The Wilsons are going under.

Harry_Powell

Pobby wrote: »

No doubt I will be flamed for telling another gloomy tale.The nice youngish couple next door have just got a BTL. Had it on the go for 4 months. This week end he was moaning to me that the rent is not getting paid in full. The place is getting shabby and the mortgage is not getting covered. They are evicting in a couple of months. Then he tells me his firm is going to close down in the next year or so and he needs to get mortgage in insurance on his own place.

Right old game.

I never understand the motivation of certain people on this forum when they post the deeply private and highly emotional stories of people they know onto a public forum, in order to prove some minor point or other.

It seems to me that they're implying that while they give comfort and succour to their friend/colleague/aquaintance's face, they're itching to put their details on here so that like-minded people can join them in a good gloat and so that they can prove a point against a forum adversary. What does resonate with me is that I hope my circle of friends and aquaintances does not contain one of these people.

I would hate to confide all of my fear, worries and concerns to someone I trusted only to find it smeared across a public forum with an "I told you so" type appendage. Just when you think things couldn't any worse.. they do.

MissMoneypenny

Harry_Powell wrote: »

I would hate to confide all of my fear, worries and concerns to someone I trusted only to find it smeared across a public forum with an "I told you so" type appendage. Just when you think things couldn't any worse.. they do.

Don't worry Harry. I have put all your fears, worries and concerns on a forum you will never find.

poppy10_2

Harry_Powell wrote: »

I never understand the motivation of certain people on this forum when they post the deeply private and highly emotional stories of people they know onto a public forum, in order to prove some minor point or other./QUOTE]
Calm down,. buddy. There was no identifiable information posted about the couple, noone will have recognized them from those details. It was an interesting and sobering story, and well worth recounting here.

carolt

Pobby wrote: »

http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/property/investing-in-property-buy-to-let-uk-house-prices-01005.aspx

Moneyweek has a take on a recent interview with Wilsons.

Some interesting stuff in there. eg:

"the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) reported this morning that in February, the number of homes coming onto the market outstripped the number of new buyer enquiries for the second month in a row. This represents the "first sustained shift towards supply for two years", said Rics."

Certainly noticed that round my way.

And we all know, more supply, in the absence of more demand = lower prices.

Pobby

The reason I posted that was to demonstrate that taking on a BTL is no more than a serious business decision and according to a conversation that I had with him, it was done very rapidly and he wasn`t too keen. Both are pretty intelligent folk and I am surprised that a venture was entered into that allowed no room for any margin, i.e, the rent covered the mortgage with no surplus for voids, wear and tear.

Goodness knows where HP comes up with the idea that" like- minded people can join them in a good gloat and so that they can prove a point against a forum adversary. " I notice the post had 7 thanks, and at least one or two of those folk would have given me short shrift if any element of gloating was implied.

I have been either working for small businesses and I have run 2 of my own. The point I am trying to get across is running a BTL is a very serious business decision that many of late have not appeared to have taken on board. There is plenty of evidence of that on the DFW board to demonstrate that.

However, on the plus side, it`s good that they are not up to their necks in negative equity so it could always be sold on. OK, it will involve charges but in the greater scheme of things, it would not be terminal.

Running a small business needs to be seen as not a road to riches. My current one was flying high a few years ago, now it makes me a very small income. Sadly a lot of people are coming to realise that during the boom years it is fairly easy to make a a shilling but very much harder in times like these.

We went to our local pub for a farewell party as the very nice, hard working couple, despite great efforts, have been forced to close down. It was a very sad occasion not without a few tears. It`s a very sad thing when folks have spent years building up a business to see it taken away. I also speak from personal experience.

Pobby

I quite liked this quote.

"We were going to be, to put it bluntly, stuffed," Fergus tells Patrick Collinson in the Guardian. So what saved them? The Bank of England. When interest rates were slashed to 0.5%, their loans mostly reverted to base-rate trackers. So their interest payment bills dived.

You can argue the toss about the morality of all this – actually, scratch that, you can't. It's a travesty. It's a complete betrayal of the capitalist system and anyone who foolishly thought that this was how the game was played.

carolt

Yes, I rather liked that quote too.

Pobby - you misread the thanks.

Only 2 people (so far) agreed with Harry Poweell - 8 people however, were amused my Miss Moneypenny's response.

kennyboy66_2

Pobby wrote: »

I quite liked this quote.

"We were going to be, to put it bluntly, stuffed," Fergus tells Patrick Collinson in the Guardian. So what saved them? The Bank of England. When interest rates were slashed to 0.5%, their loans mostly reverted to base-rate trackers. So their interest payment bills dived.

You can argue the toss about the morality of all this – actually, scratch that, you can't. It's a travesty. It's a complete betrayal of the capitalist system and anyone who foolishly thought that this was how the game was played.

Is it a travesty of the game in that the Government guaranteed all savings when they bailed our NR, RBS, HBOS et al ?

If we lived in a truly free market, then those banks would have gone bust and the savers lost everything.

Base rates have been cut to near zero to;

a) Attempt to avoid a depression
b) Nurse the banks back to health.

The fact that some people are paying next to nothing on their mortgage is an unfortunate side effect.

Pobby

I agree kennyboy, I am reluctant to do so but agree. At rates of 0.5% I am losing many thousands of pounds a year when the rate was 5%. OK, it`s a real begger as being older that income would have been very useful indeed. However, can`t be completely selfish in all of this and of course, long term stability is of paramount importance.

However, I do think that it gives me a right to have a little moan at those who were responsible to getting us all in this mess. I am no economist ( used to bore the pants off me at school ) but I among a number of people I know were worrying about how things were going a good few years back.

Did Big Boy Brown honestly believe that everything would turn out OK? Even he clearly stated the importance of the housing market not getting out of control. Many of us saw the fall out last time when Thatch took the brakes off in the lending sector.

MissMoneypenny

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Base rates have been cut to near zero to;

a) Attempt to avoid a depression
b) Nurse the banks back to health.

Wouldn't a base interest rate of 7% (the average) help the banks to bring in more money to help cover their losses from the borrowers who have defaulted or walked away from their repayments?