Last weekend's Mail on Sunday had a summary of the finalists of the Property Woman of the Year Awards for the first year that it has been run. It was amazing how negative the journalist reporting the piece was - it would appear that he hadn't cottoned on to the fact that these women were making a success of property, like so many others.
I wonder when I'll be on the shortlist!
Here is a summary concocted by my friend and property/ business coach, Judith Morgan...
NORTH – Helen Currie – Profit £359,000
Helen, aged 43, former police inspector, left job due to depression – has 8 properties worth £1.065m compared to purchase price of £706k.
SOUTH EAST – Hasmita Reardon – from homeless immigrant to 75 properties – Profit £2.9 million
Owns 75 houses and flats in Sittingbourne, Kent. Over the last 10 years, Hasmita, aged 44, has housed the homeless and single mothers whom nobody else wants. Her husband wasn’t keen but her portfolio is now worth £8.4m at a cost of £5.5m – last week she bought 5 properties. Husband Steve has now given up his day job laying driveways. (Judith: You don’t say!)
LONDON – Sylvana Young – “I bought 650 flats in a month – turnover £50m
Last October, Sylvana bought all 644 apartments in two of Europe’s biggest residential towers now being built in Canary Wharf in London’s Docklands. Sylvana, aged 36, now personally owns 20 flats and houses in London worth £8m. Her personal portfolio has generated profits of £3m and she has bought 1700 flats for clients.
SOUTH WEST – Fiona Macaskill – Profit £3.4m
Operates in a small niche, providing the very best accommodation to students in the Fishponds area of Bristol. Buys three or four houses a year, and likes to fully refurbish Victorian terrace houses and convent them from 3-bed family homes to six-bed student houses with 4 en suites. Fiona has amassed a portfolio of 35 houses worth a total of just under £8m compared to a purchase price of £4.6m. AFTER ALL HER MORTGAGES ARE PAID, SHE IS LEFT WITH A MONTHLY INCOME OF £15,000.
MIDLANDS – Sue Wordsworth – Profit £162,000
Sue, 47, has no ambition to give up her day jobs as a military aerospace engineer and regards property investment as a hobby. Loves it when her potential tenants come to view her properties and say “wow, this is lovely” (Judith – me too, I LOVE that). Five properties worth £395k compared to purchase price of £233k.
WALES – Sandra Cook – Profit £30,000
Sandra, 50 bought her first property last June from a friend who was having trouble selling his one-bedroom flat. She now owns three within 300 yards of her own home in Cwmbran, Gwent. Sandra specialises in accommodation for divorced and single people locally and says “as soon as there is enough equity in my properties, I will re-mortgage and buy more”. One of the properties is a rent-back, i.e the person who sold it to Sandra rents it back from her.
YORKSHIRE – Teresa Galley – Profit £454k
As a young single mother working in London in 2001, Teresa could only afford to buy a run-down flat in Ilford, Essex, and do it up herself. “Money was tight and I learnt how to tile a bathroom from a B & Q fact sheet” says Teresa, 44. She doubled her money and bought a house in Leytonstone. She realised she had a knack for this and decided in 2004 to re-mortgage the house and get into BTL in her native Doncaster. She bought 4 tenanted flats and a house she converted into five flats. She paid £124.5k for it and spent £42k on it and it was then valued at £325k. Teresa gave up her job in 2006 to set up a property company. Today she owns 15 houses and flats which cost her £816k and are now worth £1.27m.
SCOTLAND – Jacqueline Welsh – Profit £750k
“I wanted buy-to-lets, my husband didn’t. We split.” Jacqueline aged 45, started this in 2001. Today she owns 18 properties which cost her £1.5m but have risen in value by £750k. She now manages her own property portfolio and runs a letting agency with more than 100 houses and flats on its books. “When my husband left I thought I’d never be able to retire, but now I plan to stop work at 50”. (Judith: Oh look, she got a second business out of it too!)
Inspirational food for thought, eh?
My first buy to let completed last week.....Onwards & upwards!
Alison
Financial Freedom for Doctors can help you to work out how soon you can be financially free, enabling you to work part time, take better holidays or plan for an earlier retirement. Find financial freedom through property investment, the stock market and the internet.
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