Braxton and Elizabeth Coombs of New Albany have turned their dream —spending time with family while also having the opportunity to restore older homes together — into a thriving livelihood..
"We renovated our first home in Northside in 2017. It’s exciting to see others start doing it as well in the last couple of years,” says Braxton. The couple had actually done more rentals than selling for profit until this past year when market prices got really high, "and we decided to do a couple of flips to sell. "It really depends on what the market is doing at the time. I really like to do rentals and Elizabeth really likes the flip projects. We do always like to make either type of projects aesthetically pleasing though, and we love helping improve neighborhoods,” he said.
Other than a moneymaker, "we do it because we enjoy it — most of the time — and it truly is a passion. It’s also a way for us to use our talents together. We love transforming these homes for the better and saving their history and character,” Elizabeth said. There’s also an economic benefit for the neighborhood the house is in. "We think that anytime you make an area more desirable to live in, the result will definitely be a boost in surrounding home values. It’s a win/win,” she added.
The couple discussed what qualifies an older house as one they’d consider upgrading. “Price, a lot of time, is the main thing that drives it - it has to be a good deal. And a lot of times that means it’s one of the worst houses on the block….but it has to make financial sense for us to rehab it," Braxton said. There’s no standard template as to how a house should look when they're done with it. Usually, many different possibilities come into play, he said.
"Elizabeth has a degree in interior design, and she enjoys the challenge of deciding what will work best. She and I will go into a house and use a long tape measure to measure all the doors, windows, walls, and other things. "She puts all that information into an AutoCAD, which is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application, and then she configures the best ways to design the house. There are lots of different possibilities. We’ve changed duplexes to singles, and singles to duplexes,” Braxton said.
"We also have to factor the cost of what we think it will take to put into it when we are looking at potential properties.We don’t consider homes that cost too much or require more work than makes financial sense. "If the bottom line doesn’t work, we won’t buy it,” Braxton said.
As the song goes, every rose has its thorns. The couple discussed the problems they’ve encountered bringing old houses into today. “Some of the more recent pitfalls we have encountered were a lot of changes due to COVID - price changes/increases, difficulty finding supplies, difficulty finding labor, among other things. "Luckily for us though, on the labor side, we have a good, consistent team of about 30 subcontractors in addition to our Modern Antiquity Homes team. They include electricians, plumbers, roofers, heating and air specialists, painters, and landscapers that we can depend on and are proud to work with,” Braxton said.
Their advice for those looking to get into that line of work? "Get a good team together and have a plan. A lot of people think they would like to dabble in home renovation for rental purposes or resell, but if you don’t have good workers that you can depend on or a good solid plan in place for each project, it can end up costing you more time and money than you are ready for,” Elizabeth said.
So, what brings the couple the most satisfaction, and the least, in restoring a home? "I think what we enjoy the most about what we do is being able to take a home that is dilapidated and ugly and being able to totally transform it and breathe new life back into it. "I think we least enjoy when things don’t go as we expect them to. You’ll run into a lot of surprises in some older homes when renovating them. “Since we mostly buy distressed properties in really really bad shape, there’s always something that needs to be done, and it’s often challenging,” Elizabeth said.
Braxton recalled an old property where the walls were sealed and floors covered. The couple discovered that they had to replace all the joists in the house, "and that added substantial cost we weren’t expecting. "In another case, a large old home we did recently had its second floor supported by 2x6 lumber. That wouldn’t be sufficient to support a bathroom upstairs, so we had to replace it with 2x12 lumber. “Overall, though, we enjoy what we do and see ourselves continuing to restore older homes and historic buildings in some capacity or another in the future,” Braxton said.
The couple sees a Biblical connection to their work: Making the world better for having passed this way. "I think as a Christian, you want to strive and do the best you can in anything you do with the abilities that God gave you. "We try to do these properties with the same mindset…to make them the best we can with the talents and resources that God gave us…to hopefully give the future renter, owner, or neighborhood a better-designed/better quality home or quality of life,” Elizabeth said.
The couple came to this line of work via a roundabout process which covered a lot of time and territory before settling in New Albany. Braxton and Elizabeth have been together since the 10th grade at New Albany High School. After graduating from high school, they both headed to Starkville to attend Mississippi State University. Four years later, Elizabeth graduated with a degree in Interior Design from the College of Architecture, Art, and Design, and Braxton graduated with degrees in Business Administration and Economics. They married on Aug. 15, 2009 and moved to Washington, D.C. a few days later to begin their careers. Elizabeth began working as an interior designer with Sroka Design, and Braxton began as a consulting analyst with Accenture, a global consulting firm. In 2011, Elizabeth left Sroka Design to start Modern Antiquity Design, a luxury interior design firm.
In 2013, the couple relocated to Atlanta, Ga. Braxton joined SunTrust Bank as Senior Vice President for Commercial Banking Strategy and Operations, while Elizabeth continued to focus on growing Modern Antiquity Design in the Atlanta market. In 2017, Braxton accepted a position as Senior Manager for Ernst and Young, LLP where he was a leader within the North America Financial Services Advisory practice. During this time, Braxton and Elizabeth also founded Modern Antiquity Homes, a real estate development company specializing in the customization, renovation, and restoration of homes in Northeast Mississippi.
In 2018, the couple moved back home to Mississippi where they purchased Braxton’s family business, Coombs Gas, and also continue to operate and grow Modern Antiquity Homes. Today, Braxton and Elizabeth live in New Albany with their children, Allie, Lily, and Tate, and dogs, Dash and Duke.
Article by Hank Wiesner, New Albany Gazette