Some people watch property programmes to enjoy having a nose around other people's homes but for some people the stories told and the experiences shared can change their lives. When viewing a double-fronted period house in Briton Ferry near Swansea going to auction, Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts was impressed at how much property was on offer for a guide price of £95,000 - four flats and maybe the potential for even more.
And Martin wasn't the only person to spot that the property could make a profit. Rahim from Cardiff, a property developer and investor, bagged the building for £100k and was planning to spend around £50,000 turning the four flats into five with the timescale of between 16 and 18 weeks.
That was the plan but it's Rahim's property story that was particularly personal for Martin and even made him blush. Rahim came to the UK at 15 years old from Ghana with no money to his name and through hard work and mentoring he said he has built a property portfolio that he tells Martin is worth a couple of million pounds.
But Martin appeared surprised but pleased when Rahim appeared on the popular BBC daytime property show and told him HUTH and Martin himself had helped get his multi-million pound property empire underway.
The show was one of the main sources of inspiration that drove him to keep working towards his property goals. Rahim said: "You were an inspiration to me as well Martin. I watched Homes Under The Hammer and thought 'I'm going to do this one day', it inspired me, especially you, doing this interview - it's a pleasure to meet you.
"I used to work nine to five, I didn't like it, I hated it, so I decided to quit and I started out by not buying the properties but leasing them. I did the first one and then moved on to another one and then used the proceeds from there to start building my own property portfolio from there. Then I had my own estate agency and started buying my own properties.
"Literally I started from zero to doing what I'm doing now, there are quite a few properties in my portfolio, worth a couple of million or so. It's due to the people I work with as well, I really commend them as well."
Martin looks visibly moved by hearing that he has inspired Rahim and replied, "It's my pleasure to inspire". But then getting down to chatting about the property, Rahim said he hoped to spend £50,000 updating the building creating five flats in a timescale of around 12 to 16 weeks.
Just over eight months later and the programme returned to see new windows and front door on the outside and four modern and fresh flats and a studio inside, just as Rahim had promised.
Numerous challenges had knocked the timescale on, including needing to focus attention on the rear wing of the house. Rahim said it was timber framed so had to be replaced with brick and then insulated, plus the window lintels needed replacing, and there was a full rewire and replumb too, so the budget went up to £80,000.
The returning estate agent suggested that the building could sell now for between £230,000 and £250,000 making Rahim a pre-tax sum of at least £50,000 although he said that another agent had valued it at £300,000.
But the future for the building was rental which the agent said would range from £375 to £475 per calendar month depending on the size of the flat but, again, Rahim thought between £575 to £700 would be more the level the flats could achieve.
Rahim said: "If I can start my property investment journey with little of my own money, to what I'm doing now, anybody can do it, there's no reason for you to be thinking you need lots of money to do it, as long as you put your mind and focus into it, you will absolutely smash it."
This story was included in series 26, episode 24 which is currently available to view on BBC iPlayer.
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