I was brought up in the North of England and my parents dabbled in the property market, so I can only assume that my interest in property must have been passed on from them. My parents were always happy to look around the odd property or two and as a child I found this house hunting preoccupation the most boring thing on earth. As an adult, however, I find property interesting, exciting and above all rewarding. My interest in bricks and mortar is not only a financial one, although as a property investor, this is and has to be the main consideration, but it is also of interest because of the challenge it offers in finding the right property, in the right place, for the right price.

As a student of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, I lived in rented accommodation for two years and like most students earned very little money, lived sparingly off a grant and eked out an existence. It was great fun but financially it was draining and although I would have loved to buy a bijou flat in Bristol, this simply was not an option. Like most students at that time and way before the concept of ‘buy to let’, renting was the only option.

When I finally moved to London in my early twenties with a suitcase, youthful optimism and an empty purse in hand, I had no choice but to rent again and this continued for several years until I could save enough to get on the property ladder. I bought my first flat when I was 27 and it was most certainly the best investment I have ever made because it gave me a start, a basis on which to build a property portfolio.

The great thing about my first flat was that it needed work doing to it but was perfectly liveable in at the same time. It was close to a tube station, which was my main priority, and it had a shared garden. After paying out for the mortgage and other costs, there was no money left in my budget to do any refurbishment work to the flat but each time I secured a job and had some surplus cash, I would invest the money in home improvements.

I was fortunate to know a good builder who became a friend and together, over time and on a limited budget, he helped me turn a rundown one bedroom apartment into a desirable property. I decorated it throughout, put in a new kitchen, lowered the ceilings to put in sound insulation and eventually sold it for a handsome profit. I was not only on the ladder but had moved off my first rung!

I have always been drawn to properties that need refurbishment and my next property was no exception. I had recently married and my husband and I both had capital to invest in a property. With our pooled resources we were able to purchase a three-bedroom, un-modernised house in a nice area. Location is always an important issue for me and I would rather buy a less grand house in a good area than a palace in a poor one.

Daunting though it can be to walk into a house that hasn’t moved on in time at all, it is a great canvas from which to start to create your picture of your dream home. The most important aspect to consider before undertaking any large renovation project is to make sure you have enough money in the kitty to cover not only expected expenses but also to have a contingency budget if things go wrong.

What I enjoyed about renovating this house was that it didn’t have to be done all at once (it couldn’t for financial reasons) but it still had all the original features and really just needed a plan to upgrade it and extend it. We knocked old walls down, put new walls in, replaced the kitchen and bathroom, built a loft conversion and even built a small outbuilding in the garden which housed our office. This office later became a unique selling point and when we finally put the house on the market after lovingly restoring it for several years it made us a considerable profit and was sold within a week. The message here is that if you are going to do any renovation, then do it right.

The next house, which is the one I currently live in, has been a huge project and is still on-going ... in fact it is never ending, but it was because of this investment fuelled by previous investments that we were able to re-mortgage and begin the serious business of building a property portfolio.

I now have a substantial investment property portfolio and that is the reason for writing this book, to show you that from humble beginnings, you too can achieve your goal of becoming a property millionaire!