What do you work as?

Erwin said:

What do you do for work, and how did you find your way into your current profession?

I renovate old flats that have been very neglected and make them both functional and desirable - pretty much all the trades can be done by me by I subcontract the time consuming ones where cost effective and oversee the work.

I've been doing this full time for a year, part time for 4 years before that and before that, 32 years working in IT.

I was drawn to the work as I always like working with my hands (used to do a lot of hardware repairs on the side when I worked in IT) and my family have a history of working in the trade although not currently.

For me it feels really rewarding to learn a skill and apply it to the point it is better than most tradespeople can do it - not quite mastery but as good as you would want.

The two areas I still need to work on a lot are plastering and carpentry - I can do both passibly but I lack the co-ordination for plastering a rough wall well and carpentry needs a level of precision that I still need to develop.

Somehow being able to do all these tasks makes me feel better about my social shortcomings - I can let my abilities do the talking rather than have to gain acceptance through just talking. Probably an overcompensation thing, but it works well for me financially as this allowed me to retire at 55 to Brazil where I'm doing the same thing.

Erwin said:

Feel free to share any advice

Let other people share the financial risk if you are doing property flipping as a business. The market in the UK looks quite unpredictable so don't put your own resources on the line unless you have to.

If you are working on a job basis, make sure you get a deposit too - the number of cases of non payment I heard of last year from my network was silly - with a deposit you are able to cover some of your exposure. Also make the customer pay for materials to save that possible expense.

Erwin said:

What do you do for work, and how did you find your way into your current profession?

I renovate old flats that have been very neglected and make them both functional and desirable - pretty much all the trades can be done by me by I subcontract the time consuming ones where cost effective and oversee the work.

I've been doing this full time for a year, part time for 4 years before that and before that, 32 years working in IT.

I was drawn to the work as I always like working with my hands (used to do a lot of hardware repairs on the side when I worked in IT) and my family have a history of working in the trade although not currently.

For me it feels really rewarding to learn a skill and apply it to the point it is better than most tradespeople can do it - not quite mastery but as good as you would want.

The two areas I still need to work on a lot are plastering and carpentry - I can do both passibly but I lack the co-ordination for plastering a rough wall well and carpentry needs a level of precision that I still need to develop.

Somehow being able to do all these tasks makes me feel better about my social shortcomings - I can let my abilities do the talking rather than have to gain acceptance through just talking. Probably an overcompensation thing, but it works well for me financially as this allowed me to retire at 55 to Brazil where I'm doing the same thing.

Erwin said:

Feel free to share any advice

Let other people share the financial risk if you are doing property flipping as a business. The market in the UK looks quite unpredictable so don't put your own resources on the line unless you have to.

If you are working on a job basis, make sure you get a deposit too - the number of cases of non payment I heard of last year from my network was silly - with a deposit you are able to cover some of your exposure. Also make the customer pay for materials to save that possible expense.