|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Oct 24, 2023 7:02:40 GMT
Absolutely, my 1st mortgage was limited to 3 x base income , overtime bonuses ect could not count. This limited the market to prices which realistically people could pay during financial shocks over the life of the loan.Given even then it could be very hard , my interest rate went to 15% the day I moved in. My then insurance backed repayment of the capital, garrenteed the full amount of the loan from day one, any excess profit was mine at term. Then the sillyness started , 5 times salary , assumed return rates which if not achieved would leave a shortfall. All this was to drive commissions , builders profits and estate agent fees. It was in all their interests to drive the fantasy of turning homes into commodities which would perpetually increase in value in excess of inflation . Well America should have given us all a lesson in that stupidity, however all I see is a steady pressure from the housing business sector is to make homes more affordable. That is of course only by , multi generational mortgages, shared ownership or any other way of driving real house costs and profits up, not house prices down to a sustainable level. So what do I see now around me, every layby, bit of waste ground being used on occasion by young people living in vans. They have given up being in the system it does not work for them and never will, and unable to afford rental or house purchase no longer see any future in participation in classic social society. There numbers are increasing rapidly, two years ago there was only a couple of cans working around the island , now there is over 20, it's seen as perfectly acceptable style and way of life among the majority of there peers.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Oct 21, 2023 17:36:13 GMT
Next month I think I have 22 loans redeeming which will be about 10% of my remaining stake, 😄. However I expect a lot of voting for extensions and I am getting increasingly fed up ☹️. For sure any loan not paying increased rates with a solid track record can get lost. Also any loan requiring interest free, no solid believable exit route within 3 months can go to. Life's hard and getting the feeling that our borrowers are finding the existing rates very attractive compared to transfered rates so stringing us along for a refinance in the future is good business.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Oct 14, 2023 7:13:10 GMT
My tour took place on the day before the Sabbath, on the Sabbath we were free on our own .So part of the tour was being shown how to identify what streets were safe and unsafe to enter on the Sabbath. Orthodox Jews would not throw a rock out of their upper windows on your head on the Sabbath ,that's work and banned but lining up rocks on the window seal the day before and just tipping them over the edge was not work, perfectly acceptable a punishment for you breaking the Sabbath.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Oct 13, 2023 17:58:04 GMT
My trip 30 odd years ago was odd, the main purpose was diving based in Eilat and into the Egpytian Sinai and though I liked the Israeli people it was strange. Ok Eilat is not Israel in the kind of way California is not the US. In Eilat I never saw an Orthodox Jew and the few Arabs were treated a bit like Aboriginal people or red Indians in the US I guess at the turn off the 20th century. They were marginal, ignored and semi invisible. Egyptians were belittled , the Sinai had been handed back to Egypt in return for peace but the open opinion was that they were incapable of developing any tourist future or anything else in it and it would be given back to Israel as uneconomic to keep. Got that wrong did they not.Understand at that time I dived at Ras Muhammad , toilet was a spade and walk, hotel was a sleeping bag on the beach and dinner walked up a wadi and came back as goat stew over an open fire. In those Arab villages that had western tourists to the north like Bethlehem we were welcome, money talks, else where it was tense. Our trip to Jerusalem was by organized bus , but one couple stayed on and returned under there own steam by hire car. They had checked that they would be safe, but safe is relative and though they were not directly threatened,the car was comprehensively stoned in various villages on the way.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Oct 12, 2023 6:22:13 GMT
I visited Jerusalem some 30 plus years ago as part of this we had one day with a Jewish guide visiting the Wailing Wall, Alexa Mosque, site of the Jewish 1st temple and other religious sites. First thing to say is the close proximity to each other of all these sites, close walking distance. Approaching the wailing wall from the Jewish area you did not need to be told when entering the Arab area the drop in standard of municipal infrastructure may as well have been marked with a painted line in the road. At the wailing wall above your head a fence prevented the Arabs in the Alexa mosque dropping rocks on your head.Then walking approx 100m to the right we were at a narrow rough path leading up to the Alexa mosque site guarded by Israeli soldiers and just through a small gate mosque officials. Our guide counts out plans of the now ruined 1st temple and explains that for Orthodox Jews the state of Israel will not exist until the 1st temple is rebuilt and the Messiah comes, not Christ. However there is an problem the Alexa mosque is in the the way and will need to be demolished to restore the site. He then carefully counts the plans back and leaves them with the Israeli soldiers explaining the Arabs will not like us turning up with from their point of view sets of builders plans before we enter the mosque site. So when Benjamin Netanyahu turns up with a bunch of orthodox Jews waving plans of the 1st temple forcing entrance with the help of Israeli soldiers he knows exactly how incendiary these actions are. Later we stopped on the mount of olives looking down on the smart tombs of rich Jews and the older partially wrecked Arab graves, the marble for the Jewish graves had in many cases been acquired from the Arab graves which when the days of of Arab control had been acquired from Jewish graves and probably cycled back and forth over the years.When Christ returns he will ride a donkey down the hill through the graves ,the dead rising to great him and then through the golden gate which now leads into the mosque site and on to the 1st temple. Of course from the Arab point of view this is not going to happen, because. 1 The Christian Messiah is not coming back 2 If he does come back they have completely bricked the gate up , so he's not getting in. 3 If he gets in two large guards stationed inside the gate 24 /7 armed with clubs will beat his head in, I joke not. I could go on with other examples but these give a taste of the complexity and tensions of Jerusalem and the issues around the religious and political tensions.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Oct 8, 2023 19:17:16 GMT
I was not involved in TC however my impression of this situation is that the big investor forced them into administration ending an orderly wind down. This just means a big pay day for the administration company and in the two conditions above a small proportion or a larger proportion of the bugger all left after the feeding frenzy for the investor in question. Of course any share of bugger all is bugger all.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Oct 6, 2023 9:16:10 GMT
What's is snow ?,I think I can just remember it. Saw a frost 3 maybe 4 years a go. Having said that living on a virtual island surround by the sea in dorset may just have a bit to do with it. Heating bills are so high, record latest day to turn start heating November 15th, did not need it but the log burner looks so nice
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Oct 4, 2023 15:20:35 GMT
Got to agree as long there is no cut and run administration it's not good news but heck it could be a dam site worse. Must say I find the most of the more recent loans an issue , I want to say no extension, want my money out now but the borrowers seem to have kept their end of the deal and in normal circumstances would have prob got a refinance with A C. On the more mercenary side the loan to asset ratio looks on the surface at least reasonable and forcing administration of the borrower is not a good option when they are paying as agreed and may find a way out and pay in full.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Sept 21, 2023 6:21:49 GMT
Most house gardens could of course offset a trip to the isle of wright, provided they went by peddle bike and cannoe .
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Sept 16, 2023 13:36:35 GMT
Insulating the inside face of the exterior skin of an existing cavity wall or the exterior face of the interior wall leaving an air space would be a major construction feat, probable demolition of the exterior wall and rebuild. However it would be the only retro fit cavity wall I would consider, my house being within 1mile of the sea in a 270 degree arc exposed to high winds and driving rain. Conditions that the bba recommend the refusal of retrofit cavity wall infill but the companies fit on the island all the time. Also insulation removal firms do a good business getting the stuff back out again. The industry guarantee is not worth the paper it's written on and it is not government backed only approved, practically impossible to claim on and laughably underfunded.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Sept 16, 2023 7:33:32 GMT
The landfill bin is no issue , 1/2 a bin a fortnight. But the green bin is entirely Amazon dependant, a few huge cardboard containers for a few small items and it's full. Me and the neighbors share spare space on collection day. Though must say bin men very accommodating, if you get stuck a cardboard box of cardboard provided it's easy and safe to carry by hand always goes. only no no is broken glass mixed with in with intact glass in glass box , then it's all rejected , no snotty gram just not picked up.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Sept 13, 2023 20:46:58 GMT
Many years ago a small slip of using the wrong town isdn code , the town I worked in had two depending if the telephone number required was 5 or 6 digit resulted in calling us instead of a local hotel group. To my horror my co-worker having tryed to inform a caller of there error but just getting getting anger and abuse return, gave up and took the booking with a casual no need for a deposit or confirmation sir just turn up on the day I have all you details recorded it will be fine and hung up. We also often got calls for a local garage and after an angry no wanting to listen call told the caller , no worries sir it will be available for collection in 30mins just a few checks on your new gearbox, seems the customer only wanted a new battery but the call unexpectedly cut off before he could express his full feelings.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Sept 2, 2023 19:41:39 GMT
The problem is that those people coming from afar think they are going to be vastly better off doing these poorly payed no future jobs, able to build a future ,buy a house raise family in comfort and security. While the ones just down the road know that under £10 per hour will never give them a secure decent home and future and therefore say bugger a bit less than nothing on the dole is still nothing. I find it simply incredible that city idiots can say inflation has to be resolved by making working people poorer by accepting below inflation pay rises and give themselves 16% at the same time.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Aug 29, 2023 17:36:52 GMT
Talk about stretching a point to infer trouble associated with the barge but. The Express reports ,diver missing near Bibby Stockholme barge ( or words to that effect), the poor bugger was 2 miles south of Portland Bill near enough 4 miles from the barge in sucba diving terms another planet . Sadly recovered dead from water same day. Never had much time for the Express same as Mail and Sun quality wise.
|
|
|
Post by crabbyoldgit on Aug 25, 2023 17:49:00 GMT
Ah one of the few joys of the wife being poor enough to not be a tax payer ,never having to get involved with recovered funds and associated tax issues, just wish she was a super tax payer and I was her kept toy boy.
|
|