“I’ve always been interested in property, but so busy with work that I hadn’t taken it any further. By chance, I stumbled across Touchstone Education in 2019 and signed up for the Property Fastrack course (now Property Investment Fundamentals). The course really opened up my mind to what was possible and I discovered a lot of strategies and financing options that I had previously never heard of. I learned so much - including that I had already taken part in a joint venture with my brother before without even knowing it! Eager for more, I took a plunge and joined the Mastermind programme. 

“I’ve never been much of a social media user, but have had to embrace it to an extent. Whilst on the course I had a conversation with Gordie Dutfield who convinced me that it was a goldmine for property investment networking and possibly finding deals. Wanting to test the water, I actually reached out to a deal sourcer on Facebook asking for a simple project for a first-time investor. As my first venture I opted to go as low-risk as possible and purchased a 3-bedroom terraced house in the North East for £60,000. Though I had the cash, I saw this first investment property as a learning experience, so paid £40,000 cash and took out a £20,000 bridging loan to see how BRRR worked and whether bridging was a viable financing method as I grew my portfolio. I invested about £13,000 in refurbishments, then was able to easily refinance the property for £90,000, getting most of my money out, paying back the bridging loan and leaving very little money in the deal after. I was quickly able to rent this house out for £550 pcm - £75 more a month than the deal sourcer had predicted!

“From there I have followed the same method to build my portfolio, without many setbacks (unless you count converting a cannabis grow house back into a residential property!). Having determined that bridging loans works and have also refinanced one of my properties with the equity gone on to buy my current refurb projects.”