Thank you for reading my profile... thought it was finally time to update it! (SEPT 2017) Thanks to the awesome MASTERMIND programme, I achieved my big hairy goal - to retire at 40! I am now financially free... and it took me 18 months to achieve. When I woke up on my 40th birthday, realising that I don't need a JOB ever again, I had a big stupid grin on my face :-) I still 'work' on my houses though, I like doing refurb work, painting, staging, viewings, etc... as I enjoy it a lot (watching a grotty house be transformed) and it gives me a lot of time with my gorgeous wife during the day. I get a lot of satisfaction from doing refurbs! I manage my own portfolio myself as I avoid the useless letting agencies. I work on my property business just a few hours a day, as I drop my kids off at school for 9am and pick them up again at 3pm, every day. I have everything systemised, as per the "E-Myth" methodology, so that my business takes just a few hours per week to operate. Good systemisation is key to this! I live in Bolton, Lancashire. I am married with 4 children (3 boys, aged 17, 14 and 7 and a girl who is 5 years old). My children go to private school, which is currently a £40,000 a year commitment(!) This is why I do property, to give my children a better start in life! I recently celebrated my 25th SILVER wedding anniversary - how time flies! I took up running when I turned 40 and have so far run 8 full marathons and 20 half-marathons and around 60-70 different 10k and 5k races for the club, and now I do coaching at a local running club for an adult endurance group and a childrens sprinting group after recently qualifying as a UK Athletics Association running coach (level 2 CIRF). My property background : I joined the MM5 homestudy programme at the end of May 2009. I couldn't afford the main programme (i.e. the live workshops each month) and due to work commitments, I was not able to come down to Birmingham on Friday's each month to attend... so I got my DVD's in the post and watched them at home whilst bottle-feeding our baby boy (thomas was a newborn baby at the time)! After watching the DVD's and taking notes, I would just go out and "do it". I attended the 1-day BMV quickstart in June 2009 to kickstart things. I was very skeptical at first and it took me a few months to 'get it'. Being inspired by fellow MM5 delegates and those that came before me from MM1 to MM4, I finally took some action and bought my first NMD house in September 2009..... and just kept going... and going.... and going... I used to own 5 Bargain Booze franchises and run them myself, which was an 60-70 hour a week job, 7 days a week, but since joining mastermind, I've sold the shops, bought more houses and moved on. I now class myself as a full time property investor and coach. Before that, I was a computer programmer for over 16 years and was a freelancer for the last 5 years before going into the Bargain Booze franchise. I am also a helicopter pilot, I started flying in 1997. However, 16 months later, when Julie became pregnant, I had to pack it in as I could no longer indulge in the £300 per hour training. However, property has given me the freedom to start again - financial freedom to pay for the training and time freedom to do it! I re-started my flying in 2011 and I love it. My goal is to buy my own machine rather than paying through the nose to hire one at the airfield (around £300 per hour for the small one and £450 for the larger one). My big hairy audacious goal is to achieve my commercial licence and instructors licence - which will cost some £70,000(!) So, what did I achieve during the MM5 homestudy 12-month programme? I bought 10 BMV houses for NMD. I viewed about 220 houses and I put offers in on around half of them. So far I have tried all the marketing strategies we've covered and had the most success with leaflets. I've bought 12 houses alone from leaflets. I have also done 5 options too - 2 of them were straight purchase options (i.e. refurb first, then buy once improved) and 3 of them are Purchase Lease Options which I have a 5 year lease option against. Since MM5 ended in March 2010, I've completed on my 18th purchased deal and now achieving a positive cashflow over £10,000 a month net. The portfolio is worth over £1.4m and I have equity of around £380k. I also manage houses for other masterminders too. I don't do "rent to rent" and I don't do JV deals. I don't really like doing option deals, they've fallen into my lap as I was unable to buy the house outright after following up on a lead. I believe true wealth comes from the ownership of the asset, rather than leasing it, and so I will always try to buy the house as I don't like the idea of handing it back after 3-5 years (all that hard work for nothing?? then you have to start-over every few years), nor have to split the rent or equity with another person. I believe in the mantra "work once, get paid forever", so ownership of the property is my focus. Recently converted my 13th house into a HMO and converted one of my LHA2+2 houses into SA, which I have signed a 12-month booking with the local hospital for their nurse intake programme. My wealth profile is "LORD" with a strong secondary of "MECHANIC". This means I am a more introvert quiet methodical person. Since joining the MM programme, I have overcome my shyness (typical LORD character trait) by forcing myself out of my comfort zone and doing things that I thought I would never do, such as public speaking at Simon's 1-day quickstart seminars... OMG that was the most daunting thing I've done in a long time and Simon makes it look so easy. I was so nervous the first time (shaking hands, etc...). I have stood up and spoken at about a dozen of Simon's seminars and PIN meetings so far. I also run the "front desk" at the Manchester PIN meetings now, as my first couple of times there I was the proverbial quiet guy at the back of the room who didn't speak to anybody all night. Susan (my coach) asked me to help register people to overcome my shyness and now I meet and greet everybody and it's a lot easier than I thought it would be - I used to think "I'm not worthy to be in the same room as these professionals" but now I realise we're all in the same boat and most the guys are newbies too. I won the MM5 programme and was voted the 'top performer' of the group. I was shocked and stunned to be awarded the trophy and prize! Thank you guys for such an honour! The other 4 guys in the top 5 achievers were all amazing and I really didn't think I deserved such an accolade. I am now a property coach and mentor for the new mastermind delegates and really enjoy giving back. If any of the delegates acheive their goals under my coaching, it will be the best feeling in the world... So far, I've been coaching since MM8 and I've coached over 65 people, including 2 winners! Any MM members who come across any deals in Bolton (and surrounding areas), please get in touch! Thanks for reading my profile - get in touch today :-) TAKE ACTION - GET IN TOUCH TODAY!!!! :-) David MM5 winner, Platinum Graduate, Mastermind Coach and Mentor