'I started off with £200 - now my penthouse apartment is worth £1.3 million'
An events planner who started off with just £200 in her bank now counts a host of celebrity clients among her portfolio - and lives in penthouse apartment worth £1.3million.
Before running her successful business, mum-of-two from Liz Taylor, from Manchester started with just a couple of hundred pounds. Now, the self-made entrepreneur has also climbed from the very bottom to the top of the property ladder and have planned events for Take That stars and Coronation Street cast members, to even being trusted to plan Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright's wedding.
After selling her family home of over 30 years following her last divorce, Liz took the plunge and bought a rather old-fashioned apartment in Bowdon on her own for £525,000. She set to work renovating it and just six years later, it has been valued at £1.3 million.
Aiming for a fresh start, Liz took the plunge to put her family home on the market and started house-hunting for her own place (Liz Taylor)Initially, Liz extended the terraced house which went on to become her family home. It was where she lived for 30 years and saw her two daughters grow up. Liz remarried when she was 38, but after 22 years together, the couple divorced in 2017.
She told The Manchester Evening News: "Over the years it became a bit like a tardis. We extended it and it got much bigger and it ended up being a four-bed house. The house was mine, it was my family home. I didn’t want to move but it was a very trying time.
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"I just felt like if I didn’t move then I’d be stuck in the past and I didn’t want that. But what I didn’t want to do was leave with any bad memories because it was where I’d brought my girls up."
Aiming for a fresh start, Liz took the plunge to put her family home on the market and started house-hunting for her own place, but didn't like any of the properties she saw. Liz then went to view a penthouse apartment in Bowdon, but said it felt like being trapped in a '1960s movie'.
She said: "An elderly couple had lived there so the decor was quite old fashioned and dull. It had this long blue 60s carpet and the eaves felt like they were falling on my head, it felt quite claustrophobic. It was like being trapped in a 1960s movie."
"It was 2300 sqft, in a brilliant location and had the most spectacular view over the Cheshire plain so it had potential" (Liz Taylor)"It was 2300 sqft, in a brilliant location and had the most spectacular view over the Cheshire plain so it had potential, but on the first viewing I couldn’t see it. I burst out crying and told my friend I wasn't interested."
But, after sleeping on it, the next day Liz went back to view the apartment once more with her "design head on" and then decided to "go for it."
As the apartment was unoccupied when she bought it, Liz was able to start work in between the exchange and completion. She said: "All I knew was that I wanted to open it all up, so I got a builder to start knocking all the walls down. Within three months I had moved in, but at the time there was just one bathroom done, the floors were in and the walls were out."
After putting her four-bed family home up for sale, it sold in just two days for £750,000. Liz then bought the penthouse apartment for £525,000. She said: "My house sold very quickly and there was no mortgage on it. After buying the apartment I still had over £200,000 left from the sale to spend on doing it up."
After putting her four-bed family home up for sale, it sold in just two days for £750,000 (Liz Taylor)"I got rid of everything that I owned in my old house, every sofa, every chair and started all over again. Everything was a reminder of my old house and I didn’t want that. My taste had also changed since my last house, so I really enjoyed doing it all up."
Liz said the interior style of her apartment is inspired by The Hamptons, and she shopped the globe to find unique pieces for her home.
She said: "My style has also adapted going from a house to an apartment. I'd say it's now contemporary but comfortable. I've invested in art which I never did before and I’ve got some gorgeous pieces. There's a gallery in New York called Eden which is very contemporary, and I’ve brought some really fun pieces from there. One is a huge glass handbag and inside it they press designer bags. Mine’s got a Hermes bag in with coke bottles, it’s really cool. My apartment is mad and colourful and that's exactly who I am."
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After spending around £300,000 renovating, Liz' penthouse has recently been valued at around £1.3 million, and described it as a "really great investment." She continued: "It's not so much about the money. It's the fact that when I go home, I adore it. I'm really happy here. I travel a lot with work and I find the location is ideal, I feel safe and all my friends are here."
Speaking about her plans for the future, Liz said: "I’d only ever lived in houses before and for me I always thought living in an apartment was the stairway to heaven. But now I think that apartment living is so very different and cool. I have considered, I don’t know whether I’d do it, but moving into the city centre."
"I think developers are making it very tempting for both first time buyers and even people with children because there are apartments in town now where you've got swimming pools, gyms, concierge and all those facilities. I never saw myself living in an apartment but I couldn't see myself living in anything but now."
Aside from her own homes, Liz has built up an impressive portfolio of 12 houses. She said: "Every time that I’ve been able to take a dividend from the business I have bought a terraced house." So I’ve now got a little property portfolio of 12 properties that will hopefully continue to bring me income when I retire. Property has always been the safest investment for me. If you’re clever and sensible then it gives you that safety net."
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