Discover the BEST Assisted Living Home Renovation Secrets!
Oct 24, 2025
Starting an assisted living business means making a home safe and comfy. Renovations come up a lot. Whether you buy, lease, or build new, you will likely need to do some work. This guide shows the top renovation tips to save time, money, and stress. Let’s dive in! π
Check out this video, too:
Lease vs Own: the first big choice
If you lease, talk to the landlord first.
If you own, you can move faster.
Be careful: Do not just go and willy-nilly … without notifying the landlord.
Get approval. Always put changes in writing. This keeps deals from falling through. β
Plan for renovations (they are normal)
Most homes need work. Even homes that were used as care homes before often need updates. I've had experiences where it was a small $5,000 fix to an existing facility we purchased, and I've had other projects take weeks, requiring the residents to move out while the work happened.
How long will it take?
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Small fixes: days to weeks.
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Big changes (doors, ramps, sprinkler systems): weeks to months.
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New builds or big permits: could take close to a year (or more).
Plan more time than you think. It usually takes longer than you want.
Talk to the fire department early
A key tip: You should have conversations with the fire department early on in this process.
They will tell you what the house must have. Ask them early and often. This saves rework.
What fire inspectors check:
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Do you need a fire suppression system?
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Where are exit routes and egress points?
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Do hallways and doors meet rules?
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Are stairs ok for the selected group of residents?
A fire inspector will give you a list of things to fix. Treat that list as your to-do list. π₯β‘οΈπ
Fire suppression note: This renovation may be your biggest cost. In some homes you only need fire extinguishers. In others you may need a full sprinkler system. Learn what your local code requires.
Permit the work — always
You absolutely should be permitting your work.
Permit your big changes. Why?
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Permits keep you legal.
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Permits make future sales easier.
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Inspectors expect permitted work for licensing.
If work was done without permits before, expect extra inspections. That can slow down your license. Getting a permit is worth the small cost and time.
Zoning and approvals: don’t skip them
Before you sign or buy, check zoning rules. Ask if the area allows for assisted living use. If zoning and fire approval are not in place, you cannot move forward.
Two must-haves before big spending:
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Fire approval.
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Proper zoning.
If either is missing, stop until you fix it.
Start your licensing application early
A smart move: You should be starting the application process early even if your house is not ready.
Why start early?
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The licensing team may tell you what’s missing.
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You get in the review queue. That cuts wait time later in the process.
Expect possible denials at first. That feedback helps you fix issues faster.
Certificate of Occupancy (CO) & final checks
Your short-term goal is often a Certificate of Occupancy or similar paper. This shows the place meets safety rules and is fit for care.
Getting the CO means you can finish licensing and open your home to residents.
Renovation tips that save money & time
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Ask the right questions to fire and building officials early.
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Buy heavy-duty gear for big tasks (like commercial washers). They last longer.
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Use a checklist for each permit and inspection.
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Move residents only when needed. Short moves for big work can be faster.
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Document everything: contracts, permits, receipts, inspections.
Small spending now can avoid big costs later.
Final checklist before you renovate
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Talk with the fire department.
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Confirm zoning allows assisted living.
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Permit required work.
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Start the licensing application early.
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Plan for timelines and backup housing if needed.
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Keep good records.
Want help launching your assisted living business?
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Download the free Business Plan Checklist to build a strong foundation.
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Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript π
Transcript
00:00:06
Hey friend, it's Brandon Gustafson. Welcome to Assisted Living Investing. I help beginners like you launch their assisted living business in the next 12 months. In today's video, we are talking about some of the best assisted living home renovation secrets that you need to worry or that you need to be aware of. I guess you could worry about them as well. But super excited to get into this topic for you. This was actually a comment that somebody put on YouTube.
00:00:30
recently and wanted to make sure we got an answer to that person helping them out along their path, along their journey. They're trying to launch their own assisted living business because I've been there. I know how hard it is and how difficult it can be to
00:00:46
to really move things along. So while I'm getting things up, I want to remind you that I have a book for sale. You can go grab that at thealibook.com. Here's the book right there. Make sure you go check that out, thealibook.com. That'll take you to the website so you can go ahead and get that and move things along. We're doing a special promotion on that right now. So if you are not on our email list, make sure you go and check
00:01:14
Grab one of our free resources at assistedlivinginvesting.net and you can get access to that as you are trying to launch your assisted living business. That's what I'm here to do is help you do that. Our book is called The Profitable Assisted Living Business.
00:01:30
facility and would love to help you out as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. We'll have the links for that down below as well on the video here on YouTube. And for those that are interested in getting that on Facebook, just type in book down below. We'll make sure we get to the link for that as well as you're trying to move things forward. So
00:01:51
With that, I think I got everything all set up here on Facebook. Facebook is the hard one for me to get on there for whatever reason. If not, we'll get it on there later. Anyways, let's hop into our topic for today.
00:02:11
Let's talk about it. So I kind of have a different setup here with the way that I'm doing YouTube now. So this is my first video this way. We'll see how this goes and make sure that we get the adjustments here. But we're going to be talking today about discovering the best assisted living home renovation secrets to help you along your path. And let's let's talk about number one.
00:02:35
I want to tell you a little bit about leasing versus owning. So when it comes to this point, I've worked with a lot of people as they're trying to launch their assisted living business. And what I've seen to be very consistent throughout the process of doing this is
00:02:51
It doesn't matter if you're buying a house. It doesn't matter if you're buying an existing facility, honestly, or if you're leasing or if you're building from the ground up. Obviously, there's a lot of construction involved there. It doesn't matter which of these routes that you go. There will more than likely be some kind of renovation. We bought a house in Idaho that was an existing facility, and we still had to do a $5,000 renovation on it.
00:03:15
So renovations are very common when you're buying these types of houses. Now, if you're going to buy a home, a single family home, and you're going to convert it into assisted living, you might see that you've got a few extra types of renovations you've got to do. Same with a lease. If it has not been a home that has been assisted living in the past, there's going to be more roadblocks. There's going to be more
00:03:41
Just things that are coming up that are that are making it a little bit easier for that are making it a little bit more difficult for you to to get your home license. And so renovations are going to be key. Now, if you're going the leasing route, you do need to make sure that you are working with the landlord. Do not just go and willy nilly.
00:04:02
Oh, you know, I know I got to make these renovations and go do that without notifying the landlord that could put you in a really bad spot. So make sure that you are talking to the landlord that you're getting approvals and that's going to to bode well for you as you try to move things forward. OK, so you need to be making sure you get landlord approval. If you own the home, you don't need to do that. You get to do this by yourself. So that's totally up to you. You get to choose what you want to do, which is great.
00:04:29
But the chances of you needing to renovate a home, I would say, are are pretty high. I would say it's very likely that you're going to need to be renovating the home as you go through this. OK, so let's talk about how long you need to be waiting on some of this. And the reality is that it's going to depend on the renovations. So I was talking with somebody. I'm going to really quickly. OK, we're going to talk about fire department next.
00:04:59
But I was talking with somebody through comments on the Facebook page on the YouTube channel. Sorry. And something that we that we landed on is, you know, you want to be having conversations with the fire department early on in this process because they can hold you up and they're going to tell you the things that you need to do. We'll talk about that here in just a second.
00:05:23
But the length of time that it's going to take you to do the renovations, it really does depend on what types of renovations you need to do in the home. So if you just need to do little things like I was looking at a home a few years ago in Riverton, Utah, the home from a renovation standpoint actually didn't need a lot that needed to be done on it. But we did need to do some type of fire suppression. But in this instance, we didn't have to do sprinkler system or anything like that.
00:05:50
We just had to get fire extinguishers. Now that's, that's simple. You know, go buy fire extinguishers. You need to make sure that they're fully charged, that you have a process in place that's going to allow you to, to make sure that it is that they're maintained correctly, that they're recharged, that they're serviced properly. So you do need to make sure that you're doing those things with it, but it's very easy to go to Walmart or go to a,
00:06:16
a local, there, there are stores that kind of like a plumbing store or there, there are stores that do help out with fire suppression. You can go to these places and when you go there, you can just ask them for fire extinguishers. They're, they're not very expensive. You can get that.
00:06:33
can mount them on the wall that's that's a very simple thing if that's all that is going to be required of you you can do that very quickly whereas if you've got to do a full fire suppression system and and you're doing um you're knocking down walls and you're widening uh doorways and and hallways and you're putting in a ramp and and you've got to adjust cabinets um to make them wheelchair accessible you know all of those things that can really um take take quite a bit of time
00:06:59
I went through a process in my facility in Colorado before we sold it, where we did a renovation. We did it pretty quick. It was about three weeks was how long we did this in. But we moved all of our residents out for three weeks. We worked on our project and it wasn't all the way done.
00:07:21
in that three week period. So you're looking, and it was a very extensive renovation on the channel. I have a video walkthrough of the house and all of the changes that we made and there's construction going on. And so it's kind of hard to hear and everything like that, but it kind of gives you an idea of what that's going to look like.
00:07:37
It can take a month, two, three, four, six months. If you're building something new, it could take you a year to get all the permits in place, so it can take you a while. Speaking of permits, you may have to wait on a permit. I would suggest, highly suggest, that you are permitting everything that you do inside of your house. Any renovations that you are trying to do inside the house, you should be permitting that. It's very important for you to do that because if you go and you decide you want to sell this house later on...
00:08:06
people will pull up records and you need to have that in place because if you are, if you're doing something and I know some of you are liking, I'll never sell this. It's going to be the thing that I do forever. 20, 30 years from now, that might not be the case. You may want to sell something. And so you need to permit everything that you do inside of the house. Otherwise it can create some really big roadblocks for you as you're trying to sell a property or
00:08:34
or if somebody were to come in and do a survey on the house and they're like, well, why do you have this certain type of hood range or something like that? Who knows what it is? You need to make sure that you are doing things by the book and following those rules. It's going to save you a lot of
00:08:50
time, stress, headaches, money down the line. It can take a little bit longer and permits can sometimes take a while to to get in place. But I highly suggest that you do that. I think it's very important for you to to make sure you're getting those types of things in place as you're going through this.
00:09:13
And the reason why, especially fire suppression is something that it's very common for you to need a fire suppression system in your home for assisted living. This is very common, especially in these smaller facilities, larger facilities for sure, smaller facilities still going to be common.
00:09:29
And this can be invasive depending on the type of system that you have to put in. And that means that you've got to do... It's not just bolting sprinkler lines up into the house. You may have to be ripping out walls, which could lead to more sheet rocking. And it can be very invasive. It can take quite a bit of time. So you need to adjust for that and account for that. Not only...
00:09:56
the work, but the construction company that you're going to be working with and what their timelines look like. It can take you quite a while to get this all in place. So I would say from a timeline perspective, it's going to take anywhere from weeks to months. I don't think this is taking you years, even building from the ground up. I think you can do this in less than a year, but that's going to depend on permits.
00:10:19
But you need to realize this is not something that you're going to do within a week and have those things done. It could take you weeks, two months for this to get in place and for you to have everything that you need to have in place. So that's how long I would say you should be planning on this taking.
00:10:37
Now, let's talk about the fire department. And this was specific, the question that this person specifically had, should you be talking to the fire department early on in the process? And I would absolutely talk to them first. Now, if you're buying a house or you're looking to lease, this can be a little bit of a weird situation.
00:10:58
So if you're going to lease, I would make sure that the landlord, number one, knows that you are going to be doing assisted living. And then I would have a conversation with them and say, I need to have the fire department come out and do an inspection on the home because I need to know what types of renovations we might need to do to get this thing compliant. A good landlord should be like, okay, that makes sense. They may have some follow-up questions for you, but it shouldn't be a big deal.
00:11:21
Now, if you're going to buy a home, the chances of you being able to bring a member of the fire department through the house with you on a walkthrough and do the type of inspection you need, I would say, is probably not going to happen. But what you could do is during that due diligence phase, you can have that be one of the inspections that you have. You could even write into your contract that,
00:11:44
When you go under contract that you that that approval that your that your ability and willingness to move forward with the purchase of the home is contingent on the fire department going and and looking at the house and doing an inspection.
00:12:00
to tell you what needs to happen so you can turn this into an assisted living. There's probably a better way to say that. That's something you should work with your broker or your agent on, but you should be able to write something into your contract that's going to give you that type of... just help you out through that process and give you that amount of leeway as you're trying to figure out how to do this. So I would talk to them first, talk to them early, talk to them often. It is...
00:12:27
It's going to be required for you if you're going to turn this into assisted living. So you need to make sure that you do that. You want to ask them. You can look up a lot of this information online, but I would ask them when they're going through and they're doing the inspections.
00:12:42
You want to look this up online so that you know what questions to ask, but you need to know what is required. Do you need a fire suppression system? Do you need egress points? Do hallways need to be wider doorways? Do you need wheelchair accessibility? What types of things do you need to have in the house? I would get very familiar with local rules and regulations when they're coming through. You want to be asking them those types of questions. So it's pointing them to the right direction because what you really don't want to have happen is you have an initial fire inspection. They say, yeah, you need to do these things.
00:13:11
You do those things, and then you have your final inspection, and then they say, well, why didn't you do X, Y, Z? And you're like, well, you didn't tell me. That's not their fault, unfortunately. You will not get approved. You need to have that conversation very early, very often to figure out exactly what is required as you're going through this.
00:13:32
What's more important from this, from the inspection with the fire department, not only are they going to tell you what you need to do, but they will tell you what you should not do. So if you had an idea like, oh yeah, we're going to, that wall right there, we're going to knock it out so we can create those two bedrooms. We're going to make them into one big bedroom or two.
00:13:50
We have these in our basement. We've got two bedroom and a really nice big living space. And we want to turn that into four or five bedrooms. They will tell you in that conversation if you can or cannot do it. What about stairs? Can you have people going up and down the stairs? What type of population are you going to work with? They're going to be able to answer those types of questions for you.
00:14:11
So they will give you I like to call it a punch list. They will not call that. But they will give you a list of these are the things you need to do to have it ready. You can ask them questions. Do I need to do X, Y, Z? And I'll tell you yes or no. So you can do that. And the big one is, again, fire suppression.
00:14:30
I talk about fire suppression all the time because it is the biggest expense when it comes to starting an assisted living business. It's going to be the most costly renovation you have to do. It's going to probably be the most time-consuming renovation. There can be a lot of things that go into it, especially if you're not near a water main.
00:14:50
or a fire hydrant where they can pull that water from. It can cause a whole lot of issues. So you need to just be aware of that. And this is where you're going to get clarity on that. And like I mentioned, not every house is going to require a fire suppression system. I have looked at homes to turn into assisted living where the requirement was simply fire extinguishers. There were a list of other types of renovations we needed to do on the house. But from a fire suppression standpoint, that was not a big concern.
00:15:18
But you are going to want to have that conversation very early on in the process and figure out if that's something that you need, how much is that going to cost? Now, if you're going to go with a lease and you're going to lease from somebody, that's another conversation you need to be having with a landlord.
00:15:33
landlords may not be excited about a fire suppression system getting installed, and so that could kill a deal. They also may or may not be willing to help out with the installation of that, which means you could be caught holding the bag and needing to do the renovations yourself. So that's something that I want you to be aware of, that you need to just kind of work through this and have those conversations with the fire department.
00:15:57
Have that conversation early, as early as you possibly can. You want to make sure you have that conversation. You also want to be checking on zoning. Those two things before you move forward with a house. You need to have zoning in place and you need to have that fire approval in place. Very, very important for you to do that. I'm going to go back to permitting really quick. You absolutely should be permitting your work. It's super important for you to do that.
00:16:22
It will, if you don't have it, I would say chances of you getting a facility license, I would say it reduces that. It doesn't mean you absolutely can't get a license. And if you're buying an existing home or an existing facility and they did not do work that was permitted,
00:16:41
It's just going to require some extra inspections is what is what's going to happen. It can just delay the process. So this is why you should be permitting everything that you do for when you eventually sell the facility. You want to have those permits in place. It excuse me. So it's something that you'll need to do.
00:17:06
And I say that it can delay your facility license because one of the big things with your licensing when you're working with the state is it has to be a safe environment for the residents. It has to be safe and it has to be able to meet their needs, meet their care needs. And so if things are not permitted, then that can raise red flags in people's mind. What's going on? Why is this shady? Why are they not permitting these things? And so you just want to have those things in place.
00:17:35
It can also delay because you need, I mentioned selling the house. And so you want to have these things done. You want to have it in place. It's going to make your life a whole lot easier. So please, please permit any work that you do on the house. Confirm, it may be possible you do not need to permit some of the work, but anything that would require a permit, you should permit it. It's going to be some extra fees for you, possibly take a little bit of extra time, but it will make your life a whole lot easier as you go through this process.
00:18:06
Now, let's talk about the licensing application and how how this kind of all ties together here. So specifically with the house. So right now we're talking about the facility license and how that all is going to play into this. So.
00:18:22
When you are doing your licensing application, I would suggest that you start that process early. I was watching a video by Serge Lepesque, who does assisted living stuff as well. He's a great guy, a friend of mine who we looked at doing some deals with a few years ago.
00:18:39
And he said something that I thought was incredible. So I'm going to give him 100% credit on this. He mentioned that you should be starting the application process early, even if your house is not ready, fully expecting that you will get denied, they will be told no.
00:18:54
But that's good for two reasons. One, it tells you the things that you are missing as you're going through the application process, which is really important. And number two, it gets you in queue. It's a lot easier to be in a queue where they've reviewed it already and they say, no, we need X, Y, Z things from you. And then you just supply that and then you just jump back to the front of line because you already waited as opposed to trying to get everything done and then submitting it and then waiting in line again. And then...
00:19:23
You may still have to make other renovations and you're still kind of in hold in that queue. So you want to be doing that. I would say start as early as as is possible. If you own the home already, I would get that application. I would fill that out. I would start working on it, start working on your policies and procedures, start just submit an application and see what they come back with and say, yep, we need we need these things.
00:19:50
It's OK if it gets denied. It's not going to hurt you at all. It just helps you start having a conversation, start figuring out exactly what you need to do so that you can get your facility license. So it's very important for you to do that. Now, your desired outcome with all of this, the entire process that you're going through here when it comes to renovations is to get approvals. Make sure it's permitted. Make sure you have the fire department approved going through all this, that you've talked to zoning, everything's approved there.
00:20:16
And then ultimately that you can get your facility license approved as well. So approvals are key in what you want to be doing. A more kind of short-term piece of this and getting your facility license is you need to get a certificate of occupancy, maybe called something different in your state, but it basically says,
00:20:33
This home has been looked at for assisted living for this type of use and they have done everything that they need to do to make it safe for the residents and they're able to meet the care needs of the residents. There's not going to be any problems here. They have the ability to get out if there's a fire, all those things.
00:20:51
that that's what a certificate of occupancy is if you go into fast food restaurant right somewhere near one of the doors that you go in and out of there will be something that says max occupancy 49 people or whatever it will say a thing that comes from those fire department inspections you don't need to have that sign that says max occupancy of x amount of people you don't need to have that for assisted living but the process that that a restaurant goes through
00:21:19
It's very similar to the process you're going to be going through when you are doing assisted living. So that's what you should be trying to get. That's your desired outcome as you're working through all of this and trying to get everything renovated for your assisted living facility. So that's what I got for you today. Hope you found that helpful. I have my book for you. Make sure you go and grab that.
00:21:42
thealibook.com, the profitable assisted living facility. Make sure you go grab that. It is up for sale on Amazon. Links are available for you at thealibook.com. I've been getting a lot of really good feedback from people as we just started launching this book about a week ago. So I'm super excited to get that out to you and help you out. It goes through my five phase process of launching an assisted living facility. You got to have your foundation first and you got to
00:22:11
Be looking for the perfect property. Funding is next. You got to get the capital, the funding, understanding the licensing process, and then having a strategic launch for where you want to go. It goes through that five-phase process to helping you launch your assisted living facility. So if you are interested in that, make sure you go check out the website, thealibook.com. Go grab your book.
00:22:32
you go grab your copy and get started on your path to launching your assisted living business with that i want to thank you for watching thanks for being here i appreciate it um make sure you like the video subscribe and ring the bell as well so you get notified every time we put out content like this we go live on tuesdays put out content on thursdays we've got shorts going on all week long
00:22:50
Putting stuff in Facebook and just putting out a bunch of content out there to help you launch your assisted living business. I also have some really fun and exciting things coming up here in the next few weeks. So make sure you are subscribed so you see those new fun announcements that are coming. I'm really excited for it. I'm probably about a week or two out before I can like really give you all the information for it. Just kind of make sure all the links are working and everything for it.
00:23:14
But that's going to be something I'm super excited to help you out on your path and help you build a roadmap to launch your assisted living facility. Does residential assisted living sound interesting to you, but you don't know how to get started at assisted living investing? I'm here to help beginners like you launch their assisted living business in the next 12 months.
00:23:31
I love helping and coaching people. It is one of my favorite things to do. And I would love to help and coach you along your path. Go check out assistedlivinginvesting.net. And also remember, it doesn't take a lot, just a little bit, just keep going step by step by step. And I promise you, if you do, and you're consistent and persistent, you are going to be successful. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
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