Show us your real estate pawn (vol 3)

[DonkeyApple]

Doofus said:

CharlesdeGaulle said:

That's what the staff are there for, der.

Staff? They're too much bloody work.

I guess you hire staff to staff the staff and then a bloke to staff the staff who are staffing the staff and pay him so much that he can’t afford to screw it up?

[Escort3500]

RichB said:

had ham said:

The wife is trying to persuade me to go and see this - which looks like a lot of house for the money. I believe that may be to do with the noise from the Stansted planes, as Little Hallingbury I think suffers from that. And my idea of moving was to down-size, rather than t'other way round...

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

Bit of an odd one that. Other than the massive kitchen there's no nice sized lounge to relax in so unless you like games or cinema you'll spend all your time sitting in the open plan kitchen. Looks like the master bedroom doesn't have a proper shower which would be a no no for me because I like a decent shower in the mornings. Do you really want an indoor swimming pool? Looks fun but I'd bet the novelty would soon wear off. Are you in the market to buy an additional bungalow, if not that's just adding to the price for no use. It's got 5 bedrooms so unless you have a live in granny, nanny or teenager you can't get rid of it's useless and finally, there's no garage that I can see. Ah'm oot.

Agree. Internally, it’s a bizarre mix of traditional, kitsch and contemporary. Outside, it’s a mess of conflicted elevations and architectural gimmickry.

[Doofus]

DonkeyApple said:

I guess you hire staff to staff the staff and then a bloke to staff the staff who are staffing the staff and pay him so much that he can’t afford to screw it up?

I had a business partner years ago who had previously retired and bought a hunting estate in Cornwall. He hired somebody to run his business in London, and somebody else to run the estate in Cornwall.

Within two years, the business was in administration and the bank had reposessed the estate.

[DonkeyApple]

Doofus said:

DonkeyApple said:

I guess you hire staff to staff the staff and then a bloke to staff the staff who are staffing the staff and pay him so much that he can’t afford to screw it up?

I had a business partner years ago who had previously retired and bought a hunting estate in Cornwall. He hired somebody to run his business in London, and somebody else to run the estate in Cornwall.

Within two years, the business was in administration and the bank had reposessed the estate.

Not uncommon but then if banks were involved then that means debt was involved so suggests there wasn’t the actual money to support the chosen lifestyle through its ups and down? It’s very hard to firstly find a manager for your own business who is as good or as dedicated as you are and secondly, absentee owners are always at risk of negligence and theft etc.

The house above only has 1500 acres. Nowhere near enough to generate any meaningful revenues. The crude rule of thumb on farmland is that it generates about £90/acre a year, most equestrian facilities are loss making follies and even a good shoot doesn’t generate mega bucks. You’re definitely going to be haemorrhaging cash running that place.

[easytiger123]

More grey, some cars

https://www.onthemarket.com/details/4703062/

[Bonefish Blues]

It's the current formula isn't it.

[phil_cardiff]

Grew up near here, always admired the house. It has potential.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/50446701

[skwdenyer]

DonkeyApple said:

Doofus said:

DonkeyApple said:

I guess you hire staff to staff the staff and then a bloke to staff the staff who are staffing the staff and pay him so much that he can’t afford to screw it up?

I had a business partner years ago who had previously retired and bought a hunting estate in Cornwall. He hired somebody to run his business in London, and somebody else to run the estate in Cornwall.

Within two years, the business was in administration and the bank had reposessed the estate.

Not uncommon but then if banks were involved then that means debt was involved so suggests there wasn’t the actual money to support the chosen lifestyle through its ups and down? It’s very hard to firstly find a manager for your own business who is as good or as dedicated as you are and secondly, absentee owners are always at risk of negligence and theft etc.

The house above only has 1500 acres. Nowhere near enough to generate any meaningful revenues. The crude rule of thumb on farmland is that it generates about £90/acre a year, most equestrian facilities are loss making follies and even a good shoot doesn’t generate mega bucks. You’re definitely going to be haemorrhaging cash running that place.

House currently owned by Martin Dawes (mobile phones). He apparently spent over £14m apparently turning it into a world-class stud facility (including horses).

Horses notably absent from the video, suggesting that that has been and gone? The stud website seems short on horses.

It isn't just equestrian stud at that place; champion cattle, too: http://www.dinmore.net/for_sale.html

The same place as the above property houses Hampton Court (the other one - see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2631197/Th...) - quite an interesting place.

It is hard to see how the economic activities on the estate would pay for the upkeep of the estate. Which is a shame. Otherwise I might just have bought a lottery ticket or two

[PositronicRay]

phil_cardiff said:

Grew up near here, always admired the house. It has potential.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/50446701

Looks great value. I don't know the area, is the A40 noisy?

[PositronicRay]

A renter up the road from me, looks pleasant enough from the front




You wouldn't expect it to find this though!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/proper...

[p1stonhead]

PositronicRay said:

A renter up the road from me, looks pleasant enough from the front




You wouldn't expect it to find this though!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/proper...

One like that near me;
I kinda like the cheekiness of it. Strong money though,




http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

Edited by p1stonhead on Tuesday 17th April 08:48

[PositronicRay]

p1stonhead said:

PositronicRay said:

A renter up the road from me, looks pleasant enough from the front




You wouldn't expect it to find this though!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/proper...

One like that near me;




http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...

I think these deserve a whole new thread

'Modest bungalows that just aren't'

[akirk]

DonkeyApple said:

Doofus said:

DonkeyApple said:

I guess you hire staff to staff the staff and then a bloke to staff the staff who are staffing the staff and pay him so much that he can’t afford to screw it up?

I had a business partner years ago who had previously retired and bought a hunting estate in Cornwall. He hired somebody to run his business in London, and somebody else to run the estate in Cornwall.

Within two years, the business was in administration and the bank had reposessed the estate.

Not uncommon but then if banks were involved then that means debt was involved so suggests there wasn’t the actual money to support the chosen lifestyle through its ups and down? It’s very hard to firstly find a manager for your own business who is as good or as dedicated as you are and secondly, absentee owners are always at risk of negligence and theft etc.

The house above only has 1500 acres. Nowhere near enough to generate any meaningful revenues. The crude rule of thumb on farmland is that it generates about £90/acre a year, most equestrian facilities are loss making follies and even a good shoot doesn’t generate mega bucks. You’re definitely going to be haemorrhaging cash running that place.

sounds about right...
another way of looking at it is that until c. the First World War, the guide was 100 acres per bedroom - so a 20 bedroom house and staff etc. could be run on a 2,000 acre estate - the guide now is a minimum of 1,000 acres per bedroom - so that same 20 bedroom house would need 20,000 acres to support it... (off agricultural income - of course many estates have diversified...)

This estate is c. 1,500 acres, so on that basis it should run about 1.5 bedrooms! (I assume the house might have a few more...)

[DonkeyApple]

Most of these lovely old houses sold off their revenue generating land to pay gambling debts, IHT bills or Lloyd’s liabilities I assume.

[akirk]

DonkeyApple said:

Most of these lovely old houses sold off their revenue generating land to pay gambling debts, IHT bills or Lloyd’s liabilities I assume.

Partly - but there was a period mid last century when land went out of fashion and it was easier to sell the house & e.g. 70-80 acres, and then keep the farm with the rest of the land... even now there is a certain group of people who don't want lots of land because they see it as a hassle in upkeep - as long as they have enough to provide their own private green belt (i.e. no-one can build next to them / in their view) then that is sufficient - as people buying these houses are running them generally from income made elsewhere, the land as a means of supporting the house is not so big a consideration...

Ernest Cook (grandson & inheritor of Thomas Cook etc.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Cook is an interesting case study as he spent most of his fortune buying up stately homes (I think he had 24 at one point!)

[DonkeyApple]

What a strange activity! My first impression is that his Wiki page is a very polite way of explaining that he was a trustafian waster who batted for the other side?

My grandfather’s uncle managed to have my grandfather declared a bd after the death of my great grandfather, took the estate and gambled it away before selling what was left and heading off to the south of France to drink himself to death.

[akirk]

DonkeyApple said:

What a strange activity! My first impression is that his Wiki page is a very polite way of explaining that he was a trustafian waster who batted for the other side?

My grandfather’s uncle managed to have my grandfather declared a bd after the death of my great grandfather, took the estate and gambled it away before selling what was left and heading off to the south of France to drink himself to death.

no idea of his cricket preferences and he was certainly no trustafarian - he took the business and made a lot of money particularly around the development of Traveller's Cheques (Thomas Cook were early adopters with Circular Notes) - he was also passionately involved in education and left a large part of his money to the Ernest Cook Trust for educational purposes...

Interestingly (and more on topic) he planned to leave everything to the National Trust, but they only wanted the houses, not the land (hence my earlier comment), so he then said they could have nothing - and set up his own trust - eventually they negotiated and got some of the houses / estates and some went into the trust - very big around here as they own large chunks of land / villages locally

[skwdenyer]

akirk said:

Interestingly (and more on topic) he planned to leave everything to the National Trust, but they only wanted the houses, not the land (hence my earlier comment), so he then said they could have nothing - and set up his own trust - eventually they negotiated and got some of the houses / estates and some went into the trust - very big around here as they own large chunks of land / villages locally

And now, of course, the Trust is desperate for land to generate income, improve environmental stewardship, and so on...

[phil_cardiff]

PositronicRay said:

phil_cardiff said:

Grew up near here, always admired the house. It has potential.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/s6p/50446701

Looks great value. I don't know the area, is the A40 noisy?

Not too bad. You get the odd day when it's full of holiday makers heading to Pembrokeshire but it's a pretty quiet road, especially after 8pm.

[louiebaby]

Back to Dartmouth - I'd want a proper look round, but I think this might "do".

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/prope...