How I Started in Assisted Living (And How You Can Too!)
Aug 04, 2025
Starting an assisted living business can feel exciting but also overwhelming. Where do you begin? How do you find the right property, get licensed, secure funding, and attract residents?
Good news—you don’t have to figure it out alone! In this post, I’ll share how I started my assisted living journey from scratch and the exact steps you can take to launch your own facility within 12 months. Whether you’re a healthcare professional, real estate investor, or just passionate about senior care, this guide will help simplify your path.
Let’s jump in! 🚀
Check out this video, too:
Why Assisted Living is a Great Opportunity
When I started in 2019, I combined my healthcare background with a passion for real estate after reading Rich Dad Poor Dad. Assisted living offers a unique chance to help seniors live comfortably while building a stable, cash-flowing real estate business.
Plus, with an aging population, demand for quality assisted living is growing fast. If you want a career that mixes meaningful work with smart investing, this could be your perfect fit!
Step 1: Learn and Take Action
The biggest mistake people make is waiting to “know everything” before starting. I began by investing in education—reading books, joining real estate and assisted living groups, and asking lots of questions.
A mentor told me, “Focus on assisted living and stop overcomplicating.” So I jumped in and started calling city planners and health departments to understand local rules.
💡 Pro Tip: Talk to your city’s planning and health departments early to understand zoning, licensing, and staffing requirements. It saves headaches later.
Step 2: Find Existing Facilities to Buy
Instead of building or converting homes from scratch, I focused on finding existing assisted living facilities for sale. Platforms like LoopNet, BizBuySell, and even local brokers are great places to look.
One day, while waiting at a chiropractor’s office, I spotted a deal online and called the broker immediately. After signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), I got the financial documents and started running my own numbers.
Deals sometimes fall through—that’s normal! Keep your eyes open and learn from each experience.
Step 3: Work With a Good Broker
After some trial and error, I connected with a knowledgeable broker who specializes in assisted living properties in Colorado. Having expert help made it easier to navigate offers, negotiations, lenders, and zoning rules.
Lenders might say no several times before you find the right one. Don’t get discouraged—persistence and a solid financial plan win the day.
Step 4: Get Licensed and Secure Funding
Once you find the right property, licensing and funding are your next big steps.
Licensing means meeting your state’s assisted living requirements. This involves inspections, background checks, and making sure the facility meets health and safety standards. It can take time, but it’s essential.
Funding usually comes from SBA loans, private lenders, or sometimes grants. Prepare to be patient and organized—lenders want to see your financial projections and experience.
Step 5: Prepare to Run Your Business
Closing the deal is exciting, but running an assisted living business is where the real work begins.
You’ll manage payroll, supplies, meals, resident care plans, and regulatory compliance every day. Building a strong team and having mentors or coaches will help you handle challenges smoothly.
Ready to Launch?
Starting your assisted living business is a journey, but with the right steps and support, you can be up and running in 12 months or less.
🚀 Here’s what you can do next:
✅ Download the Business Plan Checklist to start organizing your ideas
✅ Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
✅ Take consistent action every day — success comes from small steps repeated
Have questions? Drop them in the comments below! ⬇️ I’m here to help.
Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00 - 00:00:52
hey friend I'm Brandon Gustafson and I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months excited to have you here with me on the channel today today I'm going to be talking about how I got started in assisted living my origin story and and how I got to where I am today so if you're interested in learning about that and see if you can do the same thing make sure you stick around for today's [Music] video hey friend welcome back to Assisted Living investing before we get
00:00:28 - 00:01:16
into the topic today I want to remind you to go grab the free underwriting calculator at Assisted Living investing. net just go to the website big blue box in the top right corner you're going to see that up there go grab the free underwriting calculator it's going to help you move along your path and your journey to launching your Assisted Living business with that said let's dive into the topic for today how did I get started in Assisted Living it's a great question and something that I see
00:00:52 - 00:01:49
often from people about how you know how did I get into this so I want to take you back to just kind of a little bit of an origin story I have a Masters in healthcare administration from the University of Utah I graduated in 2015 have been working in the healthcare industry for a while one day in 2019 it was actually June 9th of 2019 I my daughter was sick I stayed home from church with her and she was like 2 years old so we're watching whatever was you know 2-year-old appropriate at that time
00:01:20 - 00:02:13
this is before Bluey and and some of the newer shows so whatever we were watching we were doing that and I yeah I started reading I read Rich Dad Poor Dad in one day just sitting there and I my life was changed I was like I've got to get into real estate we're going to link Rich Dad Poor Dad below because is it was like it was literally life-changing for me to read this book and really make some good progress so that's how I started once I read that book I decided I've got to get
00:01:47 - 00:02:44
into real estate I've got to really make a change here and started diving into you know how am I going to do this how am I going to get into real estate what do I have what skills do I have that I could leverage as I'm trying to really move things forward what I found is you know Healthcare real estate yeah that's a pretty good spot and I found Assisted Living that's when I I started finding a few people that that did Assisted Living online so once I had found that I knew that's what I wanted to do but I still
00:02:15 - 00:03:11
was super unfamiliar with real estate as a whole I ended up joining and paying a lot of money for education on real estate um and and got really deep into that I had this plan ultimately had a mentor of mine tell me you know your plan is it's garbage you should just get into assisted living it's clearly the thing that you want to do and so that's what I did so that's the the really quick origin story of how I got started now as I was getting started what I wanted to try to do was a conversion and
00:02:43 - 00:03:37
you may be looking at doing a conversion and I I don't think that conversions are a bad thing at all it just for me didn't make a lot of sense but what I started doing was I started talking to the different municipalities the local municipalities that are local to me here in Utah and what I found after talking to over a dozen of them was they each have different rules and different ways of interpreting those rules and so it wasn't just oh cool you know I want to do assisted living and you know here's
00:03:10 - 00:04:07
the cookie cutter process and how I talk to how I move things forward it was oh man I've got to actually talk to these people understand what those needs are understand what the process is and once I do that now I've got enough information for me to actually move forward and make progress to launch the Assisted Living business so after talking with few different municipalities had identified the two or three that I really wanted to work with and so I started looking at homes in those areas um we actually my wife and I
00:03:38 - 00:04:40
we went and we we walked a few properties and uh we found one that we actually really liked and after doing a little bit more conversations with the city planner we decided you know this one just isn't going to make sense so then we decided to shift our thoughts over into trying to find something that was existing this was actually after having a conversation with another mentor of mine and who specifically works in the assisted living space and he told me why don't you buy an existing facility and in my mind I was like you
00:04:09 - 00:05:02
know that's a great idea why don't I do that so I had to go down this path now I'm trying to figure out how to buy an existing facility now and going down that path I didn't have a ton of experience but I knew from my real estate background and and from the education that I had received that finding opportunities was going to be the best way for me to do this so I started started looking On Tools like bis by cell and loopnet and we'll link some of those videos up above because I
00:04:35 - 00:05:39
have some great videos that kind of teach you a little bit about how to use and leverage those types of tools loopnet and bis byell great tools to help you move along cxy is another great one cexy cy.com so after doing that found a deal I was sitting in the parking lot of my chiropractor I was ready to go in for a visit I was about 15 minutes early I didn't have anything else to do so I was on loopet I found this deal it was local to me it was in the Salt Lake Valley and I was like okay I'm going to call him and I was so
00:05:07 - 00:05:58
nervous and I picked up the phone and I clicked on the you know contact me button and I I picked it up and I it starts ringing and he answers the phone and I'm like hey my name is Brandon I saw you guys have an assisted living facility for sale I'm interested in it and he's like yeah sure yeah let me send you an NDA and we can get that part that started what's your email so I gave him my email address and he he's like okay I'll say send it over just review it and get a sign we'll send you the details
00:05:32 - 00:06:30
and I was like okay cool I I hung up the phone and I was like what did I get myself into I don't know what an NDA is I don't know what I just agreed to so I I messaged my attorney emailed my attorney hey this guy wants me to sign an NDA I don't know what that is and he's like it's not a big deal nda's non-disclosure agreement not a big deal it just means don't share this with anybody else okay but I had no idea what that meant but I took action I I I went for it and I I did something something
00:06:01 - 00:06:54
and you now I was getting an email with information on an actual deal so I got the information on the deal and I had the financials the historical financials I'm trying to figure out you know how am I going to do this how am I going to make some progress how am I going to see if this is actually a deal that is worth pursuing I don't know um I have a background in analytics I've worked in analytics I work with Excel often so if you want to see the complexities of that go download the the underwriting
00:06:28 - 00:07:19
calculator go to Assisted Living invest in.net go grab that click the blue button in the top right corner go grab that free tool so you can see exactly what I'm talking about here I created that tool based off of this conversation that I'm telling you about right now I get the numbers I start putting them in there I start trying to find calculator started trying to figure out how am I going to analyze this is this actually a deal that's going to make sense and ultimately put together the calculator
00:06:53 - 00:07:41
looked at the deal really excited not going to make money you know sometimes that happens sometimes you going to find deals and sometimes it's just not going to make a lot of sense and that's okay the important part was I took action I decided I'm going to move forward I'm going to do this I'm going to reach out to that broker I'm going to have a conversation and if it doesn't work I'm going to keep moving and everything's going to be fine and so that's what I
00:07:17 - 00:08:11
did I I I started looking at that opportunity this was just not going to work we're were going to go look at the house but it was like the the beginning of Co the day we're going to go look at the house was actually the day that Rudy goar tested positive for Co and the NBA shut down that was the day I was going to go do all of this so not only am I trying to figure out how to do this all on my own it's during Co and so like it was it was just a lot that I was trying to figure out at that point I was like
00:07:45 - 00:08:35
well you know this deal is not going to work I can't find any other deals luckily I had another mentor of mine that I was talking to through the real estate group that I had joined and I'm talking with him and telling him you know these are my goals this is what I want to do with assisted living and where I want things to move for myself and my investment and how I want to get into real estate and he's like hey I've got a buddy in Colorado who is actually buying a facility right now in Denver
00:08:10 - 00:09:02
and you know I think it would be good for you guys to chat so I was like sure yeah let's have a conversation chatted with him and come to find out he actually was buying a facility from some sellers that had a second facility and he wasn't going to buy that one it was in a different part of the state and I was like yeah introduce me to your broker let's move things forward that's when I met my broker his name is Charlie great guy has really helped me move things along on my investment Journey
00:08:36 - 00:09:24
highly recommend getting a broker especially somebody like Charlie that has worked in the industry and they know what they're talking about that can really help you move things along after having that conversation we looked at this deal we underwrote it we were like this one makes a lot of sense let's move forward and that's when I started figuring out how to work with lenders and how to navigate the entire process of trying to figure out you know zoning and housing and and and figure all of
00:09:00 - 00:09:50
that out and actually how to bring it to fruition and and how to find a lender how to work with lenders what to do when a lender says no cuz they say no all the time you're going to get told no by like 90% of the time um and and that's going to happen but the 10% that they say yes makes a difference how are you going to work with them how are you going to talk with them how are you going to get that deal from cool I got the initial approval to taking it all the way to the end of the fishing line finish line I
00:09:25 - 00:10:06
learned all of that through this process what about the licensing you know how am I going to get the license what if I want to be certified to serve a Medicaid population what does that look like and then you know after you close I tell this people to people all the time one day you're going to find the deal you're going to get the funding you're going to get the license you're going to close you're going to be so excited you're going to go to dinner that night it's going to be the best night of your life
00:09:46 - 00:10:35
I want you to close your eyes I want you to think of that like it is going to be awesome you're going to do it and then you're going to wake up the next morning and you're going to be like crap now I have to pay payroll I've got to I've got to buy food for all the residents I have to spend a ton of money in order to do this and it can be stressful so how are you going to run that business that right there what I just told you that's my five-phase process and how I help people launch their Assisted Living
00:10:10 - 00:10:57
business how I help you go through that process that's what I did that's what I that's how I got to where I am today and I got into coaching because I love coaching people before doing all of this with Assisted Living I actually taught people at the University of Utah and Healthcare analytics I love teaching I have a heart of a teacher I love helping people and guiding them through the process so if you need some guidance you need some help I'd love to help you go to apply to The Mastermind program Alim
00:10:34 - 00:11:24
mastermind.com lets you kind of get an overview of what that program is the five-phase process and everything that's included there go apply to The Mastermind program and I I would love to see you in there and help you out but I want you to know that you can do this you just got to start taking action and and the more that you use mentors and use people along your journey the more progress and the better off you're going to be you can see through my story I worked with I don't know four or five
00:10:59 - 00:11:52
different mentors at different stages throughout the process and had conversations with different people to really help me make progress it is absolutely key for you to have those people in your life that are going to allow you and really help you move things along so you can be successful to recap we've gone through my story I've gone through the five-phase process really hope that you found this information helpful and hopefully inspiring for you as you're trying to figure out how to get started
00:11:26 - 00:12:14
make sure you go grab that free calculator big blue box in the top right corner go grab that free tool to really help you move things along 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 doing that I love helping and coaching people exactly like you and remember it doesn't take a lot just a little bit just keep going step by step by step and
00:11:50 - 00:12:08
I promise you that if you do and you're consistent and persistent you're going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music]
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