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Developer Mike Brown left behind an unsatisfying career to flip houses. His latest project is this house in Arlington, Va.
“I always thought it would be cool to flip houses,” Brown said. “I even talked to my dad when I was in college, and my dad said: ‘No. Go to college. You’re not going to drop out.’ So I went to college, got my degree, worked on Capitol Hill, went to law school, clerked for a judge, practiced law at a big firm and went back to Capitol Hill.”
Around 2009, Brown decided to make another change.
“I had two small kids, so it was like, ‘What am I going to do? Well, I’ll [flip houses],’ ” Brown said. “I met a Realtor and said, ‘I’d always been interested in flipping houses.’ She showed me a house, and I said, “All right, I’ll buy it and give it a shot.’ ”
Distinguished homes for sale in the D.C. region
Arlington, Va., house | The 1954 rambler was expanded by Mike Brown of KASO Developments. It is listed for $2.3 million. (Derek & Vee)
His kids liked the first house he worked on so much the family ended up moving into it.
“I joke with this guy who works for me,” Brown said. “My first house was my bachelor’s degree. My second house was my master’s degree. And the third house is where I actually made money.”
Brown named his company, KASO Developments after his daughters, Katie and Sophia, using the first two letters of their names. When choosing a house to flip, Brown is less concerned with profit margin than with the house’s history.
“I just like the stories of a house and the way the house feels,” he said. “I can walk into a house and you just get a vibe. This one’s kind of dead. This has been a rental for 20 years. … This house, we walked into it, and I knew immediately that I wanted this house because the people who had lived there, they had lived there since the ’60s.”
Little things attracted him to the house, such as the BB hole in the window. Brown wondered how much trouble the child got into for shooting his BB gun. He said the basement was like something out of a set from the television show “Mad Men.”
“You could just see the parties,” Brown said. “The house just had a really cool vibe. … What I like to do is walk through and think, ‘How can I make this better, capture the spirit but update it?’ ”
The first thing he focused on was adding more natural light.
“What I really like is the idea of taking something that’s dark and making it bright,” he said. “That’s one thing I always find with the old houses, particularly houses built in the ’60s, they are so dark.”
The original house was a 1954 rambler. Brown kept nearly the same footprint, expanding the house up and behind. He also added an attached two-car garage.
The owner’s suite turned into a bigger project than he anticipated.
Real estate agent “Melody [Abella] thinks I’m very opinionated, and I am,” Brown said. “But I listen, and I adopt ideas. … I do grasp my limitations. The big one is bathrooms because I’m a boy.”
Brown said his gender is the reason he doesn’t put much thought into the design of a bathroom. He originally planned for a smaller owner’s bathroom. He was persuaded to do a separate soaking tub and larger shower, which expanded the room.
The closet for the owner’s suite was another room he gave little thought to originally.
“Again, I feel like because I’m a boy I just can’t visualize things,” Brown said. “What do you need a closet for? You just need a bar to hang up some stuff.”
Abella convinced him that the closet needed more than a rod for hanging clothes. Now it has built-in cabinetry and shelving. “I was nervous,” Brown said. “But then we put it up and it’s like, ‘Oh, this is actually kind of cool.’ ”
One of the hallmarks of Brown’s projects is that he changes the plan along the way. The kitchen ceiling is an example. He switched from a flat ceiling to a vaulted ceiling once he realized that it would make the space light and airy.
“I always feel like I have the ability to modify things,” he said.
The expanded house has two bedrooms on the main level and four bedrooms on the top floor. Two additional rooms can be used as offices. The living room has a fireplace. The kitchen has an island with a quartz countertop and seating, a double wall oven and a walk-in pantry. The lower level has a wet bar and a fireplace.
Brown said in some ways his current career is reminiscent of his former one.
“I liked working on campaigns because I felt like it was a burst of energy and then you’re done,” he said. “Honestly, I think that’s the best experience to do what I do because [flipping a house] is like a campaign. What you’re really trying to do is trying to get people to work harder than they should for less than they deserve and you have this set goal. … You get it finished, and then it’s, all right, on to the next one.”
The six-bedroom, six-bathroom, 3,800-square-foot house is listed at just under $2.3 million. An open house is scheduled for Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m.
3109 N. Nottingham St., Arlington, Va.
- Bedrooms/bathrooms: 6/6
- Approximate square-footage: 3,800
- Lot size: 0.31 acre
- Features: The 1954 rambler was expanded by Mike Brown of KASO Developments. The house, which is on a hill, is surrounded by mature trees. The kitchen has a vaulted ceiling, an island with a quartz countertop and seating, a double wall oven and a walk-in pantry. The lower level has a wet bar and fireplace. The two-car garage is attached.
- Open house: Sunday, 2 to 4 p.m.
- Listing agent: Melody Abella, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty
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