Tom Harper: Don’t call it ‘flipping’ – Mike Randolph wants to revive old houses, create good homes (Column)

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Housing is a fundamental need, and Mike Randolph has been helping address that need in Lawrence for many years. 

I recently helped a client purchase a home renovated by Free State Properties, a home renovation business Mike started in 2001.

Most people would call what Mike does “flipping,” first made popular by shows such as “Flip This House,” “Flip or Flop,” “Flipping Virgins” and “Flipping Out,” to name a few. Shows like these appeared in the early 2000s and popularized the idea of people purchasing houses, making improvements and selling for a profit.

The term “flip” became a part of our lexicon and was often attached with stigma. Sometimes flips are done quickly and in a shoddy manner. As a mentor used to say after touring poorly done renovations, “They put lipstick on a pig.” 

Mike is the only contractor I know in Lawrence during the past 23 years who has successfully and consistently renovated and sold homes for a living — 112 homes and counting in town. That’s not how or where his career began, though. 

Mike says he’d worked in retirement planning and financial services, helping companies run their 401(k) plans in Atlanta. He was traveling a lot, flying more than 100,000 miles a year. He and his wife, Sarah Randolph, needed a change, so they moved to Kansas City, but things still didn’t seem right. They both had graduated from KU, so they began considering a move back to Lawrence.

Mike asked himself, “What can I do in Lawrence?” He had some construction experience. Out of college, he’d moved to Irvine, California and worked for Standard Pacific, where they were building production housing. He was an assistant superintendent. His brother Chris lived in Lawrence and was a trim carpenter. It was a leap of faith: he had contractor and financial planning experience, and a little money saved. Mike and Sarah decided to move back to Lawrence and start Free State Properties. 

His first renovation was in North Lawrence with two vacant lots. He broke even with selling the house and made a profit on the two lots. It seemed like a good start.

I asked Mike to address his work and the often used term “flipping” versus “renovating.”

“I don’t use the word ‘flip’ to describe what I do. I buy, restore and renovate homes,” he says. “Every house is so different. I put a lot of thought into the process trying to figure out how to make the house the best it can be while still making money.” 

“Minimize expense, maximize return is how I look at a flipper,” he says. 

I was curious about what factors have contributed to FSP’s success and longevity.

Mike says right now his crew is small — one full-time employee, Juanita Gonzalez. They are a good team; both have a strong work ethic. 

He subcontracts a lot of work to trusted specialty trades he uses regularly, such as plumbers, electricians, foundation repairmen, roofers, heating and cooling and more.

He also renovates one or two houses at a time. During the early years, this helped reduce risk and made him more favorable to local lenders when applying for construction loans. Today, it’s mostly about making his life more manageable.

“At the end of the day, I was there, I was involved with every facet of it,” Mike says. “It gives me peace of mind.”

What excites him the most? 

“I enjoy solving problems, making homes more livable for the way people live in them today,” he says. “For the old houses, it’s bringing them back — for instance, some of them that have asbestos siding on the exterior and you pull that off and find up in the gable fish scale siding, corbels, rosettes, beautiful cedar siding — or we have problematic flooring and find the original flooring, bringing the old houses back.”

Mike adds, “The overarching thing I deal with the most: how do you take a home that was built 100 years ago and how do you make it work for a homeowner today and still retain the character? That’s the number one thing people want; they want the old house feel, but everything updated.”

Mike also works collaboratively with Sarah. She’s decisive about what works best when he’s looking at design issues, he says. 

“I am not just looking at the aesthetics — I am looking at what is it going to take structurally and financially to get it there, where she is looking at it solely from a design standpoint,” he says. “Sarah will say, ‘This is what it needs.’ Then she’ll ask what it will cost, and then she’ll say whether or not it’s worth it. She’s usually right.”

Another factor that contributes to his success is utilizing Realtors. Mike says when a Realtor brings him an opportunity to purchase a home, he usually hires the same Realtor to list when it’s ready for the market. This business model has created a team of independent Realtors who are incentivized to help him to locate properties. 

“I find value working with Realtors,” he says. “I like the arm’s length distance from the buyer — that works out well for everyone.”

Mike has been providing housing for our community for 23 years and it is truly remarkable he has renovated 112 houses, currently working on No. 113. I believe we are lucky to have Mike in Lawrence.

“I do feel good. I’ve saved houses,” he says. “I’ve taken the worst house on most blocks and made it one of the better ones, I hope, giving people a good home.” 

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