How to Find the Perfect Property for Your Assisted Living Home
Apr 02, 2025
Starting your own assisted living home is exciting—and it can change lives. Not just your own, but the lives of the seniors and families you’ll serve. đź’–
But here’s the deal:
Without the right property, your business can’t even begin.
So, let’s walk through the simple steps to help you find that just-right home for your care business.
Check out the video, too:
Step 1: Build a Solid Business Plan
Before you even begin searching for a property, it’s crucial to have a well-thought-out business plan. Your business plan will help define your:
- Number of residents you plan to accommodate
- Required property size (number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and common areas)
- Geographic location that aligns with market demand
- Budget and financial projections to determine affordability
Providing specific criteria for your property search makes it easier. For example, telling a real estate agent, “I need a 10-bedroom home in Boise, Idaho, with at least eight bathrooms and a $1.5 million budget,” helps narrow down options and saves time.
Step 2: Understand Your Budget and Financing
Knowing your budget is critical when searching for the right property. Your financial plan should consider:
- Upfront costs (down payment, renovations, licensing fees)
- Ongoing expenses (mortgage, utilities, staffing, insurance)
- Revenue potential (monthly resident fees and additional services)
If you’re unsure how much house you can afford while maintaining profitability, check out our free underwriting calculator. This tool will help you analyze financial feasibility before committing to a property.
Step 3: Choose the Right Location
The location of your assisted living home plays a significant role in its success. Here are some key factors to consider:
- Proximity to hospitals and healthcare facilities
- Accessibility for families and visitors
- Demand for assisted living services in the area
- Zoning laws and regulations
Before purchasing a property, research the local market and talk to professionals who specialize in senior living real estate.
Step 4: Ensure Proper Zoning and Licensing
Even if a property looks perfect, zoning laws can determine whether you can legally operate an assisted living facility there. Before making a purchase, check with local zoning authorities to confirm that the property meets regulations. You’ll also need to:
- Obtain a certificate of occupancy
- Meet the required zoning designations for residential care homes
- Understand any restrictions on the number of unrelated individuals who can live in the home
Navigating zoning laws can be complex, so it’s essential to work with professionals who understand the legal requirements for assisted living businesses.
Step 5: Get Fire and Safety Approvals
Your facility must comply with fire and safety regulations to ensure the well-being of your residents. The local fire department will inspect your property and determine whether you need:
- A fire sprinkler system
- Wider doorways and hallways for accessibility
- Emergency exit plans and smoke detectors
Meeting these safety requirements is a critical step before applying for your assisted living license.
Step 6: Work with the Right Professionals
Finding the right property for your assisted living business isn’t something you have to do alone. Consider working with:
- Real estate agents who specialize in senior living properties
- Zoning and legal experts to ensure compliance with regulations
- Financial advisors to help you budget effectively
The right team can make the process smoother and help you avoid costly mistakes.
Final Thoughts
Finding the perfect property is one of the most important steps in launching a successful assisted living business. By following these steps—creating a strong business plan, understanding your budget, choosing the right location, ensuring proper zoning, and meeting safety requirements—you’ll be well on your way to running a thriving assisted living home.
To further support your journey, grab your free Business Plan Checklist, which is designed to help you create a comprehensive plan for your new facility.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00
hey friend I'm Brandon Gustafson and I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months in today's video we're going to be getting into the keys to finding the right property for your assisted living home so if you want some help and guidance doing that make sure you stick around for today's [Music] video hey friend welcome back to Assisted Living investing if you need some help and some guidance as you're trying to figure out if this property that you found is the right one for you
00:00:31
go and grab our free underwriting calculator at Assisted Living investing. net just go there top right corner you're going to get a little thing for the calculator uh go grab that free resource uh give it away to everybody and we have a link for a bunch of other free resources down below so go and grab whatever you need to help you get started now let's get into the topic for today's video we're talking about the keys to finding the right property for your assisted living home uh this is
00:00:55
something that a lot of people struggle with I hear from a lot of people that they don't even know how to go about finding the right property or or how to go about getting the right thing now for those of you that have been watching the channel for any amount of time I've talked about my Mastermind program and inside of that program you can go apply for that you go to Alim mastermind.com application we'll have a link down below but in there I go through a five PA five phase process so we've been talking the
00:01:22
last few videos about the first phace which is all about business foundations how to set up the right entity market research business plan underwriting I have a bunch of resources on the channel on the website that help you get through that foundational phase and I honestly think that is the most important thing that you can do if you need to spend time on anything you should be building that business Foundation because it makes the rest of this go much more smoothly phase two is what we're talking
00:01:48
about today it is the keys to finding the right property it's getting that home it's it's actually finding the right house so that you can have your business which is you know also extremely important you Cann not have a an assisted living business if you don't have a home to run the business out of whether you're buying a home or leasing from somebody uh buying an existing business or if you're going the route of buying a home to do a conversion on it regardless of what you do you need a
00:02:16
physical property physical space where you can provide these services to people as you're getting into running your Assisted Living business okay so let's get into some of the keys for helping you find the right property as I mentioned in that first phase that building the business Foundation piece of it big one of the main components there is building the business plan and your business plan is actually going this is where it helps you accelerate things when you get here to phase two and finding the right property you at
00:02:47
this point because you spent the time on the business plan you know what your criteria is you know how many beds you want to have in the facility you know the size of the facility how many bathrooms you know kitchen size you you've done the research you know which geographic location you want this in you know what that criteria is and then you go talk to a broker or an agent and you just say I need a 10-bedroom home that is in you know Minneapolis I don't know in Atlantis wherever you want it to be
00:03:15
you you want to put it you give that criteria to them and they say oh cool yeah let's narrow the search down that is the world down to here's five properties for you and now this this is a very different conversation you have five you can go look at all five of them if you want um cuz you have spent the time getting that criteria really honed in and you know what you're looking for so that's a big piece that comes from having the business plan the other is going to be your price range so in in
00:03:42
the business foundational piece you're getting really familiar with the finances of a business and what your all the costs are that that go into this and that's going to help dictate how much money you have to spend on a house is going to allow it to still be profitable um it's also going to tell you you know how much money you have for down payment to see how much house you can buy and so your dream might be some like super high in luxury house that's $5 million but your budget realistically
00:04:12
is a million you're going to have to shift things around but also that that gives you criteria to give to your agent to your broker and say hey I need a 10-bedroom home with eight bathrooms I need it in Atlantis and I need it to cost 1.5 million like all of a sudden the world of everything that's out there is has shrunk down significantly and now you're looking at three five properties that are very specific to what you want and it makes your life so much easier does not mean that you're going to find
00:04:42
the exact house just makes it so that it's a lot easier to find the right house because you've built in that criteria and you know what your price range is so this is why it's so important for you to do this up front in in that business plan phase now as you get into this where you're trying to find the right property the keys that you need here are finding the right house this is again building that criteria working with the right people to help you find the right house so you can get this number two is making sure
00:05:08
that it is zoned properly you have to get zoning in place zoning is it can be complex it can be confusing you have to make sure that it's there that allows you to get the certificate of occupancy and allow you to actually run a business with the amount of unrelated individuals that are going to be in the home this is a very big part of what you're doing for your Assisted Living business business and the third one is getting approvals from the fire department you know they will tell you if you need a fire
00:05:35
sprinkling system if you need to have wider doorways or hallways or whatever it is they will help you out but you have to have that approval as well when you go to get your license which is a phase four activity so we'll get to that in in a later video but we're going to be talking about this over the next few weeks we're going to be talking about those three main things of finding the right house zoning and fire department approvals so if you need some help or guidance on those I'd love to hear which
00:06:01
of which of those three would be most beneficial to you um is it going to be finding the right property is it going to be understanding zoning or is it going to be understanding how to get the fire department to approve on those things so comment down below property zoning or Fire Down Below and you know let me see what's going on and and where you're at so to recap a little bit of this video we've been talking about why that business plan phase that business Foundation is so important how it's
00:06:27
going to help you out as you get into this and then those three big keys for finding the right house for you it is looking for the property getting zoning in place and getting the fire department to just give you the check and and say yep you are good to go um I you know I talked a little bit about the Mastermind program five-phase process we've we've covered a lot about all of them in in past videos this time we're talking about that Phase 2 activity helping you find the right property if you need some
00:06:54
guidance you you need some help I love helping people I love I love coaching people I really do I do it for you I I I get satisfaction out of it it's fun for me to help you out and Coach you but I do it for you to help you reach your goals cuz if you're feeling overwhelmed and confused and just like you don't know what you're doing and you need guidance and you need a process then check check out The Mastermind go to Alim mastermind.com application and and fill out the application it's 5 minutes doesn't take
00:07:24
you very long results in me sending you information there's no sales call no weird pressur things cuz you know nobody really enjoys that and so I I just want to make this a process that works for you and that's the way that I found to do that so go check that out Alim mastermind.com application fill it out and I'll I would love to hear from you and I'll see if I can help you out and point you in the right direction if I can't that's what I'm here for also I want to remind you to like the video
00:07:50
subscribe and ring the bell as well so you get notified every time we put out content we go live on Tuesdays and we also put out the long form videos here on Thursdays putting out a ton of content cont for you make sure you get inside the ecosystem get on uh go grab that free resource and you'll get on our newsletter so we send you the links to all the stuff and you can be like yep that's the one I really want to look at the blog the podcast YouTube all of the things are there we send that to you in
00:08:14
a nice little package so you know exactly what's going on in in this world to help you launch that Assisted Living business does residential Assisted Living sound interesting to you but you don't know how to get started at assisted Liv investing. net I'm here to help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months I want to thank you for watching 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
00:08:36
and you're consistent and persistent you will be successful thanks for watching and have a great day [Music]
Download Your FREE Calculator
Stay connected with news and updates!
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.
Don't worry, your information will not be shared.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.