Transform Your Home: Convert a Single-Family House into RAL
Mar 03, 2025
Thinking about starting your own residential assisted living (RAL) facility? You’re in the right place! Turning a house into a thriving RAL business is a rewarding venture that provides much-needed care for seniors while creating a steady income stream. Let’s break it down step by step so you can confidently get started.
Check out the video, too:
Step 1: Build a Rock-Solid Business Plan
Before you start hunting for properties, create a business plan. This is your roadmap and will guide every decision.
- Do Your Market Research:
Find out what your target audience needs. For example, do seniors in your area prefer private rooms or shared spaces? - Plan the Budget:
Decide how much you can afford to invest and how you’ll fund it. Think about renovations, licensing, and staffing costs.
📌 Pro Tip: Download a free Business Planning Guide to get started. It’ll help you outline your vision and map out your finances.
Step 2: Find the Perfect Property
Once you have a plan, it’s time to look for a property that fits your vision.
-
Buying a New Property:
Use your market research to find a home with the right number of bedrooms and bathrooms in a good location. Be ready for a 25-30% down payment if you’re using traditional financing. Private funding is also an option. -
Converting a Home You Already Own:
Check if your current home meets the basic needs for assisted living or if it requires significant upgrades.
Step 3: Confirm Zoning and Regulations
Before you make any big decisions, ensure the property complies with local zoning laws for assisted living.
-
Check with the Zoning Office:
Some areas have straightforward approvals, while others might need city council reviews. Start this process early! -
What If It’s Not Zoned Right?
Some properties can be rezoned, but it may involve extra applications and public hearings. Don’t worry—it’s doable!
Step 4: Work with the Fire Department
Safety is critical in assisted living, so partner with your local fire department for a property walkthrough.
- Key Safety Features:
- Install sprinkler systems.
- Ensure doorways and hallways are wide enough for wheelchairs.
- Meet federal and local safety standards, such as adding smoke detectors and emergency exits.
Step 5: Renovate Your Home
Renovations are where your house starts to transform into a functional assisted living facility.
- Common Upgrades:
- Make bathrooms wheelchair accessible.
- Add ramps and handrails.
- Install proper lighting and clear signage.
- Hire Professionals:
Work with a qualified general contractor or architect to ensure everything meets state and local requirements.
Step 6: Obtain Your License
Licensing is the final step before you can open your doors to residents.
- Start Early:
Reach out to your state’s licensing office for a checklist of requirements. - What You’ll Need:
- Submit fire department approvals and inspection reports.
- Provide a copy of your policies and procedures.
- Host a final state inspection to ensure compliance.
Final Thoughts
Converting a home into an assisted living facility may seem overwhelming, but taking it step by step makes it manageable. Focus on:
- Planning: Know your market and your budget.
- Property: Find the right house and ensure it meets zoning and safety rules.
- Persistence: Stay consistent, especially when navigating licensing and renovations.
Remember, this journey isn’t just about building a business—it’s about creating a home where seniors feel cared for and comfortable. Stick with it, and you’ll be on your way to success!
You’ve got this!
If you found this information helpful, please visit Assisted Living Investing for more resources. Remember to download our free Business Plan Checklist to help you create a successful business plan for your facility.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00
hey friend I'm Brandon Gustafson I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months in today's video we're going to be talking about how to buy and convert a home into a residential assisted living facility if you're interested in learning more about that make sure you stick around for today's [Music] video hey friend welcome back to the channel before we get started I want to remind you to get over to the website Assisted Living investing. net you can
00:00:28
get access to our free underwriting calculator going to help you determine if you have a good opportunity on your hands or not which is really relevant for today's video so make sure you go over and grab that now let's get into the topic for today's video how do you buy and convert a home into a residential assisted living facility let's talk about that so the first step that you need to do is purchase the home a lot of what I teach actually there's this base phase there's phase one that
00:00:53
is building your business plan and inside of that phase you're going to be building the business plan you're going to be writing make sure it's profitable and you're going to do the market research so if you want to learn more about that then get over to check out our business planning guide so we'll have a link down below for that but Assisted Living investing. netb PG for business planning gu and the reason why I bring that up is doing that market research to find the right home for you
00:01:18
is going to be key and building that business plan is going to be key because in in that phase you're going to identify what your criteria is you know I I need a six-bedroom home with four bathrooms I need eight bedrooms I I need four bedrooms you know whatever it is that it's going to meet the needs that you have for where you want to go it's going to help you narrow down that search now some of you may own a home and and want to do a conversion we're going to talk a little bit more about
00:01:43
that process here uh in just a second but for those of you that are looking to buy a home you've got to find the right property and make sure that it's in the right location for you and doing market research is going to be huge in helping you understand exactly what that looks like so when you buy that home and you purchase it you're likely going to be doing this on a conventional or a traditional mortgage because at this point in the process it doesn't have a business so you're you're buying a home
00:02:10
it's going to also probably be a an investment property so your down payment is probably going to look somewhere between 25 and 30% down so you want to make sure that you are accounting for that now those of you that own a home already then cool like this process you already kind of have that in place you own the home but for those that want to buy and convert you've got to buy that to typically a traditional or conventional mortgage is how you're going to do that you could go the route
00:02:34
of private money though as well to help you acquire the the the home you can leverage some other Acquisitions there's also a few other models that that you can leverage as you're trying to buy that home so something like a subject two if you go and watch some videos on pace morbe you'll learn a lot about subject 2 and that process and what it looks like but that's a way for you to also like kind of assume that mortgage and help you get into the process where you are are owning that home and then
00:02:58
you can do the renovations and and another option would be to leasee something so you're you're kind of going through the same thing with that market research phase trying to find the right place for you to have that home once you find it and you find a landlord that's willing to lease you the building then you can go through this process with them um the the process we're going to talk about here in just a second is also going to be the same thing if you're leasing a property um but you can do
00:03:22
that lease you can convert it and get it to the point where you are operating a facility in inside of that home so that's something that's really exciting now let's talk a little bit about the process of actually converting the home this is the part that can be really confusing the first thing you need to do like absolutely and I would do this 100% of the time before you buy the house so the very first thing you've identified a home you know the area now you need to talk to zoning it is absolutely number
00:03:51
one the first thing you have to do you have to make sure this home is zoned properly if it is not that's okay it's not necessarily a deal breaker but if it's not you need to understand what the process is to get it zoned properly so it could be a simple form you know an application whatever it could be really simple it could be something as complex as you take this to the city council and they have to put like public notice out there and it has to go up for discussion and it could take months or it could be
00:04:19
that they just say there's absolutely no way that this could ever be this type of home so that's number one you have to figure that out because you don't want you don't want to get a home and then find out you cannot do it there so that's number one you've got to figure that out number two is you have to get some approvals from the fire department so typically when you talk to a city planner about zoning you can say cool now I need to understand like some of the other requirements you have a
00:04:43
contact with the fire department that could kind of do an overview walk through of our home and make sure that it is compliant or that I know what Renovations I need to make in the home so you want to do this up front as well because while you're doing the the renovations and the conversion of the home you want to make sure that you have a sprink system in the home or that you you know doorways are wide enough or or any of those things that that may come up you want to make sure that you know
00:05:08
what they are upfront so you can plan that into your renovation budget as you're getting things started it's possible as you're doing this that you may need to hire an architect or an engineer to kind of draw plans and get things in place depending on the state they may have there's a federal standard I believe it's called fgi and these are standards for Senior Living Spaces and so it's possible that you're going to need to have somebody come in submit an fgi application and then get approvals
00:05:36
so that you can then make the improvements to the home and that is typically going to come through an architect and that can be expensive as you're going through it this is the same process if you're building something from the ground up you're going to need to have all these conversations as well as you go through it because it's going to give you the peace of mind that you're doing things right um you'll know if you need to have that architect in place when you talk to the to the state
00:06:02
about licensing your facility if they have some kind of a requirement like an fgi requirement then you want to make sure that you understand what that is that you have the proper approvals in place you're probably going to also need to have some permits and inspections and things as you go through that process as well as you're making those Renovations you want to just make sure everything is permitted everything is approved everything is in place so that if you ever have to sell the home or whatever
00:06:26
that everything aligns with what has been done at the home so that that there you don't have any hiccups and and things just run smoothly so those are the things like kind of that process that you need to go through as you're getting those Renovations ready to go and and then you're also kind of working through that you want to find that general contractor have them help you but you want to make sure that all of those things are kind of in place that they're falling into place the way that
00:06:50
they need to so that you can then have this home that's ready now the next thing you're going to want to do is actually license the facility so you need to probably talk with the state about licensing early on in this process understand what their requirements are I talked about fgi you want to just make sure that you have everything in place for that and then when you go you while the home is being renovated you can continue working with the state on licensing the facility when you're
00:07:16
licensing that facility you going need to fill out that application you know put together your policies and procedures and all of those things um that you would typically do for the license for the home when you get close to having the renovations done on the home though you're going to need to make sure you have all the signup you know if there's an fgi application you want to have that if there is you know permits you want to make sure you have that you want to make sure you have the fire
00:07:37
department approval you want to have all of these things signed off you can give to the state and say look we have done everything that we were supposed to do here is this this part of our application and then you're also doing all your other things but they're going to want to see those approvals they want to make sure that everything is in place for that so that um they can license the facility they may also want to come out and do an section on the home themselves just to make sure that it is up to their
00:08:03
standards so that's something else you want to just kind of keep in mind as you're going through this that there's going to be a series of approvals and interviews and and things that that you need to go through so you just want to make sure you're comfortable with what that looks like so you can move things along and move things forward so to recap what we've been talking about here we've been talking about how to buy that facility the process for going through the renovations making sure you do that
00:08:24
correctly and then how to do the licensing on it those three things are going to allow you to buy that home convert it into that residential assisted living facility if you found this helpful or if you'd like to learn more about any of those pieces in the process make sure you comment that down below so that I can give you some guidance and and help you understand exactly what that's going to look like for you and if you want to make sure that that home that you're buying is a really good fit for you and that it's a
00:08:48
good investment make sure you get over to Assisted Living investing. net and get our free underwriting calculator it's going to help you through that process and understanding what that looks like I hope this video was helpful to you and that you learned a lot if you did make sure you like the video subscribe and ring the bell as well so you get notified every time we put out this content we go live on Tuesdays and we put out content on Thursdays as well have our Facebook group and and love
00:09:09
kind of getting out there in front of you and helping you out check out our blog our podcast all the things we have on the website I'm here to help give you some guidance if you need some help creating That Base so we talked about the business planning guide earlier in this video make sure you go check that out Assisted Living investing. net sbpg but if you need some help and some guidance and some coaching and support as you're going through this check out our master Mind program I love helping
00:09:31
people in The Mastermind you can check that out at assisted living investing. netmaster and if you want to learn more about that program and see if it's a good fit for you you can sign up for a free strategy session at assisted living investing. netrat and we just have a conversation does residential Assisted Living sound interesting to you but you don't know how to get started at Assisted Living investing. net we're help here to help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in
00:09:55
the next 12 months so they can obtain that time and Financial Freedom that they're looking for want to thank you again for watching and remember it doesn't take a lot just a little bit keep going step by step by step I promise that if you do and you're consistent and persistent you're going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music]
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