How to Become an Assisted Living Facility Administrator
Apr 30, 2025
Becoming an Assisted Living Facility (ALF) Administrator can be a great way to step into the senior care industry, whether you want to manage a facility or eventually own one. But the process can feel confusing, especially since requirements vary by state.
In this guide, I'll break down the general steps to becoming an ALF Administrator so you know exactly what to expect.
Check out this video, too;
Do You Need a License to Run an Assisted Living Facility?
First, let's clear up a common question: Do you need to be a licensed administrator to own an assisted living facility?
The answer is no—you do not need to be a licensed administrator to own an assisted living facility. However, licensed facilities must have a licensed administrator on staff.
If you own a facility but don’t want to be the administrator, you can hire someone with the proper credentials. But if you want to be more hands-on in daily operations (or want to start as an administrator before becoming an owner), getting licensed is the way to go.
Steps to Becoming a Licensed Assisted Living Administrator
Since every state has its own requirements, the best way to start is by searching:
π₯οΈ “Assisted Living Facility Administrator Requirements in [Your State]”
But in general, the process includes:
1. Meet the Education Requirements
Most states require at least a high school diploma or GED, but higher education can reduce experience requirements.
- High school diploma → More work experience required
- Associate’s or bachelor’s degree → Less experience required
- Master’s degree → Least amount of experience required
Some states allow substituting education for experience, meaning the more schooling you have, the fewer work hours you need.
Example: In Idaho, a high school graduate may need 800 hours of work experience, while someone with a master’s degree may only need 200 hours.
2. Gain Required Work Experience
Most states require patient-facing experience before you can apply for an administrator license.
- The number of hours required often depends on your education level.
- Experience must often be completed in the same state where you’re applying for your license.
- Work experience should involve direct care, such as caregiving, nursing, or facility management.
Tip: If you’re planning to get licensed in another state, make sure your hours will count! Some states only accept experience earned within their state.
3. Complete the Required Training Course
Many states require a 40-hour or 80-hour administrator training course, which covers:
β
State regulations & compliance
β
Resident care & safety
β
Facility operations & management
β
Emergency procedures
β
Licensing & inspections
Each state has approved courses, which are often offered by nonprofits, universities, or state healthcare agencies.
4. Pass the Administrator Licensing Exam
After completing your training, you’ll need to pass a state-administered exam. The test typically covers:
π State regulations
π Healthcare management principles
π Assisted living facility operations
You usually get multiple attempts to pass, but there may be a limit on how often you can retake it within a certain timeframe.
Should You Become a Licensed Administrator?
Even if you don’t plan on working as an administrator, getting licensed can be a great move if you want to:
βοΈ Open your own assisted living facility
βοΈ Learn industry regulations firsthand
βοΈ Gain credibility and experience
Pro Tip: If you’re serious about owning a facility, consider taking the administrator course even if you don’t plan to be the administrator yourself. It will help you understand regulations and how to manage your staff effectively.
Next Steps
πΉ Need help creating a business plan? Download our Free Business Plan Checklist
πΉNeed help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Have questions? Drop them in the comments below!
Show full transcript π
Transcript
00:00:00
here with me on the channel today um for those of Assisted Living investing I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months excited to have you here with me today we're going to be talking about um how to become a an assisted living facility administrator U what that process is like uh and how you can obtain that I know there's a lot of you out there that uh this is something that you want to do you're interested in it but you don't know how to uh kind of get
00:00:29
started and and understand what the process is and everything that goes into it so I really want to try to make some uh you know give you some clarity on that today so that you know what to expect and how you can obtain that license and understand exactly what you're getting into uh as you start getting deeper into this world of of wanting to invest in Assisted Living so uh for those of you that need some help um creating a business plan I I have a free business plan checklist as well uh we've got that here on the on the site
00:01:02
that you can see um and uh just go to the Assisted Living investing. netb checklist you can go grab that free resource and it will help you uh just kind of build the business plan that you need that's that's going to help you be successful I always tell people that you got to start off by building a really solid business foundation and when you do that uh it's going to bring you some good success so um with that uh also want to kind of introduce myself for for those of you that don't know me and if
00:01:30
you you are new here uh then please typee in newbie down below I love seeing the new people and I will say also really quick I've been a little sick the last like five days and so uh I still have a little bit of a lingering cough I will try not to cough in the microphone but it might happen so if it does I really apologize um um let's see my background for those of you who don't know me my name is Brandon Gustafson I own and operate two assisted living facilities and been have been doing this
00:01:58
for 20 since 2020 um have been in the healthcare industry for over a decade have a masters in healthcare administration as well um for my facilities I actually operate them out of state I live in Utah and operate one in Colorado and one in Idaho we were in Colorado last week and had a lot of fun doing that uh we we I did a tour of my facility where we have a grant a million-dollar Grant there to make improvements to the house so that was a lot of fun to share with you all and hope you were able to watch that video
00:02:28
um I've also secured over one and a half million doll in SBA funding so I've done this uh a few times I understand the process What It Takes uh to to really make some progress here and help you reach your investment goals I was actually just talking with my broker uh yesterday um and we were having a really good conversation about just the progress that people make and and the steps that they need to take and what you need to do to prepare yourself and it was really just enlightening to hear
00:02:55
from him uh the things that you need to do to make sure that you are preparing yourself um somebody that that comes from that world and uh you know a lot of what I teach is is really helping you along that path so go grab the free resource uh go to Assisted Living investing. net BP checklist to grab that uh and if you need some help and guidance then feel free to apply to The Mastermind program as well to see if that's a good fit for you uh Alim mastermind.com and as the recording of this we are actually going to be doing a
00:03:24
uh a fun Workshop here in the next uh little bit as well uh it's a business Foundation basic Workshop uh that we'll be doing in November mid November uh you can sign up for that it's really cheap course uh go to Assisted Living investing. netb FB for business Foundation Basics BFB um and I would love to see you there so uh with all that out of the way uh let's get into the the process that you need to be going through um and please comment down below as well if you're in here um and
00:03:57
sha I see your question I'll get to all the questions at the end um but I'll stay I'll get through the topic and then we'll get to the questions but please uh people um type in your questions as well in in the comments and we have a lot of time for Q&A at the end so we're going to be talking about um how to get that that facility license that you need so you can um you know be a facility administrator so something I want you to be aware of is each state has their own specific process so everything that I
00:04:25
tell you here in this video is kind of generalities um each state will have their own specific process so I really want you to go and find the the information for your specific state for your specific situation to understand exactly what this is going to look like uh good way to start to figure that out is to search for something like assisted living facility administrator in my state and when you search for that it's going to give you a little bit of guidance there uh and and help you understand what that process is these
00:04:56
positions they are licensed at a state level um there's quite a few requirements and that's what we'll get into today but uh the different types of requirement that come together uh there's going to be a combination it's Unique to to every state and so I can tell you things that I've seen before um but you're going to want to look specifically for your state because what I tell you could be what it is in Idaho or Utah or Texas and you live in California or New York and it's a
00:05:24
completely different process and so that's something you just want to be uh aware of be aware of as you're trying to to become a facility administrator um one of the the key components here so I mentioned back here that there's a combination of different criteria uh one of those pieces of criteria is a level of education and the reason why I actually created this video was uh we had a comment on one of the YouTube videos uh somebody asking do I need to have a master's degree in order to be a
00:05:51
facility administrator and the answer to that question is absolutely not um my my administrator in uh Colorado I think I don't even think she has an associates degree uh she has a high school education um I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure and our administrator in Idaho I don't know what his education like for me it's it's honestly not something that I even look at as an owner and operator I'm not as concerned about the level of Education um sure if you have it that's fine I want to know
00:06:21
do you have the license and do you have the experience working through things that's what I'm looking at I'm I'm not honestly not that concerned about the level of Education you have um now one of these criteria is education though and that's going to dictate this next piece of criteria that I'll tell you but uh education uh could be high school or GED Associates bachelor's master's degree um it could be varying degrees uh of education and it can help you out in Expediting the process the more
00:06:50
education you have it's you know it's the same thing if you're applying to a job um just in in the normal uh the normal business world the more education you have the less experience you need um so you'll often see in job descriptions where it says um you know 10 years of experience required with a bachelor's degree but six years if you have a master's degree um so that's something that I I've seen a lot throughout my professional career and the value the the perceived value is that the more
00:07:20
education you have the less experience you need I don't know that I necessarily agree with that um I mean I have two master's degrees myself I've spent a lot of money on School uh and understand that process and you know it benefits me a little bit but um I think you learn so much more when you are doing the work yourself so but it is a piece of criteria there um next is going to be work experience and these two education and work experience they actually go really closely hand inand um the like I
00:07:49
was just mentioning the more education you have the less work experience that you need um in uh in Idaho I want to say uh the rule was if you have a high school education you need to have like 800 hours of uh of of working hours patient facing hours um if you have a bachelor's degree it's to 400 and if it's master's degree it's 200 um so that's that's something whereas me if I'm hiring somebody I want somebody that's actually been working with somebody not the theory of of doing it
00:08:18
the education that comes with it I want somebody that's actually interfacing and dealing with these problems but that's just something uh to be aware of but it does need to be patient facing care and often times a state is going to require that patient facing care happens in the state where you're trying to obtain the license so if I were to have the patient facing care here in Utah and then I decided you know I want to get my license in Idaho the the hours that I have working here in Utah wouldn't count
00:08:45
towards my hours that I need in Idaho I'd actually have to move to Idaho and have patient facing hours and work towards doing that actually have a buddy that that had that exact same experience um and and so that's something that that you want to be aware of that the hours that you need that there's an hour requirement in in Most states it should it will probably need to be inside of the state where you're trying to get licensed so I would caution those of you that are saying you know I live in I
00:09:14
don't know New York and I want to invest in Florida and I want to be an administrator um living in New York and then going down to Florida and immediately becoming the administrator it it might be difficult for you to do that you might need to move to Florida spend know a few months working and building up the experience working there to get the hours there and then move forward with the rest of the process to to become an administrator um I've got a call coming in I'm going to hang up and just make sure I do it
00:09:50
swipe the right way so I do hang up um okay so that's work experience um excuse me let me take some take a drink that's something that you you really need to be aware of uh next the next piece of this is going to be courses and so a lot of states are going to have um a requirement for courses there's I've seen 40 hour and 80h hour courses um these are like the courses that I do the courses that I share with you and and teach you and everything like that those are not they don't go towards becoming a
00:10:23
facility administrator they are designed courses inside the states where you are trying to obtain your license um each state will have their own requirement for what that looks like again this is why you want to check with your specific State um they will tell you how many hours you need which course you need to take and they'll provide you with information for where you can get the courses um it's oftentimes not specifically with the state it's not like a a state-based uh course but it is
00:10:51
with like a a partner or a nonprofit within the state that uh does the education piece and does the the courses for the state that's typically uh what I see with those but there will be a course that you have to to take and show that you know you combine these these three things your education level your work experience and taking the course and and kind of studying and and doing everything that you need to do to gain that education the courses are much more geared towards specific rules and
00:11:19
regulations in the states where you're going to be operating the the facility so it's really important for you to do that it's the best way for you to understand it and they make it a lot more digestible than just printing off the thousands of pages of rules and regulations that exist around assisted living and trying to read through legal jargon they make it a lot more digestible a little more fun to to read about and understand and and learn and there's there's you know video courses I
00:11:47
think there's probably some online uh or inperson types of events where you can go and learn these things uh so it's really important for you to do but courses is is the next piece of that and I I talked with I talked with a lot of you actually I'm in the Facebook group and and and oftentimes I hear you know i' I've taken the 80 hour course already and now I just need to pass the test which is awesome like I think it's incredible that you are getting to that point um and if you're at that point you
00:12:12
probably have also looked at the education and the work experience uh criteria but you want to make sure if you haven't already make sure you're looking at those things because as much as you uh can take the course and and then take the test and pass it you still may need to meet those other requirements something that you want to be aware of if you know what the state requirements are in your state I would love for people to chat that down below because I think it would help out the entire Community here um inside of
00:12:40
YouTube and and Facebook and so just type in you know um your state and then what the requirements are that you understand are the requirements I think that would be a great resource for for people that that know that the next piece of this is the test so you have to meet all that criteria um you know work hours uh your education level taking the course and then you have to take and pass the test I personally I'm not a a facility administrator I have never taken a test for for any of this um I am not familiar
00:13:11
enough with the test I don't know how long it takes to to finish the test I don't know how hard it is uh or anything like that uh but my understanding is you take that course and you have that patient facing experience and it makes the test a lot easier for you because you have the experience you know exactly what you need to do to take the test test um and and to pass it so that's a requirement I do believe you can take it multiple times though I'm sure there's some kind of a limit that says uh within
00:13:38
a certain time period you know call it six months you can only take it two or three times then you'd have to wait uh if you didn't pass so there's probably some kind of stipulations but again that is probably going to be dependent on the state that you're in um but at its core these are the types of things that you need to do to um to obtain your facility license um again I'll go back through this really quick there's education there's work experience there's courses
00:14:03
and then you have to take and you have to pass that test so those are the big things that you want to be paying attention to now the next question here that I often see is is the administrator license required and a licensed facility must have a licensed administrator as far as an unlicensed I'm a little unclear on that um I I I don't know if somebody does know I'd love to hear from that from them there uh I it wouldn't surpris me if you have to have at least a manager but because you're unlicensed
00:14:33
I don't know that you'd have to have a licensed administrator there uh but it also wouldn't surprise me um but a licensed facility must have a licensed administrator that is an absolute requirement the owner operator does not have to be the person that has that license as I mentioned I I have two of these facilities they're out of state I am not the licensed administrator for either of these facilities and I live out of state so you can do this without being the facility administrator
00:15:00
yourself but you do have to have that person I do however recommend and I think it's a great idea even if you're not going to become the administrator to take the course you know that 40 80 hour course so that you just understand especially if you're not uh familiar with the healthcare industry I think it's a really good opportunity for you to get familiar with the business with the type of uh issues that you might be uh interfacing with where to go find different rules and regulations how to
00:15:29
navigate things how to handle certain situations what happens when a survey happens um there's there's a lot that goes into this um Healthcare is very heavily regulated and so if that's something that that you are not familiar with or it scares you um Assisted Living might not be the best situation for you it can be a great investment it can be very lucrative but uh it it's also something that uh it takes time takes patience and takes a lot of uh just understanding what you're doing because
00:15:59
if you don't follow all the rules you can get in trouble and your license can be revoked and then you can't do that and then you're stuck with this property that um can't be Assisted Living because you've lost your license and the relicensing process is going to be extremely stringent um for you and then it's it's also kind of retrofitted for being an assisted living home which means it might not there there's a lower uh set of uh people that are are going a smaller set of of people that might be
00:16:30
interested in the building so I think it's an incredible idea for you to take the course or review the materials so that you know what you're getting into and how to handle uh those situations so with that said I want to remind people to like the video subscribe and ring the bell as well so you get notified when we do the the these types of videos we do lives on Tuesdays U where you can ask questions and we'll get to those here in a second so for those of you that are live please type in uh any questions
00:16:56
that you have um got some time to do that today uh and I know that we've got at least one in there already um so do that so you can you know ring the bell so you get notified when we do these on Tuesdays and then also on Thursdays we drop other content and you know every now and then I'll throw out extra videos and things like that like the tour of the facility that we did this past week uh and also want to remind you uh to go grab that business plan checklist BP checklist assisted Liv investing. netb
00:17:23
checklist apply to The Mastermind program at ali mastermind.com um if you're interested in some additional help as you're going through the process and then uh also if you would like to join us for the live workshop on building business foundations uh go to Assisted Living investing. net BFB um once we're it's going to be a live training um so if you're watching this and and that live training is gone you can still purchase the replays and things but if you're there for the live
00:17:51
there will be time for Q&A in those sessions as well we're actually going to hold two of them and you get access to both of them if you purchase that so Assisted Living investing. net BFB uh for business Foundation Basics BFB um all right let's move over here to questions so uh sha uh you have a question here how much minimum capital is required to start this is a good question um it depends uh so the the thing that as far as from a capital perspective um it's generally going to be a
00:18:27
percentage of of the amount that that that you're purchasing a facility for and and the type of loan that you're going to to be getting so let's for easy math let's use a million doll property so when you're working with an SBA loan um typically you're going to be looking at a 15 to 20% down payment for um for the for that type of an acquisition so your uh your down payment in that scenario would be 150 to $200,000 so that's the type of capital that you would need to have available in order to
00:18:58
do that and you could get the capital from a HELOC uh which is what we did when we were purchasing things it could be by working with other investors or Partners uh it could be cash that you have like there's any number of ways to do that you you have to show proof of funds at some point along the way to the lender um not necessarily to to the person that you're buying from from a from a seller but the lender is going to want to see those proof funds so that's something that uh that that you want to
00:19:24
be aware of I have seen um Sellers and their Brokers require proof of funds but I it it's not required so I think you can push back on it um if if I'm being honest um now if you're going to go more of a conventional route you're going to renovate a home and it's a million dollar home like you know big nice beautiful home um you're you're going to be looking at something because this is going to be considered a an investment property you're probably looking at about 25 to 30% down so and that
00:19:53
scenario you're looking at $250 to $300,000 down um on a million dollar property um and then you would need to have the capital to make any Renovations on the house as well that would be required and you can figure that out through the zoning process talking with the city uh fire department and those those types of people um and that could be anywhere from you know 20 to $100,000 uh just kind of depends um you can potentially build some of that into a loan um you could get maybe some kind of
00:20:23
a a construction type of a loan or something like that uh there are options there that you could that you could pursue and not have to have all of it um specifically for that but it's something that um that you would want to be aware of for sure um let's see uh I mean the other piece of that is if you can use other people's money and you're working with investors or Partners or things like that then you as an individual may not need to have the capital um to move forward with it uh for the facilities
00:20:52
that I that I purchased um I put in I don't know 15 to 20 grand um total uh is is what I did because I didn't have a lot of the money I partnered with my dad who had the the funds available um through a HELOC and so he did the majority of the down payment that I just caught us up on a few other things um here and there um for you know closing costs and stuff like that um had minimum amount and so that's the but I brought a lot of The Sweat Equity I did a lot of the work I had the background in
00:21:22
healthcare uh and did a lot of that type of of work so there just kind of you know what do you have available to you um and what can you put in there so hopefully that answers your question uh and gives you some guidance there it really does depend on the price uh and what you're looking at and then you're going to be looking at percentages uh SBA 15 to 20% uh conventional is going to be 25 to 30 uh more than likely um but if you have a good amount of Partners and and investors to be working
00:21:50
with you then um you can you can make that work a little bit uh better to to your advant advantage so there you go um I'm sorry I see my videos like going crazy I hope the audio is fine I don't know what's going on with I I think it's the computer so I guess when I rewatch The replay I'll figure that out if it was bad and if it is I really apologize I don't know what to do um anyways there are any other questions please go ahead and and put those in there now uh otherwise I
00:22:25
want to thank those of you who have been here on the live that have been watching uh love interacting with people and and answering your questions and helping you along along the path uh I want to remind you to go grab that business plan checklist again it's Assisted Living investing. netb checklist uh so you can go grab that free resource um we have a bunch of other free resources in the YouTube description so go and grab those uh if you'd like to apply to The Mastermind program that's Alim
00:22:50
mastermind.com or you can also go and grab the uh go come join me for the business Foundation Basics workshop at Assisted Living investing. netb FB for business Foundation Basics uh I want to thank everybody for watching thanks for being here and uh we'll chat with you next week thanks
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