Not one to hang about, I drove down the following Monday to exchange 
contracts. I had to be quick as the other buyer could have exchanged at any moment. The deposit was paid out of cash from the account of the little home business I ran.

It soon became clear that any prospective buyer would have had difficulty....no lender would take the risk. That said, I learnt recently the other buyer had indeed had a full survey done, arranged a mortgage and was only two days away from completing. With over 160 buckets collecting water from myriad leaks, very few banks indeed would have granted a mortgage on it. So it was all but un-saleable, due to its condition – except to a ‘cash-buyer’. >>>

To pay the mortgage I filled the place with lodgers. Every room had one or two lodgers in it. I collected the rent, slowly painted the rooms myself, and did the housework at weekends. 

Back in 1983, I allowed myself just £10.00 a week for food, an amount I successfully rationed myself to by arriving at Church Street Market off the Edgware Road just before it closed, when the stall holders would sell off their surplus meat at a good discount. >>>

By 1987 things were better, with a well paid job in insurance sales. So it seemed rather silly spending every Saturday cleaning up after the lodgers. But I was horrified at what agencies charged. One wanted 50 pence for every hour the cleaner worked – for what? So I advertised for a cleaner myself. 
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 It all started with my lodging house in London which I bought in 1983.