How to Start an Assisted Living Home for Veterans

Transcript

00:00:05
hey friend it's Brandon Gustafson with Assisted Living investing excited to have you here with me on the channel uh here at Assisted Living investing I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months excited to be chatting with you today for our topic for our live today we're going to be getting into how to start an assisted living home for veterans I see this question by people all the time um and I think it's it's a very valid thing uh to be asking because um there are

00:00:30
some complexities that that I want you to be aware of U working with the VA can be a little bit more confusing than uh working with um other other places so uh we're going to be getting into that in today's video let me uh hop in here and add my screen um while we're doing this want to remind you to get over to the the website um and go grab the the free business plan checklist uh you can go to Assisted Living investing. net slbp checklist and get access to that free uh business plan checklist to help you

00:01:02
out along the way in in getting things up and running uh getting your facility ready to go and building that business Foundation uh which is such an important part of what you're trying to do as you are launching that Assisted Living business and uh it's really a key component so I want to remind you go grab that free resource uh again that's Assisted Living investing. netb checklist um and with that said um I think we got this on the Facebook now so I'm G FP flip my screen around it's

00:01:32
always fun trying to get that in there um all right um so a little bit of background on me uh so you know who you're talking to uh as is you know why I'm qualified to talk with you a little bit about how to set up a home for veterans um I've got a background um in healthcare I've been in the healthcare industry now for over a decade um have a lot of experience uh in there largely with nonprofit organizations um with large Healthcare payers as well I kind of understand that that process have a

00:01:58
master's in healthcare administration um so I've been in in industry for a long time I also own two assisted living facilities uh and operate those out of state so I live in Utah and operate one of my facilities is in Colorado and the other one is in Idaho so I operate those remotely and through that process have been able to secure also just one and a half million in SBA funding uh and so I understand that process what it's like to kind of go through the funding process uh we've done over 1.2 million

00:02:26
in grant funding as well for our facilities um to make improvements and and get uh extra technology and things like that for our businesses uh so have a lot of experience just in the industry how to navigate things um if you are new here would love if you could type in newbie down below as well that's always uh great to see all the new people and then for those of you that are on the live um there will be time for some Q&A here at the end of the the end of the the presentation or the end of the video

00:02:52
uh so make sure you're typing in those videos uh typing in those questions as we go along and I will get to those um here as well so um sorry I'm a little bit flustered today I was able to go to one of the people in The Mastermind program I went to a house that they have they're local to me here in Utah so we went and walked that property uh to look at turning it into an assisted living home and it was a lot of fun um but I'm just like a little bit flustered because of that my schedule's all different uh

00:03:18
if you're interested in in applying to The Mastermind program you can do that at Alim mastermind.com would love to see if I can help you out uh just free application process uh let me see if I can help you out and if I can then I will give you all the details and you can determine if if it's a good fit for you so go ahead and do that at Alim mastermind.com um now let's get into the topic uh here for the video today um first off um I want to just a little bit of background here on the veteran

00:03:45
population and want to uh thank uh all of those that are veterans that are watching this um or for those of you who are have family members uh like just incredible people um I'm not a veteran myself but I have immense respect for for our veterans um have gone to school with them had a lot of a lot of what's going on in the the VA Heth system and some of the the um lack of of benefits and the lack of things that it has that can really benefit people as they're trying to to get the healthc care that

00:04:16
they need and um as sad as it is it's something that we really need to to be aware of um so that we can help that population so that population is largely aging uh as well which is something I mean the population in general is aging but the veteran population is also aging uh there's there's a big need for that um a lot of the care that you're going to be um administering to veterans are going to be um mobility issues as as they're aging but also mental health um mental health support PTSD um or

00:04:49
resulting other uh types of diagnoses that that fall into that from the the things that they've been that they've been asked to do um my home in Colorado we actually deal with mental health uh we're we're a mental health home um we may have one or two veterans in there uh we don't have a lot but um a lot of our residents deal with schizophrenia and bipolar and it's an interesting population to work with I love going there we're actually going there uh later this week to go and just kind of

00:05:18
walk the property and and interact with our staff and our residents a little bit and I I'm super excited for it because I love going there and getting to know um our residents and what's going on in their lives and and what's going on so um a lot of people there's there's a stigma around mental health uh I feel like and I think it's improved significantly over the past several years but it's something that uh that I want you to be aware of that you can serve that population um and and have a

00:05:45
huge impact on on that group of people and they need it just as much as the those that are aging uh the elderly population and sometimes there's there's overlap there but it's really important for us to serve that population whether they're veterans or not um to to provide them with some of the resources and and the care um that they need uh is going to to Really benefit them and and benefit you as well so that's kind of the the population that you're going to be dealing with here um as you get into

00:06:14
working with veterans um that that I want you to be aware of um and sorry I had the I forgot I had my headphone on so I'm G take that off um let's see now I want to talk a little bit about the VA benefits that exist that are applicable to Assisted Living there's there's two Main benefits here and I don't I don't know all of the the intricacies of it I do believe that it is going to be very similar to how um Medicaid works at least from a reimbursement standpoint um there there's going to be a VA benefit

00:06:45
and then there will also be like a social security um benefit that that that the veteran would receive and then you collect on a portion of that though I don't have practical experience with this so I don't know that for sure Medicaid you certainly can do that uh the VA a little unclear a little fuzzy for me and I say that because the rates here that I'm seeing are are a little low so I I do believe that you're able to combine these benefits um I don't know if somebody watching this could tell me

00:07:15
uh if if a veteran can have VA benefits and Medicaid or if they're only allowed one of those benefits uh I would be really interested in in seeing that because that could also um adjust things U as you're providing care so if anybody knows that in the comments um please comment that down below that would be really helpful um but the the two big ones that you want to be aware of as you're working with the VA um they're called the aid and attendance or a and a and then there's housebound um these are the

00:07:42
two benefits that are applicable to Assisted Living to long-term care so the reimbursement for these benefits they they get adjusted on an annual basis and so you have to you're going to need to uh look at those and see what they look at what they look like how they've changed they they have a track record of going up so as a business owner this benefits you um excuse me so they have a track record of going up uh and that's just because they kind of go up with with inflation um as things move along and so they will

00:08:16
review it on an annual basis um and it will likely go up not by huge amounts but it will go up incrementally over time um maybe you know 50 to a couple hundred bucks a year is the increase that you're going to see um when you when you look at that it also B is based off of the circumstances of the veteran um this could be family members uh if it's a spouse of a of a former veteran uh who is passed on or if they're married um the the type of care that they need or this they disabled um

00:08:49
the you see this range here it's $1,100 to $3600 per month it's very wide range um and it is because there are it is very specific to the the cas case for that specific veteran and or their family members um and and how that benefit um comes to them um so that's that's what it is and then the AA benefit if they qualify for it has a higher reimbursement rate than the housebound the housebound one is lower and so it just kind of depends and then they have to meet certain criteria that

00:09:21
I don't claim to know um because this is probably something that is evaluated at on a very specific level um but they have to meet certain criteria to get each of those benefits I I also don't think they can have both of them it's one or the other if they can have it and then um they have to probably be evaluated on an annual basis to to ensure that they can maintain that that benefit is is my assumption just based off of what I know working with government uh based Healthcare um it's

00:09:50
it's going to be very convoluted there's going to be a lot that goes into this um so if you are somebody um that is a veteran or a family member that's a veteran then you're working with those VA benefits uh if you have comments on that and can maybe explain it I think that would be very enlightening to the rest of the group um and and people that find this video but it is um there's going to be a lot that goes into it and and just know going into it that those benefits are not going to be

00:10:17
straightforward that it's going to take a lot of time and a a lot of patience as you work through that I'm here at the the end of the video I actually have a slide for a few organizations that kind of help out in navigating this process because it is so confusing there are some nonprofit organizations out there and um other VA Resource Centers that can help out in just navigating everything here it can be complex and you as a provider don't necessarily need to understand everything but the more

00:10:45
that you understand this information the better off you're going to be because then you can speak intelligently to it and even help navigate some of those conversations with those organizations that are helping to describe what the benefits are um so that's something that I just want you to kind of be aware of as you get into this and and see uh just kind of get a good understanding of exactly what you're working with there um okay let's get on to the next one so and I see there's a a handful of

00:11:14
questions in here I just want to make sure I'm not hitting missing anything um okay yeah so we'll get to the the questions that at the end um now let's talk about eligibility criteria for those veterans and I mentioned this a little bit in in the last slide but there's there's a few different criteria that are going to allow them to receive this VA benefit for the A&A or the housebound um and those are going to be contingent on service history uh disability rating income level um like

00:11:44
how much they're making today the need for daily Assistance or Mobility limitations so this is um they will do an evaluation to see exactly how much care is needed um so that's a piece of this and then each state is also going to have potentially um different guidelines while the VA is uh a federally run thing uh my understanding is the the administration of these VA benefits they are they trickle down to the States and they each have their own ability to to make little changes to it so to just like further convolute things

00:12:19
um we're throwing in different states that have different regulations and how they handle things so that's something you also want to be aware of uh so there's a lot as you can see there that goes into this and um as I mentioned before they're going to want to look at this uh on a regular basis uh I would say at least annually in my experience U working with with these types of of programs they'll want to evaluate that and make sure that you still qualify for the benefit which means if if a if a if a

00:12:52
veteran had significant Improvement in their health over a period of time which could you know possibly happen um that they would lose that benefit I would say it's not likely but if they just had something happen where they they got a lot better um and their Mobility improved significantly and they didn't need assisted living they would lose whatever benef that they had and then they wouldn't be able to do that and wouldn't be able to have them in your home um at least from a from for

00:13:24
a receiving um funds from the VA hopefully that made sense makes sense of my mind hopefully it made sense to you all right now let's uh talk about setting up your home for a veteran Assisted Living um and I would say a lot of this is it's going to follow uh many of the standards for a typical assisted living home uh I don't think you're going to have to go too overboard um you do have to meet those local standards so it does need to at least be that but you also have to meet these VA standards and

00:13:57
this is going to include accessibility and safety standards um there's there's a group out there it's called the veteran Community Living centers and they they're great models for you to understand what those VA standards are this is including just like you know if if they needed a ramp or uh or something along those lines I I'll share an experience so we were selling a home um at one point the first home that we that we owned uh we sold it and we were selling to somebody that was using a VA

00:14:24
loan to do that and uh which which is fine um but what it did for me a seller is um the appraisal process and how that worked uh was detrimental to me as the seller it was beneficial to to the person who bought it um but because some of the the property was underneath the ground uh they counted square footage differently u based off the year it was built and so the valuation um of of our home was was lower because the person with a VA loan was purchasing it um and so something that you want to be aware of there are

00:15:01
different standards and I just use that as an example um not to say that I know all of the the standards that are required for assisted living in a veteran's home it's just they will be different and more um more heavily regulated than just a typical assisted living home so something that you want to be aware of um is if you want to have your home be specific or want to cater to Veterans then you're going to want to go and and work with somebody like a veteran Community Living Center understand what

00:15:35
the VA standards are that they have to adhere to and then make sure that you then know what that means for you in your home do you need other specific things um that are for veterans um that meet the standards of the VA there's just an extra level of vetting just an extra level of uh barrier to entry that you've got to to jump over if you want to get in and and serve this population I I would say it's not I don't know the specifics I would say it's not so detrimental that you shouldn't do it

00:16:06
it's just something that I want you to be aware of as if you are interested in serving this population that there will probably be an extra one to 20 Hoops to jump through um as you're trying to get this thing up and running just that's the reality of it so uh just want to kind of have some transparency there for you now let's talk about funding a home for veterans and we've talked about funding on this channel uh several times and like how to find the funds um there's there's I would say if you're

00:16:33
focused on Veterans and you want to really focus on on a home for veterans I think it opens up some doors that you're not going to find in other places so um you could be working with veteran focused nonprofits um or grants and these are opportunities for you to work with these organizations that would be more likely to help you make improvements to the home for to open the home I don't have any specific leads on those opportunities if you're in the Facebook group Please be aware that

00:17:07
there are scams that are on that group that are around Grant I would not trust any of those people um I'm just going to put it out there do not do that um I do not I I do as much vetting as I can before I let people come into the group but sometimes people sneak in um as much as as I would like them not to um and then we kick them out as quickly as we can um but go through proper channels to find grants I have a grants course that's coming out um very soon um so that is going to be a great resource for

00:17:37
you you can get the grant writing template as well go to assisted Liv investing. netg grants to get that free template and then uh we'll be sending out information on on the grant uh course that will come out soon um actually I think we started sending some emails about that yesterday so um keep an eye out on that and there will be more information there so if you want more information on grants then type in Grants down below um and I can make sure you get access to that link for the free template and when the course is is

00:18:05
available we will send you the link for that as well so you can look at that but really what I want you to do is make sure you go to the proper channels to find grants don't just go to some random person on on a Facebook group that that's my advice to you okay you can work with private investors um and there's also potentially some federal funding that's available um that is separate from nonprofits this could be SBA Loans but there could be other um maybe veteran focused veter uh Federal

00:18:31
funding dollars that are available to doing uh to helping out with this really what you want to do if you're working with a home that is specific to or caters to Veterans um in your business plan so grab that business plan checklist Assisted Living investing. netb checklist it's on the ticker down below um when you're writing that business plan and building your foundation you really need to highlight the positive impact that your facility is going to have on the lives of the veterans that you're going to be serving

00:19:01
um so you want that to be a part of your mission you want to be a part of your vision you want to have it be integrated in throughout the entire business plan so that when you're talking with these veteran focused nonprofits or granting organizations or private investors or or looking for federal funding that what you're writing in your business plan aligns with what they want to do and the funds that they want um to put out there so um I will say I don't have leads on these spefic specifically I'll qualify

00:19:30
that again but I think working with this population uh if you're working with a home for veterans or a home that caters to Veterans um it gives you it sets you apart a little bit from other opportunities that are out there and and either veterans themselves that are in that Community or people that um have a passion for helping veterans because their their parents were were veterans in one of the you know in in the service somewhere um and they're passionate about that they're probably more likely to want to

00:20:03
work with that specific population because they know um number one the sacrifice that they made but number two how limited the um the VA benefits are and how much of a need there is in that community so I think it opens up doors that are not going to be there otherwise um is what I would say so there that's for funding um I I hope that helps out and give a little bit of guidance the process for doing it you still want to build that business Foundation you still want to make sure that you have the business plan that you

00:20:36
are doing the market research that um that you're comfortable with everything that you're doing from a an underwriting perspective and financials are going to work it's just when you go look for funding you might have different opportunities and doors that open to you because you are going to be focused on uh a home that is specifically for or catering to uh the veteran population okay okay now let's talk about navigating the application process for VA benefits and we talked a lot about VA

00:21:06
benefits UPF front U what that looks like and how to understand what that looks like for for you and your reimbursement um to get the benefit for the veteran themselves the Ana or the the housebound benefit um there are a couple organizations out there that can really help out with this number one you can contact the local VA office and they can give you some guidance or point you in the right direction for resources um so that is that's the first thing and then the other one is you can collaborate with veteran service

00:21:33
organizations or vsos um I believe these are nonprofit organizations um my understanding I've not worked with these organizations before my understanding is they're nonprofits that contract out with the VA um and and kind of help out through the process I I've worked for other organizations that do this with Medicare um they're called quality improvement organizations or Quality quality improvement networks and we're nonprofit organizations that would um help people navigate Medicare and

00:22:06
Medicare benefits and and programs and things like that um I believe the veteran service organizations are very similar to that though I could be wrong so someone wants to correct me um in the comments that would be appreciated as well just so that we get a good solid correct information um on this video so vsos if anybody can kind of give an overview of what that is that would be I think very helpful so comment those down below but these are organizations the VA office or vsos can really help you

00:22:35
navigate um what it takes to um qualify for those those VA benefits the Ana or the housebound benefit um and and how to how the reimbursement model is going to work what that's going to look like um how to receive those benefits um so that you can so that a veteran can then use it and as a provider you want to be integrated as much as you can with these organizations if you want to focus on or cater to a a veteran population because they can be a really great leadin source for you um if you become qualified um

00:23:08
and meet the standards for being a VA home um assisted living home um it really will open up some doors for you it's a great uh opportunity for you to network and get leads coming in for for your home to fill the beds let's talk about some additional support for veterans so um I believe that you can couple the VA VA benefits with Medicaid um would love to hear from somebody if they have experience with that but I believe you can you can combine those it probably reduces one or the other

00:23:40
um just understanding how government uh programs work but um I would also say you can probably do that as a provider what that means for you is you'd collect the the VA benefit the A&A or the housebound benefit you'd collect the Medicaid benefit and then if there's anything else that's extra then you're probably collecting that from Social Security there's probably um some kind of a cap that you can receive um doing Assisted Living Services um but it's something that I I would definitely look

00:24:10
into so you understand exactly what that looks like if you're working with them but I believe you can combine those two benefits would love if anybody's in the comments uh can comment if if you can combine that VA and Medicaid benefit that would be extremely helpful as well um there's going to be some nonprofit organization um that may offer grants or financial assistance as well to Veterans to pay for their services so um that's not a grant for you as the provider to to go out and get and and you know make

00:24:41
changes to your facility uh what it is is these would be nonprofit organizations that say this veteran needs this benefit they need assisted living they have Grant funds available and they give those Grant funds to the veteran they say okay here's your budget you get $3,000 per month or $5,000 per month to go and and stay at an assisted living facility um and and then they will pay for that so if you can find those organizations those nonprofits they can be a great leading source for you um because there's there's going

00:25:12
there there are dollars out there that help out this population um what you're probably going to find though is a lot of veterans are not aware of those organizations because they are nonprofits and their marketing budget is probably limited um they're not going to be able to help out help out or or find them as readily so if you can develop relationships with them can be a great leading source for you or when you're finding veterans that are good fit for your home you can then connect them with

00:25:38
that nonprofit who can provide them with the funding so they can then pay you for the services that you provide in your assisted living home so there's a little bit of a roundabout there um it's kind of like a a sideway of of getting access to those Grant funds without actually applying for a grant that's something that I that you can could also look at doing those nonprofit organizations are also going to be able to help you navigate the whole VA process and what that looks like um and understand what's going into

00:26:07
it so that's some extra additional support that you can find for veterans and how it can benefit you in getting your assisted living home up and ready so was a lot covered a ton of stuff here and I forgot my water I need to take a drink uh but I will power through um so while people are typing up questions I want to remind you to like the video subscribe and ring the bell as well so you get notified uh when we do this content we go live on Tuesdays and we we put out long form videos on Thursdays as well um and in the Facebook

00:26:40
group if you're not a part of that make sure you go join that as well uh we're putting out content there questions and more engaging content and posts and things like that to help you out along your journey so make sure you just kind of get into this Assisted Living investing ecosystem um so I can help you out um go grab the business plan checklist Assisted Living investing. / BP checklist and if you need some help getting started launching that Assisted Living business uh go apply to The

00:27:04
Mastermind program Alim mastermind.com quick application lets me see where you're at in the process determine if I can help you and if I can then I'll send you all the details and uh then you can determine if it's a good fit for you or not again that's Alim mastermind.com um now let's hop over here to look at questions and please go ahead and type in more questions as as we're getting through this um as as I'm answering the ones that are on here um I'm sorry if you're listening I'm

00:27:32
coughing in your ear I really appre really apologize and appreciate you watching um Shelly thank you for uh watching thanks for being a newbie here I appreciate it um Mary uh you say I know I can show these somehow okay here we go so how to connect with case workers to get client from that group type in California so I would say um if you can find those vsos those veteran service organizations um or uh even just talking to the local VA office in California and California might be different would would not surprise me if

00:28:05
they have different offices throughout the state uh because it seems like a California thing to do frankly um so I would I would go and reach out to the VA office uh or offices in the state and reach out to them like I was mentioning on that slide those are probably going to be your Best Bets for for how to to get in contact with the correct case workers you could work with Medicaid case workers as well and have conversations with them um to see if number one they have veterans that they serve or number two if they can

00:28:38
introduce you to the case workers that that work specifically with veterans um so that's another way for you to kind of get started on that um how to connect with those with those case workers that are going to be working with the veteran population really in any state but that's how I would go about it in in California so I would Google you know VA um VA office in California get contact info there um and reach out to them um or uh vso veteran service organizations in California and and see what comes up

00:29:10
from that Google search and then start the the process there I think those are going to be your best places to start um and then if you have any interaction with Medicaid case workers that would be the third one is to go through that process okay um Shelly uh would you advise having a home solely specializing in veteran housing or is this something that you offer in the AL along with uh other personal uh pay medical Medicaid payments um I'm sorry uh let's see I would say this a really good question I I

00:29:50
personally like the idea of mixing things around uh I think it works uh what you could run into there though is if you're going to be serving a population the the veteran population then what you need to to make sure that you do is the entire home regardless of any other residents that are going to be in there the entire home has to be up to the standard of of veterans so that's just something that you want to be aware of as as you get into it so um if you've not started and and you're in the

00:30:23
beginning phases and you know you want to serve the veteran population then make sure your home is um is correctly is set up correctly to be able to serve the veteran population um so that's that's what I would say if you are running a home already and and you're serving private pay and Medicaid and you're just working with that population and you want to start bringing in Veterans as well I would have the conversations to see what you need to do to make sure the home is up to the status or is able to

00:30:56
serve the veteran population if it's if there's nothing you need to do then cool then just go ahead and start bringing people in if there are things you need to do then that's a personal decision for what types of changes do I need to make in the physical facility itself to be able to serve this population and then is it worth it for me to to serve that population so that's that's kind of depending on where you're at in the process that's how I would handle that situation um

00:31:23
I like mingling the the different types of benefits is that's not a concern to me uh it will mean more paperwork for you um what I didn't get into because I don't understand this fully uh because I don't have the experience working with with veterans in in my home and working with a VA benefit but my assumption is there's more paperwork involved than just like a private pay uh it's going to be probably similar to Medicaid it's just more paperwork so if you're comfortable adding extra paperwork and

00:31:53
working with another government organization um then then it's fine if if you don't like that if that's not something that you want to do um the same thing I would tell people with Medicaid um then don't do it just cater to a private pay um type of a population if you're not scared of it and and I personally am not I I have enough experience I it's not scary to me I'm fine um navigating that process and figuring it out because I I know that once I figure it out it's it's easy it's

00:32:24
not that bad there's there's extra paperwork and things like that but it the confusion um the the learning curve it can be steep but once you get over that learning curve it's it's not that hard to maintain and then um now you can you can broadcast that out to to the population and say you know we we serve this this group of people uh we we accept these types of benefits and then it just kind of opens up the pool of people that you can serve a little bit more so hopefully that answers your

00:32:50
question there um let's see another one from Shelly uh you're still in the beginning stages uh but some resources beyond the VA offices that could be helpful are um yeah I would say the vsos are going to be good uh I would try to work with I would I would I really think if you work with um some Medicaid case workers um and and ask them for references to to VA organizations I think that would be good uh I would even search like um excuse me um like local nonprofits that uh focus on VA benefits I think that would be a

00:33:34
really good resource for you as well whether that's a vso or something else I think those are going to be um really good spots for you to to work out um and and kind of navigate the process and navigate exactly what that's going to look like for you so that's that's where I would probably Focus my my time um let's see uh let me try it there we go I think I got it right uh what should I consider when buying a real when buying real estate that I want to convert into a Boarding care home in

00:34:10
California um I think you got to kind of understand everything that kind of goes into that in California um the the the entire process whether you're working with veterans or not um you're going to need to get a certificate of occupancy so the home is going to need to be uh reviewed make sure zoning is good um you're going to want to have fire department come out and look at the house as well um to just make sure that it meets the standards for for assisted living uh and those types of things uh

00:34:36
now as far as like a Boarding care home I'm not sure if I understand specifically what that is but the the process is going to be very similar um I would imagine and so your um your you just kind of want to make sure the houses is properly zoned that you can do you can serve a population in that area um and if there are changes that need to happen to the property any Renovations that need to happen what are they and how do they work so talking with local um like state county governments are the

00:35:07
best way for you to figure out exactly what that's going to look like and how that's going to work so hopefully that helps you out there um you are welcome Mary um Shelly back to you uh let's see so you're uh still in beginning stages but a few resources that are helpful outside the VA offices are American Legion Veterans of Foreign Affairs uh State's Attorney yeah the general office there um and heroes Bridge so thank you Shelly that that's super helpful um and I would say there there's

00:35:42
probably those ones looking at that seem like um larger kind of more broad organizations Federal level um I would I would venture to Guess that there are going to be either State offices State branches for each of those or there will be state specific um types of organizations that are out there especially in states that have a more heavy military presence um so I would imagine that like uh Texas and Florida and California um I'm just trying to like cycle through where I know there's bases um and I'm sure I'm missing some

00:36:17
like some you know Maryland Virginia area um I would imagine that those there are other nonprofit organizations uh or other organizations that may not be nonprofit um but that help out and focusing on this this population um that can really help out as well so thank you for sharing that shell that's that's super helpful um I think this is I think you typed it in twice but spe so Heroes Brides specifically helps the elderly so thank you for for doing that and yes you're welcome um Shelly another one do you prefer

00:36:55
converting an existing home over purpose built facilities for me personally I prefer to buy existing facilities and um to start operating them from their take over operations and start uh working the the business that way uh I think it's a the pathway to profitability is much shorter um it it lessens the learning curve uh helps you get up and running forces you to get up and running and figure things out a little more quickly um so that's that's another reason um you already have staff in place and

00:37:32
residents that's why profitability is faster now if you want to buy or build a home and and turn it into assisted living the advantage there is you can get it to be exactly what you want it to be um and really cater to that so um whereas if you buy an existing facility it's just like buying an existing home where you're going to live uh you buy somebody else's home that that's already been built then you're kind of stuck with that but if you build something new you can add in you know oh I want the

00:38:00
option where I have the room over here and I want the garage over there and I actually want a three-car garage like you can add some of those um extra options whereas um you buy that existing home you're kind of stuck with it um you can make some changes but it's just kind of over time so those are this is kind of the pros and cons um but I personally um prefer to buy existing businesses and and take over operations for them that that's what I have done and that's what I suggest to people that you can do

00:38:28
whatever you want in your scenario um alrighty um oh my gosh I blanking on your name man I a feel I feel horrible I can't remember your name Lon right it's Lon um uh VA credentials in billing process uh so uh yeah uh let's see so the VA credentials in the billing process I don't because I don't have veterans in my homes I don't know those specifically my assumption is you um the veteran does a lot of the legue work on it um they get the benefit they go through the process to get the benefit

00:39:08
so let's say they have the Ana or the homebound benefit they um they then communicate that to you as a provider um and either you contract with the VA to get reimbursed or more likely they um you show proof uh and this could be through like a bill or something like that um that you send to them an invoice uh that you send to the resident who then takes it to the VA who then pays it out to you because this is a government organization and that's it would not surprise me if it's that if it's that

00:39:47
type of a process so um it's one of those two ways uh but my my assumption is the resident is going to be doing a lot of the ground work to get the VA benefit it's very similar to Medicaid where the resident is in charge of getting their Medicaid benefit and maintaining that and as a provider you want to be aware of that and if there's any um recertification dates or things like that so you can prompt them to to make sure that it doesn't lapse because then they don't have the benefit and

00:40:13
they have to recertify and like from the beginning and that's a a big process you don't want to deal with um but a lot of this is going to fall on the resident themselves to get and maintain the benefit and then you just you kind of help them and prompt them along Ong the process the billing I'm not sure as I mentioned could be that you contract directly with them and build directly the VA or you invoice the resident who takes it they get a check they bring it to you and then and then you get paid or

00:40:43
they just get that benefit on a monthly basis and then they give that check over to you um I don't know exactly how that works but really good question there um alrighty um so thanks everybody for watching that those are some really good questions um I love it when we have some good interaction in here I want to thank everybody for for watching and and the questions and participating um and hope this has been helpful um and and uh yeah I want to remind you as well go grab that that business plan checklist

00:41:15
Assisted Living investing. nvp checklist uh that should be able to help you out um there as well and um yeah thanks L I appreciate that and if you're interested in The Mastermind program uh go apply to that Alim mastermind.com uh do Residential Assisted Living sound interesting to you but you're not sure how to get started at Assisted Living investing. net I'm here to help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months uh love coaching people and helping you and I want to remind you

00:41:42
that it doesn't take a lot just a little bit just keep going step by step by step and 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