The Wilsons - 875 buy to let property empire

mewbie_2

GG - I'll give you one reason I don't like them. Saw a program on TV about them, and one part showed them 'negotiating' with a forced seller. Very rich people screwing very poor and desperate person. I know its 'business' but it stunk. An additional aspect to this, is that were happy for this to be shown on TV, as if they were proud of how they could humble, humilate a poorer person publicly.

That'll do it for me every time.

ad9898_3

mewbie wrote: »

GG - I'll give you one reason I don't like them. Saw a program on TV about them, and one part showed them 'negotiating' with a forced seller. Very rich people screwing very poor and desperate person. I know its 'business' but it stunk. An additional aspect to this, is that were happy for this to be shown on TV, as if they were proud of how they could humble, humilate a poorer person publicly.

That'll do it for me every time.

That'll do for me too.

napoleon

You can say what you want about the credit crunch and the global economic meltdown but there is some upsides to it all, and the Wilsons going bankrupt would be one of them. :T

teabelly

Their numbers don't work. If they have borrowed 160m even at 5.5% then unless the average rent in Ashford is over 1000 pcm it won't meat the rental criteria so they can't buy any more. The comment from Fergus was quite telling when he said if we are going bust then everyone is. I am sure there was an article that said Mortage Expresses bad debt suddenly lept by £150 million and they owe 160 million so I reckon this is where the issue is....I'm sure a news ferret can find that article

You don't have to mortgage to the hilt to build a large portfolio. If you continually buy property cheaply enough then you can remain sub 80% ltv. Ideally you want to be sub 70% ltv. By its nature portfolio lending is designed to allow you to buy more using existing equity as the deposit for future purchases.

dopester

I rarely read it, but found this to be such a great post about the Wilsons over from GPHC.. and hopefully the poster won't mind me reproducing their insight here.

Look at what he is saying:

"We are not a penny behind on our loan payments," says Fergus. "We are reasonably safe, I think. If we go under, then everyone's going under."

He's worried about going under.

The risk for buy-to-let borrowers is not only rising mortgage costs, but tenants failing to pay the rent. "One or two have lost jobs [...]"

He's worried about rising mortgage costs and tenants losing their jobs.

Figures from Nationwide this week showed house prices tumbling 12.4% annually, but Fergus says "the prices for two and three-bedders around here have not fallen much"

He's worried about prices falling.

Fergus says: "Buy-to-let landlords are not bad people. [...]"

Worst of all, he's worried about being considered a bad person.

They are both over 60. If they were still maths teachers they would have retired by now. Teachers of their age get really good pensions. If they'd stuck to just a couple of early BTLs they would now not have a care in the world. Isn't that what's important at their age? They would have a very comfortable retirement and, even more importantly, they would feel good about themselves having spent their working lives enlightening and inspiring thousands of young people about maths. They would be respected members of the community.

This is a tragic story of people becoming wrapped up in their own greed and personal hubris. Even if they don't lose their entire fortune, they will certainly have gone through a period of extreme stress and quite frankly even if their financial worries go away, their greed is so obvious they must have nagging self-doubts as they go to sleep each night. That is their true punishment.

frug.

One other thing... this bit:

"We are reasonably safe, I think. If we go under, then everyone's going under."

That indicates to me he either thinks they are too big and important to go unsupported by their lenders - or, even worse a trait - that he would prefer to see everyone brought down and get hurt and go to ruin if he falls.

Gorgeous_George

dopester wrote: »

You don't half talk a load of rubbish at times GG.

Having read it again, you might be right.

GG

jamescredmond

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

Having read it again, you might be right.

GG

perhaps, but I kind of agree with your last paragraph.

their rapacious greed closed the door to a no. of local people, with no agenda other than to purchase locally.

inadvertently, by freezing some locals out of the market, the wilsons actually did them a favour.

I always knew there was a God - whether He allows them tenancy in the hereafter is another matter.

maybe 'old nick' will help out, with a 'hot' bedsit....

macaque_2

I hope the Wilsons took the precaution of putting on rubber pants before listening to the news this morning.

baby_boomer

Then again, they could have sold up in 1999 and invested their pile in the UK stock market :eek:

Pobby

Sure it`s bad news re the stock market but you are not committed to any form of debt repayment on a falling market. Maybe, oh OK yes I am trying to make myself feel better, but so far in history the market has recovered. Hope it`s in a 5 year time span as I would like to take my pension then.