Building an Assisted Living Home from the Ground Up
May 26, 2025
Building an assisted living home from scratch is an exciting yet challenging journey. From securing permits to designing your facility, there’s a lot to take in. But don’t worry—you’ve got this!
This guide will walk you through the key steps to get your facility up and running, from planning and design to licensing and construction.
Let’s dive in! π
Check out this video, too;
Why a Strong Foundation Matters
Before you start building, you need to build your business foundation. That means setting goals, building a business plan, and making sure you understand the industry.
Ask yourself:
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What type of residents do I want to serve?
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What will my facility look like?
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What are the long-term goals for this business?
Having clear answers to these questions will help you make every other decision easier. If you need some guidance with this, check out the Assisted Living Launchpad Bundle.
Step 1: Assemble Your Team
Building an assisted living home requires more than just construction. You will need a team that can handle all aspects of the project.
Here are some of the people you'll need on your team:
π Architects & Engineers – They’ll design the layout to meet all regulations and ensure structural integrity.
π Contractors – A good general contractor is essential to keeping the project on track and within budget.
π Zoning Experts – Before you start, you must confirm that the land is zoned for assisted living.
Having the right team will help make sure your project runs smoothly from start to finish.
Step 2: Navigate the Permitting Process
Before you start construction, you'll need to obtain the necessary permits. Skipping this step can delay your project and even result in fines.
Here’s what you need to do:
π Obtain Permits – Start by getting the building and health permits needed for your facility.
π Zoning Approval – Make sure your land is zoned for assisted living. This is a crucial step that you can’t afford to skip.
Make sure you have all your paperwork ready before getting started on the project.
Step 3: Create Your Facility Design
Once you have your permits in place, it’s time to focus on designing your facility. This is where you’ll create a space that’s functional, safe, and welcoming for residents.
Key design considerations:
π Accessibility – Make sure that all areas of the facility are accessible for residents with mobility issues.
π Resident Needs – Design spaces that will support social interaction, wellness, and care needs.
π Safety Features – Plan for proper exits, handrails, and fire safety measures.
Collaborate with your architects and engineers to bring your vision to life.
Step 4: Get Your Facility Licensed
Once your building is constructed, you'll need to make sure it meets all state requirements and is licensed to operate. The licensing process is important for ensuring your facility is up to code.
What you need to know:
π Work with the State – Stay in communication with the state throughout the construction process to avoid delays.
π Prepare Documents – Make sure that you have all the necessary paperwork, including policies and procedures, to comply with licensing requirements.
π Regular Inspections – Expect inspections during and after construction to make sure your facility meets safety and health regulations.
Step 5: Access Free Resources to Speed Up Your Success
Building an assisted living home can feel overwhelming, but the right resources can make it easier. Here are some tools to help you along the way:
π Business Plan Checklist – A step-by-step guide to planning your facility’s business.
π Grant Writing Template – Find opportunities that may help you fund your project.
π Sample Lease Agreement – Protect your business when leasing a property.
These resources are available to help you move through each stage efficiently.
Next Steps: Take Action Today!
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Step 1: Download the Business Plan Checklist to start planning.
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Step 2: Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
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Step 3: Follow this guide, take action, and bring your vision to life!
Got questions? Drop them in the comments below! β¬οΈ
Show full transcript π
Transcript
00:00:05
is Brandon Gustafson um welcome to Assisted Living investing I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months so excited to have you here today today we're going to be talking about building from the ground up um how to build a facility all the way from the ground up and excited to get into this topic with you today um if you are um if if you would like a free resource to kind of help you along your journey go and check we're going to have on the ticker down
00:00:32
below um a resource for the business plan checklist you can get that by going to Assisted Living investing. netb checklist and that will let you get that link and and then help you get started um on your investment Journey um so excited to to be working with you here and so I'm just getting this this link here really quick so we can throw it on to the Facebook page and we will get started um all righty so go ahead and and grab that uh I want to also remind you actually let's just go ahead and show the screen
00:01:07
as I mentioned we're going to be talking about building from the ground up how to get your facility uh up and running uh if you just have land what that that process is going to look like so really excited to get into this as a reminder again get over to the website Assisted Living investing. netb checklist and um you can get access to that free resource now I need to figure out how to get over to the right screen so I can actually scroll through this that's not it uh let's see here there we go
00:01:37
okay I'm GNA click over and make sure this sign okay there we go we're we're going all right so my background if you don't know who I am my name is Brandon guson I started Assisted Living investing to help people you know beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months and I do that through my Mastermind program if you want to apply for that you can go check it out at Alim mastermind.com application uh take you through that process but I have been in the in the healthcare
00:02:04
industry for over a decade now I have a master's in healthcare administration um have my homes I have two of them that are out of state one is in Colorado and one's in Idaho and I live in Utah so I operate these out of state um and have been doing this now for about four years uh since 2020 uh through that process have secured over one and a half million dollars in SBA funding as well um and yeah just love what I do love coaching people and helping people out through the process so that is background on me
00:02:29
now let's get into the process here for um for building something from the ground up I'm going to kind of walk you through some of these some of the processes here um and we're going to hit on in in my programs um a lot of what I do with coaching there's a five-phase process today we're going to be talking a lot about phase two type activities and phase four type activities is kind of what uh fits into this so this is finding the right property and also getting the license um and the process
00:02:58
you're going to go through there so um there's there's a little bit of funding here which is a phase three process but we're going to talk about that um here as we as we get into the video now the first thing that you have to do when you're building from the ground up is find the property um you've got to find you got to find a house or find a a lot um where you can actually build this property so you're going to probably want to get a vacant lot uh you could get something that that has a building
00:03:22
on it and then um demolish that and then start from there but you're probably going to be wanting to get a vacant lot when you do that you're going to want to check zoning so the conversations that you're going to have with with zoning with the city um is you know what you want to build there if you're going to build a residential style assisted living home you want to make sure that it is um zoned properly for that it's often going to be like an R2 or an R3 this is going to depend on which state
00:03:52
you're in and and how they interpret those those zoning regulations but that's something you want to be looking at or you may want to just go straight to a commercial um type of a a zoning uh when you get to that point so you can make something a little bit bigger this is all subjective it's up to you how you want to do this but you're going to want to check zoning um if it is not zoned properly then doing the rezoning process here early on is going to help you oftentimes at this phase though um
00:04:22
if you're doing this type of resoning on a on a vacant lot my experience um having a few conversations with this is it is is one of those types of zoning changes that will go out for public comment um if you've ever driven around and you've seen um like the Public Notices that say hey we're talking about rezoning this come to the city council on this date um to to give your opinion um it's going to be that type of a resoning process more than likely not always the not always the case but just
00:04:53
want to prepare you that if you have to do a rezoning you're probably going to be going out for public comment um with this type of resoning whereas with a house that you're doing a conversion on not always the case um sometimes it's a simple application so uh just something for you to be aware of um and then you also want to identify what the size of the building is there's going to be um also different types of things that you just have to be aware of as far as like the setting of the the the physical
00:05:21
facility itself in relation to where it is on the lot um there's probably going to need to be easements for how far it is from property lines um and and uh if if it's zoned commercial amount of parking spaces and and things like that so you want to take all of that into consideration and then maximize um to the extent that it's still meeting the needs um the size of the building so that you know what that's going to look like so if you want it to be a residential style home then cool um this
00:05:51
is is kind of a you know you're you're going through a similar process that you would with building a normal home you want to make sure it's zoned and and can allow a number of uh un unrelated individuals living in the same home um but it's going to look more like like a a home it's going to like the home that I have in Idaho as an example looks like a ranch style home was built in the early 2000s looks very similar to that style stucko and brick um it is you walk in and it has homes all or not homes has
00:06:21
rooms all the way around the perimeter of of the facility with half boms in in each of those stalls but if you were to drive through the neighborhood it's in an HOA looks very similar to all of the other houses you would not know that it's assisted living that there's 16 residents living in that home you know 3500 4,000 square feet it's not even like a huge mansion or anything like that it's just a big home has 10 to 12 bedrooms I can't remember exactly off the top of my head but it's it's sizable
00:06:49
um but it you know it looks like a home as opposed to doing something that is more of a commercial style um in that case you're going to want to you know if you want a 30 bed facility this is a very it's a more unique uh type of a process so you have to do this research up front you really have to to figure this out in my program we talk about business foundations that's where we spend phase one of everything that we do building that foundation so it can help bring you through all of this so
00:07:17
you know what you're going to do so if you're building something from the ground up you're going to spend that time and you're going to be doing things now um before I move on to the next slide here I want I've neglected to say if you're a newbie type in newbie down below would love to hear uh who you are and if you have questions as we go through this I'm going to have time for Q&A here at the end so make sure you type in questions and if you're watching this after the fact then please type
00:07:39
that in um as well um and you all get to those we'll create other live videos for you and then I had like a little uh I don't know I don't know what you want to call it Easter egg sneak peek uh if you got to this point in the video um just type in administrator down below would love to see how many of you um get to this point so share a little bit of a story we had our administrator quit at our Idaho facility um recently she gave notice to us last week and we are going through the process of finding and
00:08:08
hiring a new administrator we actually made an offer on that today if you are interested in learning about um about that process what it's like to go through and hire an administrator um maybe what a job what a job description looks like um then comment down below um job down below so if if you got to this point administrator and then if you want to know a little bit more about what that looks like then type in job down below and that will just kind of key me on on creating that uh for you in a
00:08:39
future video um so just wanted to throw that out there really quick um okay so let's let's get back to this approvals needed so as you're going through this what you're going to find is uh you're going to need these approvals there's zoning we've talked about this quite a bit already um through as as we've been talking about what to do from the ground up and and finding the right property zoning is potentially going to require public comment Public Notices it could
00:09:05
be as simple as an application but it is something you absolutely have to verify zoning like the city is going to require this when you're pulling permits and things like that um as you're working on building the the the home but the state is also going to requirement require all of that as you are working on getting your license so um zoning huge fgi is a it's a I believe it's a nonprofit organization but a lot of states are going to require you to to go into this and it's the I looked it up before I got
00:09:37
on here and now I can't remember what it is uh give me one second um let's see Fed fgi is the facility guidelines Institute uh it is a nonprofit that works specifically on trying to help out um you know trying to trying to figure out what the guidelines are what you need to do in order for you to be um building a facility correctly so fgi um even if you if it's not a requirement in your state it's something that you want to to be familiar with because uh it's a good standard and if you end up hiring like
00:10:16
an architectural firm to an engineer firm to help you build the blueprints and get everything uh in line for what you want to do uh for your facility then I I would recommend getting one that is familiar with fgi or even certified by fgi it will just make the process go so much more smoothly for you some states require that that happens as well and there's like a separate fgi application you have to go through so um just something for you to be aware of building permits um as you are working
00:10:45
on building this just like if you are building a new home you have to pull permits you have to document all the things that are going to happen inside of the home um how it's going to be built um get approvals and everything like that this is something that absolutely has to happen for you to do you can't just find a a plot of land go buy it and then start building a house and and just expect that everything is going to fall into place you actually have to follow some of these rules um regardless if you're licensed or
00:11:10
unlicensed facility you're building a new building you have to follow um a lot of these these rules here and then the state um this is much more like State Licensing um type of a thing as you get into this if you're going to look at um building a facility from the ground up you want to talk to the state about the licensing requirements make sure you understand you know size of facility what type of license is that what's that going to look like and how are you going to move forward with that so that is the
00:11:40
type of approval you need from the state um at this point it's more of a verbal approval that yes you're good to go but you want to talk to them early on so you don't skip any steps in the process and uh you don't have any hiccups as you get closer to completing the facility and you want to start bringing residents in you want to have these conver excuse me we want to have these conversations early on as as you're getting things moving now let's talk about some of the partners some of the different people
00:12:08
that you're going to want to involve as you start building from the ground up one is I mentioned these a little bit already Architects engineers and contractors so the architect and engineer these are very much upfront and what I've learned here um I talked about this in a previous video through my grant the the million-dollar grant that I have that is all about doing renovations on our fa faity working with engineers and Architects up front is going to make the process go so much more smoothly often times they'll handle
00:12:37
the permitting process for you or a contractor will actually they're they're going to build the blueprints they're going to walk the property they're going to make sure everything's good they're going to do all the math for you you don't have to worry about that you are going to pay a good chunk of money for you to have to do this though um our home um I mean luckily this is covered in our grant but it's costing us between 90 and $100,000 for all of the architectural stuff and
00:13:02
the plans and the blueprints and everything in our home now granted our home was actually built in the 1890s and that is not me like missing something there um it was built in the 1890s it's an old home it's a really cool property um it's a lot of fun to go and look at and things like that but it is old and it needs some updates so that could be part of the reason why it's higher cost is because it's an existing structure it needs uh we have to adjust for things it's old
00:13:30
um so that's that's something to take into consideration but expect to pay a good chunk of money for Architects and Engineers um as you're going through this and then contractors as well a lot of contractors will they'll do the work you get a good general contractor they will charge a percent of the amount of of money um that you are using for the construction so this could be you know 10% uh of of a project so if the full build of the house is 5 100,000 of the structure it's 500,000 10% is 50,000 so
00:14:04
that's what you're going to pay the general contractor for kind of just managing that project now I know there's a lot of you out there I actually have had a lot of conversations with those of you that are kind of in this world that are General Contractors that have the experience with building and things like that um you know keep me honest here go ahead and and comment down below what that looks like but if that's you and you're a general contractor then you know you can save yourself a little bit
00:14:27
of money there um in the way that you're going to build this out um so but that's that's something for you to be aware of you want to involve these people you want to have these Partners have them work with you to get a home that is going to be up to standards and um is going to make sure that's going through the the right permitting processes and everything that you need to do to make sure that you're you have a home that can get licensed and can function as it is intended for an assisted living
00:14:53
facility those are the partners that you want to be involved with now let's talk about starting construction on this home so when you are doing the construction here on the home You' got to again make sure zoning is in place and I've talked about this I think on three of the slides it's because it's extremely important you cannot if you do this without adjusting the zoning or looking at the zoning you could build a home you could build a facility you could get it done and then you go to the State uh you
00:15:22
try to say you're doing assisted living and they say no this is an industrial area or this is a residential single family home this is town home area um you want to make sure you avoid that so absolutely every single time check with zoning make sure you get that thing um set up so that you are confident that everything's going to go well there you have to go through the permitting process as well before you begin the construction get the permits don't I know you're chomping at the bit
00:15:50
I know you want to do that I know you want to build this thing you want it to be cool uh and you're just so excited do not start anything until you have those permits in place um or else you could just run the risk of getting big fines or having the project be completely shut down um make sure that the permits are in place make sure you have drawings uh of what you want to look what you want this facility to look like um this could be you know starting out just get some scratch paper uh some
00:16:17
graph paper and draw out exactly what it's going to look like hand that off to your Architects uh to the engineers have them create the blueprints make sure that it has everything that you need inside of the house um make sure that that thing is going to to meet meet the needs of the residents and the requirements um of of an assisted living facility this is where fgi actually works really well um is it's going to to help out in in just making sure everything comes into place so even if
00:16:44
it's not required by your state I still highly recommend that um you're going to get your your drawings are going to match it's going to be it's going to work really well that way once you have all that done then you can start you can start the building you want to you know start with your family dig the hole start the foundation build up um and make sure you have everything and then get all the the nice things that you want to put into the home um but that's the process you're going to go through
00:17:09
now let's talk and all of this stuff well the majority of it except for the talking to the state those are phase two activities that I teach in the Assisted Living Mastermind program if you want to apply to that go to Alim mastermind.com application and you can go ahead and and do that you know free I I look at where you're at in the process and then um you know if it's it's a good fit then I'm going to tell you yes you know I approved it and then from there you can decide if you want to join or not so
00:17:36
it's a no obligation application process but what to would love to see if it's if it's a good fit for you or not um now let's get into this this is a phase four Pro uh type of thing inside of the program getting the license so in here what you're going to do is you're going to talk to the state early on I mentioned this you know a few minutes ago but you have to reach out to the state you have to have these convers ation early on and make sure that things are are going to run as smoothly as you
00:18:04
would like them to um if you do not talk to the state you run the risk of there being delays um or not even getting the approvals that you need um so have these conversations early have frequent conversations with them and just make sure that they are aware that you are doing this and that you're committed to doing it so that as soon as construction's done you open up your doors you have your open house you're licensed you can bring people into the facility that's what you want to do you
00:18:30
want to make sure this all runs very smoothly now as I mentioned you want to communicate all this to the state as you're doing construction just keep them updated um just reach out to them periodically it doesn't need to be like a formal thing or anything like that um you know just hey we we we put up the roof today we're working on the electrical we're um you know we're doing the four-way inspection just little tiny things every three to eight weeks um depending on how long
00:18:57
your Project's going to take and just keep them a breast of what's going on so they know and and they can anticipate things are are moving along and they may need to come do some inspections at some point as well um so it's just going to leave the door open to communication it's going to benefit you quite a bit as you move things along you also are going to want to be working on your application um to get your license so this is going to be including your policies and procedures
00:19:25
you want to be building that or paying somebody to build that um so that you have the policies and procedures in place you want to fill out the application that they have um you want to start just getting really familiar with those rules and regulations um probably hiring the right people as well um if if you're going to do this and you're you don't want to do all of the work making sure that you're bringing people through that process there as well so this is the licensing process
00:19:48
while it is a phase four activity um it goes hand inand and is done in tandem with a phase two activity this is a lot of what I teach people phase two three and four they kind of get bundled all together uh talking to different people but doing a lot of this work at the same time so that is why you want to get the license now if you have any questions please go ahead and type those in um here I'm going to switch my screen over so I can see the questions um as as we get into this but go ahead and type
00:20:16
those in while you are typing want to remind you to like the video subscribe and ring the bell as well so you get notified every time we do these lives we go live on Tuesday we put out content on Thursdays we're on the Facebook group um just all over the place so make sure that you are getting all of that and want to remind you to check out The Mastermind program um you can do that at assisted Liv investing. netmaster or do the application at Alim mastermind.com application and that will get you over
00:20:42
there as well so go check out those resources and grab the free business plan checklist here um that's scrolling down and that will help you along your your journey there as well so uh I have a few comments on here um thank you um te tea I I I I I love that people get on here but then you guys have handles and I like I don't know how to say the name so thanks for being here um thanks for commenting administrator thanks for being on here when I said that uh really super interested to hear who uh wants to
00:21:12
learn a little bit more about the the story that that we went through here with our administrator um and and the hiring process that we just went through so if that is you um cop comment job down below um so I know you know that it's something you want to see and we'll we'll do that for a future video here as well so um if there are no other questions I'm going to kind of do the the close out here but if you're those of you that are here live and I see they've got a handful of them um I will
00:21:38
you know give you some time here at the very end to to just finish typing out your questions so go ahead and and do that I want to thank everybody for watching thank you for for being here I love uh getting on here and helping people um and and pointing them in the right direction giving them the information they need so they can be successful um go grab the free resource Assisted Living investing. net slbp checklist I'll make sure you grab that it's going to help you out along the way and you know does residential Assisted
00:22:05
Living sound interesting to you uh but you just don't know how to get started at Assisted Living investing. net I'm here to help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months I love coaching people love helping people through this process and bringing them all the way through um it's it's super rewarding for me and the impact that I know that you are going to have on your communities and your family it just I love it so uh super excited to to work with those of you that are in
00:22:31
that position and ready to move forward um so come check check out the website and let's move forward um I have a comment here business plan uh template is working well for us thank you yes thanks uh I think this is laan so thanks Lan appreciate you being on here live and glad that that template is working out for you um you can get that um by going to Assisted Living investing. net um BPG for the business planning guide um we have the business plan template in there goes deep in the calculator the
00:22:59
calculator I give away for free but if you want a course that kind of goes through how to dive into that plus market research guide um which is really valuable and we're actually updating that right now uh just looked at a draft of it yesterday um one of my assistants is helping out and we're gonna have our new top 10 list of states uh for where I recommend that you uh look at plus a deep dive on the different markets in those States so those that already have the business planning guide you're going
00:23:23
to get an updated version of that um but if you uh you know if you want that then go check that out um go grab that and you'll get the the updated version as soon as it's available um so excited to to bring that through for everybody but I want to thank you again for being here thanks for watching and we will talk to you next week thanks everybody chat soon
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