It started in the Kalahari desert, where a dream about disabled children and a mountain house started the cogs working and a seed was sown.
Having turned 21 and now home on British soil it wasn’t long before I ventured to the French Alps to ski with a group of 11 others in a place called La Clusaz in the Haute Savoie region of the French Alps. Having lost my nerve on the slopes I ventured into an Estate Agent and attempted to ask about properties. I went in a second time with a friend who spoke French.
A couple of hours later I was found in a café with my Filofax jotting down numbers, that became the beginning of an adventure that was my first property deal.
It was 1988 and property education was not being taught. Investment wasn’t a subject spoken about much in any form and I was going to be learning as I went.
When at home, I was working at a fish farm doing some admin work and gutting fish. I had no money to spend on a tent or the door of a house, was sure I would not be able to get a mortgage and most of the people in my life thought I was mad and stupid, so support wasn’t in lavish supply. But my mantra (although I didn’t know what that was at the time), was ‘I am going to do it, the question is how?’ Strange though it may seem, once I’d decided to do it, I didn’t doubt that I would.
Where that confidence came from I just don’t know, I had come out of school at 16 with no qualifications, I thought I was good at nothing and had dreamed of being a protegee at something. As a none academic identical twin, myself and my sister were a pain to all teachers and in the years that mattered did nothing but cause issues, all of which were detrimental to school life in its entirety.
The evening that I had been into the agents, I was delighted to discover that Len Silver (the owner of Silver Ski a Holiday ski company based in Maidstone, Kent), was coming for dinner as the Chalet we were staying at, was one that his company owned.
I ensured I sat next to him and I asked him, if I was to acquire a chalet in this resort, would he rent it from me for a period of 5 years. He immediately said yes as long as it was a minimum of 4 double bedrooms. That was all I needed for now and was excited to get home to begin structuring not only the acquiring of the property but the contract with Silver Ski.
Having expressed interest in a 4 bedroomed chalet, once home, I began organising the puzzle pieces, in order to then make the puzzle and see the deal happen.
Please know that never did I set out to do this as an investment or be savy, I didn’t even know what that meant, these things were just not talked about or taught. At this young age I was merely attempting to acquire a property to play out the dream I had had in the Kalahari and to then follow through with the second part of it.
Naivete served me well on this occasion as I thought the worst thing that could happen would be that the bank would take the property away if I for whatever reason was unable to pay for the debt. Obviously not realising the implications and consequences of repossession I moved forward with vigour.
It was only a week later that the estate agent contacted me to say the four bed chalet
had been sold and the only one left was a six bed. My attitude was, I can’t afford a one bed and it was like playing with monopoly money so what difference was a 6 bed.
Soon I met Len Silver at the motor cross stadium in Oxford. His son was racing and we sat in the back of his van and signed the 5 year contract, giving me £13,000 at the beginning of each ski season plus a 5% increment for each of the 4 consecutive years. They would also be paying all bills through the ski seasons.
During this time I was also writing to French Banks. So far all had rejected me until on an especially good day, Banque Le Henin agreed to consider an application. They required a guarantor and a medical and after supplying both of these a mortgage of £140,000 was agreed.
Whilst on the ski trip a friend of my sisters had suggested he might put the deposit in as had always wanted to invest in France and a few conversations on, he did.
So with no money in, I completed on Chalet Sophia in the latter part of 1989. The following year I started taking Disabled Children out there for summer sports breaks to build up their confidence and 34 years on I still have the chalet.
Whilst going through the motions of the deal I described it as stepping stones between two river banks. I never expected to get to the other side, but then again I never didn’t expect to get to the other side. It was the journey that grew me and I realised it was the journey that mattered. Sometimes the steps were very hard and I thought the journey would end, other times the steps were easier and on the odd occasion pride caused me to nearly drown.
Valuable lessons on young shoulders that have carried me since through many situations. An understanding that mindset is key to achieving. That determination and at times being guttsy is what draws results to yourself, that positiveness is the only way and that BELIEVING sometimes in what may seem impossible is no bad thing.
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