Expand Your Reach: Multi-State Assisted Living Operations
Dec 05, 2024
Starting an assisted living business is super exciting! You get to help seniors and run a successful business. One big choice you'll face is whether to stay in your home state or try expanding to other states. This decision can change everything—how you run your facility, how fast you grow, and how you handle different rules.
Expanding to other states can bring lots of new chances, but it also means learning new rules, getting different licenses, and making sure the care you give stays top-notch. If you plan it out well, expanding to other states can help you reach more people and make your business stronger. Let’s explore what you need to think about before deciding!
Check out the video, too:
Why Operating Out of State Can Work
Running a facility in another state might sound hard, but it has some cool benefits. It gives you a fresh outlook on your business. Plus, when you travel for work, it becomes an adventure! Imagine checking on your facility while visiting a new city—that’s a win-win! If you have a great team and smart plans in place, you don’t need to be there every day to make it work.
The Challenge of Managing Facilities in Multiple States
Running assisted living facilities in different states can be tricky because each state has its own rules and requirements. This means you’ll have to do specific research for each state, which can feel like a lot. Sticking to one state can make things simpler. You can share resources, cut costs, and handle things faster when everything’s in one place.
Lessons from Starting Too Quickly
When you’re excited to start, it’s easy to jump at the first opportunity to open a facility. But if you don’t research the area properly, you might face higher costs, strict rules, or fewer residents than you hoped.
This happened to me when I first opened a facility in Colorado. While the facility does well now, I didn’t check everything as I should have. I didn’t dig deep into the housing market, local residents, or even the politics of the area. That experience taught me to plan better and be patient.
Here are some things to check before expanding:
- What’s the demand for assisted living in that area?
- How much does housing cost there?
- What are the local and state rules?
- Does this location fit your business goals?
Why Market Research Matters
Picking the right place is a big deal. It’s not just about finding a building that’s for sale. You should ask yourself questions like:
- Where are people retiring?
- Is the tax situation good or bad?
- Is it easy to find and keep good staff?
- Does the location fit your lifestyle and goals?
One of my favorite markets is the Boise Metro area, which includes places like Nampa. It’s slower-paced, has friendly people, and feels similar to Utah (which is where I live). Spending time there helped me realize it was the right spot to invest in.
Benefits of Staying Local in One Market
If you’re just starting out, sticking to one area can be a smart move. Here’s why:
- You can get to know local leaders and businesses better.
- You can share resources, like staff and supplies, between facilities.
- You save time and energy by not traveling all over the place.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
- Do Your Homework: Research locations that match what you want for your business.
- Visit Potential Locations: Spend time in the neighborhoods you’re considering. Chat with locals to get a feel for the area.
- Check the Demographics: Look for places with a lot of seniors who might need assisted living.
- Think Long-Term: Pick a location that gives you room to grow and open more facilities.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
To help you get started, download our Business Plan Checklist. This resource will guide you through the steps of building a solid business plan.
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
if you've been watching the channel you know that i own and operate two assisted living facilities one in colorado and one in idaho and i live in utah so i operate those out of state a question that i often get from people is if you were to start over would you do that again would you be operating in multiple states operating out of state so i want to get into that in today's video
00:00:30
Hey everybody, it's Brandon Gustafson. Welcome back to Assisted Living Investing. Today we're going to get into the topic of if I could start over again, would I operate out of state and would I operate in multiple states in doing the assisted living facilities that I have? And I kind of alluded to this in a previous video. I'll make sure I link that up above.
00:00:51
The short answer is no, I don't think I would do it that way again. I would actually be totally fine operating out of state. I don't mind operating out of state. It's actually kind of nice. I've talked about this before because it makes it so that I'm not in it every single day and I can take a step back and I can take a breath and I don't have to feel like I have to be there all the time for it to be successful because I don't. I don't have to be there. I'd probably get in the way, honestly.
00:01:21
And so having them out of state is not a problem for me, actually. I kind of enjoy it. It gives me a spot where I can go and travel and visit and be a tourist and some of those fun things. We've had a lot of really fun family trips by going and visiting our assisted living facilities. So I would definitely...
00:01:40
invest out of state again. I absolutely would do that and would love to continue looking at investing out of state. What I don't think I would do is operate in different, multiple different states, especially this early on in my journey of operating facilities. I think I would have adjusted that quite a bit and would have just went ahead and done one location, just one
00:02:06
one geographic, one market, would have just chosen one of them. And that's something that it took me a while to realize, but it's something that is probably what I'm better suited for, honestly. We kind of fell into our Colorado facility and it was just an opportunity. I was really super gung-ho and just wanted to get an opportunity, wanted to start a facility. And that was the first one that came up that we were able to like really get into and start going.
00:02:34
things and it allowed us to to get a facility which was super exciting but I didn't give any thought to the market or to the political climate or the pricing of housing or what what it's like for residents I didn't I honestly didn't do the market research that I probably should have done to get into it now we didn't make a bad decision we're still profitable
00:02:59
i still love operating in colorado and going there colorado is beautiful it's so much fun to go there and visit and see what it is but i didn't do that that type of research that i probably should have done i just knew i wanted to do an assisted living facility and that's the one that came up and we were able to get under contract and we went through the whole process and we got the facility
00:03:22
And the entire time I was thinking to myself, I'm just going to figure this out. I can do this. Yeah, sure, there's going to be roadblocks and things that come up, but we'll figure it out. That was my attitude towards it. As I got into looking at the second facility and wanting to expand our portfolio when we found that we had funds available to do it,
00:03:42
That's where I started really getting into having conversations, strategic conversations with my accountant. What are the benefits of working in a state that doesn't have tax? What are some of the political things that we might be able to do? What are some of the...
00:04:03
Where are people shifting and retiring to, which is probably a good spot for us? Where is the housing market going to be conducive for us to get more facilities and to grow our portfolio a little bit more and more quickly? Those were some of the questions that I started asking myself.
00:04:21
and i'm going to put this uh we're building out a course at assistedlivinginvesting.net so make sure you go and visit the website but we're going to be putting through that course a bunch of resources and a part of those resources is going to be a document that i used to kind of start doing some research on my own to figure out which markets were going to be good for me what i wanted so i was looking at things like
00:04:46
where people are going to retire, what's the age of places, where are people migrating to, what's the tax situation like in those states. And I kind of ranked these things and kind of put together what was important to me. And then from there, was able to build out a good block of five markets that I was really interested in operating in.
00:05:11
And some of those were further on the East Coast, and that's just not going to make sense for me. One was in the Midwest. I think it was in South Dakota. I'm pretty sure it was South Dakota. And that one was really interesting to me, frankly, but probably a little bit too far. But one that really came up and was high on there was the Boise Metro Market.
00:05:33
which is why we went with Nampa. And we are super happy with our choice to be operating in Nampa, in Idaho. We love working there. When we started, I kept saying to myself, I love going to Colorado. I love going there. It's beautiful. I love it. Not so crazy about Idaho, but the more that I go to Idaho, the more I like it.
00:05:56
uh the more we just see like for us living in utah it's there's a similar culture there and but it's a little bit slower and uh we like that a lot and people are just a little more polite than they might be here um just like from our personal perspective where we live and my wife is like oh i could actually see us living there one day and it's been really eye-opening for us as we go through that process
00:06:20
So all of that to say, I would have done a lot more research as I got into this and tried to figure out where I wanted to operate and how I wanted to expand my portfolio and what I was looking for and what I wanted out of assisted living. I would have taken more time to figure that out. If you are thinking of getting into assisted living and you're trying to be like, I don't know if I can operate out of state. I promise you, you can't.
00:06:44
It's not that hard. I enjoy it. I love doing it. What I'm going to suggest that you do is don't just get on LoopNet or BizBuySell and look for the first assisted living facility that is in your price range and just go with that one like I did with Colorado. You might hit the jackpot. It might be perfect for you.
00:07:05
But I think you're going to be better served if you take the time to look at your options and start doing some market research and figure out where you want to go and why you'd like to go there. You know, do you live? I don't even know where to go, where to say. But let's say that you live in Vegas and you really want to have a property. You have family in Arizona.
00:07:32
and so maybe arizona is a really good spot for you let's say that you live in portland and you just don't want to deal with operating something in portland and idaho is a really good pick for you i'm going to stick with the west coast because i'm much more familiar with kind of the everything that's going on in the west coast as opposed to the east coast and places and things like that but you know just kind of do that research figure out what's going to be good is is dry being able to drive there
00:07:58
within a few hours really important to me okay then look at that is it you want a really good spot that you can go and do vacation on and you're you're just hoping you can break even then fine do that do the thing that is going to be most important to you do the research figure out what the population is in that location where you're going to be operating your facility and take the time to just go and see it make sure it's going to look good work good do the underwriting make sure it's a good process for you
00:08:28
so that you know what you're getting into and you feel comfortable and confident in your decision to move forward with that facility it's it's worth it to take the time to do it i i'm happy with both of our facilities if i went and did it again though i would have done that research up front and you know the other benefit of that is you have multiple facilities in a location you have some economies of scale which can help you out i can't scale things when i'm in colorado and idaho
00:08:57
Can't do it. It's just way too far. But if I had one in Nampa and Meridian and Boise and Kuna and Star and all these areas in that Boise metro area, I could do that. I could do some scale there. And that's something that we're very interested in doing. If you're interested in talking about those types of opportunities with me as I look to scale my business, make sure you visit me again on assistedlivinginvesting.net.
00:09:23
we're going to have a spot up there where you can sign up to get more information from me join get our newsletter but then we can also have a conversation to see uh you know if you're interested in investing with me i get on that and we'll have that conversation you can reach out to me as well and uh we'll start uh seeing if we can find opportunities that that work i have a lot of conversations with brokers i'm aware of opportunities especially in utah and idaho which is where i would like to expand
00:09:50
um so if you're interested in doing that with me make sure you get on the website and we can have a conversation there thanks for watching today remember as you go through the process as you are looking at what you want to do that you can do this it doesn't take a lot just a little bit just keep going step by step by step and i promise if you are consistent you are going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day
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