California-born couple relocates to Chattanooga to build houses, a marriage and family

Braxton and Britney Hagele
Braxton and Britney Hagele

Braxton Hagele grew up in a family of contractors in California. As a child, he often impressed inspectors on job sites with his construction knowledge.

So when Hagele was in his last year of studies at Southern Adventist University in Collegedale and began to wonder if his degree in families studies would allow him to earn enough, he decided to follow the family trade and start a more lucrative career in building and remodeling homes. Instead of returning to where his family did such work in the San Francisco Bay area, he decided to stay in Tennessee. To help with his venture, Hagele convinced his then girl friend and now wife, Britney, to give up her planned teaching career in her native Sacramento, California, and join him in the home construction business in Ooltewah.

Hagele, a climber who has ascended the glacier-topped Mount Ranier in the Pacific Northwest three times, took on the name High Point Construction for his business. But when he started the business in 2009, the market had already reached its high point and the Great Recession soon racked the economy and cut home sales in half from the prior peaks.

"We were so poor we were living in a basement apartment splitting Ramen noodles for dinner," Britney recalls. "But we both worked really hard and Braxton has always had an eye for what customers want and the skills to build it. I said it was a terrible time to start a business and Braxton said at the time, "if we can do it now,we know we can do it anytime."

The couple started patching roofs, hanging gutters and renovating houses in Chattanooga. They scrapped together $7,000 to buy one foreclosed house at auction, fixed it up and made a $40,000 profit. That helped to propel the Hegeles into their real passion of building new custom homes.

Over the past five years, the couple have built 16 houses and are currently working on five more as their business continues to grow. The couple have not built any spec homes to limit their debt and risk. But they do give fixed price quotes on the custom homes they are contracted to build for others. The houses they have built range from $380,000 to more than $500,000.

"I hope we can grow to do 20 or so homes a year," Britney says. "We especially take pride in giving contractors and custom home builders a good name in the community and there is nothing better than delivering to people the home of their dreams."

Like in Braxton's youth, the couple also often bring their son, Jaken, to work.

"He brings a big smile to company morale," Britney says.

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