As a teenager, Darryl Weston dreamed of making it big, of being somebody. By his mid-twenties, he realised that dream was shattered.

Delivering pizza for a living, heavily in debt and without any qualifications, his life was in a crisis and, seeing little way of getting out, he entered a deep depression. “I realised that I had no future,” Darryl recalls. “I would be doomed to live week by week, hoping I wouldn’t get fired from a job I hated.”

It was only one afternoon, channel surfing his TV that Darryl finally saw a way out. Stumbling upon Channel 7’s Hot Property, he found the inspiration he’d been looking for since leaving school.

“They were following around couples renovating houses and there was this guy collecting profits of $60,000 on each project. I thought that if I could just get my hands on two rental properties I’d replace my income at work. I was so excited.”

Fast forward to today and Darryl, now 35, is the proud owner of a property portfolio worth $2.2m. He receives more than $200,000 in rental income each year, and has left his pizza days behind him. It’s a remarkable turnaround for a man who seemingly made a lot of wrong turns as a youth.

In the current issue of Your Investment Property magazine, Darryl reveals the clever strategy and mindset that allowed him to get out of his slump and eventually accomplish great things with property.

Available now in newsagents across the country, Your Investment Property’s latest issue is also jam packed with strategies on how to fast track your retirement, smart tactics for getting a high property valuation and questions you need to ask before buying your next investment property.