Ownify, the San Francisco-based fractional homeownership platform, has launched a new fund in Colorado that will co-invest in single-family starter homes alongside qualified first-time homebuyers.
The Ownify Home Fund Colorado will allow qualified first-time buyers to buy their homes through a shared equity partnership rather than with mortgage debt. Buyers contribute as little as 2% to acquire a home alongside fund capital and then buy incremental equity through dollar-cost averaging to roughly 10% equity over five years. At the end of five years, customers transition to mortgage-based ownership at fair market value, using the accumulated equity to lower their mortgage payments.
According to the company, its fractional ownership structure reduces the down payment requirement to 2% and lowers monthly cost of ownership by 10% to 15% compared to mortgage-based options.
For investors, the company said its fund targets a 10% to 14% equity return and a 4% debt return for accredited investors who gain quarterly distributions, K-1 pass-through depreciation, and a pro-rata share of home price appreciation.
The fund is built on a track record established by Ownify Home Fund 1, which the company said has produced an average annualized return of 12% since 2023 across its portfolio of co-owned homes in Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, and Nashville.
In launching the fund, the company noted that Colorado is the sixth least affordable state in the country, with a price-to-income ratio above 7x and a shortage of more than 106,000 housing units. Ownify added that 60% of Colorado renters have cited an insufficient down payment as the primary barrier to ownership.
In launching the fund, the company appointed Keith Kegley, a Boulder-based investor and principal of Meridien Partners, to its advisory board. Kegley will be tasked in guiding Ownify’s expansion into Colorado.
“Keith has spent his career at the intersection of technology, capital, and community impact, and he understands Colorado from the inside out,” said Frank Rohde, CEO and founder of Ownify. “Launching the Ownify Home Fund Colorado is an important step in helping more first-time buyers squeezed out of the market, and Keith’s voice on our advisory board – and on the ground in Boulder – gives us exactly the perspective we need. He sees what we see: that the affordability crisis along the Front Range is solvable if you align capital, technology, and community the right way.”
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