Andrea Cooper, 47, has a portfolio of 26 properties in Barnsley that she’s been building up since 2003 – and made a change a few years ago that saw her income quadruple nearly overnight.
“I already had my own property and had some equity in it. I was a single parent, bought a rental and remortgaged the house I lived in with the equity I had,” she says.
After she got together with her husband, the couple continued buying properties in the same pattern, purchasing a mixture of terrace houses and flats in Barnsley, all let on single-tenant lets.
“Every time we had enough for a deposit, we’d buy another home. We were real grafters and didn’t spend much money on anything else,” says Andrea.
In 2018, the 47-year-old decided to dip her toe into the serviced accommodation sector, renting out properties fully furnished for short-term lets and including bedding and cleaning in the price.
