Eight years ago, Jacqui and Neil Dobson were working 13-hour days in a struggling tearoom, making less than minimum wage and £25,000 in debt.

Today, the 52- and 63-year-olds are their own bosses, with an 11-property portfolio worth £1.2m.

But they say they made plenty of mistakes along the way – and have seen the profit from their buy-to-lets hit in recent years as well.

The couple, from in Colchester, Essex, opened their 1940s-style tearoom in 2014 after leaving careers in the motor trade, but within a few years, found running the business had become all consuming.

Speaking to The i Paper, Jacqui said: “From the outside it looked like a very successful business.

“What people didn’t see was that we were there from 6.30 in the morning until 7.30 at night, six days a week if our staff turned up and seven if they didn’t.

“The tearoom and coffee shop phenomenon had really taken off, so our profits were diluted by competition. In five years, we went from a very profitable tearoom to one that was struggling to stay afloat.”

They realised something had to change and their solution was property investment.

The inspiration came from Neil’s cousin, who was moving back to Colchester from London. Rather than sell her flat, she put it on a buy-to-let mortgage, released equity and rented it out.

Jacqui already owned another property, so the couple put a buy-to-let mortgage on it and rented it out.

They then started repeating the process.

Jacqui explained: “The first deal was actually the first property we viewed. It was going to auction with a guide price of £110,000, and we negotiated before the auction and bought it for £82,000.

“We got a number of things wrong. We budgeted around £22,000 for the refurb and spent £33,000. What we did get right as the quality of the refurb. We created open-plan living, which is what everybody wants these days, and the property valued at £160,000.”

This was funded using bridging finance – a short-term loan used to cover an immediate gap in cash flow until long-term funding becomes available – for 75 per cent of the purchase and private investor money for the rest.

Jacqui added: “We raised £40,000 from one private funder to cover the deposit, and, we thought, the refurb. When the refurb overran, we used a second investor’s money and some credit cards to finish it.

“Because the end value was higher than the figure we’d run our numbers on, we were able to refinance, get all our money back out and repay our investors in full.”

All their properties were purchased between 2018 and 2023, but business grew significantly in 2020 and 2021, when interest rates were low, and they started their financial education business, Nab an Investor.

Today, their 11 properties generate £9,555 a month in rental income. After letting agent fees, insurance, maintenance and mortgage payments, they say they are left with around £3,544 a month pre-tax – approximately £42,500 a year.

The portfolio is currently valued at around £1,221,000.

They sold two properties earlier this year. One had persistent damp problems that they could not resolve, while the other, their original property, was sold for £210,000 to the tenants who had lived there since it first came on the market.

Despite the impressive figures, the couple are keen to challenge the idea that property investment automatically means financial security.

Interest rate rises have had a significant impact on their returns. Between 2018 and 2022, borrowing was relatively cheap and their properties generated healthy cash flow. But when five-year mortgage deals expired, some payments doubled, massively decreasing their cash flow.

Jacqui said: “The portfolio on its own isn’t enough to retire on. We do increase rents every year, and we tend to take out five-year fixed products.

“Over those five years the rents edge up, which largely offsets the interest rate rises. But it is a juggling act, and it’s all about being honest about that.

“Compared with eight years ago, when we were working all hours in the tearoom for less than minimum wage, we now earn very well, much of it from educating others, and we are our own bosses.”