritance tax
 
Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they  could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes. 

NEW TAXES BEING PROPOSED BY OBAMA
  
New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet.
 
New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already)
 
New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity) 
 
New taxes on retirement accounts, and last but not least....
 
New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!!

 You can verify the tax information at http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/election/2008/index.html

I THINK IT STARTED WITH DONALD TRUMP'S "THE ART OF THE DEAL"

I blame it on Donald Trump and his personal how-to books.  Actually not him, but the public's interpretation of his how-to books. 

And I do because it seemed to have started about six months after The Art of the Deal hit the bookstores and was a run-away success.

While most Gentiles probably intuitively knew it, most didn't know that proper business dealings followed a Jewish mitzvah which paraphrased means, "Make certain there is something on the table for everyone."

The idea is that even if you have the upper hand in a negotiation, it is your moral obligation to make sure that the terms are fair and fair to all concerned.  When you don't, to Jews it is similar to having broken one of the Ten Commandments. 

I think I must have been about fifty when The Art of the Deal made amateur negotiators into pseudo-Donald Trumps.  I remember how appalled I was that one of my clients of many years started unfairly beating up --- making impossible demands --- on a poor fellow who was trying to sell his property to him for a fair price.

I stopped the meeting, and asked my client if I could speak with him in the hall.  When we went out of earshot of the others, I all but yelled at him, "What in God's name are you doing?"  He told me that he was doing what he had learned Donald Trump did.

Well, I told him, "That's not real, and even if it is, you're too honorable of a man to take those ideas into your bag of tricks."  Then I said, "There is a Jewish mitzvah  that says 'Make certain there is something on the table for everyone.'  We're going to continue doing our business together that way, or you need a new Realtor."  He knew I meant it, and we'd had too many successful dealings together for him to let me go on my way.

Then I learned he wasn't an anomaly.  Lots of people began thinking they were Donald Trump.  Even those guys on TV who push the books that tell you how to buy million dollar mansions with a buck and no risk to your credit.

Saturday, I presented a clean and full-price contract to a listing agent.  In the old days, the seller would have signed his name and been thrilled.  Not this time.  The contract was sent back to me countered with about twelve ridiculous Donald Trump Demands.  And, in reality, they didn't mean a darned thing to the seller except he didn't want my client to have them.

So what is my point?  It is that real estate agents and attorneys have a professional obligation to all parties.  They must do their very best to restrain their clients from being Donald Trump The Art of the Deal interpreters.

 

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

1-800 314-7110

OUR 43RD YEAR SELLING TEXAS

Recently I’ve had three interesting experiences with the Office Max store in Dallas that is near the intersection of Park and US 75.

 

Let me set this up for you.  I have an HP printer for my computer that uses small ink cartridges.  In fact, so small that I buy at least one black cartridge a week, and one color cartridge every two weeks.  Both Office Max and Office Depot give you a $3 discount when you return the empty ink cartridge.

 

Last week, I bought a new black cartridge, installed it, and it had no ink in it.  I took it back.  The clerk, who appeared to be some sort of manager, insisted that I had brought back a cartridge I had already used, so he refused to replace it.  (I'm 68-years old, and was dressed in a coat and tie...hardly the age and look of someone on a binge to steal 15 bucks from an office supply store.)

 

He suggested that I let him refill the empty cartridge from some gizmo the store has so I could at least save a couple of bucks.  I was trying my best not to get into an argument.  So, OK, I let him refill it.  That cartridge spattered ink all over everything when I tried to print with it.  I took it back for a replacement.  Same guy told me it couldn’t possibly be the refilled cartridge, it had to be a malfunctioning printer.

 

I left and went to Office Depot, bought a new HP cartridge, installed it and it worked fine.  I swore I wouldn't go back to Office Max again, I'd watch how their corporate stock traded instead.

 

Today I was in a big hurry.  I broke my promise to myself to never buy anything from Office Max again.  I was inadvertently out of printer ink, and I didn’t have time to drive the extra distance to Office Depot.

 

I handed my empty cartridge to the cashier for my $3 discount, and she told me that the store no longer does that.  Instead, she said I’d need to apply for some sort of card and they would then give me a credit on the card.  I guess that would be used to purchase prizes or something.

 

I told her I didn’t want to apply, to give me back my empty cartridge, to charge me the normal shelf price for the cartridge I was buying, and to count me as a former customer, effective July 6, 2008.

 

In the past 52 weeks, Office Max’s stock has dropped from a high of $40.16 to the close this past Friday of $13.98.  And that’s because gross sales and profits have dropped.  The chairman of the board notified stockholders that he thinks this can be solved by raising prices and cutting overhead.  He says the whole thing has been caused by the lowering of the economy.

 

The real problem is he, his officers and directors, and his store managers and employees don’t get it.  All they have to do is read this piece to know almost all they need to know about what to do.

Texans’ arms were seriously twisted and they gave into the idea that deregulating the state electricity providers would bring better rates and better service than they were used to with the single, state-regulated franchise method.

 

I recall sitting in a Rotary Club meeting of 200.  The guest speaker was trying to convince us deregulation would be a good thing.  When he finished, I stood up and asked for a show of hands of the members who agreed.  Not one hand went up.

 

As it turns out, apparently just as the Rotary members speculated, rates and service have gone in the opposite direction.  Since January 2008, the state utility commission reports that it has processed 3,168 customer complaints. 

 

There are some thirty-seven providers with TXU having the most customers.  The commission shows that it has received 1,037 about it and its practices.  Texas Power is fifteenth on the list, and the commission has heard from forty-one of its customers.  I don't know what this means except that apparently a lot of people were dissatisfied enough to write the state a complaint letter.

 

Because my wife and I were dissatisfied with TXU, we decided to support one of KSKY-AM’s advertisers and change our service to Texas Power.  We’ve been dealing with them for about six months, and since I’m the bill payer of our family, I am ready to dump them.

 

Texas Power uses a bank box located in Dallas.  Most businesses that have large numbers of payments coming to it through the mail use a bank box.  The idea is quite simple. The post office box where you mail your check and payment stub is emptied everyday by the bank.  For a fee to the vendor, the bank updates your account with the vendor's customer, and clears your check.

 

Three months in a row, I mailed our check to the DAllas bank box the day after we got the bill from Texas Power.  Three months in a row, the check was apparently not processed by the bank until after the delinquency date.  We're talking about two weeks or so.  My checks to other vendors at their lock boxes cleared quickly.  Not Texas Power's/

 

But it gets even more perplexing.  Three months in a row, my check to them had cleared my account at my bank, so Texas Power was paid, yet a day or two afterwards, they sent me a letter threatening to turn off the service.

 

So this month, our bill jumped about 63% over the previous month.  No explanation.  It just did.  My wife called to ask that we be transferred to an accounting that would allow us to pay an average year around.

 

“Nope, can’t do that until you’ve been a customer for a year,” the person said, even though our payment records with both TXU and Texas Power are easily available.

 

Lenders are repossessing homes right and left, and many of those pass to FHA or one of the other governmental secondary market lenders for them to dispose of.  That's because the loans were sold to them by the originating lender or mortgage broker.

 

There are any numbers of those specially treated agents in Dallas.  I am familiar with three companies that have “teams” (a euphemism for a business within a business) composed of about six people, each whose total business is listing and managing foreclosed properties for the government.  One has so many of these listings that they don't bother to answer or return the phone calls of buyers. 

 

Just think, when some 14,000 agents in the Dallas and Ft. Worth area and where many are scratching to make a living, our government is consciously making the select few rich.  And there's no way to lose one of those listings because it will eventually sell at some price.

 

 

Why?  It was obvious to me that before the listing hit the MLS, the listing agent had already cut a side deal as to whose contract would be accepted.