What is the experience of posters on this forum?

chickmug

Anyone care to start by outlining where there experience comes from? Their job or just a strong interest in the subject?

Two reasons I ask:

1) I am just being plain nosey and am sure I am not the only one!!!

2) When I read some replies it is very clear the person writing them is well experienced in that field and the reply is excellent. But as it says at the top of this page "Anyone can post so always exercise caution when acting on info". So sometimes I know the content in the reply is not right but well meaning and I worry that the OP may get slightly misled.

clutton_2

i have been a full time professional landlady and letting agent for 8 years - i also write articles and present at seminars on property

ruggedtoast

What - you mean you should be careful about accepting advice from a load of internet warriors on a web-forum??

bookduck

"Expert", what is that! Roll the dice and take a chance like everyone else!

To me anyone who has multiple properties, bought pre 1990 and survived the 1990's housing market smiling and still is doing well, is an expert.

Then there are the Wilsons who I've got to take my hat of to as what they have accomplished http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-431224/How-maths-teachers-clocked-707-houses-240m-fortune.html

Others go on one week courses, develop, or are EA's, invest in an appreciating market, make a few sales, the cash rolls in and consider themselves expert.

I've always like property since 1984. The problem with me has been the cash deposit and limited income. I'm not the type of person who gets a 120% mortguage and uses the 20% as deposit. This may change if the housing market really takes a dip and becomes a fire sale. I like limited risk.

I know quite a few people into houses. Some have multiple houses in Scotland, some are being ripped of by letting agents. Some have invested in overseas property and all that I know have lost all their money in those properties (they all went for the same investment).

I've done a lot of reading and looking around on the subject. I consider myself as an ok amateur. Been a landlord for nearly 2 years.

I'm not into ripping my tenants off, and I do not like to see people ripped off either.

ncooper1974

2 things:
1) Clutton, i always thought you were a man. no idea why. (no offence intended)
2) re the wilsons. I remember seeing a documentary about them by little Dominic from the One Show and Celeb Come Dancing. This was a few years back, so was good to see an update about them.

I'm actually a self employed IT consultant. Been doing it for about 10 years. I'm one of those accidental landlords - when I wanted to move I didn't sell, simply let out the property i've lived in. So i guess i'm not expert at all !

bookduck

ncooper1974 wrote: »

... 2) re the wilsons. I remember seeing a documentary about them by little Dominic from the One Show and Celeb Come Dancing. This was a few years back, so was good to see an update about them.

I'm actually a self employed IT consultant.

Weird, I was ill in bed at the time and seen the exact same thing and that is why I have always looked out for them. Later on I found it was part of a series he did. Me too in to IT for around 20+ years, but working for NHS, so always a lack of funds - not like you expensive contractors .

neverdespairgirl

bookduck wrote: »

Then there are the Wilsons who I've got to take my hat of to as what they have accomplished http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-431224/How-maths-teachers-clocked-707-houses-240m-fortune.html

Accomplished? They've bought a lot of houses, so what?

I also think they (rather than BTL in general) have damaged FTBs in the area of Kent they dominate.

From the Guardian in 2006:

But Fergus Wilson predicts that prices will double every seven years and says the typical property he owns - a £200,000 two- to three-bed starter home - will cost £400,000 by 2013, £800,000 by 2020 and £1.6m by 2027.
In Ashford town centre, every estate agent knows the Wilsons. "They own great big chunks of the new-build estates around here, particularly Park Farm," said one. "They have single-handedly pushed up prices in the new developments, buying them off-plan and renting the lot out. It's tough for first-time buyers. As soon as a suitable property for a first-time buyer comes on to the market you get three or four buy-to-let investors putting in offers. You'd like to be able to sell it to a young couple but you just can't."

He thinks prices will double every 7 years - hmmmm. Doubt it. And it does seem in that area, BTL has been a malign influence.

RHemmings

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Accomplished? They've bought a lot of houses, so what?

I also think they (rather than BTL in general) have damaged FTBs in the area of Kent they dominate.

From the Guardian in 2006:

But Fergus Wilson predicts that prices will double every seven years and says the typical property he owns - a £200,000 two- to three-bed starter home - will cost £400,000 by 2013, £800,000 by 2020 and £1.6m by 2027.
In Ashford town centre, every estate agent knows the Wilsons. "They own great big chunks of the new-build estates around here, particularly Park Farm," said one. "They have single-handedly pushed up prices in the new developments, buying them off-plan and renting the lot out. It's tough for first-time buyers. As soon as a suitable property for a first-time buyer comes on to the market you get three or four buy-to-let investors putting in offers. You'd like to be able to sell it to a young couple but you just can't."

He thinks prices will double every 7 years - hmmmm. Doubt it. And it does seem in that area, BTL has been a malign influence.

According to reports, the Wilsons are highly geared. This means that should prices drop, their "£800 million" "empire" could become a liability rather than an asset.

There have been discussions of their claims of wealth. I.e. I have seen claims that the £800 million they claim counts their properties as assets while not discounting debts (mortgages) secured on those properties. Also, if you compare the number of properties they own versus their claimed wealth, the valuation of their properties seems rather high.

I'd like to see an in-depth and complete description of the Wilsons' finances. I'm not convinced that things are as rosy for them as some newspapers claim. However, that's just a personal suspicion, rather than hard facts.

oldMcDonald

ncooper1974 wrote: »

2 things:
1) Clutton, i always thought you were a man. no idea why. (no offence intended)

So did I! I had to read her post twice to check I had read it correctly!

oldMcDonald

My experience / situation is that I got married and bought a 3 bedroom house in 1994 for £30k , sold it in 1997 for 10k less. A third lost in 3 years - we were lucky in that we had saved and put down a £13k deposit and that enabled us to cover the loss, we were in a position where we had to move due to DH employment so had little choice about selling at that point in time. Bought and sold a couple of houses between 1997 and 2001 and then moved into what should have been a rented house for life (left to DH when owner died), but due to unexpected circumstances and people with power of attourney taking advantage of the situation (far too complicated to go into!), ended up in a HA property.

Couldn't belive how much prices had gone up in the 3 years we had been renting and how we were now in a position where we couldn't afford a shoebox and stumbled upon HPC / GHPC - I then realised that we had bought and sold during a crash where our first house was concerned and that prices were unsustainable, got us out of debt (over 20k), and have been saving like mad waiting for the next crash.

So my experience is the above, plus obsessive price watching for the last 4 years:)

ruggedtoast

I suspect the Wilson's property empire is somewhat unstable at best, however I am also equally sure that they will have tucked enough away in offshore accounts not to be unduly troubled by their businesses' forthcoming bankruptcy or any creditors demands.

Still would be lovely to see them go down the pan, theyre horrible landlords by all accounts, and its also rather ironic that they were maths teachers seeing as theyve spent the last half a decade attempting to ensure none of the kids they taught would ever be able to have any financial security.