Do You Need an Attorney for Your Assisted Living License?
Jul 09, 2025
One big question we hear a lot is:
๐ “Do I need an attorney to help me get licensed?”
Let’s break this down in a super simple way so you can feel confident and clear on your next step.
Check out this video, too:
Why This Matters
Getting your license is one of the first and most important steps in starting your assisted living home.
But here’s the deal: most people overcomplicate this part. You don’t need a law degree or a big budget to get it done. You just need the right info.
What Is a Facility License?
Before we talk attorneys, let’s get clear on what kind of license we’re even talking about. There are a few:
โ
Care Home – Basic level. Usually 4–6 residents.
โ
Residential Assisted Living (RAL) – Most homes we talk about at Assisted Living Investing. Usually 6–20 residents.
โ
Assisted Living Facility – Bigger, more commercial. 20+ residents.
โ
Other Types – Memory care, mental health, sober living, etc.
All of these fall under your state’s health department (or something similar). And all require a similar application and inspection process.
What’s in the Application?
Every state is different, but here’s what most applications include:
๐ Basic info (your name, location, contact details)
๐ก How many residents you’ll have
๐ฅ What kind of people you’ll serve
๐ Your policies and procedures (more on that below)
๐ฅ Proof of inspections (fire marshal, zoning, maybe health department)
Most applications are 3–10 pages long and have a lot of crossover with funding applications. So the work you do here can help when applying for SBA loans too (or vice versa).
Don’t Forget the Policies & Procedures
This is the biggest part of your licensing packet.
You’ll need a detailed policy and procedure manual — usually 200–300 pages long — that shows how you’ll run your home.
Examples include:
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How you’ll handle medications
-
What happens during an emergency
-
Even weird stuff like how you deal with cleaning up vomit (seriously!)
These policies must match state regulations and even cite the laws or statutes you're following. You can get this info from your health department or someone like me who’s done it before.
So... Do You Need an Attorney?
Here’s the honest truth: NO, you do not need an attorney to complete your assisted living license application.
You might want one to:
โ Review your policies and procedures
โ Answer a weird question on the form
โ Double-check for peace of mind
But most of the info? It’s stuff you already know — your name, your home, your residents.
When Should You Use an Attorney?
There are two smart times to use a lawyer:
-
โ Setting up your legal entity (LLC, S-corp, etc.)
-
โ Creating lease or purchase agreements for your home
But for licensing? Save your money. You can do this on your own, or get help from a coach like me.
Take Action Now
๐ฏ Want to build your business plan with confidence?
Download the free Business Plan Checklist to make sure you’re on track from day one.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript ๐
Transcript
00:00:03 - 00:00:55
hey friend it is Brandon Gustafson with Assisted Living investing excited to have you here on the Channel with me today we're going to be talking a little bit about let me grab my uh microphone here uh we're going to be talking a little bit about do you need an attorney to help you out through the licensing application process saw this question on a few different Facebook groups and I thought I'm going to do a quick video on it uh and kind of help you out through the process before we jump into that
00:00:29 - 00:01:30
though make sure you go over to the website if you have not already and under and download the free underwriting calculator we'll have a ticker here across the the bottom of the video as we go through things today uh but Assisted Living investing. net calculat is where you're going to be able to get that get access to that calculator now let's uh jump over here to our screen and uh we're going to talk again do you need an attorney to obtain your facility license while you're kind of getting up and
00:00:59 - 00:02:04
running uh as you go through the process there oh sorry trying to figure out hot Keys here okay so my background uh if you've not watched any of my videos before uh my name is Brandon guson I own and operate two assisted living facilities I operate them out of state and uh kind of go through that process I I I started this in 2020 have have learned the process documented the process and uh created the channel to help people like you learn the ins and outs of investing in assistant living so that's what we're here to do and help
00:01:32 - 00:02:41
you out through the process if you're here live I'd love to hear from you uh make sure you comment down below newbie if you are new and if you are a seasoned operator but you're kind of looking to to do something like this um for the first time then uh comment operator I would love to to see what uh who who's here watching the video with us today so what is a facility license let's start there so really there are two types of licenses or there's a few different types of licenses that you need to be aware of one is a care home
00:02:07 - 00:02:57
so a care home is the most basic and I've got a few videos that are going to be coming out here in the next few weeks around Care Homes and what they are how they work so make sure that you subscribe to the channel and ring the bell so you get notified when those things come up on on the channel um so you can kind of get a better overview of exactly what a care home is but there's a care home which is the basic level um typically up to four to six residents that you're going to have a residential
00:02:32 - 00:03:28
Assisted Living which is if you're watching this channel you've probably heard of that but that is uh also a residential home but it's licensed for more residents up to 16 to 20 depends on the state where you're at and then above that you you've got an assisted living facility uh which is kind of the more commercial one that a lot of people the the general public is going to think of and these are houses or really larger facilities that are going to have you know multiple people that are uh there
00:03:00 - 00:04:04
and and and kind of working you know being served 20 plus people is how many are going to be there working or residing at that type of a facility there's different classifications of facility uh different types of um services that you would be rendering to different types of people you could have memory care you could have just kind of standard um Assisted Living uh you can get into going into skilled nursing which is just another one beyond that um and you could have lower levels of care like Independent Living you could be
00:03:32 - 00:04:27
doing something like what I do where I serve a population that deals with mental health uh you could be doing sober ling a lot of these different types of licenses actually kind of fall under the same umbrella they're they're going to be typically the same application you just are checking a few different boxes as you go through the process of filling out that application so that's something you just kind of want to be aware of as you get into this the application process itself it's there's a lot there um there's a lot
00:03:59 - 00:04:53
that you are going to be working on and going through but it's going to be relatively similar regardless of the level of care and the type of care that you are providing you're just going to be putting that different type of information there on the application and you're going to be working with the health department as you work on your application you're going to be working with them uh that's the person that you're going to be talking with the most and who you're going to be submitting that into so that you can obtain your
00:04:26 - 00:05:21
license so the application process what does it look like there are there's a form or multiple forms that you're going to have to fill out they are going to be canned forms for your state but they will be different for each state a lot of the same questions and the nice thing about this is if you are working to get funding it's a lot of the same questions it's going to be on a different form but the questions that the state is asking you to obtain your license and the questions that a bank would be asking
00:04:54 - 00:05:50
you to fill out so you can get um financing from them there's going to be a lot of crossover there and a lot of uh the the same type of information that you're going to be answering so that's that's kind of a nice thing that you're going to be able to to do that uh with as you work on filling out those forms they uh I would say I've seen them from like three to 10 pages it really is going to depend on which uh how long the form is what your state has and the type of information uh different types of
00:05:22 - 00:06:14
facilities or different types of people that you might be servicing might have different addendums to those application forms but generally looking at a 3 to 10 page thing kind of basic information that you're going to be filling out uh when you go through that process there are a couple of things that you're going to have to do though when you are in addition to filling out forms there's going to be an inspection that you're going to have to have and typically that's going to come from uh somebody at
00:05:48 - 00:06:48
the city uh so it could be somebody with the the city zoning and planning department or you could be having the Fire Marshall come out and look at the house or both uh but what basically what the health department wants to see in this application is that the house is functional can function as an assisted living facility as a assisted living home as a care home it's going to have that information uh they're going to be looking for that through those inspections and that's kind of their way of doing it you may have the health
00:06:18 - 00:07:16
department go out and look at the house I haven't experienced that but I do I've heard of people that have had the health department come out and also do an inspection on the house so you might have a few different inspections that come out and then you would just be taking that inspection report and handing it off to the health department in addition to your forms and then the other big one with this and if you have been researching assisted living for any length of time you have heard of policies and procedures uh this is the
00:06:47 - 00:07:49
your book of policies and procedures the things that you're going to follow as you are up and running your facility so you're going to be uh handing all of that information creating all of this and it's going to be aund you know two 300 Page um document book that says this is what we're going to do in this situation this is what we're going to do in that situation I did a video um a few weeks ago about an inspection that we had at the state where they wanted our policy on how we dealt with um human
00:07:18 - 00:08:14
waste so basically if somebody vomited how are we going to handle that and it was not a policy that we had in place at the time so I had to quickly go in and adjust it um and use CH GPT to help generate uh a policy for it but those policies and procedures you're going to have to hand those into the state as a part of your application process and they need to adhere to the different state regulations that that are going to exist as well so there's there's going to be a a huge list and you could talk
00:07:46 - 00:08:42
to the health department for this but it's going to be you know a 20page document with each statute um that that the state has that you need to follow and there's a lot of federal regulations there as well you need your policy to be written to address address that statute and then reference that statute as well so in in my course uh we're going to be talking about that a lot so if you haven't already get over to the website assist living investing. net scroll down and get on the waiting list for the
00:08:14 - 00:09:09
accelerator course because that's something that we're going to talk a little bit about in there and how to build out those policies and procedures and help you out through the process help you out through your journey to starting your own uh assisted living and get you on the path to ownership we'll be releasing that hopefully here in a couple months I'm thinking in January so get on the wait list now and you'll get a special um offer that will come out through that as well now let's talk about do you need an attorney that's the
00:08:42 - 00:09:41
topic of the video and the answer to that is no you really don't need an attorney um I would say you could consider having them go in and review your application maybe review your policies and procedures if you really wanted to just to see if there's any concerns you need to be aware of or as you're going through that app application that form and you're like oh that that's kind of a weird question what does that mean go ahead and talk to an attorney but you can fill this out it's a lot of kind of basic information
00:09:11 - 00:10:06
um that an attorney isn't going to know you're the one that's going to Know It uh it's going to you know your information your contact information where the house is going to be um what population you're going to be serving how you're going to be doing that how many residents you're going to have in the house um those are some of the questions that you're going to be asking through that application and there's not really a need for an attorney to get involved as you are working on that application uh what I would say is you
00:09:38 - 00:10:35
would probably want to engage an attorney as you are setting up your business your legal entity you might consider I highly suggest that you do that um to make sure you have the correct um business structure in place whether it's an LLC a sole proprietorship um and I can't remember I've recorded a video for this I don't know if it's released on the channel yet or not uh around llc's versus Soul prom I think I just recorded it so it'll come out here um in the next few weeks so subscribe if you're interested in
00:10:07 - 00:10:56
learning a little bit more about that and how it is relevant to the Assisted Living World um that's going to kind of help you out through through that process as well so I would engage an attorney for that but fulfilling out your application uh getting your license in place I don't think you need to talk to an attorney for that uh I think you can do it by yourself or you could engage if if you're just kind of confused you don't know how to do it and you're not sure how to answer the questions you want to make sure it's
00:10:31 - 00:11:24
it's done correctly then talk to somebody like me that can kind of coach you through that process uh if you get over again to the website Assisted Living investing. net you can apply you can apply for a mentorship uh just scroll down there on the website and fill out that mentorship application and then we can do a free Discovery call I can do a couple of calls for free do a little bit of coaching with you before we ever start working on anything just to make sure it's a gift it and then um it's totally up to you if you want to
00:10:58 - 00:11:57
work with me or not so if you're interested in in that type of of an arrangement then get over to the website and uh fill out that mentorship application and we'll go from there as well now let's talk a little bit about what else you need to to be aware of so you're likely going to need to have possession of the house before the application now that doesn't mean that you have to own the house necessarily it just means that you're going to need to be able to get in and access the house so if you are leasing from somebody
00:11:28 - 00:12:29
you're going to need to talk to that landlord and say hey I need to fill out the application so that I can start operating here at the facility at at your house start operating my facility at your home um I but I in order to do that I need to have uh somebody come in and do an inspection on it just to make sure everything is up to date um can we coordinate that if you are looking to buy an existing home uh you know looking to actually purchase one and do a conversion or you're looking to purchase
00:11:58 - 00:13:02
an existing facility and and take over operations for that you're going to work with the the person that you're purchasing the the house from and make sure you have those proper inspections so you don't have to actually own the house in fact I would encourage you to um do all of this before you own the house but you are going to need to have access to the house so you can have the proper inspections on the house before you do that cuz the the thing you do not want to happen is to go and buy the
00:12:30 - 00:13:26
house and and then start talking with the city zoning and planning to make sure that you're zoned correctly and can do things and then you find out that uh there's some huge waiting list some some big problem for why you can't res Zone it and now you're you're you have all these dreams to start an assisted living house and they get squashed because it's impossible for you to do the Zoning for the house you want to make sure that you are doing this properly that's the first step that you need to do is talk figure
00:12:59 - 00:13:56
out what zoning requirements are where you want to be operating your your facility operating your home and and make sure you get all of that in place so that's that's a huge one that you need to do um before you kind of get started on this and then as you go through that you just need to recognize that they may come back to you with questions as you are going through the application process as you fill out your policies and procedures they're going to ask you to clarify things they're going to tell you especially with your
00:13:27 - 00:14:20
policies and procedures uh that doesn't work we need to adjust it here uh in Idaho we had to do this back and forth with them about three times and it got to the point where I had a handful left and I just wasn't sure what they wanted and so I got on the phone with them for probably two hours and we just hammered it out together and got the policies and procedures where it needed to be uh which was excellent um just so appreciative of the the people in Idaho for helping me out with that and going
00:13:54 - 00:14:47
through that process but uh it's just something you just need to to recognize that it's okay if they come back to you with questions or need more information and need to get more you know help you out through that process uh they want to make sure that you're successful I've talked about this several times as well um they don't want you to fail they want to have you uh they they want to help you out through the process so make sure you are just expecting that those conversations are going to happen and
00:14:20 - 00:15:12
then be receptive to those conversations as well um if you are here live I'd love to hear if you have any questions so make sure you chat those down below will'll answer those before we head out uh if you are not subscribed to the channel make sure you subscribe and ring the bell we're going to be doing these live sessions going forward uh Tuesdays around this time is when I'm hoping to to do that going forward I think it's a good time that works for me and then I can be pretty consistent with getting
00:14:47 - 00:15:45
these lives out so like the video subscribe and ring the bell so you get notified when we get more of that information out um here on on the channel and if you are a newbie here type newbie comment newbie down below and if you are a seasoned Operator just type in I operator down below there as well want to thank you for being here with me on on our live session today uh I love doing these and excited to see where we grow together and how I can help you out through the process does residential Assisted Living sound
00:15:16 - 00:15:50
interesting to you but you don't know how to get started at residential assisted living or at Assisted Living investing. net we are here to help you through the process start to finish one thank you again for watching uh hope you have a great Tuesday and we will talk to you next time thanks for watching and have a great day
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