From Offshore Paydays to Property FreedomFrom Billingham lad to agency owner managing 650 homes
I’m a Billingham lad, born and bred in the North East. I’ve lived all over the world – Australia, Bali, backpacking across continents – but no matter where I’ve been, property back home has always been the thing that grounded everything.
It’s funny looking back now because none of this started with a big plan. I wasn’t handed money, no silver spoon, I was just a young lad in his early twenties who saw an opportunity and decided to give it a go.
My First Flip at 20
When I was around 20 years old, I bought my first property. It was a simple flip, nothing fancy, I just saw a cheap house and thought I could do it up and sell it on.
Looking back now, I didn’t really know what I was doing. But in that first project I made £26,000 after only spending £4,000 on the refurb.
I experienced how the numbers worked, how adding value created profit, but I didn’t know then how property could build real wealth over time.
For a few years after that, I did a few more flips but then life had other plans.
When Property Took a Back Seat
Like a lot of people in the North East, my life changed when the Redcar Steel Works closed. I was working as a process operator having served my time there as an apprentice and was made redundant.
Suddenly the landscape of work changed overnight and that’s when I retrained and got into offshore work, specialising in ROVs – remotely operated vehicles, its a niche field involving underwater robotics used for inspections and maintenance work offshore.
The training and the opportunity took me to Australia. A three-month trip resulted in me staying there for seven years. At the time, I’d more or less stepped away from property. The flips had stopped, and my focus was on building a new career and travelling inbetween.
But what happened next was one of those moments that still feels unbelievable when I tell the story.
The Bar That Changed Everything
I’d been trying to get offshore work in Australia, and it was tough. You’re chasing contacts, knocking on doors, speaking to companies and hoping something lands.
Eventually I reached the point where I thought, ‘that’s it, I’m going home back to the UK’. I had less than $300 left in my account and was sleeping on a friend’s floor.
I was sat in an empty bar at 11:30 in the morning, the place was completely dead. Then a random guy walked in, his name was Raymond, he was a Kiwi and we got talking.
I explained I’d been trying to get work in offshore ROV operations but couldn’t get my foot in the door. It turned out Raymond was a senior figure at SubSea 7, one of the companies I’d been trying to get work with for weeks. Not only that, his speciality was ROVs.
A week later I had a job.
And the pay was something else…
$1,500 a Day
My first rotation was four weeks offshore. By the time I came back, I had around $40,000 in the bank.
For someone from Billingham, that kind of money was life changing.
I worked offshore for a couple of years after that, and the money kept coming in. Most of the lads I worked with were spending it just as quickly as they were earning it. New cars, boats, holidays – the lifestyle that comes with big offshore money.
But I had a different idea.
I started buying property back home in the North East, cheap council houses, for cash. Solid, simple buy-to-lets.
My mates thought I was mad. They were pulling up in new cars and laughing at the fact I was driving a scrap heap with no aircon (in Australia by the way) and buying terraced houses in Billingham.
Preparing for the Crash
The offshore industry is cyclical. Projects start, projects end, and when the work dries up the money disappears overnight.
So while everyone else was enjoying the high income, I was quietly building a property portfolio in the background.
By the time the offshore market slowed down, I had built a small portfolio generating around £3,000 per month net income.
That might not sound huge now, but at the time it changed everything.
The Moment Property Really Made Sense
When the offshore work stopped, my income didn’t disappear. Me and a friend decided to go travelling for 18 months, and the crazy part? I didn’t work a single day.
My properties back in the North East were covering my life while I travelled the world.
That was the moment property truly clicked for me.
Not the flips.Not the big offshore paydays.
But cash flow.
Knowing money was coming in every month whether I was working or not completely changed how I saw property.
It wasn’t just about making money anymore. It was about freedom.
Scaling the Portfolio
Every time I came home, I’d buy another property and I’d manage refurbs from the other side of the world.
When I started, I was buying properties in cash but after reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad I had a light bulb moment. I wasn’t leveraging lending. So I mortgaged the portfolio I had and doubled my portfolio within a year.
After years of working hard and travelling, I had built a portfolio of 23 properties.
Back in the UK I took about nine months off, but I quickly realised something about myself.
I’m not someone who can sit still for long.
So before long, I was back at it again. Over the years that followed, I continued building my portfolio.
The strategy stayed fairly simple: buy solid single lets, keep the numbers sensible, and focus on properties that would generate reliable income. Added to that were a couple of commercial to residential conversions which really boost the numbers.
That approach helped me steadily grow the portfolio to 44 properties.
Launching Orange Sales and Lettings
In 2019 I launched Orange Sales and Lettings. We started as a small agency and have grown rapidly, managing 650 properties across the North East.
I’ve been a landlord for decades, so I understand what landlords actually need from an agent – transparency, reliability and someone who genuinely cares about their assets.
Property is all about people and relationships, and running an agency gives me the chance to work with investors at every stage of their journey.
Moving Into Commercial Property
In recent years I’ve started focusing more on commercial property, but I always say the same thing to people: build your residential base first.
For me, buy-to-lets were the foundation. They’re not shiny, they’re not exciting, but they create the steady income that gives you the confidence to take bigger opportunities later.
What attracted me to commercial was simple – bigger numbers and less competition. There are fewer buyers in the market and the leases tend to be more landlord friendly. Tenants often take responsibility for the maintenance and the lease terms can be much longer, which creates stability.
When people talk about regulation making residential tougher, I actually see it differently. Whenever there’s adversity in one part of the market, there’s usually opportunity somewhere else.
Over the years I’ve taken on several commercial projects. I converted a nightclub in Darlington into five flats, and one of my biggest developments was Billingham Business Centre, which was originally a 17-office complex with two large car parks. I converted the building into 11 high-end apartments, adding a new build element to maximise the space and keeping them all as part of the portfolio.
People often think projects like that must be incredibly complicated, but in reality commercial development is often about coordination. You appoint a good architect, a planning consultant and the right contractor, and your role becomes more about managing the team than managing every individual trade.
The Old Bank That Became Orange
The building we’re sitting in today used to be the old Barclays building in Billingham, around 5,000 square feet. When the opportunity came up, I could see several ways the building might work – converting the whole thing to residential, splitting the commercial space, or mixing the two.
In the end it became the home of Orange Sales and Lettings, with the agency operating from the ground floor. Planning is currently going through to create three high-end apartments above.
Purchase Price: £200,000
Planning, Professional Fees, Stamp Duty: £11,160
Build Cost and investor fees: £165,000
Gross Development Value (GDV): £500,000
Profit: £123,840
For me, that’s the beauty of commercial property. There’s often more than one way to make a deal work, and if you’re willing to look at buildings that others might overlook, there can be some fantastic opportunities.
Sharing the Journey
I started my property podcast because I love sitting down with people in the industry and hearing their stories.
What I’ve realised is that every investor has a different journey. Sometimes you learn just as much from someone else’s mistakes as you do from their wins.
And to be honest, I learn loads myself from the guests I bring on.
I joke that the 44 properties I have probably should be 400 if I’d known about angel finance earlier. Which is something that has been reiterated whilst interviewing on my podcast.
Safe to say I’m a bit late to that element.
A Story Anyone Can Relate To
Looking back now, my journey probably looks quite unusual.
Flipping houses in my twenties…working offshore in Australia…travelling the world funded by rental income…to building a 44-property portfolio and running an agency managing 650 homes.
But the reality is much simpler than that.
I’m just a normal lad from Billingham who took a few risks and stayed in the game long enough for things to compound.
Property rewards patience.
If you stay consistent, keep learning and reinvest what you earn, the results build over time.
And the best part?
Anyone can do it.
You don’t need a silver spoon.
You just need the willingness to start.
David Lamb
Managing Director
M: 07549 017629
E: david@orangesalesandlettings.co.uk
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