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After News Year’s, Nitti Kaur rounded up a room full of furniture and clothing to donate. “That was on my to-do list for January,” she says. “And the tables turned so fast.”

On Jan. 7, Kaur and her partner Mac Perry watched his childhood home in Altadena burn, room by room, in the Eaton Fire. Soon after, Kaur found herself standing frozen at a donation center looking for clothing.

“Somebody came and hugged me from the back,” says Kaur, who runs a real estate advisory firm for investors called A360 Capital. “They were like, ‘We’ll take care of you. Don’t worry. We’re all in this together.’ And something in me clicked in that very moment – we’re called City of Angels, and I was seeing angels and actions that just inspired me.”

After the initial gut punch of learning their home was underinsured by about half a million dollars, Kaur set out to find a way to help herself and her community close the gap between what insurance will pay out and what it costs to rebuild.

She started by calling her professional contacts, especially those in the building and bulk purchase industries. Within two months, she’d assembled an advisory board and launched the Disaster Rapid Recovery Alliance to help underinsured and uninsured Eaton and Palisades fire survivors sort through vetted rebuild options.

Kaur’s group is one of many grassroots coalitions launched by locals after the fires to explore how rebuilding collectively can get Altadeneans back into their homes quicker and more affordably. The key is to mobilize homeowners around a shared vision for what they want out of rebuilding, and use collective buying power to cut costs. Here’s how it works.

Power in numbers

Kaur has devised several rebuilding solutions based on advice from builders who have reconstructed multifamily properties after disasters, including Hurricane Sandy.

“They already have a blueprint of disaster recovery,” she says.

Price and speed are the top factors in whether and how homeowners rebuild, especially for those without insurance. Kaur is hoping more people will consider prefabricated homes, which she says can run about half the cost of a custom build, at around $200 a square foot.

Prefab types of homes are made in pieces in a factory. They can be assembled on a property and bolted to the ground within about eight months of a lot being cleared of hazardous materials. The homes come in a variety of floor plans, with options for some customization and the use of fire-resistant materials, she sats.

Kaur says she has zeroed in on a prefab manufacturer to build homes in Altadena but isn’t yet sharing the name publicly. She and her team are working to find someone interested in building a model home to show others what they could expect if they chose this option.

Prefabricated homes are coming into the spotlight as a viable solution after disasters. The founder of California-based Plant Prefab said earlier this year that he anticipates fire victims to make up a big part of his business in the next few years. Steadfast LA, a nonprofit led by businessman Rick Caruso, is coordinating with prefab manufacturer Samara to build dozens of free modular homes for low-income residents impacted by the Eaton and Palisades fires.

Kaur would love to build a prefab home on her own lot. But her partner, Perry, envisions rebuilding his childhood home in a custom way. “I want to support his dream,” she sats.

He’s not the only one who feels this way. Altadena is known for its diverse architecture and many homeowners hope to rebuild in the same style they once had. Kaur says there are still ways to cut costs even going the custom “stick and brick” route. Another option she’s offering homeowners is to work with the same developer on their custom builds.

This post was originally published on Next City.