For this month’s main investor interview, I made my way across to Suffolk to meet up with someone who we first interviewed here at Property Investor News some eight years ago, back in 2016. The contrast between the two investing locations from where we had first met Rachael was stark as she explained.

“Back then I was working in Stoke-on-Trent and building a portfolio of buy-to-lets,” said Rachael, “as well as sourcing stock on behalf of other investors who did not live anywhere near that location. I had a building company there and was finding suitable low-priced property for use as single lets and HMOs. I had created the business there from scratch but alongside my husband we had previously acquired some buy-to-lets in the Salisbury area as he (Jeremy) was still working in the British Army and we were based locally there. However, we had work contacts who knew the Stoke area well and they suggested that I looked at buying there so I went up for a few weeks and then bought property to let.

“They were, and still are, relatively uncomplicated deals as I don’t do major conversions on them. The process was a rinse and repeat with the first deposit used from the sale of a car, which was then repeatedly used after a re-financing to buy the next one.

“My career background prior to marriage was in retail but the reality of army life meant we moved home nine times in 23 years. Like many, I saw property investing as a way to create a pension and so from 2004 onwards I started buying using the ‘buy-refurbish-rent-refinance’ model and built up a portfolio, all in my own name. This strategy continues today to give us the income to support my lifestyle and although the equity in the Stoke properties grows slowly, they were bought mainly for cashflow and yield.”

Rachael’s approach is one that will be very familiar to regular readers of this magazine, and despite the on-going negativity in some sections of the media it is an investing approach that still works very well in many UK locations, if done sensibly.