AS MUM Abi Hookway enters the house she flicks the light switch but the rented two-bedroom remains in darkness.
Abi, 38, realises there isn’t any money on the metre and she and the kids are without gas and electricity.
Abi will be forced to use the last £8 she has in her purse to top up the gas card.
While this may be an average day for millions of people, for self-made millionaire Abi it’s a shock and a taste of how ‘the other half live’.
Last year the mum appeared on Channel 5’s Rich House Poor House, swapping her luxury four bedroom home in Doncaster, Yorks , for a two bedroom rented terraced house in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.
Abi and her two children Thomas, 11 and eight-year-old Ellie swapped lives with struggling parents Heather, 24, and Brad, 22, who were £12,000 in debt.
The families swapped not only houses but their entire weekly budgets with Abi living on just £12 a day while Brad and Heather were able to splash out on £172.31 a day.
And the mum admits that the dramatic dip in her finances was a challenge, admitting that she had no experience when it came to budgeting.
“I couldn’t believe some people rely on topping up a metre card,” she says.
“At the supermarket I was shocked at how much milk costs. I never go grocery shopping, I have a housekeeper who does that for me.
“I was genuinely shocked at the price of food. My housekeeper buys our food and cooks our meals, typically I wouldn’t even look at prices.”
The limited funds meant that Abi was forced to rely on cheap convenience food to keep costs down.
“The kids and I spent the week eating frozen pizza, chips and chicken nuggets,” she says.
“The exact opposite of what we’d have at home.
“We normally eat out at nice restaurants during the week but the local chip shop wasn’t even in our budget.
“I don’t know who people survive like this. It made me grateful for what I have.”
Abi was selected for the Channel Five show because of her success buying and selling property.
She runs her own estate agency, turning over £300,000 a year, and boasts a property portfolio worth almost £7 million pounds.
Abi also specialises in selling newbuild homes on behalf of developers – and works as a trainer for Touchstone Education,running courses people in property management and investment.
“I have also written two guides on how to follow my path to success as a property investor. I am proud of what I achieved,” she says.
“I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I made my own success and if I can do it, anyone can.”
Seven years ago, when she was 31, Abi and her then husband divorced.
“Suddenly I was a single mum with two young children and £24k in debt after the divorce,” she says.
Abi moved into a rented two-bedroom house with her children admitting she went through some challenging and extremely tough times getting back on her feet as a single mum.
“It was tough. I was on my knees but I wasn’t prepared to sit back and accept the situation. I wanted a future for my family,” she says.
Abi set about educating herself and learning how to budget and now to create her own wealth through property investment.
It was then that Abi came across an article by a multi-millionaire property investor called Paul Smith.
I was gobsmacked at the cost of basic items, I assumed I could get egg, milk, bread and cheese for a fiver
Abi Hookway
“Paul’s article talked about how to finance a property portfolio, a light switched on in my head,” she says.
“I’d been interested in property since I was a little girl.
“Paul teaches you how to understand the difference between earning a salary and making money from houses, which pay you rent.
“I always thought you needed loads of money to get into property.
“But it turns out you can be a successful property investor without having the capital.
“Paul took me on as a letting agent and trained me.”
Abi then started her property portfolio with no deposit using the ‘hotel model’.
“I would lease a property, which I would furnish and run as holiday lets,” she says.
She did this by agreeing to rent properties from a landlord for five years.
“I went to the Peak District and found two little properties to rent and signed a lease agreement.
“There was no deposit and no upfront rent because I was doing it as a business on a commercial lease.
“I didn’t need to pay rent until four weeks later and by that time, I had bookings from -Booking.com, Airbnb and Tripadvisor, which paid for the rent.
“I was still working my full-time job, which paid for what I needed to live on.
“The extra £3,000 from property went towards paying off my debt.
“After eight months, the £24,000 was cleared and I was soon able to start using the income to buy assets.”
Abi’s next venture saw her buy property, do it up, remortgage and rent it.
“I also did property ‘flips’, where I would buy, refurbish and sell properties, making £50,000 to £100,000.
“This Monopoly Model teaches you that if you just go round the board and don’t buy any property and keep passing GO, you go bankrupt.
Abi Hookway, from Doncaster in South Yorkshire, was told that it would take her 40 years to get out of the red, but now, the Property and Wealth Coach and Property Investor.
Abi opened up about how she escaped the 9 to 5 grind and built her impressive property portfolio, as she wrote: “How I became debt free, quit my 9-5 job and built a £7.5million property portfolio.”
She then said: “Seven years ago, I divorced my husband, I moved into a little terraced house with my two children, Thomas and Ellie, who were both under five, and I was working 40, 50 hours a week, and I’d gone to an IFA and they told me that it would take me about 14 years to get out of my debt.”
Abi explained that she was left feeling ‘so disappointed’ and was extremely unhappy living the 9 to 5 grind.
The mum-of-two shared that she had gone to school, got good grades, worked up the career ladder, and even paid off her mortgage with her ex-husband.
But at the age of 31, when she found herself as a “skint, broke, single mum”, she made a decision that she wanted to do something different.
Abi revealed that she had always had a passion for properties and loved interior design.
As a result, she began by renting out people’s properties on booking.com and Airbnb and would then typically make between £1,800 to £2,000 a month.
Following this, Abi became a property finder and would get paid £3,000 a time.
As a result, Abi was able to begin paying off her debt.
She explained that she was then lent her ‘first pot of money’, which enabled her to buy a property, do it up, and sell it, making her a sweet £70,000.
She beamed: “That was the day my life changed forever. I now own quite a big property portfolio, I’ve commercial property, holiday lets, buy to lets, I do a lot of flips, and properties changed my life.
“I don’t have a boss, I don’t go to work, and I can’t tell you how freeing it is, from being so broken, so down, hating life in the 9-5 system – breaking out, it is truly amazing.”
“But if you go round the board and buy property, you get wealthy and win the game.
“For me, this is now happening in real life.”
Abi now owns her £450k four-bedroom luxury home and her property portfolio includes 30 new builds, flats, commercial premises and half a million-pound homes.
Her impressive arsenal means that Abi has been able to enjoy the finer things in life.
“We have a housekeeper who makes our meals and keeps my home running,” she says.
“I also have a cleaner and that means I can focus on work. I don’t have to buy groceries or tidy it up for me.”
The property entrepreneur spends up to £5,000 on designer clothes in a single outing and the family enjoy exotic holidays, posh cars and expensive nights out.
Abi was asked to appear on Rich House Poor House after producers discovered her social media channels where she discussed building up her business.
“I didn’t do it to show off. I wanted to remind myself and my kids of how far I’d come and to understand the real; life problems facing people on lower incomes,” she says.
“I know Brad and Heather enjoyed living in my house and not having to worry about every penny they spent.”
Abi had to live without her car for a week, walk everywhere and survive on Heather and Brad’s tiny budget.
“It made me realise how blessed I am and just how far I had come,” she says.
“I was gobsmacked at the cost of basic items, I assumed I could get egg, milk, bread and cheese for a fiver.
“My kids loved living on the two-bedroom terrace for a week. To them it was a huge adventure. They got to eat food they haven’t had before. They saw it as a holiday,” she says.
“I found it incredibly challenging and confronting. It made me want to help more people.”
Abi says it also made her realise just how many people don’t have access to proper information about budgeting and money management.
“Schools need to provide basic budgeting, money management and investing lessons from primary school,” she says.
“Heather and Brad agreed they needed advice about how to pay off their debt and do it efficiently but didn’t know who to ask.”
Abi used the swap to put herself into Heather and Brad’s shoes.
“I did a deep dive into their finances,” she explains.
“I realised they were spending £695 on rent, £764 on childcare and £640 utilities, with 86% of their money going towards outgoings.
“I came up with some basic suggestions as to how to save money and start paying off their debt.”
Abi was so struck by her experience she offered Brad and Heather, who were previously working in HR and an apprenticeship , jobs with her company.
She says: “I offered Heather the chance to work in our human resources department and Brad the chance to work in sales.
“I knew in sales Brad could generate more than just a basic salary
“I knew the sales guys earn four times more than that.
“It meant that they had the chance to learn on the job and the potential to earn a significant amount of money is there.”
Brad and Heather jumped at the chance and the couple worked with Abi’s company for three months but had to move back to Mansfield due to childcare issues .
“I was thrilled they had the chance to experience working in our company. They were great,” says Abi.
“Being on the show was life changing for me.
“It made me want to do more for people and to run even more courses to help others learn how to invest in property and turn their hard-earned cash into a proper nest egg.”
