Liz Jones is Credit Crunched in the end.....

ninky_2

dopester wrote: »

Forget about further education and wasting time trying to advance yourself for a meaningful job.... cause you'll miss too many years of the glorious HPI.

.

this is very true on a financial level. my younger sister flunked her education. i went on to do a degree. whilst my parents helped my out with uni maintenance costs they helped her out by giving her work for a couple of months for my dad which gave her enough of a CV to get a call centre worker job and also gave her a deposit to buy a house.

guess who now lives in a nice 5 bed detatched cottage in a well off part of rural england and has a nice pension set up and guess who lives in a 1 bed flat in the !!!!!! end of london with no pension set up.....

that said, there is more to life than money and i wouldn't swap my life experiences for anything.

dopester

Liz-J is giving her money/debt wisdom again in the Daily Mail.

My financial problems stem from the moment I moved from London to Devon. I took over a conversion of a barn and the costs spiralled out of control. It ended up 150 per cent over budget and six months behind schedule.

That was in 2008. Why did she even need to convert the barn and luxury it up for accommodation? I've seen the architect plans (link on this thread somewhere). I would have thought she'd have enough on with the mortgage on the farm itself, the farm house, farm animals, vets ect. Even though she's a spendaholic, I genuinely hope she can get out with some equity to buy a simpler place outright.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1316403/Why-smart-women-bad-money.html

lostinrates

dopester wrote: »

Liz-J is giving her money/debt wisdom again in the Daily Mail.

That was in 2008. Why did she even need to convert the barn and luxury it up for accommodation? I've seen the architect plans (link on this thread somewhere). I would have thought she'd have enough on with the mortgage on the farm itself, the farm house, farm animals, vets ect. Even though she's a spendaholic, I genuinely hope she can get out with some equity to buy a simpler place outright.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1316403/Why-smart-women-bad-money.html

Here's my experience with this. we have found all the ''property professionals'' surveyors, architects etc etc, want us to press on with the works quickly. There are some places it seems practical to do so: e.g. our changing drainage will impact on the changing location for kitchen and fixing the structure at that end of house. Its cheaper longterm. OTOH a least one of our barns makes them go weak at the knees, looking for everyway to convert it now, now, now. To us the important things are to meet legal requirements, stop house falling down and to have clear plans and permissions so that we can do bits as we can almost afford it. Its extremely hard to find people who want to work in this way. One chap even explained it wasn't worth it to him because he'd have no pictures for his website, and then waited for us to say ''Ah, we see! Of course, lets crack on then!''

poppy10_2

This latest article is making me so angry. Now she claims she got into debt through no fault of her own because she "had no option but to put their [ the builders] wages on my credit cards," as she was so kind-hearted she did not want them to go without after her building costs spiralled. So nothing to do with the £26,000 bat sanctuary or £5000 dresses then?

soolin

Even whilst moaning about the debts she is still spiralling up the expenses, only in the past few articles she has written she mentions booking expensive hotels (personal use not business), having day spa treatments, hair cuts at top London salons and all sorts of expensive treatments that no real person would consider necessary. All this so that the rock star will sleep with her.

As for the rock star she mentioned that he used to wear leggings on stage, which possibly means a rocker than a boy band I'd have thought.

dopester

lostinrates wrote: »

Here's my experience with this. we have found all the ''property professionals'' surveyors, architects etc etc, want us to press on with the works quickly.

Liz-J is a salesperson's dream, but I've got to assume it's what she wanted. All the developing and making it a dream farm, whatever the cost.

In so many articles she gives the impression she's living alone, shivering around a naked candle in her farm-house. I missed it first time around - but inside the farm-house on the Rightmove listing it looks quite plush.

Are there many buyers around for this sort of farm who are going to require a 4-bed farmhouse (with 3 bathrooms)..

+ A separate annex accommodation called 'The Cider House' with two bedrooms. (No one living in it. I think she let it out to a animal healthcare person who she employed full-time.)

+ And 'The Hayloft' (2 double bedroom barn conversion). "The barn has been converted to a very high standard by the vendor, who has gone to painstaking efforts to create a stunning property." Goes on about things like designer bathrooms, 19th Century French oak floor, ect ect.

She turned into a property developer - creating a farm ideal for her - didn't she? With less focus on what other buyers might want/need/ pay £x for? Right in the midst of a economic mega implosion which is still ongoing.

I could just about understand it if she could separate the properties, and sell off the barn conversion in its own right (£300K+?). Sort of move the gate from A to B, but I don't think the farm is set out to allow it. And even then, £300K-£400Kish might not be much of a return on what she's spent doing it up. And it's only 2 bedrooms.

lostinrates

dopester wrote: »

Liz-J is a salesperson's dream, but I've got to assume it's what she wanted. All the developing and making it a dream farm, whatever the cost.

In so many articles she gives the impression she's living alone, shivering around a naked candle in her farm-house. I missed it first time around - but inside the farm-house on the Rightmove listing it looks quite plush.

Are there many buyers around for this sort of farm who are going to require a 4-bed farmhouse (with 3 bathrooms)..

+ A separate annex accommodation called 'The Cider House' with two bedrooms. (No one living in it. I think she let it out to a animal healthcare person who she employed full-time.)

+ And 'The Hayloft' (2 double bedroom barn conversion). "The barn has been converted to a very high standard by the vendor, who has gone to painstaking efforts to create a stunning property." Goes on about things like designer bathrooms, 19th Century French oak floor, ect ect.

She turned into a property developer - creating a farm ideal for her - didn't she? With less focus on what other buyers might want/need/ pay £x for? Right in the midst of a economic mega implosion which is still ongoing.

I could just about understand it if she could separate the properties, and sell off the barn conversion in its own right (£300K+?). Sort of move the gate from A to B, but I don't think the farm is set out to allow it. And even then, £300K-£400Kish might not be much of a return on what she's spent doing it up. And it's only 2 bedrooms.

IMO the chances are the converted outbuildings are, in that location, highly desirable. Consider that she is in an area where holiday lets are sometimes peoples main income, usually less plush but plush things command a price. Also an option might be letting longer term as ''weekend place', where Londonly-uptights like to have other Lonondly uptights to go to the ''honest local'' together to complain about London! (nb, this probably includes my family at times :o). Again, offering livery might make this more attractive. Its not too far away to collect the kids from the plethora of public schools offering weekly boarding on the way down too. Its a highly pushed farm diversification (as I keep being told ATM). With land and stables one might even do what we might, when we have facilities, do...B and B with facilities for horses: only where she is it would be lovelier!

dopester

lostinrates wrote: »

OTOH a least one of our barns makes them go weak at the knees, looking for everyway to convert it now, now, now. To us the important things are to meet legal requirements, stop house falling down and to have clear plans and permissions so that we can do bits as we can almost afford it. Its extremely hard to find people who want to work in this way. One chap even explained it wasn't worth it to him because he'd have no pictures for his website, and then waited for us to say ''Ah, we see! Of course, lets crack on then!''

Sounds like you're keeping focussed and not letting them tempt you into a big project which isn't necessary at the moment.

The steady and sensible approach to improvements or additional structures definitely seems the safest.

Surely there are going to be increasing number of builders/tradespeople willing to work the way you want them to - bit here, bit there later. Instead of only insisting on big expensive project work.

It has taken quite a bit of time for me to adjust to the thought of you being a home-owner Lir. Not because I don't want you to be a home-owner. Well a farm-owner. Now finally enjoying what you've wanted for so long. You deserve it, and total happiness and success. Just because I wanted it to be very affordable and successful for you - without too much stress on your finances. Stupid boom makes me feel very anxious for people when I've got doubt about current market prices / entire economy.

lostinrates

dopester wrote: »

Sounds like you're keeping focussed and not letting them tempt you into a big project which isn't necessary at the moment.

The steady and sensible approach to improvements or additional structures definitely seems the safest.

Surely there are going to be increasing number of builders/tradespeople willing to work the way you want them to - bit here, bit there later. Instead of only insisting on big expensive project work.

It has taken quite a bit of time for me to adjust to the thought of you being a home-owner Lir. Not because I don't want you to be a home-owner. Well a farm-owner. Now finally enjoying what you've wanted for so long. You deserve it, and total happiness and success. Just because I wanted it to be very affordable and successful for you - without too much stress on your finances. Stupid boom makes me feel very anxious for people when I've got doubt about current market prices / entire economy.

Dearest Dopester, its taking time for me to adjust too. Thank you, thank you for your kindness. I know how much you care and I feel lucky that you do care so much. I promise we wouldn't have gone a head without confidence that the property was a ''bargain''. Albeit a collapsing bargain. And had some ''price drop wiggle room'' built in it at the price we eventually paid. There was some compromise in that, e.g. less land than I wanted (but that's also less daily work!) and we didn't ''maximise'' our borrowing potential quite. Which is actually a huge relief, because the figures for things like ''rebuilding this'' and ''footings here'' and ''rip this down'' and ''put this back'' are horrific!

fc123

Well.........I am now online .......but keep getting interrupted as the house is so full........and now I having a major procrastinate as I am half way through my webshop spec to go through with PN when she has time so I figured I should use my procrastinating time well by updating the thread as, on first glance, it appeared that she is now solvent.:j

But reading the column, it's not so.

She believes all her financial probs will soon be gone because........da da.....the tarot reader said so.

But then she said that something big will happen in eight weeks’ time, and that in four months’ time my life will have changed completely. She said I will be moving, and signing a contract. That I have two men after me, and I will have to choose between them. There is no way she could have known this. And then she gasped. She said that every card she turned over signified money.

‘Really? Are you sure?’

‘Every card says wealth, and recognition. Next year is going to be a good one for you. Just you wait and see. You are going to be a very, very, very wealthy woman,’ she said.

The rest was just depressing to be honest like the VAT came to take goods ..........

........stressed. But I don’t know how else to describe it. I have just driven four hours to London for work. I left home at 4am, and it is now 9am. I get a call on my mobile. Maybe it is one of my two boyfriends? It is the VAT man. ‘I am in your kitchen,’ he said. ‘I have come to collect the money you owe. If I don’t get it from you today, I will start removing things from your property.’

and she says she has had zero viewings on the farm...despite all the pimping in the Sundays....oh ....and still spending. Can you believe the price of hay?

– the hay that has just cost me £2,000 to have cut? I honestly feel like giving up. This level of pressure is enormous. I haven’t had a single viewing on the house. I just want to sell up, buy somewhere small with no mortgage, and get these people off my back.