Creative Deals and a Clear Vision: Building a £4 million Property Portfolio from Scratch
My journey began in a completely different world, teaching French and Spanish to thirty teenagers every day. I loved many parts of the career but it didn’t take long for me to realise the pace was unsustainable. My retirement age would be 68 and I knew there was no way I would last that long. I needed a plan B.
By chance I came across Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That purple book flipped everything on its head. For the first time I could see there were ways to earn money that didn’t involve trading time for it. That single idea changed the direction of my life.
I started researching and Googled ‘property Chester’, which led me to a local networking event. I still remember the feeling I had sitting in that room, pure excitement and hope for the future. Investing in property made sense but there was a lot to learn. I decided to invest in myself first.
Starting with Nothing but Grit
I was starting from zero. No savings, no knowledge and no contacts. But what I did have was a fire in my belly.
I said yes to everything, went to every networking meeting, listened to every podcast, even volunteered for a property sourcer. I was scraping data from Rightmove, leafleting streets and cold calling. It wasn’t glamorous, but I was soaking it all up.
Through that sourcer, I found my first Below-Market-Value single let. The purchase price was £58,000, and I borrowed £14,000 from a family member. I was hooked. I bought a second for £80,000.
Around the same time, I did a weekend rent-to-rent course and stumbled across a deal on Facebook. It was nerve-wracking starting a business but it worked. It brought in £500 profit per month and it was so much easier than teaching kids! I could see that if I found just two more of those, I could match my teaching salary. That’s when the penny dropped. Property income is real, and I can live off it. The possibility of being able to leave teaching and the idea that there was no limit to the income I could make was incredible.
Quickly, the juggle of a full-time career and growing a property business became exhausting. I felt trapped in limbo but I kept showing up.
Strategy Through Creativity
With no funds in the bank, I had to get creative from day one. I absolutely loved learning about creative strategies. So I focused on solving problems for people. If someone needed to sell, I found a way to help them. Sometimes that meant a deal for me, most of the time it didn’t, and that was fine. This was a numbers game.
One breakthrough came through a sourcer who offered me a rent-to-rent on a tired 10 bedroom HMO. I’d just learnt about Purchase Lease Options (PLOs) and so when I spoke to the owner I asked the question: ‘Would you be open to selling in a few years?’ To my surprise, they were. That single question changed everything. I secured control of the property with an option to buy for five years. That meant I could manage it and earn over £1,500 a month from a property worth £500,000, without any upfront purchasing costs. It blew my mind. That one deal meant that I could leave teaching forever. For the owners they locked in the market value at the time and received a guaranteed income with zero hassle or voids. I got the PLO bug after that and went on to secure more of them.
People ask me all the time how I find PLOs. I don’t. I create them.
The Woman Who Lent Me the Money to Buy Her House
One of the most memorable deals I’ve ever done happened just before Covid-19. I was introduced to a landlord who was selling a tenanted property in Chester. She’d had two previous sales fall through and was fed up. When Covid hit, she wanted to sell up ASAP.
We had a really open conversation. I asked her what she wanted to do with the proceeds from the sale. She said she planned to buy a new car, go on holiday, and put the rest in the bank. We talked about the pitiful returns she would get. That’s when I gently floated an idea. I said, ‘Would you consider lending me the money instead of putting it in the bank?’
I know it sounds crazy. I explained how I work with investors to buy property. I showed her how I could secure the funds against the property and how much she would earn over five years. She liked the idea and we agreed terms. She got a better return than she would have in the bank and a quick and certain sale. Five years have since passed, all funds were repaid, and I took her out for lunch to say thank you. That deal stands out as a reminder of how finding a solution that works for everyone can literally unlock doors.
PLO Portfolio Worth £2 Million
12 years after that first event in Chester, I have a portfolio worth over £4 million in owned and controlled property. Mostly single lets, HMOs and a few developments but all of them have an element of creative finance deals. One of my most recent and biggest deals was securing a PLO portfolio of 22 separate flats on the South Coast worth over £2 million
The magic of that deal was that it was only made possible because of my network. I didn’t find the vendor in the traditional sense of deal-making. Instead, I pulled the deal together with a joint venture partner, sourcers, investors and one key person (Thank you John Howard!) who assisted. It was humbling to realise that I could never have done this deal at the start of my journey, it was purely down to relationships that I have built over time.
Building The Key Club
Once I had enough income to retire I needed a way to spend my time. I ended up in a property education company. I loved hosting their podcasts and creating resources and training programmes for their members. It had reignited my love of teaching and creativity in education but with property as the subject.
Over the years, I’ve experienced both sides, as a student and as a teacher, and one thing stood out. There seemed to be something missing, something stopping people getting results. It was the implementation piece. So, after branching out on our own we decided to launch The Key Club. It’s a community where property investors get the accountability, systems and support they need to execute. We built it to bridge the gap between education and execution. Information is only valuable if you act on it.
Inside The Key Club, we share systems we’ve developed over the years, from nurturing investors to negotiation. Our goal is for members to finally secure the deals they’ve been learning how to get for years.
Mindset: Growth and Letting Go of Perfect
Over the years, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt is that perfection is the enemy of progress. When I started, I worried about saying the wrong thing or not knowing enough. But confidence comes from taking action. Each step, especially the small ones, builds momentum and ultimately compounds.
Looking back, I realise that mindset is key. You can learn the strategies, but if you don’t believe it’s possible or that you can achieve the results, you’ll always hold back. I’ve always surrounded myself with people who were further ahead, even if that meant paying to be part of masterminds and I still do that today.
Final Word: Keep Chipping Away
Mine is not a story of overnight success. It’s the story of small steps, taken consistently. If you’re willing to learn, take action and keep going, there’s a path for you too.
The compound effect is real.
