Walt always knew that he should never have gone into business with his younger brother Wally, but go into business they did and J&J Properties was born. Now, it may be a little head scratching to have such a name when theirs both started with W, but after trying to say W&W Properties a few times, they scrapped that idea and decided J&J was a lot snappier.
To the table, Walt brought his building expertise plus £50,000 from remortgaging his house, which was actually the old family home that he’d bought a couple of years ago when the council were selling them off for next to nothing.
Wally on the other hand provided £30,000 and a reputation for dodging work wherever possible but a promise to change.
And change he did, working hard with Walt on their first house, buying it for £150,000 and selling it for £250,000 after spending £20,000 on improvements.
With some of his profits, Walt took a holiday, leaving Wally in charge. He told Wally to check out a house that was up for auction as it could be a real steal if the interior was okay. They agreed that their budget was £150,000.
…
Fast forward a couple of weeks.
Walt’s back from holiday, standing next to Wally in front of their new house.
“What do you think then brother? Five bedrooms. Got it for a steal, didn’t I?” Wally exclaimed proudly, hands on hips, a smug grin plastered on his face.
“This is not the house we agreed and £200,000 is not a steal when our budget’s £220,000 you moron. You better hope the interior’s not too bad and we can fix it up for only £20,000.” Walt said.
“Don’t worry Walt, it’s mint inside.” Wally replied.
It was far from mint inside.
From the moment he stepped inside, Walt could feel the damp on the back of his throat as he inhaled and the distinct smell of mould invaded his nostrils. It was clear that the whole house would need treating and then replastering, a considerable job given the size of the place.
As they entered the front door into the hallway, the kitchen was located at the end of the hall, with the stairs on the right, running parallel with the hall. There were two doors leading off to the left, the first room a large living room and the second room an equally spacious dining room. They walked down the hall and entered the kitchen, which ran the width of the house and looked out onto a long backyard that was once a well maintained garden but had succumbed to years of neglect. Upstairs, there were five bedrooms, two with ensuites, all large enough for a double bed. The central heating worked and the electrics appeared to be sound. All the rooms were spacious and it definitely did have potential.
That’s all that was positive about the place. In terms of negatives, the roof needed replacing, the loft insulating, all windows replaced, the walls replastering, all bathrooms modernized and retiled, rotten floorboards replaced from a leaky radiator in the hall, new carpets and flooring throughout, a wall removed to create an new open plan kitchen / dining room. The list went on and on. They were looking at about £80,000 of work, if they could do all the work themselves.
“Why did you bid for this you wally?” Walt asked with a frown on his face. “Who else was bidding with you, the owner?”
“We'll see who's the wally,” Wally replied. “It's got five bedrooms and two ensuites, plus a huge garden and a garage.”
“Yeah, I can see it’s got loads of potential but we’ve got nowhere near enough money to fix this. You absolute spanner, I can’t believe you sometimes.”
“Chill out Walt, we can get a loan or you could see about remortgaging your house?”
Walt was close to flipping out and losing his rag.
“I’ve already remortgaged it, you doughnut! And I’m paying off a ten grand loan so I can’t borrow any more. Arrgh!! You’ll have to come up with a way to find an extra sixty grand. While you’re doing that, I’ll get to work making a list of what needs doing and how much it’s gonna cost.” And with that Walt stormed out of their new property, leaving Wally to come up with the cash.
After a couple of days Walt had a number for all that needed to be done: £72,500.
Wally had not found a way to make the extra £52,500 that they needed.
“What do you mean you’ve got no way of getting that much cash?” Walt asked when they met up for the first time since he’d berated Wally for being a plonker.
“I can’t get a loan either, most I can get if I sell my car and some jewellery is fifteen grand.” Wally replied.
“Remortgage your house, or sell it or something. You got us into this mess, so you can get us out of it.” Walt said.
“I’m not doing jackshit, I can get fifteen grand, that’s it.” Wally said.
“How about this?” Walt started to suggest as he struggled to keep calm. “We get started on this shithole with the 20k we’ve got and you sell your house…”
“Dream on, not happening bruv.” Wally interrupted.
“Shut up and hear me out. You sell your house, you and Emily move into my house, and I move in here. It’ll mean I can work more efficiently and we’ll get it on the market faster.” Walt said, trying to reign in his temper.
“There’s no way I’m selling my house, you sell yours.” Wally suggested.
“You got us into this mess, you should fix it.” Walt explained.
“I’m not to blame, this house is worth half a million and I got it for a steal. We’ll find the money.” Wally assured.
“No we won’t.” Walt said.
And no they didn’t.
Tension between the brothers increased as the days went by. Walt could be found at the new property doing what he could at all hours. Wally became withdrawn, did no work and nothing to help. Then, just as the £20,000 in savings dwindled to their last thousand, Wally dropped a bombshell and announced via text message late one night that he was done with Walt and done with the company. He and his girlfriend Emily had decided it was best to start their own company.
Walt was furious and hit the bottle for a couple of days, cursing the property that his brother had landed him with. Once the anger had dissipated slightly, he bit the bullet and sold all of his possessions, including his house. The house took a while to sell but he used the money from selling his possessions to tide him over.
That was when Wally dropped the next bombshell, he wanted to be paid out for his 50% of the business and straight away so that he and Emily could use it to start their own property company. Walt now had the cash from the sale of his home, but he needed it for renovations. Wally however, refused to wait and the next thing Walt knew a letter came through the front door one morning as Walt was busy measuring the lengths of the rotten floorboards that needed to be replaced. He stopped working for a minute to read the letter’s contents and then stopped working for the rest of the day, in disbelief that his own flesh and blood would take legal action against him.
Furious, but with no other choice, Walt bought Wally out. He hit the bottle when he realized he didn’t have enough to finish fixing the house. He’d underestimated the costs, problems had arisen, and he was still at least £100,000 short. All he had left in the world besides debts and loans to repay was £25,000 and the new property, that could be worth £500,000 but currently wouldn’t fetch more than £300,000 if he was lucky.
Eventually, he got back to work. He’d measured the rotten floorboards so now all that was left to do was replace them. After prying the first one up he noticed straight away something beneath that caught the light and glimmered. He put his hand in and retrieved a metal box. Inside, five old Rolex watches.
Three weeks later he sold the watches for a total of £150,000.
Six months later he sold the new property for around £500,000.
Twelve years later, with a portfolio of twelve properties rented out, Walt bought back his old family home and retired.
As for Wally, well the name says it all.