I first got into property way back in 1991. As a student, I thought that these landlords were onto a good thing. Get a houseand, rather than rent it to a family, rent it by the room. As I didn’t have a deposit I partnered with a friend. We filled the rooms with tenant-mates and away we went. Although soon after my friend decided he didn’t like the communal lifestyle, so I bought him out. There I was, a landlord and property investorat the tender age of 22.

It was great, a base that funded me to go away and party at the weekend!

For the next 20 years I concentrated on my professional career. Weaving between corporate jobs and self-employment. I was fortunate to get both a scholarship and sponsorship to go to University in Sheffield and study a degree in Engineering. I spent nine years with a machine tool company, Cincinnati Milacron, which enabled me to develop my business skills. Soon after I became a management consultant specialising in IT. This lead onto running a European Business Outsourcing contract for a company that was later bought by Canon UK Ltd. Based at Rolls-Royce in Derby (the customer), this involved running a document service contract across Europe with 150+ staff and contractors.

Married life was never going to fit with communal living so we moved into a new house while continuing to rent the old one. Eager to expand the portfolio (of two) I bought another three properties, however with the impending crash of 2007, city centre flats where badly affected. Theyscrape a profit each year but are never going to make my millions.

So I needed a new direction. I could not understand how others claimed to start with no money and build a portfolio of 100+ properties. Trawling the internet I discovered the guru’s, the training courses and the networking groups. More importantly, I discovered the secrets to property investment. Over the next few years, supported by my partner Lesley, we went on to buy another 12 high yielding properties that are all managed by others. On route we have meet a lot of people and steered others into making successful property investments.

Having the good fortune of a redundancy package at the end of 2014, our aim is to grow our portfolio further. We have recently finished another luxury student accommodation and a property to flip. I’m continuing my property education through Susannah Cole’s group mentoring course (The Good Property Company). Our aim is to move into commercial conversions, lease options and creative funding methods. And most importantly of all, is to share that knowledge with other property people – beginners and experts alike. Hence, we would really like the opportunity to meet you at our next event.