By R.P. Whittington
Special to Realty/Builder Connection
Randy Long remembers the summer holiday breaks when he was in his early teen years for the days his parents would drop him off to clean up a home jobsite and pick him up at the end of the day.
“When I was 16 and 17, I got to move inside and help with office work, which was definitely an improvement,” said Randy, who is now 28 years old and serves as chief operating officer for J.A. Long - Design Builders.
The company, a member of the Northeast Florida Builders Association, provides custom residential design services and constructs about 30 to 40 homes a year, mostly high-end homes from 2,800 square feet to 5,500 square feet and ranging from $400,000 to $1 million.
Both Randy’s father John Long, who founded the company in Orange Park in the early 1970s, and his mother Linda, who serves as office manager for the company, let their oldest son work in the company while encouraging him to attend college and go into another profession.
“At the time, I just thought the home building business was a tough one to get into and, of course, you always want better for your children,” John said.
After high school, Randy attended the University of Florida and graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 2001. During his last year of college, Randy worked as a student recruiter for Texas Instruments at the university before taking a position with Intel upon graduation - which took him to Portland, Ore.
“After about eight months, I realized that living in Oregon, and electrical engineering, weren’t for me,” Randy said. “It couldn’t have happened at a better time for me.”
So, after braving the cold, rainy northwest, Randy moved back to Jacksonville and rejoined his mother and father in the family business.
“The timing actually worked out pretty well,” John said. “While I still wanted to be involved in the business, I did want to reduce the hours I was working and move toward semi-retirement. Also, I did want to be able to keep the business in the family and Randy’s return allowed that to happen.”
Since Randy took over as chief operating officer in 2002, handling more of the day-to-day management, the company’s revenues have more than quadrupled - up from about $5 million annually to an estimated $20 million in 2006. At the same time, Randy has managed a growth in staff size as well.
“Randy is a bit more like his mother, more detail-oriented, and has spent more time improving our internal systems, which probably came through his education in engineering,” John said. “When we go over project details, Randy and Linda usually gang up on me, since they think more alike.”
“I would say Dad is more of a risk-taker, and Mom and I are more conservative in our approach,” Randy said. “However, having different perspectives makes the end result a lot better in most cases.”
Linda, who left her profession as a teacher to join her husband when he started his business in 1970, says the three make a good team.
“We talk about the style and layout of the homes we are working on and on any major decisions we need to make about the business,” said Linda, who also provides input on color selections and works on other interior design issues in addition to her role as office manager.
While John, Linda and Randy are the more active family members in the business, the Long’s youngest son, Ryan, now 22, is also working in the office through the summer months. Ryan and his father are taking computer-assisted design classes at Florida Community College at Jacksonville.
“I always figured it would happen,” Ryan said about working in the family business. “I do like working in design, so who knows where this will lead.”
The Longs say that while the basics of the business have remained the same over the last 30 years, the size and scope of the projects they work on have become more complex.
“Years ago, appliances, countertops and other elements of the home were pretty much standard,” John added. “Now a buyer may pay anywhere from $2,000 to $30,000 on appliances alone. People will also pay $50,000 or more to add an audio-theater room in the home, something that wasn’t even considered in the 1990s.”
“Certainly, the market in Jacksonville has changed significantly over the last four years,” Randy said. “Many of the homes we work on are larger in size and cost and in the amount of features buyers expect. I believe the Internet has a lot to do with it. Buyers can surf the Web and see all these add-ons and features, and they have the money to splurge on these things.”