30 Years Property Investment Experience

“I’ve always loved property and over the years with my husband we have enjoyed renovating our homes,” Beth began.

“We bought a mixed use property over 30 years ago, creating a hair salon on the ground floor, for my husband’s business. Above this, we have a one bedroom apartment that we have rented to the same tenant for 11 years.

“I admit that I rush into things and that’s not always the best, especially with property. I did once buy a house abroad and because the prices were rising fast I didn’t have time to fly out. I bought the property off plan without seeing it, so imagine my horror when I did fly out to be greeted with a plot of land but no property.

“I did get the property two years later and we enjoyed lots of wonderful family holidays afterwards.

“On 25th June 2007, our newly renovated Edwardian home was destroyed by the unprecedented floods that hit the UK. On the 26th June, our renovations began. I was two months pregnant living in temporary accommodation, but was back home and settled a month before our son, Theo, was born.

“After the death of my parents I (and my brother) inherited a small, 300-year-old cottage. It was full of rising damp and was in a 1970’s time warp. It was a difficult property for me to tackle from an emotional perspective and with my brother, living four hours away in South Wales, with no interest in property, we decided to sell. 

“After 12 months of no interest and ongoing costs of keeping an empty property, we were offered significantly below market value on the property by a developer. It was at that point that I thought ‘no way… I will renovate this project myself’.

“It was an epic project for me and involved stripping the whole house back to its original structure so that we could start again. What I didn’t expect to find was a house within a house; an original one storey timber structure that had been encased by the two storey cottage. One side of the house collapsed and I lost the staircase, not one of my best days!

“Six months later, though, the house was finished and looked fabulous. Ironically, we sold to a builder, who loved my renovation. My brother and myself had been forced to invest heavily in an unsaleable, inherited property that was an emotional rollercoaster too, but we walked away with a profit.

“Within a few months, I had fallen in love with a barn in a farming hamlet and that’s where we live now as we continue to put our stamp on it.

“Joining Touchstone Education has been incredible for me. The support and help that I have been receiving means that I can now make the right property choices.”