How ONE Key Person Can Help You Build Your Assisted Living Business
Oct 29, 2025
Starting an assisted living business can feel exciting—but also overwhelming. Where do you start? How do you get funding? Who can help you make it happen?
Good news—you don’t have to figure it out alone! This guide breaks down the key person you need in your network to help secure funding for your assisted living business and shares actionable steps you can take to build those relationships.
Let’s dive in! 🚀
Check out this video, too:
Why Building Relationships Matters
Funding is often the biggest hurdle for new assisted living businesses.
A strong network can make a huge difference. Relationships can:
✅ Open doors to lenders you wouldn’t find on your own
✅ Help you understand the funding process
✅ Give you coaching and guidance to present your business professionally
It’s not just about knowing someone—it’s about building trust and connections that last.
Step 1: Start Your Own Lender Search
Before finding the key person, you should do some groundwork yourself:
🔍 Search online for lenders – Look for SBA lenders in your state. Many states have lists already compiled.
📞 Cold call local banks and credit unions – Keep your pitch short and clear. For example:
Introduce yourself and explain you are starting or buying an assisted living business and looking for funding. Ask if they can help, and if not, ask who they know that can.
💡 Tip: Always leave an open-ended question. Instead of just asking “yes or no,” ask them who they know who can help. This opens doors and starts networking.
✅ Be professional and courteous. You never know when you might need their help in the future.
Step 2: Leverage Your Broker or Agent
If you’re buying an existing facility, your broker or agent can be a massive resource.
Brokers and agents:
✅ Have existing relationships with lenders
✅ Know how to navigate deals and negotiations
✅ Can make warm introductions, saving you time and effort
And the best part? They get paid by the seller, so you don’t have to pay them directly.
Step 3: Find the Key Person – A Lending Broker
The most critical person to have in your network is a lending broker.
What do they do?
💼 Gather information from multiple lenders
💼 Facilitate introductions
💼 Coach you through the funding process, including paperwork, underwriting, and business plans
A good lending broker can exponentially increase your chances of securing funding. Here are a couple resources:
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Regina Morgan – She works with lending partners to help secure funding and has experience with grant projects. Check out my interview with Regina here 👉 Regina Morgan Interview
-
Find a lending broker near you – I used a lending broker with the Bank of Denver to fund both of my assisted living facilities - look for someone who can help you at your local bank.
💡 Pro Tip: Your agent or broker can often connect you with a lending broker. Use those connections—they save you months of effort.
Step 4: Be Prepared and Put in the Work
Having a lending broker doesn’t mean everything is automatic.
To maximize your success:
✅ Prepare a solid business plan (Download the free Business Plan Checklist)
✅ Learn underwriting and know your numbers
✅ Be patient and consistent—relationship building takes time
Even with a lending broker, persistence and preparation are key.
Step 5: Build a Network That Supports Your Business
Funding is just one part of launching a successful assisted living business. By building relationships with lenders, brokers, and agents, you create a support system that:
✅ Opens doors to opportunities
✅ Provides coaching and guidance
✅ Helps you confidently navigate complex processes
Focus on relationships, follow the steps, and your chances of funding success will grow exponentially.
Next Steps: Take Action Today!
🚀 Ready to launch your assisted living business in the next 12 months? Here’s how to start:
✅ Step 1: Download the Business Plan Checklist to start building your foundation.
✅ Step 2: Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Got questions? Drop them in the comments below! ⬇️
Show full transcript 👇
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. And today's video, we're going to be getting into the key person that you need to have in your network to help you secure funding for your assisted living business. So, if you're interested in learning more about that, make sure you stick around for today's video. And welcome to assisted living investing. Hey friend, welcome back to Assisted Living Investing. Excited to dive into
00:00:28 - 00:01:13
our topic today. Before we get started, I want to remind you to go run over to the website assistedlivinginvesting.net. You can grab our free underwriting calculator. It's the big blue box in the top right corner. You can't miss it. Make sure you go and grab that. It's going to help you as you are trying to get your funding, which is probably why you're watching this video. So, make sure you go and grab that assisted livinginvesting.net. Now, let's get into the topic for today's video. We are
00:00:51 - 00:01:43
going to be discussing the key person that you need to build a relationship with to help you secure the funding that you're trying to get for your assisted living business. Now, before we get into who this person is, I want to give you a few other options that you should be trying to do as you're trying to figure all this out, especially if you have a struggle finding this key person. So, the first thing that I want you to be doing is trying to find lenders on your own. And I know you probably have been
00:01:17 - 00:02:11
doing that, but this can be hard. It can take you a lot of time. It can be difficult to try to find the right lender that you need to help you secure the funding that you're looking for. What I'm going to suggest that you do is something like internet searching, which is, you know, yeah, no, no duh, right? You have probably been doing that, or cold calling banks and credit unions. I suggest that you start off with local banks and credit unions. If you do a search and you're trying to look for an
00:01:43 - 00:02:43
SBA lender, you can look online for SBA lenders in my state. And if you do that, you're either going to find a list that somebody created a blog with, or a lot of states actually have this information already just kind of condensed down into a list. So, if you can find that, gives you a really great working list to start working with to help you find a lender that you're looking for. Now, when you reach out to these lenders, you want to just kind of keep it very high level, very brief. You want to have a very kind
00:02:14 - 00:03:07
of condensed conversation where you go and you talk to them. If it's email, you're going to say, "Hey, this is Brandon. I am starting an assisted living business or I'm buying an existing assisted living business. We're looking for funding for this. Is this the type of deal that you would be interested in? Is this the type of deal that you work with, that your bank works with? And if not, who do you know that does? So, you always want to add that little extra question on there. Don't
00:02:41 - 00:03:35
leave it close-ended where the the answer is either yes or no. Leave it, hey, do you know can you do this? Can you help me out? That's a yes or no question. And if not, who do you know that can, right? And that way, it's going to get them thinking, which people I went to that banking conference last year. Who did I know that did SBA loans that I can introduce this person to? Leaving it a little more open-ended is going to open up a few more doors for you. If you're going to do calling, you
00:03:08 - 00:04:03
want to do the exact same thing. You want to start out very quick elevator pitch, 30 second or less commercial about yourself. Hey, my name is Brandon. I am looking to buy an existing assisted living business in this state in this city. And we wanted to see is that something that you can help us out with? And if they can, then great. And if not, they say no. Then the follow-up question, because it's a little bit better when you're doing this on the phone, follow-up question is, "Who do
00:03:35 - 00:04:27
you know that can help me? Who in your network can help me out with that?" That's the follow-up question. So, you want to be building this relationship with them. When you're doing this with nobody uh introducing yourself, you also need to be very professional, very courteous. You need to be very appreciative of their time and make sure that they know that you are grateful for the time that they're giving you because you never know if if you're going to need to go back to them in 3 months, 6
00:04:01 - 00:04:53
months, 2 years, 5 years from now. If you leave them with a bad experience, then they won't want to talk to you or work with you at all. And they will talk about you to other people. So, make sure that you are kind. Expect that they're going to tell you no, because percentage- wise, they probably are. but build a relationship with these lenders and try to see what they can do to help you as you're trying to figure things out. So, that's going to be the first one. Go and do this on your own. And
00:04:28 - 00:05:17
hopefully those little tips and tricks there are going to help you learn how to do that more efficiently as you're trying to talk and work with lenders. The second one that I want to talk to you about is working with your broker or your agent. So, if you're trying to find a home, you're trying to buy an existing business, I strongly encourage you, like very strongly encourage you to be working with a broker or an agent to help you find that. They're going to be able to help you navigate some of those
00:04:52 - 00:05:46
difficult processes as you're trying to find a lender or buy the house or negotiate a deal. They're incredible resources for that. So, make sure you're working with a broker or an agent to help you do all that. And the best part is you don't have to pay them directly. They're going to get paid once you buy the house, but they're getting paid effectively by the seller. So, that why not? You you got to use these people. When you are using a broker or an agent, the reason why they are a great resource
00:05:19 - 00:06:02
is if they're a good one, they've been doing this for a long time. They're going to have a lot of relationships already that exist. They're going to know how to have those conversations. They're going to be able to facilitate some of those relationships for you. they're they're going to be able to be like, "Oh, hey, yeah, I've got I've worked with this lender five times before. They're great." Or, "I go to this networking event and I've got a
00:05:41 - 00:06:42
lender here in my BNI group." They're going to be able to make those introductions. And when you have somebody that makes an introduction for you, it increases your chances of working with that lender exponentially. So, if you have a good broker, a good agent, and you're working with them to help make those introductions, make sure you leverage that because it can be a key way for you to find a lender that one, specifically works with this type of assisted living, this type of real
00:06:12 - 00:07:04
estate, but two, it's going to just increase your chances of getting the funding that you're looking for exponentially. They have connections. This is a lot of what they do. They know what they're supposed to be doing. like they they do research on that and and things like that, but a lot of their work as a broker or an agent is networking, getting out and talking to people, getting to know what people want to see and serving other people. And so, a good broker or a good agent is going
00:06:38 - 00:07:32
to have these connections cuz that's where they spend the bulk of their time is just working on that. The key person you need to talk to is what's called a lending broker. These are people that what they do is they go and they kind of gather all of this information from different lenders and they learn exactly what they want and they are there to kind of facilitate relationships. Like it is their full-time job to be doing this. So, if you can find a lending broker to help you find a lender, then
00:07:04 - 00:07:59
you're going to be far more advanced than you would be otherwise. I have a few resources for you there. One is Regina Morgan. So, we did a video with her. We'll link that up above so you can go watch that video. But Regina does effectively this. She works with other lending partners to help you secure the funding that you need. So, make sure you go check out that video. Go reach out to Regina if you are in need of getting funding. She's great to work with. She's helped me in a bind in getting funding
00:07:32 - 00:08:25
for a grant project that we had with some short-term funding, but I know she has some other loan products out there uh and relationships to help you get the funding that you need. So, she's a great resource. When I was getting started, I actually used a lending broker as well. He was with the Bank of Denver. He helped us facilitate relationships for both of our facilities. And because of that, we were able to secure the funding that we needed. Finding and working with a lending broker is going to accelerate
00:07:58 - 00:08:52
things even more than just working with your agent or your broker who you are working with to obtain the the real estate. These lending brokers, it is their full-time job to be developing relationships with other lenders to help find what's out there. They'll also be able to guide you on things that you need to successfully get in front of lenders. So, not only are they making warm introductions, hey, this is Brandon. He's looking for funding with assisted living. I know this is an area
00:08:26 - 00:09:16
that you guys work in. I'm going to let you guys take the conversation from here. What they're going to do is kind of coach you through a little bit the process of what it's like working with a lender, the documents that you're going to need. Hint, you're going to need a business plan. Go check out the business plan checklist at assistedlivinginvesting.net/bp checklist. Go grab that free resource for you. They're also going to be telling you, hey, underwriting is super important. You got to figure out how to
00:08:50 - 00:09:39
do underwriting. You got to to learn what the numbers look like and make sure that that's solid. and they're going to to help you just kind of coach you through here's the paperwork that here's the forms, here's all the things that you're going to need as you're trying to secure funding so that when you go to a lender and you are presenting a deal to them, you don't fill or sound like a total newbie as you're trying to do this, they're going to level up your
00:09:14 - 00:10:09
game, allow you to make good contact with people, and help a little bit of coaching you through the process. So, these are incredible people that you need to find and work with as you're trying to secure funding. Now, finding a lending broker can be difficult. So, I want you to be aware of that. But using somebody like Regina or talking with a bunch of people and developing relationships, this is another key spot where your broker or your agent that you're working with to find the house
00:09:42 - 00:10:36
can be really effective because they may know a lending broker and that person can help you really accelerate your path to obtaining the funding that you're looking for. Now, this is not a silver bullet. This does not mean that you're going to, you know, you found a lending broker, they're going to find you the funding and everything is going to be great. You still have to put in the work. You're still going to get told no dozens of times. So, don't think that, oh man, cool. Now, I know the exact key
00:10:09 - 00:11:03
that I need to have to allow me to get the funding. This is not that. but it will increase your chances exponentially and you're going to have a lot more success just by having this person in your network to help you as you're trying to secure the funding that you need for your assisted living business. So, in this video we talked a lot about the different ways that you can find lenders. One is you doing it on your own and you can do this. I have secured funding this way by going out just cold
00:10:36 - 00:11:30
outreach to a bunch of different lenders, see what I can find and working with them. And I've had success. I've secured funding that way. I've done this actually also working with my broker who helped introduce me to my lending broker. So, building that relationship with that person and I've worked with lending brokers in the past to secure more funding. These are incredible people. This process works. It just takes time. It takes patience and it it is very much relationship building. So,
00:11:03 - 00:11:46
make sure you get in that mode. Make sure you're ready to build relationships. And when you do that, you're going to have a ton of success. I hope you found this video helpful. If you did, make 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. And my goal is to help you launch your assisted living business. I love doing it. It's one of my favorite
00:11:24 - 00:12:15
things to do. And in addition to our free resources, if you want a community that can kind of help you out and you want a little bit of coaching from me, check out our ALI basics community. Go to assisted livinginvesting.net/basics and check that out. We do monthly Q&A calls for our members. uh you get priority on our live sessions. There's Q&A, little tiny clips to help you make some progress in there and there's a community where you can build relationships and get answers from me as
00:11:50 - 00:12:38
you're trying to make progress. So go check that out at assisted livinginvesting.net/basics. 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. It is one of my favorite things to do 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
00:12:14 - 00:12:33
step and I promise you 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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