From £17 A Week To Property Freedom

His story starts small: £17 a week working at the Co-op, running some of the toughest stores in town, and learning early that empathy often works better than punishment (even with shoplifters). Somewhere between late shifts and coaching his local football team, he made a bold move, buying his first house at just nineteen!

No flashy courses. No overnight success. Just saving deposits the slow way, leaning on a good mortgage broker and solicitor, and steadily building a portfolio that eventually reached eight properties.

Then came the curveball. Interest rates shot up and suddenly every mortgage was in arrears. Most people told him to sell. Instead, he grabbed a blank sheet of paper, made a plan and fought his way back within two years.

Along the way we talk karate discipline, contractor horror stories and property lessons learned the hard way

Oh, and casually, he once sang at the Royal Albert Hall.

Transcript

Warm Banter And Guest Intro

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Good morning, Jem.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Morning, Nick. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

You always are awesome. Well, you're not awesome. Well, I am.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Look, there's there's too many reasons to smile to not.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

True.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

There we go.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Quite deep and sentimental feeling. It's too much for this early in the morning. Right, anyway.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

Moving swiftly on, let's introduce our guest. So today we've got the guy who is probably one of the, you know, in our area, one of the ma men to know when it comes to fitness, karate, Pilates.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Property. And general happiness, wellness, and smiling. Smiley. Without any further ado, we're introducing the man, the myth, the legend. House today.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Welcome.

Ipswich Roots And School Years

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Nice to be here. Thank you. I did I did say to you, you know, do you want an intro? And you went, Oh, yeah, whatever you like. So yeah. Hopefully we didn't disappoint. You did not, no. Great. So House Dot. I I love the fact that you're quite nervous. This is good. Because we've got you on the spot. So yeah, we're gonna talk all about you.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

So let's start off with growing up local or grow up somewhere far and far away?

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Firstly, do I have to grow up? No.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

Never.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Yeah, no, I'm an Ipswich lad. Grew up here in Ipswich, went to Springfield Infants and Junior School. Okay. And then on to Westbourne High School. Okay, how was Westbourne? Brilliant. At that time? Yeah, had a great time at Westbourne.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

How about how it is now?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Well, you know. Time times change, right? Not not the school that was when I was there, but you know, but yeah, done me okay. Okay. Done me okay. Enjoyed it? Love school. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I know a lot of people say that you know they didn't like school. I I did. I quite liked school.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Did you have favourite subjects and things? I was good at maths.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Okay. Yeah, really good at maths. Yeah, that was probably my favourite subject, really. It's alright. Guess what? I love this.

Early Ambitions And First Jobs

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Instantly I've got synergy with Help the Gang. And I'm not his favourite. Oh no, I'm taking a back seat. You can just see Jem going, yeah, I don't want to talk about this anymore. Next question. Okay, so you leave school, did he go on to further education or out to the big wide world?

SPEAKER_01 2:29

So uh at the i in the fifth year, back then we took things called CSEs and O levels.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Just just pretend that you did it for the purposes of history. It wasn't actually because you were there, you just did it to see like how the older generation did.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Well, I wanted to be a computer programmer. Okay. That's what I wanted to do. So I wrote off to actually I went to Willis Faber and to see the first computers there. I mean, they're in a room on their own, all these mass big, massive machines.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

Is this the one where like a 20-megabyte drive was like take up an entire room?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Take up the whole room. Yeah. Had to be temperature controlled, dust control. You had to stand behind a glass and and look at it, you know what I mean? And now you you got a phone and whatever.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

But yeah, so you could drop it in the shower and it's like, yeah, it doesn't matter, just chuck it with some rice and you're good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

So I wanted to be a computer programmer. So I wrote off to all the different companies and they wrote back politely and said that because I only had two O-levels. Okay. And they said I needed four. Right. So I thought, right, okay. So I went to a teacher and said, you know, what can I do? And he says, start an extra year, take three more O-levels. Which is which I did. So I stayed on. And then at the end of the year, I then wrote to the companies again and they said, You need two A levels. And I thought, there's no way I'm staying.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

It feels like soldier soldier, isn't it? It's like, will you marry me? It's like, not yet. We need to get you more stuff and more stuff than you decided.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

So I said, no, I'm not doing that. So I then I was working part-time for Richard's co-op after school. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

And see, I've got some insight on you, Houston. I know you also had two paper rounds before that as well. I did.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Oh quite done his research. You like this?

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Imagine it. Imagine. Well, I mean, we've got a team of researchers behind the scenes that have um prompted me with all this information.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

We've got a whole production going on.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

So so we know you were a grafter. Yeah. And with two paper rounds. But yeah, so um God.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

And then co-op? Yeah, so I so yeah, so I worked for yeah, I worked after school at the co-op and loved it. Absolutely loved it. And so I then applied and got took on as a trainee manager.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah, so I went to Whitfich College to one day a week. And yeah, I stayed there for quite a few years.

SPEAKER_02 4:49

Okay, so did you reach like stake stickers trainee manager or move up?

Managing Tough Stores And Street Lessons

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was running, I think, the third largest shop in the area at the time when I was. I'm guessing it wasn't the town one. No, Carr Street, which was the biggest. Oh, okay. Yeah, that was a big one, wasn't it? Yeah, Carr Street was the biggest. But because I was a martial artist. Yeah. So with the co-op, there were three shots which I didn't want to which I was saying me, but most people didn't want to manage. Okay. Meredith Road, which is on which is on Witten Estate. Yeah. Gainesborough. Yep. No one wanted to do that one. And Barrack Corner. Okay. So no one wanted to. So those were the three because that's where they had the most shoplifters, most crime, and all that sort of stuff. And I managed two out of the three.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

It's like, yeah, but never mind. He's a kid, he's a karate man, yeah. Given those. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

So so I I managed to get it. Not at all. I went to Barrett Corner and probably had fights arresting people and getting shoplifters, maybe, you know, sort of like every week.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Okay. You know, you could I love that. It's like, yeah, loved it. What do you have to do? Fight every fight Fight and restrain people.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

It wasn't like that when I joined the co-op. But because uh But yeah, so yeah, Barrack Corner, yeah, I would I would regularly have to bring people back to the store and then I went to Meredith Road. If you caught people shoplifting the Meredith Road, the family would come and wait for you after the um if you caught them and turned them into the police. Oh nice. I never had that, you know. Of course you didn't. Here's the thing though, it's about how you manage people. Yeah. Yeah. You know? So I would catch someone shoplifting. I would say, look, you give me the stuff back. I can't believe that you've come into my shop and you're shoplifting. Just don't come back in. Yeah. Yeah. Done.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

You don't have to call the police every time.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

And then would you see re-offenders? Would you see someone come oh no we go then?

SPEAKER_01 6:53

They wouldn't come back. Well, so they don't get some housed, are they? They didn't they didn't come back in. But a lot of people are shoplifting for a reason. Not because for the kicks of it.

unknown 7:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

You know, they're they're shoplifting because they're short of money money or whatever, you know. So sometimes you just gotta cut them a bit of slate. You just gotta know how to deal with it.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

For someone to be that low. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Yeah. And it's they're embarrassed enough that they've been caught. Yeah. You know, and so for me.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

And I guess and I guess they're probably worried that they're gonna get turned into the police. So when they're not, it's like almost relief and gratitude to go Yeah. Yeah, actually.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

And then that respect muscle, like, okay, I actually respect this guy. He's let me go. Yeah. Let me not disrespect him again and go back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Yeah. So after co-op, what happened? So after I don't know why you'd ever leave the co-op. Fight fight multiple times a week. What'd he do? Oh, there was there was a space at Brixton, so I decided to go there and fight in Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

I went to the Peckham co-op. So that's not why I left the co-op. I left the co-op because of Sunday opening. Okay. Oh that's why I left.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

So I ran a football team. Yeah. So I started running a football team when I was about 18. And of course we played on a Sunday. Right. So s you know, Sunday working wasn't wasn't an option for me. So when my boss came to me and said, look, you know, we're going to be opening Sundays, and the only reason the co-op opened on a Sunday was because four weeks before Christmas one year, they decided that they were going to open each Sunday. And the co-op, who were backed by the union, said, No, we're not opening. Yeah. So we didn't. We lost so much business that the following year we had to. Didn't want to, but we had to because everybody else was was doing it. And it's one of those things where, you know, jump on board and there are your principles, but then they're staying in business. Yeah.

Sunday Trading Dilemma And Exit

SPEAKER_02 8:48

So and my boss came to me and he said, Look and and Tesco's had written an appeal to a co-op going, please can you get House to open because we can't handle the shoplifters. We can send them back to House to sort them out.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

And he said the shoplifters back there.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Well could have could have been. The thing about the um the Sunday open, because I handed my notice in. Right. So my boss came to me and says, Look, are you sure? And I said, Yeah, I I I'm not I can't work Sundays. He says, Look, I'm gonna hold on to your resignation for a week. He says, This is what we'll do for two days in the week. So let's say Tuesday and Wednesday, for six months you will have those two days off. And then for the next six months, you'll have Saturday and Sunday off. And I said, with all due respect, because when I started at the co-op, we closed on a Monday. We closed from one till fifteen every day at lunchtime. Obviously we closed on a Sunday, and our only late night was till seven thirty on a Friday. And it went from opening six days a week till ten o'clock at night and lunch times.

unknown 10:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

We were open all the time. And I was told that we wouldn't have to work till ten o'clock at night.

SPEAKER_03 10:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

But who were my night managers? They were stay-at-home mums who had to go to work once their husbands got home.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

And then they would ring up and say, My little boy's ill, you won't stay with his dad.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

And you've got to go and cover it all.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

So that doesn't matter what I've got going on in the evening. I can't say to the girl on the checkout, put the cash in the safe, I'll deal with it in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

You've got to go in. I have to stay there.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

I have to stay. So I said, I work six days a week now. I work till ten o'clock. I can't see how you're going to guarantee me two days off.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

So I left. My mum, she went absolutely ballistic. You've worked, you've got this really good job, you've worked your way up, and you're now just gonna leave. So yeah, so I yeah, no, I decided that no, that's it. I was I was gonna leave. But what I had been doing is that I'd been building up a property portfolio while I was at the co-op.

Property Spark And First Purchase

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yeah, so tell us the story. You'll like this one because you're gonna say how well my researchers are. Tell us the story about your mum talking about the cost of her property and what it was worth now.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

God.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

You'll like this, right? Wow. He has done his research.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Anyone would think he's a professional.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Well, yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

We don't just wing this show, clearly.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

We've got market for this year. 2026, the year we're gonna do our work beforehand.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm I'm one of four kids. Yeah. And my dad died when I was 10 years old. So my mum's on her own with four children, and she needed to raise some money. So she comes to me as the oldest child and she says, just had the house valued. And they've said that it's worth 25,000. There's nowhere it can be because me and your dad, we bought it for 1,200 pounds.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

There's no way it can be worth£25. And I'm in the sixth form at school and I'm thinking, wow, twelve hundred to twenty-five thousand in fourteen to sixteen years. I don't know anything that can do that.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Hang on. And and you'll like this one even more. And this is coming from the guy who not only is running two paper rounds, but after Scout Week doing Bobber job, he carried on for the next 11 months as well to carry on earning the money doing odd jobs around the area. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Where have you sent your research? You love this, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:21

It's almost like Helster's even looking at me. He's got his little face. I would love to say that beforehand, Halster said, right, so let's talk about this and let's talk about this. But he's as much surprised by this as Jim. I am. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Well, yes. And that's what I did because we didn't have any money, and I I was in the scouts, and I couldn't go my mum couldn't afford to send me on things, buy the uniform and stuff like that. So I just went out and earned my own money. So I had two paper rounds. There was a fruit and veg guy who'd come round at the weekends. I'd go with him on a Saturday, the odd jobs, because that was great. We I earned all that money for the scouts in those two weeks, and I just kept it going. You know, chopping wood. Should we chop wood back then? Yeah, it was chopping wood, washing cars, whatever it was, doing gardening. Yeah, I just kept that going.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

It's just been a grafter, hasn't he? Graft mentality, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, so I did that.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

But I'm guessing none of your grafting turned 1,200 pounds into 25,000 and now House goes, I kind of want a piece of this somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yeah, yeah. So I I'm in a sixth form, as I said, at school, and I've gone into my mates, I said, we've got to do property. And they just tried to talk me out. It says, No, we're too young, it's too risky, you need money. And I thought, well, you know, and we've got to go out, meet girls and stuff like that. So I still hung up with my mates and and had fun, but I did property, but I just never told anyone I was doing it.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

So I then as I said, I joined the co-op, and there was a lady, the first co-op I ever managed myself was Needham Market. Right. Behind the church. So that's just that's just up to ready.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Many, many fights, no fights at Needham?

Building Eight Houses The Hard Way

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Well, there was one there was one shoplifter that we caught there, where I was expecting it to be a fight. He was a massive, absolutely massive. I won't say what we called him just because people would know who he was, but you know, yeah. And it and it's not fair. So but uh but he was a really big guy, and he had a great he had the box, and so we were going out to stop and we we said, right, don't let him put the box down. His hands are busy right now, and he came and so we got I got got brought him back in or whatever, and he just broke down in tears. Oh absolutely broke down in tears. He had lost his job and whatever, and he said, Please, please, please, you know, don't call the police. We had a store detective in, she called I I really didn't want to call the police because he he was absolutely broken. We didn't need we didn't need to do that. But But she called the police. Yeah, but he he was a big guy and I was expecting it to be a fight, and he that that didn't happen anyway. But yeah. Yeah, so the lady who I was working with at Need a Market, I said, How do I start buying properties? And she just guided me through it, you know. First you need to find, wait, go and see some estate agents, you need someone who can arrange the mortgage you need. And she just helped me through it, really. And the two people who helped me the most were my mortgage guy and my solicitor. And my solicitor is still my solicitor today. Did you name drop him? Yeah, Andy Jacobs, brilliant guy. Where where's he from? So Andy Jacobs, he's up on Marksham, opposite Kingpin.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

You've had to say one since you started. Wow. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

He's been my solicitor.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Remember House that's only 23? Yes. 23, 24? Yeah, for 17. It's not that long, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Yeah, it's only four years. That's still we're still about ten years, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah, so yeah, so I bought my first house. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

So what age were you when you bought your first one? 19. Okay. And that would was it a flip, a retain, or a living?

SPEAKER_01 15:48

I bought it to live in. Okay. Cavendish Street. Right. Which a gorgeous house it was.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Cavendish Street.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Yeah. But it had I had a damp problem which I just couldn't solve. So in the end I I I had to sell that one, but I it broke my heart to see it.

SPEAKER_05 16:01

Ah.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Oh, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Got quite attached to it. I did. And then and then did it help you learn to treat them as assets or Well, my plan, here's my here was my plan, was that there was this thing called it sounds like at about nine you had the plan of dominating the world and collecting all the money from everyone in it.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

I did Well, I wanted to have I mean we we're going a bit off topic, but I wanted to have a rock record shop.

unknown 16:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Anyone who's close to me when I was younger. So I love my music and whatever, and I bought I've got a a really good record collection. But I wanted to open a record shop and I used to go to Virgin Records as it was.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Hang on, there would have been Andy's Records as well, wouldn't there?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Yeah, Andy's Records was there, Parrot Records.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Was there Rex No, I might be I don't know if I'm thinking of a film, I think of Rex Records, but yeah.

16% Rates, Arrears, And The Turnaround

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah. But yeah. So yeah, so yeah, I that's that's what I wanted to do. But there was this thing called endowments. Yep. And what what was what I was told by my mortgage guy was that you just had an interest-only mortgage and then you would have an endowment. And the endowment, for anyone who's not old enough to know, was that it was like a savings policy and it was backed by the you know, the stock market. And so what happened was that at the end of the mortgage your endowment was gonna be worth twice what you bought your property for. So I'm thinking$25,000 for a property, ten properties, at the end of 25 years, all I'm gonna do is just hold them and I'm gonna pay off my mortgage and I've got a quarter of a million. Who needs any more money than that? That was my plan to get 10 properties, great plan endowments, hold them for 25 years, I'm done.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

It would be, except I'm gonna show my age and kind of put endowment policies where like the PPIs before PPIs came around. Yeah. They didn't go to plan. No, they didn't back. Like the pivot and listen. It's like, yeah, but how are you gonna buy ten properties? Chop wood, go along on odd jobs, whatever it takes. That's what I did.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

You know, that's how I bought properties.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

I just saved deposits, bought houses. But I'm guessing you also had like partly on your shoulders the responsibility to help your mum as well. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Were were your siblings all into property and similar to you or not? No, no, no. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

No. No. My brother has since bought a couple of properties, but yeah, no, they didn't.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

This was just your vision and your your doctor.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

So after Cavender Street, what happened? After Cavendish. You didn't get disenchanted and decide you don't want to do it anymore.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

No, no, no, no, no. I I then, as I said, I then went on and built a buying spree. And over the next sort of like ten years or so, I then bought eight properties. Wow. Oh. Yeah. Just by saving deposits and buying houses, saving deposits, buying houses. Nuts. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

At that age as well, it's just so I mean, you nowadays more young people are doing it because it's it's all you hear about. There's videos about it, there's YouTube videos on it. But back then, you wouldn't have really seen that, or that wasn't the done thing, was it, by young people?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

It was No, and and the good thing is that, you know, because of my solicitor and my mortgage guy, you know, they would guide me. Guide, yeah. You know, uh, how how to buy stuff and you know, and it just they just kept me right really.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Goes to show if you have the right team or the right network around you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

So then what happened was I had these eight properties, and then in 1992, interest rates because you weren't you won't you weren't born then, were you?

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Interest rates uh no, definitely not. Neither of us were, right, Jem? No.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Interest rates went to 16%. Absolute crazy. And I know and we I know we're moaning at, you know, three and a quarter, three quarters per cent, but yeah, sixteen percent.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

Yeah, that must have been insane. Well, you're holding eight properties as well.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Yeah. Bearing in mind, I didn't know what I was doing.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Yeah. So I Well, I'm guessing everything was like, you know, the deposits were the entry level, whatever you could get in terms of, yeah, if you had to pay five percent, ten percent, fifteen percent, that's all you were doing to go get it and then get on to the next one.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

And never mind, cover it with an endowment and go interest only.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Yeah. Well, because I was working two or three jobs, see, I I everyone said that you don't want to pay tax. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And i the way not to pay tax is not to make a profit.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

So I mean it's easy when you've got sixteen percent interest rate.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

So you know what I mean? So so if my if my mortgage was, you know,£150 a month, you know, then I charged£140 rent. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not making anything. And I was just topping up. But of course, when interest rates then go to sixteen percent, I couldn't keep up with the mortgage payments because I've just gone through the roof. So now I'm an arrears on all eight properties. And so I go to uh the CAB centre and just said, you know, what can I do? And they said, Mr. Otley, if they're giving you that much trouble, sell them. God, I've worked too hard.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

That's not an option.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

I I've wor I've worked too hard to to just sell them. What were the prices doing?

Deposits, Graft, And Modern Myths

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Were you negative equity or still positive and No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

It was still well I as I said, I I didn't really here's the thing. I didn't know what the houses were worth. So if I came to look at your house, Nick, and you said that you wanted 30 grand for it, I paid you 30 grand. I had no idea.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

God, do you know what I wish I could sell in my house now? Master, pop round, how's your house worth? Five million.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

I had no idea. So I was really good at negotiating for the full Asken price. Seriously.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

I I was good. I was really good. You've got 30, you sure? I I mean I can get a 32. Uh no, 32 sounds better. Yeah, great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

And so I just would go off then and you know, I just asked my mortgage guy, what deposit do I need? And I just go off and raise the deposit and do it.

SPEAKER_04 21:57

So that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

Okay, so CAB telling you get rid of everything. Yep. What'd you do? Because I have a stinking suspicion Houster didn't get rid of everything.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

I did not. I'd worked too hard. I've worked too hard. So I'm still at the co op at this point. And so I ring up my area manager and said, I'm not coming in today. And I sit in Cavendish Street and I'm Just and I'm just thinking to myself, right, what can I do here? And so I took a sheet of paper and I just brainstormed. I just wrote anything down. I just wrote stuff down, wrote stuff down, wrote stuff down. And then I went to see my mortgage guy and I said, What can I do? Can I do any of these? And we just hatched a plan, you know. Pased the rent. You know, we just came up with good stuff to do. 1994 was the Sunday opening thing. And I had turned it around in two years and I was making more money for my properties than I was with the co-op. Wow. Hence why I was able to leave.

SPEAKER_05 22:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

So I left in 1994 and I've not looked back since. And that's why I believe that property it's out there, it's the only thing I know that's a leveller for anybody. You don't have to have come for money. It is an equal opportunity for anybody. And I think that everybody should at least buy one house that they keep. Because that's what my mum did. Her mum and dad bought a house, raised their family in it, and then it would had all this equity. No planning. That wasn't why they did it. They bought a house because they didn't want to rent.

SPEAKER_05 23:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

And to bring their family up. And if every if people don't do that, they're missing that capital growth. Because we, you know, if you're up north somewhere where, you know, you're still being able to buy properties for 50 grand, you know there's no capital growth there. Yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

But here are all your properties in this area, are they also?

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah, okay. So the first house I bought, 1999 five, you know, Cavendish Street. I mean, but what's it worth today?

SPEAKER_05 23:58

Oh, yeah.

Karate, Coaching, And Community

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Probably two, two, three, something like that. Got to be, has it?

SPEAKER_02 24:02

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, so Okay, so I'm gonna I'm gonna play devil's advocate here because you hear it so often, and this is the nice part. So for people who don't know, Housted also looks after Progressive Property Network in Ipswich. So he goes along and teaches people how to get into property in bits and pieces like that. But it's too common that you hear this current generation coming through saying, Oh yeah, but it's okay buying properties when they're 1200 quid or when you paid 20 grand for them and what have you. How do you deal with that when someone says, you know, well, how on earth are we ever supposed to raise a deposit?

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Well, I told you that I bought my first house at 19.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

When I started at the co-op, I was on 17 pounds a week.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

Which nicely puts it into context.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Okay, which puts it into contents this day. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Didn't have the money, couldn't afford it.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

You have to go out and you just go out and earn, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

But the answer is that, you know, effectively I'm guessing that somebody said to you, Right, you need£3,000.

unknown 25:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

If you can get£3,000, we can get you this house for$19,995.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

And then you sat down with a piece of paper and said, I'm gonna go work out how to get three grand. Exactly. Where's where's the wood? You know, it's not gonna happen at£17 a week, so let me go chop some wood, let me go and bob a job, let me go and do whatever's needed to be done.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Exactly right. There we go, you see. Ha how how uh how inspirational is this, right? I love this. It's they just just go do it. Just go do it.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Just go and do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

It's too easy to find the reasons why not. Exactly. It's the but there's always uh There is there's two types of people in the world, isn't there?

SPEAKER_00 25:34

There's ones that want to do it but will always come up with a reason. Yeah. I can't do it because of this and I can't do it because of that. Yeah. Or there's ones that just uh I'll do it no matter what.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Okay, fine. Well, whether it takes me three months or three years, I'll just go and do it. Just go and do it. Amazing.

unknown 25:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Okay, so at that point, like because obviously I know you've got, you know, you're teaching karate. Were you teaching karate at the same time as well?

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Yeah, so yeah, I was teaching karate. I started back in the eighties teaching karate, so I got my black belt when I was twenty-one.

No Regrets, Only Challenges

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Yep. And so But again, shows your drive, because I'm guessing not many people, you know, will go along and do that as twenty-one. Exactly. When did you start? Like as a eighteen. Okay. Well, that is a lot of drive then. Do it in three years.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, quite yeah, I've done it in three years. So I then started what happened was because I then I told you I was managing Needham Market Curtis, that was my first one. So I got I think I was made manager there when I was about twenty. And because I then got my black belt, I couldn't come back to Ipswich 'cause I was in Needham Market. So I used to go over to Stowmarket and train at the Stowmarket karate club. Okay. And because I was there early, the instructor would ask me to help him teach the kids there. So I'd be teaching the kids. Anyway, I get a phone call one day from one of the mums and she says, You teach my little boy at Stowmarket, we'd like to have a club at Stowe Upland. Would you teach it? And I said, Well, you look, you know, Mick Blackwell, he's the head of the association. I have to get his approval. She says, I've already rung him, and he says, if you say yes, we can do it. So Stowupland, so she hired the hall and whatever, and my Stowe Upland karate club was formed then. Wow. Yeah. You're still doing it now? No. Just give us that question. Yeah, no, I've now stopped doing it about three or four years ago.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Have you ever lost your willingness to graft? Because I know even now, I mean, you do like UW and you do PPN and you do like all these bits and pieces. Has it always been there with you?

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Yeah, I can't understand why people don't.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

I can't say why people just don't do anything.

Biggest Wins: Portfolio And Albert Hall

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Yeah, because everyone's moaning about, you know, you know, doom and gloom, and I can't have this. You know, and I'm you can't believe, you know, how hard I worked. Well, I had a full-time job. As I told you, you know, I'd be there at six in the morning and I could be there till ten at night, but it didn't stop me from.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

And then Sunday you're still going along and running your football team, and then out after that, you're probably off chopping some wood to and fighting shoplifters on the side. And fighting shoplifters. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

When people say that they're busy, I'm thinking you don't know what business is. You have no idea. I have three changes of clothes in my car and I'm going from one thing to the other. Yeah, so that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Yeah. Well, I'm gonna have you I've got some quick fire questions for you now. Oh gosh. It's easy, he's opening a backbook now. Ready for this? You'll like this one, ready? So, how was it winning the superstars competition? Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_04 28:32

It's gonna be freaked out even more.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

No, yeah, did you know I did I won that? That was do you know what? I was not My researchers are on the case, obviously. I was not supposed to win that. You know, I was up against some people who are a lot bigger than me. But yeah, I now fitness, the thing about fitness because I wasn't that tall at school, I I watched this film called Come Away Ma We Geordie. I don't know if you've ever heard of the film, but it's about this guy who threw the hammer for Scotland.

SPEAKER_03 29:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

And if the opening credits of the film were the teacher says, ask a question, and this guy puts his he said, Stand up, Geordie. He says, I am, sir. But he goes on to develop this fitness program and he grows to be six foot whatever it is, and throws the hammer for Scotland. I'm thinking, that's what I've got to do. And so I just got into fitness. So we had a had a suitcase at home and I would fill it with stuff and I'd lay across the you know the arm of the chair and I'd bench press stuff and I'd he does nothing by half, does he?

SPEAKER_00 29:38

No. It's what I'm picking up. It's all or nothing.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

You understand now why I said we need to get house put on, right?

unknown 29:43

Yeah, yeah.

Closing Thanks And Inspiration

SPEAKER_01 29:44

So I just really I just heavily, heavily got into to fitness. So I grew a little bit, but you know, not as if you see pictures of me and my foot.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Not quite made it to six foot. Didn't make it to six foot.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Nearly. But if you saw pictures of me and my sister, you know, when we were kids, my sister was here and I was here, and I overtook my sister. So it must have worked.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

I mean, if if we say like we'll round it up to the nearest six foot, then you've made it, right? Yeah. Okay, so we've got this one, right? Tell us what's your biggest regret in life today.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

Gosh. My biggest regret. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

You can't even say I wish I'd have started sooner. Because not being funny at like four years old, he's going, let me just try and bench press my sister just to make sure I get here. I don't know that I have. That's a great way to live though. Yeah, I've lived my life without a regret.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Yeah, not not really, because I I've I'm one of these people that if I want to do it, I just go and do it. I don't let people, you know, I was in the Scouts, as I said, you know, and if we if there was things that were going that I wanted to go to, I didn't I didn't say, Oh, I can't go. I just think, how can I do it? You know, we went we went to Dartmoor because I wanted to get my Queen Scout award. And so I needed the money to go down there. My mum couldn't afford it, and I just went off and raised the money and said, Right, we're going.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

But you should send yourself. Yeah, so I don't really But he got all these badges in a week. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

I did get a lot of badges. Literally, he turns up at scouts and they say, Yeah. So how you find your second week? He goes, Here's the knot, here's me sailing, here's me starting fires, here's me doing this, this, this, yeah, I'll take that arm and that arm, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

So yeah, so not not necessarily regrets, but there's been challenges, obviously, along the way, but uh but no, not like Okay, how about this one?

SPEAKER_02 31:37

I'll give you this one. Biggest challenge you've overcome.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

God, biggest challenge. Well, it was when I was in arrears about to lose eight properties. That was probably my biggest not many people can say that, I can that was the biggest thing. And what that taught me is when you buy properties that you I I work out what's known as the gross shield. And so I look for around about eight percent. So that means that if we get an interest rate rise or something that happens, I've got enough buffer. Yep. Because so many people I know that because I've been through these cycles where, you know, the crashes and whatever, I must have been through three of these sort of crashes and touch wood, have managed to hold on to my portfolio. And I know many people who never were able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

But I'm but I'm guessing when you started off as the, you know, and let's please don't take offense to this, but the naive landlord where you started off by going, I'll just buy the property for whatever someone tells me. Yeah. How am I going to set the rent? I know ten quid less than my mortgage. Ten quid less than my mortgage. You know, while it's at a decent rate and you know and then I'm guessing that battering taught you to go, no, I have to understand how to price the rents properly. I mean, I'm sure you were the like the most naive and yet loved property purchaser and landlord.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

The nicest landlord. Can you imagine that?

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Oh, yeah. So the um comparable rents are£1,200 a month. Houston, what do you want?£350. Why is that? My mortgage is£360, so£350 is fine. I'll just cover that and top it up.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Here's the thing. I used to manage the properties myself. Okay. And badly I hastened to ask.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Yeah, but imagine that it wouldn't be. Oh yeah, Houston's gonna pay someone. No, Houston's gonna turn up but Houston's gonna go and fix it.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Yeah, yeah. So I'm you know, I was always getting done over by builders and things like that because I didn't know what jobs entailed. I'm not a handyman, you know. And so I'd say, How much would it be to fix this? How much, you know, and they I was always paying over the odds. So, but uh Okay, here we go.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

I'm gonna give you the uh final one to finish on. The biggest achievement. God, my biggest achievement. The thing is, there's so many, because it could be someone that you've mentored at PPN. Yeah. It could be being handed your black belt at 21. Yeah. Keepsing hold of eight properties.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

This is how I know about house. Before you spoke to me about it, and there's a couple of people I know that have been mentored. Okay. And they sing your I won't mention them, but they sing your praises. Oh bless their hearts. Yeah, they really do. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

My biggest achievement. I could tell you a couple of them. I sang at the Albert Hall. So I used to be a chorister.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Hold on, you research, I can find that out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

Not only that, my my knowledge is lacking enough to go, hang on. Did he say barista? No, a chorister. What's a chorister?

SPEAKER_01 34:27

So a choir boy. Okay. So St. Marrilee Tower. Do you know the church in Ipswich? Yep. Yep. So I was head chorister. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

He's actually really happy. He's telling you something you didn't already know. I had chuffed a bit.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Hang on. By uh researchers, yeah, good. So yeah. How's the I've got two people might need a job now, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

And any good at property. So Yes, I yeah, I was head chorister at the St. Marrilee Tower. And for the Queen's Jubilee, there was about four of us that were chosen to go and sing at the Queen's Jubilee at the uh Royal Albert Hall.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

That's probably one of my biggest achievements.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

That definitely wins one. Yeah, that's amazing. Okay. That's amazing. Do you know what? I'm feeling so inspired and what have you. And now you start to see why so many people will speak highly of this man.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Oh, yeah. 100%.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

Thank you. Housted, thank you so much for being with us today.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

And inspiring the masses. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you. Cheers, Housted. Okay.