From Hype to Reality: Investing in Assisted Living the Right Way

assisted living business assisted living expenses assisted living investing assisted living profitability assisted living regulations assisted living staffing assisted living startup assisted living training Oct 06, 2025

Investing in assisted living can seem like a goldmine. You may see videos online promising easy money—$10,000 per month per facility, low stress, and quick profits. But here’s the reality: the money is real, but so is the work. Many beginners jump in thinking it’s simple and end up overwhelmed. Let’s break down what you really need to know before you make an investment in assisted living.

Check out this video, too:

Why This Matters

Many beginners get caught up in flashy promises online. Understanding the real work behind assisted living helps you:

Avoid financial pitfalls that can cost thousands of dollars
Plan for staffing, resident management, and daily operations
Make smarter decisions about whether this type of investment fits your lifestyle
Stay prepared for unexpected challenges that are part of owning a facility

Knowing what’s involved ensures you go in with realistic expectations and can build a profitable business without surprises.

1️⃣ The Money is Real… But You Work for It

You can make $10,000 per month on one home (or even more!)—but it doesn’t happen overnight. Depending on the size of your facility, occupancy, and location, it might take a few months or even over a year to reach that level.

Things to consider:

You pay expenses first: payroll, food, utilities, and maintenance
Owner’s pay comes last, so don’t expect immediate income
Filling your beds takes time—even if you buy an existing facility, building trust and relationships with residents and families takes effort
Just a few empty beds can impact your profits significantly, so understanding your break-even point is critical

💡 Tip: Get your FREE underwriting calculator to understand your financials before investing. It helps you see exactly what your revenue, expenses, and potential profits might look like, so you don’t get caught upside down.

2️⃣ Unexpected Costs Happen

Being a business owner in assisted living means handling surprises regularly:

Staff turnover, no-shows, or emergencies
Repairs or maintenance issues that come up suddenly
Extra staffing or training needs, sometimes on short notice

Even if you aim for $10,000/month profit, there will always be variables. Planning for these realities will help you reduce stress and avoid surprises that could derail your cash flow.

💡 Tip: Consider hiring reliable staff or outsourcing for things like maintenance and administration. This frees up your time and allows you to focus on higher-level business decisions.

3️⃣ You’re the Boss, But Also on the Front Lines

As the owner, you’ll often need to:

Cover shifts when staff is short
Handle complaints from staff, residents, or families
Step in during emergencies

If you’re managing facilities out of state, you’ll need trustworthy staff, solid processes, and clear boundaries. This isn’t a completely passive business—you have to stay involved to ensure residents are properly cared for and that your business remains profitable.

💡 Tip: Set boundaries early, establish processes for staff, and consider out-of-state management only if you have people you can trust.

4️⃣ Regulations and Compliance Are Constant

Healthcare regulations change frequently, and staying compliant is critical. You’ll need to:

Update policies and procedures regularly
Train staff continuously to meet compliance standards
Be ready for inspections and surveys that impact your facility’s standing

💡 Tip: Good training and well-documented processes reduce errors, improve staff retention, and keep residents happy. Consider creating a repeatable training system so staff can consistently deliver care that meets regulations.

5️⃣ Relationships Are Key

Assisted living is a relationship-driven business. Your success depends on:

Building strong connections with residents and their families
Maintaining communication with staff and residents daily
Developing referral networks in the community to bring in new residents

💡 Tip: Prioritize relationship-building. Happy residents mean full beds, better reviews, and steady cash flow. Don’t underestimate the power of strong personal and professional connections.

Bottom Line

Investing in assisted living is incredibly rewarding but requires:

Time, effort, and patience to build occupancy and profitability
Active involvement in daily operations and management
Smart financial planning and understanding risks

Next Steps: Take Action Today!

🚀 Want to launch your assisted living business in the next 12 months?

✅ Step 1: Download the Business Plan Checklist to start planning.
✅ Step 2: Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
✅ Step 3: Follow this guide, take action, and bring your vision to life!

Got questions? Drop them in the comments below! ⬇️

▶️ Watch on YouTube

🎙️ Listen to the podcast

Show full transcript 👇

Transcript

00:00:00 - 00:00:49
Hey friend, I'm Brandon Gustafson and I help beginners like you launch their assisted living business in the next 12 months. Super excited to have you here with me today on assisted living investing. Our topic for today is don't fall into those empty promises of investing in assisted living. I want to have a really heart-to-he heart conversation with you about exactly what it is to invest in assisted living. So, if you're interested in that, make sure you stick around for today's video.

00:00:29 - 00:01:18
Hey friend, before we get started, I want to remind you to get over to the website assistedlivinginvesting.net so you can get your free underwriting calculator. It's the big blue box in the top right corner. You can go grab that free resource. It's going to tell you, hey, is this going to actually make sense for me to move forward with and and get into assisted living investing or not? Now, with that said, let's get into the topic for today's video. I don't want you to fall into some empty

00:00:53 - 00:01:46
promises with investing in assisted living. I think a lot of people, they watch a YouTube video, they they watch something that says, "Hey, $10,000 per month per facility, super easy to do, it's not a headache at all." And while there's some truth to that, I'm going to have a really heart-to-he heart conversation with you, be super honest and transparent about what it actually takes to get into assisted living, so you can decide, hey, is this really the thing that I want to do or not? and then

00:01:20 - 00:02:17
make an invitation to you to work with me and in one of my programs if you do want to be working because I can help you along that path and along the process to launching your assisted living business. So, the first thing that I want you to know is the money is absolutely real inside of assisted living, but so is the work. There's a lot of work that goes into owning your own assisted living business and to trying to launch this business. You have to manage a ton of people. You have to manage the residents. You have to manage

00:01:48 - 00:02:43
the staff. You've got to manage the families. You've got to take care of food budgets. There's a lot of finances that go into it. There's so much involved inside of the world of assisted living that oh man, it can feel overwhelming. Now, can you make that $10,000 per month? Absolutely you can. But it might not happen immediately. Might not happen overnight, but it is something that you can get to. It could be a few months, could be over a year, but you can absolutely get to that point

00:02:15 - 00:03:12
where you're making that $10,000 per month on one home, which is pretty incredible when you think about it, right? So, here's what others are not going to tell you. Owners, you get paid last. Like, you're the last person that gets paid. You have to make payroll. You've got to buy the food. You have to do all of those things first. You don't get to have that money up front. uh as much as that you're getting, you know, 40, 50, 60, $80,000 per month in that gross income that's just coming in, you

00:02:44 - 00:03:35
don't really get to see the net of that until after you've paid all of the expenses, which can be a lot. It's very expensive to run this business. So, just want to be transparent with you on that. It may also take you months for you to fill your home. So, if you're starting something from the ground up, you're doing a conversion on a house, it can take you quite a while to get the beds filled at that house. And so, that's something you want to take into consideration. Even if you're buying an

00:03:09 - 00:04:07
existing business, which is what I love doing, it's how I got started. If your beds are not full, it can still take you a while to build up the relationships that you need to get your beds filled. So, when your beds are not filled, you have to remember that, you know, let's say it's $5,000 per bed per month that a resident's paying you. If you're going to make that $10,000 per month per for a house, what you're going to find is that's two residents above your break even point. Okay? It's just two

00:03:38 - 00:04:32
residents. So, if your census is two residents below and you're at your break even point, then you're just breaking even. You're not getting that $10,000. And if you have one less than that break even point, now you're losing $5,000. If you're one resident below that, you're losing $10,000 a month. So, this business, while it can be very profitable, it can flip on its head really, really quick and make it so that you are losing money. So, that's why I teach you so much about underwriting,

00:04:05 - 00:04:51
why it's so important for you to understand the finances of this business and not go into it with some rosy picture that everything is going to be great, cuz it could be, but also it might not be. So, I just want to be real with you. If you want help in understanding exactly how that's going to work, make sure you go to assisted livinginvesting.net and grab the free underwriting calculator. That's what I've created it for so you don't get upside down quickly or you know what to

00:04:28 - 00:05:20
anticipate as you're trying to get things started because this is a business and it takes a lot out of you to get the beds filled and to make sure that you're hitting those profit margins. I have another tool for you as well if you want to figure out, hey, what's the best way for me to get into this? Is it better for me to start from the ground up or is it better for me to buy an existing facility? I have my profit path tool. So, if you go to assistedlivinginvesting.net/profitpath and we will link that down below, you

00:04:54 - 00:05:45
can get access to a free tool that I've created for you that's going to just give you a little bit of extra insight into which of these paths is going to be better for me. And if buying an existing facility is going to get me more profitable a little more quickly, do I want to have that or do I want to buy something that's a new home and do a renovation or build something from the ground up and get it how I want it to be? Which of those things is more important to me based off of the pathway

00:05:19 - 00:06:06
to profitability? That tool is going to help you out a ton with that. So go to assisted livinging.net/profit path. That's going to give you the tool that you need to figure out which of these scenarios is going to be best for you. The other thing that I want to point out to you is while that $10,000 a month is certainly possible and we just gave an example of what that looks like where you have your break even point and if you're above that then cool, you got profit, there's also going to be all

00:05:43 - 00:06:40
kinds of other things that come up. You're now a business owner, right? So, you're going to have to make repairs or there's going to be an emergency or staff's going to turn over and you might have to get a staffing agency or you got to have more staff in at a given time to train the new staff. So, there's going to be extra expenses. So, while yes, you can get that that gap, you can get that real $10,000 a month and you can do that. You got to take into consideration there's so many other things that are

00:06:12 - 00:06:57
going into this. So, if you're comfortable with that, then you're going to be fine. If you're just like a little washy on it, then honestly, this business might not be for you. So, I just want to be very transparent with you. You're probably watching this video because you like it, so you gave it a thumbs up. but also you're watching it because you're trying to figure out is assisted living right for me? And that's what I'm trying to do and trying to teach you. And that's why the

00:06:34 - 00:07:25
underwriting calculator that I give you is such a valuable piece of information that's going to help you make progress as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. The next thing that I want to tell you is you're the boss, which is great, but in assisted living, you're often also going to be like the backup dishwasher. You're going to be the person that's got to go cover an extra shift here or there. And that is something that's possible. I own my facilities out of state. And when I

00:06:59 - 00:08:00
started doing that, it was a little bit un unintentional. It was just something that I kind of fell into. But as I have owned these facilities now since 2020, what I have found is it works really well for me because when something bad happens and something bad is going to happen, I've got to rely on my staff to get it taken care of. And it's really hard to just kind of wash your hands of that and trust somebody to do it, especially if you're a control freak. But if you are out of state or you're

00:07:29 - 00:08:17
doing something that forces you to put trust in other people, it can make this business a lot easier. Otherwise, you are the person that's going to be there on call. You're going to be going and covering shifts. You're going to be there every weekend, every night. You're going to be doing a lot of extra stuff. So, it's something that I want you to be aware of. You either need to hire people and set boundaries, like real boundaries for yourself, or consider doing this out of state, which is something that I've

00:07:54 - 00:08:45
done as well. And as the owner of a facility, you're going to hear all the complaints. You're going to get the complaints from your staff, from your residents, and probably the ones that are the worst to handle, honestly, are from the families. Now, you you could be having the most amazing business. You're doing all these extra amenities. you're creating the best atmosphere ever and people are still going to be unhappy with you. So, you have to have a little bit of tough skin and realize that's

00:08:19 - 00:09:07
going to happen and and you're going to have to deal with that as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. I get it. I've had some very rough conversations with residents and their families about situations that they're going through. Now, perception is key in in what you're looking at there, and you can never take those things personally, but in an instance where it's it's real, you do have to address those things. It's how you're going to continue to

00:08:43 - 00:09:32
build trust. But there are situations where it's just like I I don't know that big a deal. That's just how we do that. And and you're going to have to understand, you know, what's real and what's not. And how are you going to progress as you're trying to figure out how to run and operate your assisted living business in the way that you feel is best for you and for your residents. In addition to that, you're just going to run into business owner problems. So, some of the things that you might hear

00:09:08 - 00:09:54
from your staff are, "Hey, credit cards not working. we can't buy groceries and you know crap I got to make a payment on the credit card or I got to figure out what's going on there or do we need to increase the limit or you know those types of things. You're in charge of that. The toilet's not working. What do we do? We can't flush the toilet. The pump in there is broken. You know, it's leaking. It's going all over the place. You're you're going to have to do that

00:09:31 - 00:10:20
unless you have a handyman or you have a property manager or something like that. Sometimes the administrator can do it. Sometimes they can't. Sometimes they don't have time for it. sometimes they just don't have the knowhow of how to handle those. We've had situations like that in our facilities where luckily we were up at the facilities cuz we operate out of state and we were able to fix some of the plumbing issues that were happening in the moment. Otherwise, it would have been hundreds of dollars to

00:09:55 - 00:10:50
make fixes on toilets basically. And so you need to expect that these types of things are going to happen. There really is not a lot of sit back and relax when it comes to this type of business. I know other places, other people that you listen to on YouTube are going to tell you that it's possible, and sure, it is. It's entirely possible that you could have something that's extremely passive, but you're going to pay a premium for that. And so, if you want to get that $10,000 per month, you're probably going

00:10:23 - 00:11:12
to need to be involved in the business. And being involved in the business means all of these extra phone calls and all these extra little things that are happening as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. So, I just want you to be aware of that. This is not an entirely passive business. You're going to have to be involved at some level unless you're one of those big wigs that that's doing the the big box facilities and you have a hundred of them. In that case, you've hired all the

00:10:48 - 00:11:40
people to do things, but then you're making much bigger decisions. This is not a passive investment. This is something that you have to be active in and something you should be active in. So, you are serving your residents in a way that they deserve to be served. The next thing I want to talk to you about is it's going to take a lot of time. There are healthcare regulations. This is a a thing that I see pretty frequently inside of Facebook and and YouTube comments and things like that that you're worried about the

00:11:14 - 00:12:07
regulations. And I've worked in the healthcare industry since 2013, like a really long time. And I have a really good understanding of exactly what it takes to be in this industry and how you're going to progress and make good decisions. But one day you're going to have the regulations and you're going to get to a point where you're like, "Oh, cool. I finally have figured out all the regulations. I know exactly what to expect." And then you're going to get an email the next morning and they're all

00:11:40 - 00:12:31
going to change. And you're going to have to adjust your policies and procedures. You're going to have to prepare for exactly how that's going to impact you and and your residents and your staff and all of the things that that go into that. There's constant change and those regulations that come in are important. You have to adhere to them. Otherwise, you're going to get a fine. You're going to get some kind of a ding on your survey, which can reduce your standing and perception as a

00:12:06 - 00:12:59
facility. So, you have to stay on top of these things. And it takes a lot of time to understand what each of those things are and how you're going to address it so that you can be successful in owning and operating your own assisted living business. You're going to need to make sure that you have some really good training processes in place for your staff as well. And that is a non-stop process. You will have so much turnover with your staff. It's just the nature of this business. And you're going to have

00:12:33 - 00:13:18
to train them. You're going to have to work with them and try to help them understand exactly what they're doing, what they're getting into so that they can, you know, operate the way that they need to and take care of the residents that they need to take care of. But you're going to have to do training. That can be online training, can be inerson training, can be training with your nursing staff that you have that's going to probably be part-time at your small facility. But you're going to need

00:12:55 - 00:13:49
a little bit of access there to these individuals. You're going to need to be training these individuals so that they can do the things, carry out their duties in a way that they're supposed to, and you kind of create this, I don't know, franchise model of training people. Go read the book E-Myth Revisited as an example. I'll try to link that down below for you as well so you can see it. But creating processes and training is key to your ability to running a successful assisted living

00:13:22 - 00:14:11
business. And it's a constant thing. You're going to have to be looking for a bunch of different options on how you're going to train your staff so that they are doing what they're supposed to do and caring for your residents. Another really big thing, and it's it's super important, is building relationships. This business is a a relationship building business. It's key to what you do. You're going to have to do this with your staff, with your residents, with their families, with all of the other

00:13:47 - 00:14:43
people that you're trying to build referral networks with. You have to be out there. You have to be communicating. You have to be uh developing relationships with people. It's absolutely key for you to do that because otherwise people's feelings will get hurt or you run the risk of not having a funnel to bring new residents into your facilities. These are all things that you need to be paying attention to. And if you let them slip just a little bit, you're going to lose out on on quite a bit of the ability to

00:14:14 - 00:15:18
keep your residents happy and keep your beds filled, which is the lifeblood of your business and helping you bring, you know, fill the beds and get the money flowing so that you can run that successful and profitable business. So, with all of that said, if I did not scare you away, and a little bit of that is I'm trying to because this is hard. It's not easy to run this business. It it's difficult, but it is absolutely worth it despite all of the things and the headaches and the time and the effort that that goes

00:14:46 - 00:15:46
into it and recognizing that, you know, there's this financial potential that's great, but also on you swing it just a little bit the other way and then you're losing money. All of those things considered, it's difficult, but it is so worth it to be in this business. So, I do hope that you consider getting into assisted living. It's meaningful. It's rewarding. It's a great investment. There's some great cash flow potential there. And it's a great long-term investment as well with the real estate

00:15:16 - 00:16:13
that's involved with all of those things. If you are interested and you need some help in in figuring out how to do this, I would love to help you. Go check out assistedlivinginvesting.net/basics. I have a a community that is specific to helping people like you launch their assisted living business. We do monthly Q&A calls in there. You have access to me to ask me questions. We have weekly tips and tricks to help you get started and get you unstuck so that you're making real progress towards launching

00:15:45 - 00:16:35
your assisted living business. Again, go to assistedlivinginvesting.net/basics for more information on exactly how I can help you out and and doing that in our membership. super excited to see you in there and help you along your path to launching your assisted living business. So, with that, we've talked about a lot here in this video. We've talked about how the money is real, but so is the work. You're the boss, but you're also going to be doing a lot of those backup duties. It's going to take you quite a

00:16:09 - 00:16:59
bit of time, but also it is so worth it with the impact that you get to have on people's lives. If you found this video to be helpful, I would love if you could like the video, subscribe, and ring the bell as well. We put out content like this two times a week. We go live on Tuesdays. We put out content like this on Thursdays to help you get the help that you need in launching your assisted living business. Go check out ALI basics at assisted livinginvesting.net/basics. And I'd love to help you along your path

00:16:35 - 00:17:20
as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. 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. I love helping and coaching people. I would love to help you along your journey. And 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

00:16:58 - 00:17:13
consistent and persistent, you're going to be successful. Thanks for watching and have a great day. [Music]

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