There’s no getting away from it. Sometimes, people make the wrong career choices. This was certainly true of Theo, a 28-year-old accountant who progressively realised that office work and number crunching really didn’t float his boat. Even as a boy, he’d always been an “outdoors” person who liked building things (as a child, under the watchful and skilled eye of his master builder father, who, in effect, gave him an unofficial training in the construction business during Theo’s teens). Theo took out a bank loan to change career, investing in a highly expensive fast-track plumbing training.

Within three years, he’d qualified as a gas engineer and was now ready to get stuck into the building projects he’d been yearning for. He and his friend, Will (who’d taken the same training), decided to collaborate on a property development project; they would upgrade a charming but somewhat dilapidated terraced house they’d located and rent it out for income. That’s when they encountered an obstacle: they were turned down for a mortgage to buy the property.

The pressure was on: interest was being shown in the house, which was located in an “up and coming” area, and they knew that if they didn’t make an offer soon, they’d lose it. Sadly, they did lose it.

If only they had known about the peer-to-peer lender Unbolted, the story would have ended like this…

Theo already had the £95,000 they needed. It was just tied up in a high value possession:  Theo owned an original Banksy artwork, which he’d picked up in a Brighton junk shop where it was billed as a copy. Theo, a big Banksy fan, was sure that it wasn’t. When he took it to be valued by an art dealer, he nearly swooned when he learned that it was worth in the region of £140,000. Could this be the means he and Will could use to get their property development business up and running?

Upon uploading an image of the Banksy canvas to the Unbolted website, he and Will were given an indicative loan offer of £95,000 within hours. When the painting arrived at Unbolted’s office the next day, the platform’s specialist fine art partners (Lyon and Turnbull and Fellows) confirmed that the work was indeed an original and was worth £140,000.

Theo and Will had their loan within hours, with no intrusive credit searches (the artwork is held under Unbolted’s control in safe storage as security for the loan). Within six months (the loan’s duration) this dynamic duo had bought and renovated the house, whereupon they exited the Unbolted loan by re-mortgaging their new property. It is currently being rented and bringing them an income that exceeds the mortgage repayments. Both are contemplating their next project and consider themselves property developers.

Knowledge is power. Maybe Unbolted can help you to create the future you want.