11/04/2024
So how did I get to where I am today? Well..............
๐ฅนAs the eldest child of four, growing up in the late 50s and 60s with my father unable to hold down a job due to disability and workplace injury (although he did try very hard), I experienced life on the breadline at first hand.
๐คฑMy Mum was an absolute genius in the way she kept us all well nourished purely on social security benefits, and she made huge sacrifices in her own life to ensure that us kids could enjoy activities outside of the home as well.
I think it was these twin experiences - our poverty and Mum's altruism - which largely shaped my life going forward.
The other significant influence on me was my father's attitude. This was also a twin-pronged effect. Having been brought up "below stairs" where my grandfather was a valet and chauffeur to a titled and wealthy MP, Dad had a certain obsequiousness and deference towards the upper classes which must have rubbed off on me although I didn't realise until much later in life.
Coupled with his relentless criticism and antagonistic attitude toward me (I have forgiven him - he had massive burdens to carry in terms of lifelong illness and probably envy of my intellect and teenage successes) I now realise that I have lived much of my life with low self-esteem, significantly influencing many of my important life choices.
Mum always wanted me to be a doctor - and according to all the early signs I certainly had the capability - but I was brought up by the sea in the beautiful Isle of Wight, and from as early as I can remember all I wanted was to be a Captain in the Royal Navy.
Unfortunately I suffer from a complete sensorineural hearing loss in one ear (probably caused by mumps when I was 4) and despite my outstanding successes in the Sea Cadet Corps I was rejected by the navy on medical grounds.
I had also developed mild myopia during my teens, and in those days that was sufficient to rule out the option of becoming a Deck Officer in the Merchant Navy.
Almost by accident, I therefore became a Marine Engineer Officer in the Merchant Navy, serving initially on general cargo and container ships, but for most of the time living the high life with P&O Princess Cruises in the Caribbean and in South East Alaska.
However, what I have now recognised to be my low self esteem caused me to consistently put the needs of others ahead of my own, resulting over my life time in for example, failed relationships and unwanted career moves.
On the positive side though and looking back, my career changes have actually enhanced my life and my life experiences - I have established myself and succeeded variously as an entrepreneur; as a Hydro Power Station Construction and Maintenance Engineer, Supervisor and Manager; as a Registered Hearing Aid Dispenser and PPP Project Manager working alongside the NHS; as a tour driver, tour guide and manager in the Coach Tour industry.
Although I allowed life to drive me almost uncontrolled into these different environments, I did make the most of my time once each change was established. I built a reputation for integrity, tenacity and reliability; distinguished myself academically; and built mutually trusting relationships with my peers; my bosses; and those for whom I was responsible - relationships which have persisted to this day, albeit at extreme distances in some cases.
I discovered that I was a great learner and implementer; an even better explainer of that learning to my occasionally struggling co-learners; a good listener; and often the one that my peers naturally turned to for help in solving problems - both professional and personal.
This was a particularly valuable trait when living and working together 24/7/52 in the confines of a ship at sea, or a construction camp hundreds of miles from civilisation.
Almost as soon as I qualified and began my first serious, well paid job, I became interested in property, purchasing my first home in 1982 and my first investment property in 1984. Five properties later, in the early noughties, I again allowed life to drive me rather than me taking control of life, and the end result was that I sold everything and got out of property. HUGE mistake - although I didn't realise it at the time!
Anyway, life went on until sometime in 2018 when an advertising campaign by a well known Property Guru piqued my interest - I was pondering what to do with my pending pension lump sums - and I attended his weekend online event covering various aspects of property investment.
That weekend changed my life. I rediscovered my interest in property, and more importantly my faith in property investment as an accessible route to long term wealth open to anyone with the requisite knowledge, even when having little or no money!
Being an analytical personality with a healthy helping of scepticism I looked further and deeper into the claims made and the examples given and it wasn't long before I realised that thanks to the laws of supply and demand; the magic of compound growth; and the power of leverage property did indeed give fantastic scope for the ordinary man in the street to build a growing wealth and legacy. There are of course potential pitfalls, but I decided there and then to use my proven learning skills to gain as much relevant knowledge as I could lay my hands on.
My initial plan was to use my pension lumps sums as a healthy deposit on a property I had identified as having great potential for serviced accommodation. Unfortunately due my age and lack of a recent track record I found that impractical at the time - I couldn't find anyone to give me a mortgage.
As my knowledge grew, I later realised that there is more than one way to skin a rabbit and using the creative processes of which I am now aware, I could quite easily have found a way to finance that deal, but what happened in actuality was that I realised there was a way for me to use my existing skillset to enable and to help other potential investors to realise their property goals.
So I invested my pension pots into myself; my property eduaction; and my new business idea instead.
My vision was to create a retirement income greater than my pension expectations, and to build a growing business as a legacy for my offspring - 3 generations deep now, since February 2024.
After a couple of false starts I concluded that the best way forward for my business was to use my time, my growing expertise and my network of other property investors; property professionals and property experts to do the heavy lifting involved in finding deals and getting them off the ground for investors who could then be as hands on or as hands off as they liked. I would then use the profits from my professional fees as deposits to begin rebuilding my own property portfolio.
So BIAS Property Group - Professional Sourcing Agents was born. Having spent many months (I am an engineer and a perfectionist - not always the best combination for starting a business from scratch!) building my systems and becoming fully compliant (as what is legally an Estate Agency Business, our sector is heavily regulated) I am now here, today, finally beginning to promote my business.
Property Investment is a people business, with transactions and deals being negotiated by people who know, like and trust each other. I trust that giving you this outline of my back story will help you begin to know me; some of you may even like me because of it; and a good few of you will grow to trust me as we follow our property journies together.
Thank you for listening reading, and I look forward to getting to know you too.
