What’s the worst investment you’ve made?
I bought holiday lets, mostly in Spain, in the early 2000s, when it seemed like overseas investment was the way to go. I invested heavily and it was fine for a while, but like many people I lost hundreds of thousands of pounds and lost the properties too. It was a complete disaster. Luckily I was in my 40s so I had a chance to rebuild from that, but I wish I’d stuck with what I knew, which was the UK property market.
I haven’t invested in overseas property since then. I wouldn’t discourage anybody from buying their dream property abroad. I say to people, if you find a place you love, that’s for you, that you don’t intend to rent out, then good luck – but bear in mind how difficult it is to manage properties from a distance.
We’re so lucky with the way everything’s organised legally in the UK when it comes to property. The moment you step outside this country, you are in danger of being ripped off. Just don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose.
What’s the worst investment you’ve seen others make?
All the problems are when people don’t do the things we tell them to do, which is read the legal pack, visit the property beforehand and do your due diligence. When people break those golden rules, they stand a chance of getting themselves in a pickle.
I remember one show where somebody got auction fever and bought a house without checking it out. They paid £70,000 for a house that needed £20,000 spending on it to make it habitable – and it would only ever be worth £60,000.
Do you have a pension?
I set up a pension when I was at university – I was very proud of myself. I was 18 or 19 and I went with Equitable Life.
I made regular payments for a couple of years – then I lost my money, like all the other poor people who put their hard-earned money into Equitable Life.
I lost about £2,000. For a student, it was a lot of money – it was certainly a disproportionate amount of my measly income.
But the cost is much bigger, because if I’d carried on paying in I’d have 40 years of savings now, so I’d have a half-decent pension.
The whole thing rocked my belief in financial services. I never took out another pension and now all my money is in property.
How much have you made in total from your property investments?
I don’t have a clue. Enough to live comfortably. Not enough to buy a Caribbean island.
What’s the best thing you’ve ever bought?
My labradoodle, Wofful. She’s seven now, and she cost £1,000, but she’s given a million billion pounds’ worth of love and enjoyment.
What’s the most lucrative work you’ve done?
I was paid £30,000 for one day’s filming. I was 22 or 23 and I was doing an advert for Vidal Sassoon, playing a hair stylist. It was such a big ad, it was shown in the Super Bowl and it was parodied on Saturday Night Live.
They flew over Vidal Sassoon’s top stylist to do my hair for the shoot but he looked at it and went: “No, I like it. It’s fine.” So I did Vidal Sassoon’s major advert with a £4.50 haircut from a dodgy barber in Manchester.
It’s without doubt the most lucrative work I’ve done, but I look back with mixed emotions because I’ve since been told I should have earned 10 times that, had I got a proper contract.
Martin Roberts’ property investing courses cover buying, financing, renovating, renting and refurbishing; martinrobertspropertyeducation.com
