Building Dreams: Jamie Saunders' Mission to Transform Housing through Affix Communities
For many young people in America, owning a home can feel like an unattainable dream. This was the case for , who leveraged her background in architecture and business to confront a problem that had been on her mind for years: the growing cost of homeownership. With a passion for design and an entrepreneurial spirit, she set out to uncover why homeownership had become inaccessible, and sought to create a solution. This journey would not only challenge her assumptions, but lead her into the world of entrepreneurship and innovative housing solutions during her MBA program.
During her career in architecture, she gained extensive experience working on both market-rate and affordable housing, primarily focusing on commercial multifamily buildings. However, her curiosity pushed her to rethink her career. When her sister, also a young entrepreneur, struggled to qualify for a large mortgage due to her self-employed status, Jamie began to ask herself: could her expertise be applied to create a better ownership option for first-time buyers?
Her sister’s challenges inspired her to dive deep into the root causes behind skyrocketing home prices. While earning her MBA at CU Boulder, she explored ways to make homeownership more accessible.
How the New Venture Launch Shaped Jamie's Entrepreneurial Journey
Jamies journey took her through a variety of projects and competitions in the MBA program, including participating in the prestigious New Venture Challenge and the New Venture Launch. In the class and challenge, she refined her ideas, learned how to tell her story, and faced intense scrutiny from investors and industry experts, helping the creation of .
The New Venture Launch class provided critical support for Jamie by offering essential funding and resources that helped build a professional image through a website, logo, and polished pitch deck. Weekly pitching exercises increased her confidence and ability to handle tough questions from investors, while regular feedback strengthened their business idea. Additionally, the class helped Jamie develop a thick skin, navigate the entrepreneurial world, and sharpen public speaking skills, which are crucial for presenting to investors and winning partnerships.
Through hundreds of interviews and weekly pitches, her concept took shape, and her team gained valuable insights into the weak points of their plan. In the New Venture Challenge finals, her team secured funding to purchase land for a prototype: a critical step toward transforming her vision into reality.
When it comes to launching a new business, resources and support can make all the difference. For Jamie, the New Venture Launch class and the accompanying New Venture Challenge were crucial in turning an ambitious idea into a tangible, growing business.
Affordable Homeownership
Affix Communities is focused on providing workforce homeownership, a term beneath the umbrella of “affordability” that is often misunderstood. Workforce individuals may be teachers, mechanics, recent college grads, and even entrepreneurs, all of whom may face financial instability that makes securing a mortgage challenging are well-educated and gainfully employed, but they may still be unable to purchase a half-million dollar home (the median home price in Colorado in 2024 is $620,000). Contrary to common misconceptions, affordable housing isn’t just for those facing extreme financial hardship or homelessness. It’s for the everyday individuals who contribute to society, but still struggle to meet the demands of a booming housing market. Workforce individuals make up an enormous part of the American population, and yet they are being completely overlooked by most home developers.
With their sights set on Colorado’s mountain communities, where the need for workforce housing is particularly acute, Affix Communities hopes to scale their innovative concept. By offering smaller, more efficient homes, they aim to ease the housing crisis for workers in these areas, many of whom are priced out of the very towns they serve.
Affix Communities’ mission is simple yet impactful: to make homeownership possible for first-time buyers, providing a sustainable solution to a growing problem and helping individuals take their first step on the property ladder. Over the next five to ten years, the venture is set to redefine what it means to own a home, providing a lifeline for first-time buyers and working professionals across the United States in need of affordable housing.
The journey starts with a prototype. By the end of 2025, Affix Communities plans to complete its first project: a mountain duplex made up of two units. This prototype will serve as a crucial testing ground, allowing the team to gather data on construction costs, manufacturing optimization, and opportunities for installation efficiency. With this information in hand, the next step is scaling up. Over the following three years, they plan to work up to their first full-scale community of 70 to 100 units, capturing greater efficiencies by streamlining utility work, foundation construction, and bulk ordering prefabricated homes.
Cutting Costs and Empowering Buyers
So, how does Affix Communities cut costs for buyers? It comes down to three key strategies: creative uses of land, prefabrication, and design. Land is often the largest barrier to affordable housing, sometimes costing upwards of $300,000 before even factoring in the cost of the home itself. Affix Communities tackles this problem by proposing a unique business model: rather than owning the land outright, buyers can opt to lease it. This ground lease approach allows for more affordable entry points into homeownership, detaching the cost of the house from the land.
Additionally, the company plans to build these homes prefabricated in a factory, which will reduce build time, and increase quality control. This approach eliminates weather delays, (which is particularly important in mountain communities), and enables mass production, further driving down costs.
Another innovative cost-saving feature is the design of the homes themselves. The Affix design gives homeowners the option to rent part of their home on platforms like Airbnb, generating additional income to offset their mortgage or housing costs. This optionality is achieved via a lock-off area that includes its own private entry, bedroom, and bathroom. The homeowner can stay on the other side of the home, while renting out the lock-off on weekends, or other times when short-term rentals earn surge pricing.
In the next decade, Affix Communities envisions not only providing an easier path into home ownership, but creating thriving affordable communities for people of all different walks of life. By thinking outside traditional single family home development models, they hope to empower people to take their first steps toward ownership. These homes are not just places to live; they’re opportunities to help everyday Americans get a toehold in financial stability and begin their own journey to grow wealth, designed with long-term impact in mind.