MANILA, Philippines?Allan Capulong?s high school summer vacations were not like that of most teens.

For two weeks after classes end, while his friends were bumming around or playing basketball, Allan and his brother Lance were literally building roads in the family?s housing development project in Cavite.

The 26-year-old bachelor, who now manages the family?s construction firm, Homewell Development Corp., recalls going to work at 8 a.m. and, under the scorching sun, he would mix concrete and bring the material to the site using buckets. He would work on the structure until 5 p.m., just like the other workers.

?That?s why I can really say up to now I built those roads,? says Allan.

But the Capulong family?s initial foray into real estate was a failure.

Most people would likely give up if they experienced what the Capulong family had to go through.

Even though members of the family had worked on the Cavite project for 10 years, they eventually were forced to abandon the venture.

?We met all sorts of problems?political, internal, labor,? recalls Allan, who was still in elementary school when the development started.

When he was barely out of college, his father decided to put the project on hold.

Their financial losses had piled up to more than nine digits. The emotional and psychological losses to the family were higher.

Lifestyle changes had to be made. Allan described how the thrice a year trips abroad disappeared.

When the decision to go into real estate was made in 1991, the family?s fortunes were built around the Capulong?s garments business.

But Allan?s father, Edgardo, realized early that globalization would soon render many industries, including garments, uncompetitive in the face of China?s liberalization, which opened a huge source for cheap manufacturing.

In the early 1990s, real estate was booming. So the elder Capulong decided to expand into real estate.

Following their bad experience in Cavite, the Capulongs opted to try their luck with another property in Pampanga. That too would start out to be a disappointment.

Just like in Cavite, Homewell opted to go into low-cost housing development in Pampanga.

Allan, armed with an entrepreneurial degree from San Beda College in Alabang, was working as a trainor in an insurance company.

He says his father requires two things from his five children?two years work experience outside the family business and a master?s degree.

But while Allan was working elsewhere full time, he still managed to help out in the Pampanga project during weekends.

The misfortune that had met the family in the Cavite project had taken a toll on Allan?s father, who developed stress-related ailments.

Allan?s mother, Corazon, had to oversee the Pampanga project.

As time went by, that project began to suffer from a host of problems as well. From 2003 to 2005, the Capulongs struggled.

?We had repositioning failures one after another,? Allan said.

Both the Cavite and Pampanga projects were low-cost housing ventures with price tags of P500,000 to P1 million.

As of July 2006, when Allan enrolled in the Master in Entrepreneurship course at the Asian Institute of Management, the Pampanga project had only sold 30 units in three years at P630,000 each.

?We were burned out,? Allan recalls.

No broker wanted to carry the project. ?Ugly? was the word used by marketing people to describe Homewell?s venture.

But all brokers agree on one positive point of the project?it had a good location. The project is in San Fernando, Pampanga. It is near the highway, located between high-end subdivisions.

In his AIM class, Allan was required by his guru, Danny Antonio, to sell 200 low-cost units by the end of the 18-month course.

It seemed an impossible task.

Allan was also required to undertake an external assessment of his project?to survey the political, economic, social, technological and environmental factors that affect his project.

Included in his study was a competitor analysis.

?I started visiting all my competitors, all 64 of them,? he says. ?It was a record.?

It was not an easy job. It took a lot of time and effort. Most of the time, he had to be very discreet, especially when he would ask questions.

?I segmented the projects into which sold and which did not and why.?

On top of having a good location and the project being a viable one, Allan has come to identify two key factors?a good concept and good relationships between the developer and its marketing network.

?Your project should have a story,? he says.

As for the brokers, he explains that his relationship with them should go beyond the professional, ?like bringing a broker?s commission even when she is in the hospital.?

Armed with this insight, Allan found Homewell?s niche in Pampanga.

In the last quarter of 2006 Homewell undertook a total makeover and shifted its positioning to the middle to above middle income market, targeting professionals in Pampanga and relatives of Filipino professionals abroad.

There was also a massive change in the housing styles.

American style homes were adopted and the project was also renamed from Villa Regina to Florida Residences.

In 11 months, from January 2007 to November, the Pampanga project experienced a dramatic turnaround led by the then 25-year-old Allan.

A total of 250 units were sold at about P2.5 million each.

He not only met the sales figure set by his guru, he exceeded it by over 50 percent.

Brokers used to avoid the project like the plague. But now, everyone who has any business selling real estate wants a piece of Florida Residences. There is now a queue to become an accredited broker of Homewell.

Sales grew some 1,800 times, rising from what once was a red bottom line.

The turnaround earned for Allan a Superior Performance award when he graduated from AIM last December.

And he has since earned a reputation of being a ?turnaround prince.? Developers and landowners are now approaching him to help them with their projects.

?I got 17 inquiries from real estate firms asking us to repackage or reposition their projects,? he says.

As a result, he set up Center of Management Technology (CMT) Research and Consultancy three months ago to provide the service he is being asked to do.

The consultancy is for various sized developments or repositioning programs.

Despite the fact that his initial experience with real estate was not very inspiring, Allan says that, like his dad, real estate excites him.

?My dad and I get goose bumps when we see a property no matter how dirty it is,? he states. ?We always see a vision of what it can become.?

A true-blue entrepreneur, Allan is setting up yet another business?he will soon launch his own clothing line for males and females called IconCreatives.com.

Allan, who?s still single, has also adopted his personal corporate social responsibility this early on. He allots two days a week to teach entrepreneurship at his college alma mater.

He says helping the young in their quest for a business venture is his ?pay back? to society.