Ed Parker

My story

From NHS Estates to houses families stay in

Twenty-five years in construction, one free seminar, one bungalow, and a lot of miles between Exeter and the north east. This is the long version.

Ed Parker in a garden in Devon

Before property: 2001 to 2020

I spent 19 years in the construction industry: Timber Frame Houses, Architecture, then NHS Estates, where I worked from CAD technician to Estates Officer. I have an HNC in Construction and an ILM Level 5 in Leadership and Management.

My last stretch in the NHS was a secondment to My Care, the hospital's new electronic patient records system. I joined as an Application Coordinator. A month in, I was shoehorned into a Principal Trainer role I never applied for.

The seminar: October 2019

In October 2019 I went to a free property seminar and took the red pill. I walked out with a huge burning desire to leave the rat race and live my life my own way, by design, each day.

Ed Parker in the audience at Property Magic Live, London, March 2020
Property Magic Live, London, March 2020. Still in the NHS, three months from leaving.

The bungalow, and the leap: June 2020

My first house came before any of that: a bungalow in Dawlish, bought in 2017 and done up in evenings and weekends. I'd planned to leave the NHS after My Care went live in June 2020. Then Covid came, go-live slipped to October, and most of the training had to be redone as voiceover distance learning from home. That was the tipping point.

I left in June 2020 anyway, one month into a two-month notice period, with nearly £50,000 in the bank from refinancing the bungalow and about £500 a month after the mortgage interest. Those were the days. That was my point of no return.

The north east: 2022 to today

My first house in the north east came in 2022. Now I buy empty and tired houses across the north east of England, fix them up and rent them out. Around 40% come straight from the owner, often a landlord who's had enough, or a family with an inherited house they don't know what to do with. Most of the rest come from offers made before a house reaches auction.

Every house gets a similar spec: high quality kitchen, oak doors, grey woodwork, white walls, EPC C. Then a lovely family moves in, and most of them stay. I manage every tenancy myself, from 360 miles away in Exeter.

A kitchen before one of Ed's refurbishments
Before.
The same kitchen after the refurbishment
After. The same spec every time.

Parker Living Limited came along in February 2024, and by 2026 the houses were into double figures. It's been far from easy: cashflow, accounting, bad solicitors, and a lot of miles. But it's given me time freedom, and the chance to bring empty houses back into supply.

Why

I get to use my knowledge and experience to create great homes for lovely families and bring empty and tired houses back into supply. The rent from each one, once it's finished and let, is what gives me my time freedom. The longer plan is for the houses to give my wife the choice to stop working, and to look after my parents properly as they get older.

What I believe

  • You can make progress or you can make excuses.
  • You gain wealth slowly.
  • How you do anything is how you do everything.

Off the clock

Most weekends I'm on a bike somewhere in Devon, and the rides go up uncut on CyclingWithEd. I bring old PC games back to life as RenacidaMods. And I've practised Traditional Jiu-Jitsu.

The talks

I've spoken for Devon pin, property investors network, in Exeter, and for UK Property Network Live, online and in person at The Alma in London: leaving a secure job for property, buying before the auction, and running houses 360 miles from home without an agent. Book me to speak, or if it's a house you're selling, that's Parker Living.