Funding Success Made Simple: How to Secure the Money You Need for Your Assisted Living Business
Oct 31, 2025
Starting an assisted living business is exciting—but getting funding can feel overwhelming. Where do you start? How do you guarantee success in securing the money you need?
Good news—you don’t have to figure it out alone. With the right steps, a solid foundation, and the right relationships, you can set yourself up to secure funding and launch your assisted living business with confidence. Let’s dive in! ๐
Check out this video, too:
Step 1: Find the Right Lender
Before anything else, you need a lender. It sounds simple, but it’s the first essential step. If you want to get funding, you've got to be working with a lender so that you can get the funding from them.
Here’s how to get started:
โ Work with a lending broker – A lending broker is a key person in your network who knows lenders and can help you navigate the process. A broker can make introductions, guide you through paperwork, and increase your chances of approval.
โ Research lenders online – Most states have registries listing SBA and other lenders. Use these lists as a working checklist to reach out to multiple lenders.
โ Reach out strategically – Send concise emails or make short calls. Explain who you are, what funding you need, and where. Always ask who else might be able to help you. This keeps the conversation open-ended and increases your success.
Remember, many lenders will say "no", but some will say "yes". When you do that, you’re now on this path to working with a lender. Keep casting a wide net—you’ll eventually find the right fit.
Step 2: Build a Solid Business Foundation
Lenders want to see a strong foundation before approving funding. This includes three key elements:
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Business Plan – Every lender wants one. Having that business plan in place is also going to help you out as you’re trying to talk with somebody at the local municipality about zoning. It also helps with licensing and other approvals.
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Underwriting & Financials – Understand your numbers inside and out. This will help you calculate expenses, income, and projections so lenders know you’re prepared.
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Market Research – Know your area and the seniors you’ll serve. You need to understand the demographics of your area. How many people are there from ages 60 to 70 and from 70 to 80? This data is publicly available. Look at population, competition, nearby cities, and zoning regulations.
If you need a complete foundation toolkit, get the Launchpad Bundle, which includes business plan workshops, underwriting guides, and pre-done market research. This bundle helps you be fully prepared to meet lender expectations.
Step 3: Build Relationships
Here’s the secret most people won’t tell you: relationships matter more than anything. Building relationships is one of the most important things that you can do in this business as you’re trying to launch your assisted living business.
Relationships matter with:
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Lenders
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Municipality officials
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State licensing authorities
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Vendors and service providers
How to Build Strong Relationships
โ Communicate clearly – Overcommunicate. Be explicit in your emails and calls. Do not assume that they know what you’re talking about. Be explicit.
โ Respond quickly – If someone asks for a document or information, provide it as soon as possible. If you can’t, give them a timeline. This shows professionalism and builds trust.
โ Be courteous and consistent – Maintain a positive attitude, even if you face setbacks. You never know when you’re going to need to talk to them again. You want to be looked at as this person that people really want to work with.
Good relationships make lenders more likely to work with you, even if the first answer is "no". Your persistence, professionalism, and consistency will pay off.
Step 4: The Formula for Funding Success
Let’s put it all together. Here's an approach that boils down to three pillars:
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Find a lender – Use brokers, online research, and open-ended outreach.
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Build your business foundation – Have a strong business plan, solid underwriting, and thorough market research.
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Build relationships – Communicate clearly, respond quickly, and maintain professionalism at all times.
Do these three things consistently, and you are well on your way to securing funding for your assisted living business. When you do these things, it will allow you to secure the funding that you need, reach the goals that you have, and obtain the time and financial freedom that you’re looking for.
Step 5: Take Action Today!
You don’t need to wait to start your funding journey. Here’s your action plan:
๐ Step 1: Download the Business Plan Checklist to make sure your foundation is rock-solid. at
๐ Step 2: Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript ๐
Transcript
00:00:00 - 00:00:48
Hey friend, I'm Brandon Gustafson. I help beginners like you launch their assisted living business in the next 12 months. In today's video, we're going to be talking about how to guarantee your success in securing funding for your assisted living business. So, if you need some help with that, make sure you stick around for today's video and welcome to assisted living investing. Hey friend, welcome back to the channel. Before we jump into our topic today, I want to remind you to hop over to the
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website assisted livinginvesting.net. You can get your free underwriting calculator. It's a big blue box in the top right corner. Make sure you go and grab that because it's going to help you in what we're talking about today, which is guaranteeing your success in getting funding for your assisted living business. So, let's dive into that. The first thing that you need to do, and this is a little bit obvious, hopefully, you got to find a lender, right? If you want to get funding, you got to be
00:00:52 - 00:01:46
working with a lender so that you can get the funding from them. So, you're going to need to be doing that. Um, I suggest that you work with a lending broker. We have another video where I talk about the key person that you need to be talking to as you're launching your assisted living business, and that is a lending broker. We did a video a few months ago, we'll link it up above for you, with Regina Morgan. Regina has helped me secure some funding. We did a podcast and a video. She's great to work
00:01:20 - 00:02:12
with. I highly encourage you to be working with her. So, go check out that video and then reach out to Regina. We'll put her contact info down below as well so you can reach out to her easily and start working with her as you're trying to secure funding. Um, but getting somebody like that as you're trying to get the funding that you need to help you take the next step and launch your assisted living business is something that is going to, you know, make it possible for you to actually get
00:01:46 - 00:02:41
the funding that you're looking for. I also would suggest that you start looking up lenders online in your state. Most states have a registry that give you a list of all of the different lenders, specifically SBA lenders that are available to you. And then you can use that as a checklist or a working list to go through and start reaching out to a bunch of lenders. I would cold email, I would cold call them and make a very quick elevator pitch. Hey, my name is Brandon. I'm looking for funding for
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an assisted living business that I'm looking to buy for X amount of money in this location. Is that something that you can help me out with or who do you know in your network that could help me out with that? As you talk through that with them, leaving it a more open-ended question is going to get them thinking about how they can help you and who they know that can help you. So, don't leave this closedended. Make sure that it's open-ended and ask who else can help you. And you're going to start
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increasing your success exponentially. Now, if you do that, you're going to find a lender. Lenders most of the time are going to tell you no. But if you work with a lending broker, you work with your agent or your broker that you're working with to find the house or you're doing the research yourself and you're reaching out to a bunch of bunch of lenders. You reach out, you canvas everybody, you cast this really broad net. When you do that, you're going to find that most lenders will tell you no,
00:03:07 - 00:03:58
but a small handful will tell you, "Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit more." And when you do that, now you're on this path to working with a lender. So that's step one. You've got to find a lender that's willing to work with you. So go out and do that. Now, step two is having your business foundation built. Now, for you to be building your business foundation, there's really three key things that you absolutely need to be doing. One is your business plan. You have to create a
00:03:33 - 00:04:19
solid business plan. Every lender is going to want to see it. So, you need to have that. You're going to need to underwrite. If you need to understand how to underwrite, understand the numbers, understand exactly what that looks like. That's where I told you to go over to assisted livinginvesting.net. Grab your free underwriting calculator. It's the big blue box in the top right corner. So, make sure you go and grab that. And the other one is going to be market research. You need to be doing
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that market research so you have confidence that it's a good spot and so the lender also has confidence that you're working in a really good spot. If you do these three things, you're going to have a foundation that is going to answer a lot of questions that a lender is going to ask you. They want to see that business plan. They want to see that you've thought through all of these things. It's a requirement when you're trying to obtain funding. Having that business plan in place is also going to
00:04:21 - 00:05:13
help you out as you're trying to talk with somebody at the local municipality about zoning. When you're talking to the state about getting your license, they don't necessarily need your business plan, but they will ask you questions about things that you have already researched and wrote written about in your business plan. And so, you can very easily answer those questions. And sometimes every in a once in a blue moon, they will ask you for that business plan. So, it's best to just
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have it. I have a a free business plan checklist that you can go check out to help you out as you're trying to write your business plan. Go to assistedlivinginvesting.net/bp. /bp checklist. We'll link that down below, but go grab that free resource. The other one is underwriting. It's your calculator. Assisted livinginvesting.net. Big blue box in the top right corner. Go and grab that. But in here in your underwriting, you want to make sure that you are understanding exactly what that looks like, how the
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numbers work, what those numbers are, what the expenses are, how they're going to impact you and your business as you're trying to run things. You want to have a good solid understanding of exactly what that looks like. And the underwriting calculator that I give you for free at assistedlivinginvesting.net is going to help you out through that process. So, make sure you go and grab that. And the third thing that I want you to be doing is your market research. So, you need to understand the
00:05:35 - 00:06:30
demographics of your area. You want to see how many of the population you want to serve. How many of them are there in that area? Uh you want to look at age bands. So, how many people from like, you know, 60 to 70 and 70 to 80. How many people are there? This data is out there. It's publicly available. You can go grab it. Sites like citydata.org can really help you dive deep into this information and help you make some solid progress as you're trying to just figure out, is this going to work for me?
00:06:03 - 00:06:52
There's a few other things that you want to be considering as you look at this. You know, political leanings of the area, taxation, you want to be looking at how many other facilities are in the area. What are some of the other larger metropolitan areas that are kind of nearby? What does all of that look like? These are parts of what you need to be considering as you do your market research. If you need help as you're trying to figure all of this stuff out and building out your foundation, I have
00:06:27 - 00:07:26
a perfect product for you at my website. If you go to assisted livinginvesting.net/launchpad, we have our Launchpad bundle has everything that you need for learning how to underwrite, learning how to write a solid business plan with a workshop style. And our underwriting has an underwrite with me workshop. So, you can do that. And we have our market research guide where we do 80 to 90% of the market research for you already. So go check that out at assistedlivinginvesting.net/launchpad. It's a great tool that has all of the
00:06:57 - 00:07:43
things that you need to help you build a solid foundation which is going to help you secure funding and help you get to the point where you're launching your assisted living business. So go check that out. Now the third pillar for how you're going to obtain funding to guarantee that you get can secure the funding that you need for your assisted living business. This is a secret that like nobody's going to tell you, but I'm gonna tell you right now. It's building relationships. And I talk about this all
00:07:19 - 00:08:07
the time. Building relationships is one of the most important things that you can do in this business as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. This doesn't necessarily need to be just with a lender. It can be with the person at the municipality. It can be the person at the state that's helping you out with your licensing. If you're going to be a Medicaid provider, it can be working with the the people that are helping you out with Medicaid as you are operating the facility. This could be
00:07:43 - 00:08:38
working with your vendor that does your fire suppression system. It could be working with the state when you have surveys or the embudsman. There's all kinds of people that you are going to be interacting with. And you have to build solid relationships with every single one of them. So, if you get good at this and you can practice a lot when you're trying to work with lenders and trying to work with them to help you secure the funding that you need, you're going to be a whole lot more successful. So, work
00:08:10 - 00:09:10
on building relationships. Now, how do you build those relationships? One of the most important things you can do is communicate. Overcommunicate. Do not assume that they know what you're talking about. Be explicit when you are talking about things and don't use words like it or that. Be specific. The facility that we are looking at buying, it's not that uh it's this facility. Be very explicit in what you're talking about. Don't and reread what you are going to send them before
00:08:41 - 00:09:36
you send it. Reread it because when you do that, things can get lost in translation very easily, especially over email. Make sure it's very clear so that there are no extra questions. It doesn't take longer. Make sure you're doing that. In addition to making sure that you have very clear language, make sure that you are, hey, you know what? They've asked for this thing. Cool. Now, I'm going to just wait cuz I don't have it. What you should be doing, let's say that they've asked for your tax
00:09:09 - 00:09:56
statements or they've asked for your bank account statements or something like that and you can't get it for some reason. What you're going to do rather than just sit there until you can get it next Tuesday, you're going to email them. Right when they email you, you're going to say, "Oh man, I'm on vacation. I can't do that today, but I will be able to get it to you next Tuesday. I promise I will get it to you then. Saying something like that is going to keep the conversation going. Doesn't let
00:09:32 - 00:10:30
them feel like they're being hung out to dry and they know what to expect. And then if you can't meet a certain expectation, you set a bar. And if you need to adjust it one way or the other, then boom, you got an in because you're building this relationship. You want to be quick to respond. You want to be making sure that you are communicating very clearly and get anything that they ask for. Get it to them quickly. If you don't have it, it's fine. It will be okay. But when you are working with a
00:10:01 - 00:10:54
lender and they ask for something, you better get it to them as quickly as possible. It makes them feel like, oh man, they they want to get this thing done. They are prepared. They know what I need and they're good at getting it. And when they don't have it, they communicate to me that they don't have it. My goal when I am working with a lender is to get yes. I want a yes. I want them to work with me. That's number one. But number two, I want them to feel bad that they had to tell me no. So I
00:10:27 - 00:11:12
want to be so good. I want to be so prepared to work with them that if they have to come back and say, "Man, underwriting just wouldn't do it for us or we went to committee, they just want to prove it that they feel bad telling me that they can't do it because I am such a good person for them to work with." That's my goal when I'm working with lenders. And throughout that process, as you're trying to work on getting all of the documents and you're just working through everything, be
00:10:49 - 00:11:45
kind, be courteous, make sure that you are maintaining this relationship because I I've said this several times. You never know when you're going to need to talk to them again. It could be 3 months or 6 months from now. It could be 5 years, 10 years from now, but you don't want to leave a sour taste in their mouth. You want to be looked at as this person that, man, I really want to work with Brandon. I really want to work with this person because this world is very interconnected. It is very small.
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People talk to each other. And so if you have a good experience, even if you didn't get the funding with somebody, they're going to be a lot more likely to work with you in the future. So make sure that you are being kind, being courteous, make sure you're overcommunicating. And when you do these things, it will guarantee that you secure funding. That doesn't mean that the first one that you talk to is going to help you get the funding. uh it could happen. But what it does mean is as
00:11:41 - 00:12:30
you're building these relationships, you will eventually learn what you need to do to get to a lender to help you secure the funding that you need. It will happen. You just have to be consistent and persistent with it. And when you do that, you're going to be successful. It's why I say that at the end of every single video. That's why I'm going to say it here in a couple of minutes. Because when you do it, it is going to allow you to secure the funding that you need, reach the goals that you have, and
00:12:05 - 00:12:50
obtain that time and financial freedom that you're looking for, and give back to your communities, which is why you are watching this and why you want to get into assisted living. So, we talked about a lot here in this video. We talked about how to find a lender, the way it's so important for you. If you want to secure funding, you got to find a lender, right? It makes a ton of sense, but you have to find a lender. We talked about how you can do that. We talked about having your business
00:12:28 - 00:13:09
foundation built and having it ready to go because lenders are going to ask for it. So, you might as well build it now so that when they ask for it, you just send it to them immediately and everything's good. And we talked about building solid relationships, which is the key to obtaining the funding that you need to helping you guarantee that you're going to be able to secure the funding that you need as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. If you found this video helpful, make
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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. We put out content like this on Thursdays. We're doing I'm doing everything I can to help you launch your assisted living business and do it successfully. And if you need a little bit of extra help and coaching as you go through the process, go check out our ALI basics community. Go to assisted livinginvesting.net/basics. In there, we have monthly memberonly Q&A
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calls. You get priority Q&A time when we do our lives. We have a community where you can build relationships. I'm in there answering questions and helping you out along the way. And we have a bunch of other resources in there to help you make progress 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
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business in the next 12 months. I love helping and coaching people, and I would love to do that for you. 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 consistent and persistent, you are going to be successful. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
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