Homebound helps some Marshall Fire victims in their rebuilding process
A company founded after the Marshall Fire is making a big impact in the rebuilding effort.
"When the fires started we knew that if this community needed us we were going to be there," said Nikki Pechet, CEO and co-founder of Homebound. "We've seen a lot of disaster-impacted areas and we've seen what it takes to rebuild as fast as possible."
Pechet lost a home in Santa Rosa, California in a wildfire in 2017 that destroyed more than 6,000 homes. She and a few other fire survivors felt a mission to build a construction company that used technology first.
"We can build a marketplace. We have a background that knew exactly how to do that. and we can find labor in a wider geographic area and bring it in. And we can use technology that uses basic task management technology that helps us know what's the path, and how am I doing on that path and what can I do to expedite that path," she said. "Today we're four years into building a full-scale propriety technology platform that allows us to programmatically match a lot to a home in our portfolio."
Pechet says Homebound allows people to shop for a home like anything else on the internet, a slightly different format than most homes being built today.
"With just the click of a few clicks of a button, you can see what's possible. You know what it will cost," she said. "That type of accessibility and pricing and control over designing a home that is perfect for your lifestyle and for your budget is something that just hasn't existed before in homebuilding."
The company has broken ground on a handful of homes in Louisville and Superior. About six lots are signed on with Homebound on one street in Superior's Rock Creek neighborhood.
"We weren't really done with this house. We still need it for a while," said Trisha Cheek as she stood near what will be her new home. "It's not a custom home. We had to make some tough choices. But everything was really fair and pretty clear cut."
Just before Christmas, the Cheeks' home was getting framed. They're hoping to move in as soon as possible.
"Homebound has done it post a fire before and that really made me feel at ease," said Cheek.
"There was a lot of deliberation a lot of time and it was a personal choice and for us, we felt like Homebound was uniquely positioned to get us home in the timetable we needed," said her husband Chad Cheek.
A lot near their home will also be rebuilt by Homebound, it's one of about a dozen throughout Boulder County that the company has bought and plans to build a house on, then sell to a new owner. Something very few other companies are doing, if any. But Pechet says is a necessary step to make a neighborhood complete.
"If you rebuild your house but nobody around you rebuilds your neighborhood is worse off," she said. "If we could help accelerate the rebuild of the entire community, not only would it mean the community gets back faster, but also the more volume we're building at a given time the better pricing we can get for our homeowners we're building with. So, it really benefits everyone."
The Cheeks say they're not just eager to get into their new homes, they want to be reunited with neighbors who they've bonded with through the rebuilding process.
"The roots in this community are actually stronger now than they were before," Chad Cheek said.