Liam meets Alan Edwards, a successful property developer who shares his journey of securing three development deals with a potential profit of two million pounds in just 18 months. Alan discusses his background in construction and project management, highlighting his passion for creating wealth and assets through property development. He emphasises the importance of using other people’s money to fund projects and shares insights on negotiating deals, overcoming challenges, and staying motivated. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

BEST MOMENTS

“I’ve never really had a massive ambition to own several hundred houses and what I prefer to do is be involved in something that creates several hundred houses.”

“It does amaze me at how even agents sometimes, and vendors, they’re just not open to finding a solution.”

“If you can dream it, you can do it. And you need to get the right support, you need to get mentors and coaches and the right people around you to make it happen.”

“I know a lot of people who actually looked at that building and they walked away from it. They said it was too difficult, but I don’t believe it is too difficult.”

FULL TRANSCRIPT

The biggest project I worked on was $1.5 billion and that was the present development project in Bakker. It was a mixed use development and it was very complex because it involved reclaiming land from the sea. So why did you decide to go and focus on commercial conversions or land development deals?
I’ve never really had a massive ambition. What I prefer to do is be involved in something that creates several 100 houses, wealth creation and profitability as well. Because with developments, you can achieve more profit. It does amaze me at how even agents, sometimes and vendors, they’re just not open to finding a solution. Yes, they get so locked in in a sale at a certain price, when actually it just cost them more money in the long run. That is the nature of property. Yeah. Now we have to work with the cards that we dealt, and it’s great that you didn’t give up in terms of energy levels, focus levels. What else do you do to make sure that you’ve achieved the great things that you’ve achieved in your life, three developments, 7 million pound gross development value with 2 million pound profit in less than 18 months. And that is what today’s podcast is all about. And I am joined by one of my fantastic inner circle graduates, Alan Edwards, and we’re going to take you behind the scenes, and we’re going to show you exactly how you can do this as well. Alan, welcome into the studio. It’s great to have you with us. Great
to be here.


Well, you’ve been working with me now for about 18 months. Yeah, it’s been one hell of a journey. Yes, yeah. We’re going to do a deep dive in the next few moments, right? Um, this podcast is called the deal maker. Yes. What does being a deal maker mean to you? What it means to me is negotiating with clients who’ve got problems. Usually they’re people who’ve got property problems, properties that are costing them money. So in one particular deal that I’m going to tell you about, the owner is has a building, an empty office building, that’s costing him 10,000 pounds a year to run. So he’s got pain because he can’t let it, because no one wants an office building. And I’m relieving that pain by taking that building and converting it into residential apartments. So fantastic, that’s the deal I I convert commercial buildings into residential.


Fantastic. So, you know, working with vendors, yes, finding their pain, yes, and creating a win, win, yeah. I think that’s absolutely incredible, and it also helps the housing crisis as well, exactly.
And I’m looking forward to doing a deep dive, and we’re going to be sharing some incredible tips and tricks and exactly how you’ve been able to do this in a relatively short space of time. Where did the love for property begin? Alan and and what have you been doing, really, in your career for many, many years.
Yeah, my background is in property, Liam and I’ve always worked in construction, ever since I left school. So I know all about all sorts of construction, residential, commercial, offices, hotels, infrastructure. I’ve done projects from the smallest up to the largest in the UK and also internationally as well. I wrote a book about my experience called Project deliverance, the 20 key factors for project success. And basically, I know all about property. I’ve invested in property over quite a long period, and it’s only recently that I’ve been taking advantage of this new era of other people’s money, okay, other people’s money and using that, which is great. When did the love for property start? Was it something maybe growing up as a child? And was you influenced it all by your parents? Was it someone in your local area?


It was an influence. It was my dad. He told me to go and get a job because I wanted to stay at school and I wanted to go to college, but he decided that I would get a job. So I did just that, and I took an indentureship with a local building contractor, and I did that for four years, and then I gradually expanded what I was doing from being a local building contractor to working for a national building contractor, and eventually I went overseas as well, great managing projects in the UAE and then in the Bahamas, and then back to the UAE, back to the UK, for a long period, doing offices and then massive residential developments.


What was the biggest project you worked on? And where was that?


The biggest project I worked on was $1.5 billion and that was the crescent development project in Baku in Azerbaijan. It was a mixed use development, and it was very complex, because it involved reclaiming land from. The sea. So we basically had to relocate some of the port operations from one area to another, then put a case on in and basically form a wall out of which we pumped all the water from from inside, and then we filled it up with sand compacted, which was the foundations for the new hotel that’s built
there. Wow. What would you say about property construction, project management, development? What is it about that that really gets you excited, that you really love.


Yeah, I think it’s creating wealth, and it’s also creating assets for people. I mean, I love the thought of building more houses for people, because the UK’s got a massive housing shortage, and I don’t really understand why. If we got our act together as a nation, we can’t solve that crisis. Okay, I love that. I love that. And you know you’re in a position right now. You’ve been super successful your entire career, you’re now in a position where you could just go and chill and put your feet up. What is it then, Alan that has made you, over the last 18 years embark on this journey of becoming your own developer, sourcing development deals, using other people money. Well, you know why go and do that at your time in your life, right?


Well, I suppose it was a frustrated ambition, because around about 1990 there was a crash in the economy and the interest rate rates went up just at the time when I wanted to go full time into property development. So I just had a very successful five years on Chelsea Harbor, a massive residential development in West London, working for piano developments, and I had done some small conversions myself, and I knew that I had to go full time, but the bank manager said, Well, if you leave your full time job, I’m not going to lend you any money. And nobody was lending money in those early days in the 90s, because inflation rates were 15% and the financial system was in meltdown in London. So I did what was the sensible thing, considering I was bringing up a family, was to keep a salary coming in. And I went to work on large infrastructure projects. Great. So I worked on railway project for quite a few years. So
your dream, what’s 1990 you know, 30 years ago, over 30 So, 34 years ago? Yeah, sure. That dream of becoming your own developer disappeared, yes. And then you, then you’re back into, you know, working for the companies you work for, and traveling the world and building a successful career. Yeah. What would you say has also kept you on track over these years, in terms of energy levels, focus levels. What else do you do outside of the workplace to make sure that you’ve achieved the great things that you’ve achieved in your life. Sure, I love running. That’s my passion, and so I’ve done that for many years. I one time did long distance canoeing, some very long races, like 120 farm mile races that I did three in a row of those. But after that, I realized that after having done a full day’s work to then put the canoe on the top of the car, drive somewhere to train and then drive back. I was eating later and later each evening. So running is much easier, because you can go out to run from home. So I’ve always had a passion for running, and I’ve run all sorts of distances from five kilometers up to marathon distance. And, you know, been really pleased with the results I’ve got, Wow, that’s incredible. And today, I know you’re still a keen runner, yes, I think you can run pretty much every one of us out of the park there. Alan, yeah, you are like the True Warrior Within assets for life. It’s, it’s incredible to see and a huge inspiration to to everyone within the assets for Life Group, for sure, and it’s something we talk about a lot. We just want to be like Alan one day. So that’s it. So look through all of this. You say you’re a family man. Sam, How many children do you have? You married? Right?

Yes, I’m married. I’ve got three children. I’ve got two lovely daughters. They’re grown up, and I’ve got a grown up son who lives in the US, and he’s married with two lovely grandchildren, great
and for all these years, it seems like you are very focused, very determined, like nothing gets in your way. How important was it having the support of your wife? And you know, obviously she seems like an absolute hero to I always say my wife is is very brave, because she puts up with me, right, yeah. And, you know, when you’re an entrepreneur or you’re so focused on your career in sports, you know, it does become an obsession, obsession, yeah. So how have you been able to navigate that over all these years? Is Alan and still be out there, you know, doing multi million pound deals. Yeah,
my wife has been very understanding. It’s not the easiest thing to live with me, because I do get obsessed about things, and I do put 100% into things. I go all into things, and until I’m successful,
great, good stuff. So let’s go back 18 months you came into the world of assets for life. How did that take place, and and what was it about me and assets for life that caught your eye, and why you made a decision that you wanted to be part of my group, and, you know, be mentored by us. So just talk us through that process. Well, I saw you in Kensington, very near to one of the jobs I’ve been involved in, actually, which, so it’s a bit of a trip down memory lane for me, job near Gloucester park that I was involved in, another one round the corner at Hyde Park gate, and I saw you on stage, and I was inspired by your passion for what you do and your public speaking ability, and I basically signed up on the spot there to a lot of commitment to AFL. So great. I’m very pleased with what I’ve done with AFL and the inspiration that the team has given me fantastic. How do you feel that we’ve been able to push you, to keep you on track? What’s been, you know, some of the things that we’ve done, mentoring you to help you? Yeah, mindset is a big issue, and I’ve always had a fairly positive mindset, but Jim Francis in particular made me realize that there’s no limit to the size of deals you can do, because if you’re using other people’s money or creative finance, then you don’t have to have your own assets to finance something. And so it was very much the mindset issue of overcoming those doubts or overcoming uh, limiting beliefs.


Okay, great. So that was almost like a penny had dropped for you. It’s like, oh my goodness, I I don’t have to use my own money anymore, exactly, you know, I can go and use other people’s money. And, you know, I’m sure you know this, but I’m, I’m now around 31 million pounds worth of developments, if we take the villa over in Marbella, which is one of my latest developments, over 10 million pound in joint venture funding now. And pretty much all of that has been done on, you know, other people’s money. And you know, you know the Dobson’s really well, and raised a couple of million pounds now. And you know, many of the graduates, Sean Bartle, you know, got hundreds of people you know, over the last eight years that have used other people’s money. So it’s great that you’ve had that realization, and that’s really then giving you the confidence to go out there and find these deals. Yes, certainly. So why did you decide to do developments right, rather than build a single let buy, to let portfolio or do a bunch of HMOs? Right? Why did you decide to go and focus on commercial conversions or land development deals?


Yeah, I’ve never really had a massive ambition to own several 100 houses and and what I prefer to do is be involved in something that creates several hundreds, several 100 houses. So for me, it’s about wealth creation and profitability as well, because with developments, you can achieve more profit than you can from either buy to let’s or HMOs. I know a lot of people say HMOs are very profitable, but they’ve never really had an appeal. For me, I prefer to do something more creative and to create more assets for society, but create a better built environment. Yeah, and I’m sure, because you’ve done this for other people your entire career, yes, it just feels comfortable. You doing it right?


Yes. So let’s have a look. You’ve done three offers accepted now, okay, they’re going through legals. Yes, you’ve got pretty much all the funding in place. You’re on the hunt at the moment for some joint venture capital. And we’ll, we’ll explain that as we go through the podcast. Yeah, um, how did you go about, um, getting those deals over the line? Because it’s been an 18 month period, yeah, what were some of the struggles you had? How did we help you in our mentoring program? And what were some of the breakthroughs you had? And what would you say to anyone that is maybe struggling to find deals right now? Sure, um, let’s explore deal finding.


Okay, well, that there are lots of deals around, and a lot of them don’t stack up. You know, a lot of the deals that come to me, I assess them, and they’re not sufficiently profitable, usually. And this particular one I started off with one of the deals, it was actually priced higher than I negotiated. So at the original. Asking price. It didn’t stack up, but I negotiated the first one for a reduction of about 100,000 pounds over a period of about four months. And first of all, I wanted an option on the building, because it didn’t have permitted development rights. It’s a listed building, and so I went back to the agent several times and managed to negotiate an exchange with delayed completion subject to planning that that was a good deal, and I reduced the from the asking price by 100,000 so I’ve got a low deposit to put in, and only need to find the money once I get the planning permission. Mind. Great, you’ve got the peace of mind that the deal is going to go ahead, yes. So let’s talk about that deal. Is it? So it’s a listed building, so what is it currently? Yeah, what are you then going to convert it into? Okay, yes, yes. Currently, it’s an empty office block, and this is costing the owner 10,000 pounds a year to run, and there’s no reason why if there’s no demand for offices, which there clearly isn’t, because it’s been on the market for 18 months or more and there’s been no takers as an office, why it shouldn’t be converted to Another use. Now originally, this building was a merchant’s house. That’s what it was built for in the town where it’s located and the historic buildings. Officer has been around. He’s looked at the condition of the building, he’s looked at the listed features, and he is supportive of it going back to residential so it actually converts quite nicely, three floors of what was an original Merchant’s house into five flats. Great, yeah, great. That’s incredible. And look through the negotiation, through the negotiation, was it difficult with the agent? Did you manage to go directly to and have meetings with the vendor? Was that an easy process for negotiation. Was there any stumbling hurdles there? Yeah, for people to be aware of, and if there was, how can people overcome that to ultimately get the deal done? Because it was about becoming a deal maker, right? Yes, exactly.


Yeah. I negotiated with with the agent, and he was quite a good person to deal with, because he realizes that the office is going to remain empty indefinitely if he doesn’t find a buyer for it. So he’s got quite a creative mind himself, and he could see the potential in this building. And so although we had quite a long discussion over price, because it was overpriced, in my opinion, we were able to conclude a deal. So I started off looking for an option, but that wasn’t going to happen, because his client is a pension fund, basically, and they were not interested in an option. They wanted to sell the building. So the best I could negotiate was this low deposit exchange with delayed completion, and the commercial agent realized that that was the best offer because he didn’t have any other offers from anyone else on the market. Because I know a lot of people who actually looked at that building and they walked away from it, they said it was too difficult, but I don’t believe it is too demand. So we’re gonna go when you’ve got the right team, yes, and you’re converting it, it’s listed, I get that, which can bring in quite a few challenges, but the fact that you’re just converting it back to pretty much what it was before, it’s a newer version, yes, and the infrastructure is there, yeah. So it shouldn’t be too difficult to be fair with, with
build, and it’s a very attractive building as well.


Great when you got that offer accepted after months of negotiation, going out to vendors, going on lots of site visits, turning up to your one to one sessions with with the team, and coming to our mastermind days, did you have a moment of, wow, yes. How did you feel when you got that deal over the line? Yeah,
I was very pleased, because I had had quite a few frustrations with previous deals, some of them similar, sort of listed buildings and particularly intransigent vendors. When I was on the retreat in Marbella last year, I was trying to negotiate another building in in Bath, which would have been very suitable for 11 flats and six houses in the garden. And I tried, over many months, to negotiate a deal with the vendor through, through an agent, and eventually I got direct to the vendor to try and clench the deal. But the the vendor was intransigent at an unrealistic price, and there was no way that I could offer them, uh, unconditionally, 1.1 point 8 million or 1.7 million. Pounds when I didn’t know that I would get the planning permission. So this was a closed down care home, and the care home I know had been empty for about 18 months, so they were running and maintaining this care home, which must have cost them a lot of money, and I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t be more accommodating. Do you know
what happened to that deal in the end? Did you keep an eye you keep an eye? Yes, I did keep an eye on it. And eventually, the owner, after keeping it empty for must have been about two years, they then leased it out to a care home operator, so they were using the same use class. They didn’t need a change of use. But it’s the least. It does amaze me at how even agents sometimes and vendors, they’re just not open to finding a solution. Yes, they get so locked in in a sale at a certain price, yeah, when actually it just cost them more money in the long run. Yeah, that that is the nature of property. Yeah. Now we have to work with the cards that we’re dealt, and it’s great that you didn’t give up. Did you have any moments where you thought I want to give up? Or that’s never been on your radio? No, no, I don’t usually give up. So So always try to find a way to solve the problem. And I did try to find for that property in Bath, numerous ways to solve the problem, I even offered the vendors a profit share, which would have given them more than the price they were looking for. But they didn’t want that. They just wanted all the money up front. So that was something I couldn’t do, because you can’t get funding for such a big property if you haven’t got the planning permission, and that was really the stumbling block. Great.


So when we look at the three deals that you’ve now secured, how are they being funded? Alan, because there’s a lot of people out there that want to do developments, but they are. They have a limiting belief that they need to use their own money, or it’s too difficult, or there’s no one out there that will give money. So let’s talk about and you found the deals before you’ve even got the money, right? So, so, and obviously, now you’ve got a team, and you’ve got funders that you’re talking to on a regular basis, but you didn’t allow not having the money in the bank account stop you from going out there and finding the deals. No. So let’s talk about the psychology around that and also how you are funding these developments. How does it work? Okay, so I’ve got a decision in principle from crowd property, who’s another funding organization, who I know. I’ve approached them before and got decisions in principle previously. And what they will do is they’ll give a decision in principle that they loan you sort of 65 or 70% of the purchase price plus 100% of the development cost subject to planning. So all I had, I knew that had to do was get the planning so I’ve still got those decisions in principle in place on the first two buildings right, and then the the third building is another arrangement, because I’m actually buying a going concern. So I’m buying the freehold of a going concern, which is losing money, so I need to get the planning permission and then get development finance. But I’ve talked this through with one particular provider who understands the deal. A lot of people don’t understand it, but this particular provider does understand it, and they understand, I want to transition from commercial finance to purchase into development finance once I’ve got the planning. Fantastic.


So just for anyone out there, you can use none of your own money. Yes, there are development companies out there that will give you the cash. And then also, if you need to top up, you can go out to investors Exactly. And with investors, there’s a couple of options. We can borrow the money at a fixed rate return, yeah, or we can bring them in as an equity partner and give them a percentage of the profit. Yeah. You know, every single one of my deals has been done. No money down. We’ve done one development. So one, one investor, Phil and Karen, you know, they invested 750,000 pounds nearly, you know, seven years ago, and we’ve used the same pot of cash on three different deals now, right? So you can keep recycling the money, yeah, which is incredible. So let’s, let’s forward. Fast forward to these three deals. Yeah, you’re looking at around 2 million pound profit. Yeah, um, are you done after these three deals? Or doesn’t surprise me there? Alan, yeah, it doesn’t surprise me. So, so you’d go. So what does this other site look like? Yeah, the other site does have planning permission, but the owner there has a different problem. They have got 2826 acre side, and they want to develop these homes on the site, their holiday homes, but they their last potential vendors. Fell out because I suppose lack of confidence change in economic circumstances, increased construction costs and and so on. But I believe I can help these people with their problem, because this is what I’ve done all my life, is develop stuff. So basically, 118 holiday homes does not faze me, and what I need to do is to convince them, probably in the form of a joint venture, that it is possible to develop and I need to pre agree the sales values of the of the houses and also control the cost and that that’s my bag. That’s what I’ve done all my life, is look after other people’s money, people who invest in either private companies to develop projects or, in some cases, government bodies.


Wow, fantastic, fantastic. And then what difference is, you know, just these three deals, what difference is that going to make to your life, family’s life, the legacy you want to build for your kids? Yeah,
it’s going to be extremely good. You know, it’s definitely what I want to do. And it makes me realize that there’s so many opportunities out there that I wish I had been able to do this many years ago, when, you know, the finance opportunities weren’t there, but in this year of other people’s money, it actually opens up a lot of doors to Yeah, what keeps you motivated?


I like to do things. Yeah, I like to achieve things. And I’ve set my mind on achieving a successful group of companies, which I can either then pass on to my family or sell. So, so I’d like to build a turnover up to about 30 million pounds in the next few years, and then, and then I’ll sell the business or or exit it, because I don’t necessarily enjoy just flogging myself to death working. I’d prefer to do sport, really, if I’m honest.


Okay, so you want to build the legacy. Yes, you’ve got a vision, you’ve got a financial target, you’ve got a plan, you’ve now got an asset class, yes, and you’ve got a great community, you’ve got great mentors that are going to support and help you get there exactly. I’m really excited. You was in Marbella with us last year we fly out to Marbella in probably just over, just over a month’s time, which is incredible. What are you hoping to get out? Get out of Marbella trip.


I’m hoping to get further mentoring about the next level up, because what I need to do is scale my business and talk about the sort of decisions that I need to make, and the sort of resources and the sort of backup that my company needs, because I’ve got a very small company. It’s only five people at the moment, okay, and I need to basically arrange how it’s going to be structured. I don’t want a big company, but I just need to scale fine a little bit we can work on that, and then making sure it’s tax efficient, make sure that you can exit correctly. Yes, that’s something we can certainly work on. Yeah. And we’ve also got Mr Jim Francis coming with us that week, and then he’s sold some serious size companies. Yeah. So we do have an incredible, incredible lineup for you, which is going to be fantastic. Are you pleased that you joined assets for life 18 months ago?


Definitely great. Been a great journey. Yeah, now we’re really pleased to have you part of this team. It’s great to see your growth, and it is a pure demonstration that this will work. If you want to make it work. What would you like to say to anyone tuning in now that is perhaps on the fence. Maybe they’re going through some struggles. Maybe they’ve lost some confidence and some direction, and they really want to take their life to that next level. What would you like to share with them to, you know, give some tips on what they can Yeah. Well, basically, if, if you can dream it, you can do it, and you need to get the right support. You need to get mentors and coaches and the right people around you to make it happen, to help you to make it happen, because every everyone has difficulties, so they need to be able to call on the right person, make the right phone call, call the right friend.


Great, great. So get the support. Believe in yourself. We’re going to do another catch up, probably in a year or something like that, and we’ll see where you are going. If people want to connect with you. Alan, where can they find you? I know that you are wanting some always looking to work with great investors, and we’ve got investors listening in, yes, so, so where can people come and find you? Alan, yeah, we can offer secure, safe investments for investors, and you can find me at LinkedIn, Alan J Edwards or facebook.com. Dot 7923, that’s. Facebook profile, and my company is alpus group. So it’s alpusgroup.com and my email is Alan alpersgroup.com my phone number 07539141257, or the landline, zero, triple, three, double, 241257, you can schedule a call with me at calendly.com/alan. Wow, there we go. Look, you’re on fire, man. Alan, honestly, mate, well done. Really enjoyed that, and I know this is just the start of something incredible, a big well done. For the last 18 months, you’ve definitely had some hurdles. It’s not been an easy an easy ride, but you’re breaking through. You’re smiling, and hey, it’s definitely worth 2 million pounds. So there we go. Mr Alan Edwards, what an absolute deal maker, you know, what an incredible individual. And I really hope that you’ve got some inspiration and some motivation from that. This podcast is all about showing people how to make money, manage money, multiply money. It would be incredible if you could hit the share button right now. I would love to get this podcast out to as many people as possible. It really will help the algorithm. If you could leave us a comment, please leave a comment. I really, really appreciate you. And why don’t you head over to www.assetsforlife.co.uk and get some free property training, because you could be securing three developments in the next 18 months and adding 2 million pounds to your personal bank accounts. Thanks for tuning in, and I’ll see you on the next episode.

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