Worked as a bricklayer from the amazingly hot summer of 1976 until 1983ish (built my own house in 1981)- started building company based in Cambridgeshire with my Dad, built lots of houses for other people, got involved in property developing, done ok - got fed up of churning out boxes (paid well though!) - thought it would be a good idea to invest all my money in a 26ish room mansion in Shropshire just before the late 80's recession - think you know a lot? you need to work through a recession like that with 15% interest rates- you learn a lot on the way down!! - ended up in 1991 with a High Court Judgement for £340000 (one day I will frame it and put it on a wall!) - whilst the legals etc were happening thought I'd lie low so went to Uni and got a degree (2:1) in Building Surveying- managed to pay all my debts apart from Lloyds Bank who very nicely wrote off my debt! - before Lloyds wrote off the debt I made a cheeky approach (suggested by a Lloyds employee who was not my Manager) to them to finance a development project, guess what..Yes they agreed, those were the days when I still qualified for tea and biscuits with the manager (sherry if after lunch - he did enjoy a drink!)- didn't take up their finance offer though, I reckon they were waiting for the profits and then take them from me!- spent a number of years as a single Dad so used that time to work on designing, planning and all the paperwork you get on a project - my real pleasure is working on site so come the late 90s starting building again - had it all then Design & Build, LOVE IT! - I've been described (once or twice!) as a property smartarse - actually I take that as a compliment!! - Probably should mention that I've owned a lot of properties over the years (lost and sold most of them) but only this year has the decision been made to start investing again...doing ok so far. Thanks for reading this, apologies for the length of this (full version can be purchased on Amazon!)and the punctuation etc (I'm told it doesn't matter anymore!) but I've enjoyed doing it, perhaps I should take up writing - it would have to be about property though, never done much else.