Poor old Wilsons

ruggedtoast

I hate to piddle on the anti Wilson parade, but they almost certainly are not shafted. Whatever happens to property prices they'll already have more squirrelled away in off shore accounts than most posters on this board will see in a lifetime. Put together.

JayScottGreenspan

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I hate to piddle on the anti Wilson parade, but they almost certainly are not shafted. Whatever happens to property prices they'll already have more squirrelled away in off shore accounts than most posters on this board will see in a lifetime. Put together.

Why put £x offshore when you could use it as a deposit an another ten 2 bedders at the peak of the market?

Alan_M_2

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

I think people dislike them because they always come across so smug, greedy and with such huge egos. I don't hate them but I think going bankrupt would serve them right.

Like someone else said, this list doesn't seem to take into account debt. If they are worth 70mil but owe an average of 100k on 900 houses... I wouldn't like to have that problem...

So what does the list take into account then?

When I watched a documentary on them they came across as rather prudent, in so much as they used almost every penny of the monthly rental income in capital repayments of the outstanding loans and drew a salary of £10 per month per property.

They also bought in such volume that they were commanding 30% to 40% discounts on off plan purchase prices by buying 10 or 20 units in one hit. Bear in mind these will have been discounts on 2004/05/06 prices or before......

I may be proven wrong, but I don't think they will ever be close to bankruptcy. They may not be worth what is suggested by journalists who manage to calculate the average plumber earns £80K a year also...but I'd hazard a guess they are liquid Millionaires and will stay that way due to financial prudence. Why is that so wrong? What is so wrong with saying look at how well I've done? Imagine how many unemployed/ill people are paid for by their taxes. It's likely they pay more in tax in a year than hundreds of us will pay in a lifetime.

We have a strange mentality towards success in this country, the guy who owns the business next door to me did very well for himself, he decided to buy himself a Bentley, paid for in full.....three months later He's had to sell it. He can't park it anywhere without it getting keyed, scratched and vandalised by what I can assume are jealous people who probably feel as He's earned a great deal of money he should give some to them. I see this attitude on this board daily.

If all the energy posters put into hate was routed in a more constructive way we may well not be in the mess we're in now.

JayScottGreenspan

Alan_M wrote: »

Imagine how many unemployed/ill people are paid for by their taxes. It's likely they pay more in tax in a year than hundreds of us will pay in a lifetime.

They are playing a zero-sum game. Their activities do not generate any wealth, their business plan is merely to redistribute wealth from future FTBs or renters to themselves off the back of high house prices.

That's why I don't like them.

It's also why I'd rather their tax bill was still in the hands of the young couples looking for somewhere reasonably priced to live in the Medway area.

ruggedtoast

Its really disturbing how many people own up to keying cars on internet forums. Its like they dont see it as wrong or something.

I was doing some google searching about this once and came across all these random forum posts about it. Stuff like "Yeah there was a Mercedes parked over two bays so I keyed it but no one saw" with replies like "Ok yeah fair enough"

Alan_M_2

JayScottGreenspan wrote: »

They are playing a zero-sum game. Their activities do not generate any wealth, their business plan is merely to redistribute wealth from future FTBs or renters to themselves off the back of high house prices.

That's why I don't like them.

It's also why I'd rather their tax bill was still in the hands of the young couples looking for somewhere reasonably priced to live in the Medway area.

My I see some hogwash posted on these forums but this one is a belter. Zero sum my !!!!!.

So where do the rentals come from if there are no professional landlords?

The house builders who build the houses they buy employ local trades.

The Wilsons have hundreds of properties to maintain which will employ local trades.

They provide homes for tennants who are free to live in their properties or not as wonderfully we live in a free market economy where these people have choice. If they were ripping tennants off they wouldn't have any tennants would they!

I import granite from India (amongst other things) I sell it on to companies who fabricate and install it. I do this for no other reason than to distribute wealth from fitters/end users to me. Do you dislike me as a result?

You blame people like the Wislons for rampant HPi but you're sadly misinformed. The Wilsons are the result of Hpi not the cause, the cause is availability of credit at zero/low risk assesment provided by banks and financial institutions which has lead to this entire and utter mess.

You want to shoot the messenger, not the casue.......If you're going to dislike something, dislike the institutions and controls that allowed this to happen, not the resulting actions taken by individuals taking advantage of the facilities offered.

GDB2222

Alan_M wrote: »

I import granite from India

Out of interest, what's wrong with home-grown granite? It seems crazy to move the stuff thousands of miles.

JayScottGreenspan

Alan_M wrote: »

My I see some hogwash posted on these forums but this one is a belter. Zero sum my !!!!!.

So where do the rentals come from if there are no professional landlords?

The house builders who build the houses they buy employ local trades.

The Wilsons have hundreds of properties to maintain which will employ local trades.

They provide homes for tennants who are free to live in their properties or not as wonderfully we live in a free market economy where these people have choice. If they were ripping tennants off they wouldn't have any tennants would they!

I import granite from India (amongst other things) I sell it on to companies who fabricate and install it. I do this for no other reason than to distribute wealth from fitters/end users to me. Do you dislike me as a result?

You blame people like the Wislons for rampant HPi but you're sadly misinformed. The Wilsons are the result of Hpi not the cause, the cause is availability of credit at zero/low risk assesment provided by banks and financial institutions which has lead to this entire and utter mess.

You want to shoot the messenger, not the casue.......If you're going to dislike something, dislike the institutions and controls that allowed this to happen, not the resulting actions taken by individuals taking advantage of the facilities offered.

Unless more house have been built in the Medway area indirectly because of the Wilsons' investment, they are just redistributing wealth.

This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if it helped eliminate pricing anomalies in the local rental/FTB markets. As it happens it exacerbated those anomalies.

The Wilsons' actvities are an example of market failure.

Graham_Devon

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I hate to piddle on the anti Wilson parade, but they almost certainly are not shafted. Whatever happens to property prices they'll already have more squirrelled away in off shore accounts than most posters on this board will see in a lifetime. Put together.

Not quite true.

The wilsons did this, not through their own money, but through loans. They are a big example of how the regulation failed. The way they ran means they would always have way more debt than assets.

The whole system they ran was based on house prices rising, then selling off when they hit retirement, and taking the house price rises as their "profit".

Their "worth" does not take into account their debt, which absolutely wipes out their worth.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I had only heard of F Wilson through his dabbling in the racing world. He has an unendearing habit of entering his no-hopers in the top races to enjoy the prestige of having a Derby/Gold Cup runner. It's not technically against the rules to do this, just considered quite crass- he is generally perceived to be a moron within the racing world. Thankfully, so far none of these animals have injured themselves or hampered others.

I had no idea he was rich through this kind of business. I personally think it's morally wrong and unnecessary to own more than one home (a debate for another thread). To buy up new-builds in bulk for BTL and to be the dominant owner/landlord in one town or area will inevitably distort the usual pattern of things- see the quote from the Ashford agent about young FTBers being unable to compete. The Wilsons can't be blamed for all of the ills of the housing market, but they do represent ugly, short termist greed, which I for one would be mildly amused to see come back to bite them on the bum.