A startup created after the California wildfires aims to streamline homebuilding

Sarah Paynter
·Reporter
Updated 2 min read
0

Some 6,000 homes burned down in California’s Tubbs, Woolsey and Kincade Fires from 2017 to 2019. Many of those luxury homes were custom-built, making rebuilding a daunting prospect for families.

But startup contractor Homebound aims to streamline the homebuilding process, coordinating every facet of the job, including permitting, negotiating insurance claims, clearing debris, interior designing, structural engineering and building.

“The majority of people in these communities want to rebuild, but when you think about the Herculean task… you’re coordinating with upwards of 20 different specialties just to figure out what your path to get home looks like,” said Homebound founder and chief executive officer Nikki Pechet.

More than 150 homeowners in California are rebuilding their home through Homebound’s proprietary network of subcontracted labor.

This May 2, 2012, photo, shows a new homes under construction in Bridgeville, Pa. A surge in homebuilding pushed U.S. construction spending up by the largest amount in five months, the latest indication that the housing sector is slowly recovering. Construction spending rose 0.9 percent in May, following a 0.6 percent rise in April, the Commerce Department reported Monday, July 2, 2012. It was the biggest percentage gain since December. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

“What the last few years have shown us is that we’re going to have more natural disasters that have more significant and devastating impacts for homeowners, and we need to be able to quickly rebuild in a way that we never have before,” said Pechet.

Long-term, the startup plans to bring this efficient process to custom homebuilders everywhere. Homebound currently ofers services to middle- and upper-priced homes, but they plan to use their timesaving model to eventually create better building processes for low-income housing too.

“We’re able to work with all of those people because we have different types of builders, [so] we [can] build different types of homes that suit their needs,” said Pechet. “We can make it possible to get those families home faster and in the process create a new way to build homes that is dramatically more efficient.”

Sarah Paynter is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @sarahapaynter

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