He bought his first property using credit cards to bridge finance the deposit of a buy-to-let mortgage. He renovated it, sold it at a profit and bought a second and now has more than 760 properties.
Can you imagine how much mortgage debt this guy has? He's totally reliant on a housing bubble in order to keep his 'business' going. He wouldn't be the first person to believe that property was an absolutely solid investment, and be wrong:
www.theguardian.com/football/2012/oct/12...bankrupt-aston-villa
During his heyday at Villa, Hendrie was flash with his cash and spent a fortune on cars, including £160,000 on a Ferrari 360 Spider that "was not even nice to drive", but he also invested a large chunk of his money into building up a property portfolio that should have secured his future. That was the theory but Hendrie, as he discovered when the economy collapsed, "everything fell on its arse".
"I put trust into people," Hendrie says. "I'm not going to say I know the ins and outs of stocks, shares and property — that's not me — but I paid someone to do that. I had a rundown every six months with where I was at and thought I was safe. One day someone rang about the property company going bankrupt. We had a meeting and I was told it was fine. About three months after, we were trying to sort the divorce settlement and the solicitor said: 'You know you're in a bad mess with money?' I said: 'I can't be'. He said: 'I suggest you go and look for other advice.' The alarm bells were ringing."
