Open an Assisted Living Facility: What You Must Know First
Oct 20, 2025
Starting an assisted living business can be exciting, but it’s also challenging. Many new owners rush in thinking it’s all about profit—but the reality is very different. If you’re serious about opening your own care home, there are a few things you must know before you dive in.
This guide breaks down the hard truths, key lessons, and practical tips from real-world experience to help you prepare for success.
Check out this video, too:
Why This Matters
Running an assisted living facility is not just about real estate or monthly cash flow. You’re dealing with people, regulations, and an entire ecosystem of relationships. If you understand the challenges ahead of time, you’ll save yourself stress, money, and mistakes.
1. You’ll Be Dealing With a LOT of People 👥
When you open an assisted living home, you’ll interact with:
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Staff – hiring, training, managing, and sometimes replacing.
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Residents – each with unique needs and personalities.
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Families – who will have questions, concerns, and high expectations.
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Inspectors & State Agencies – surprise visits to ensure compliance.
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Vendors & Contractors – food services, repairs, nursing support, cleaning, and more.
👉 If you’re not naturally a “people person,” consider finding a partner or manager who can help manage these relationships. Success in this business is all about building trust.
2. Staffing Will Be Your Hardest Challenge 🏥
Hiring and keeping staff is the toughest part of this industry. Here’s why:
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High turnover rates.
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Rising wage demands.
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There is a constant need for retraining when someone leaves.
How to make it easier:
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Create clear policies and procedures.
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Build a strong culture where staff feel valued.
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Invest in good training to reduce mistakes and increase retention.
Without a reliable team, your facility will struggle. Staff are the backbone of your business.
3. Regulations Are Everywhere 📑
If you’re opening a care home, be ready for lots of rules. You’ll need to follow:
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Staff ratios and qualifications.
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Medication management rules.
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Documentation requirements (“if it’s not documented, it didn’t happen”).
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Policies & procedures that reflect the latest state updates.
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Surprise inspections—sometimes lasting days or even weeks.
👉 One of the most important hires you can make is a good facility administrator. They help you stay compliant and reduce stress for owners.
4. You Can’t Do This Just for the Money 💰
Yes, assisted living can be profitable—but if money is your only reason, you won’t last. This is not a “get rich quick” model.
You must care about:
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Making a difference in residents’ lives.
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Supporting families during difficult times.
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Creating jobs for staff.
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Building a legacy and positive impact in your community.
The profit is a side benefit of doing the right things for the right reasons.
5. The Rewards Make It Worth It 🌟
Even though assisted living comes with challenges, the rewards are powerful:
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Improving the lives of seniors.
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Giving families peace of mind.
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Building strong community relationships.
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Creating lasting impact and legacy.
When your heart is in it, the tough parts become manageable, and the wins feel incredible.
Free Resource to Help You Start 🚀
Before you launch, make sure your numbers make sense. Grab my FREE Assisted Living Underwriting Calculator to test if your deal will work quickly. It’s a simple tool that can save you from costly mistakes.
Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me. This is the fastest way to go from “interested” to owning a successful assisted living home.
Final Takeaway
Opening an assisted living facility is hard work, but it’s also deeply rewarding. Remember these four truths:
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You’ll deal with many people.
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Staffing will be your hardest challenge.
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Regulations are constant and detailed.
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You can’t do it just for the money—it’s about impact.
If those realities excite you instead of scare you, then you’re ready to take the next step.
Show full transcript 👇
Transcript
00:00:00 - 00:00:49
Hey friend, I'm Brandon Gustafson. I help beginners like you launch their assisted living business in the next 12 months. In this video, we're going to be talking about what you need to know before opening your assisted living facility. If you are interested in learning more about that, make sure you stick around for today's video. Hey friend, welcome back to assisted living investing. Before we get into the topic today, I want to remind you to go over to assisted living investing and
00:00:29 - 00:01:24
grab your free underwriting calculator at assistedlivinginvesting.net. It's the big blue box in the top right corner. Make sure you go and grab that free resource to help you as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. Now, let's get into the topic for today's video. Today, we're talking about what you need to know before you get into your assisted living business. before you launch your assisted living facility. I want to talk with you about that. Some of the things that you just
00:00:56 - 00:01:48
need to be aware of as you're looking at getting into this industry. First thing I want you to be aware of is you're dealing with a lot of people, like a ton of people, a lot of different personalities, and it can be really hard. It can be overwhelming, especially if you're doing this all by yourself. I highly suggest that you delegate because you're going to be dealing with staff and residents and their families. And those three, that's the trifecta. I've talked to other operators and owners
00:01:22 - 00:02:17
that say the same thing. They can be really hard and really difficult to work with. And um that's not everybody, but there's the 10 to 20% of people that ruin it for everybody else. And so, you just have to be aware that you're going to be dealing with some of those big and difficult personalities as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. A lot of people involved and you got to be aware of that. In addition to the big three, in addition to the trifecta, you're also going to be having to deal
00:01:49 - 00:02:41
with inspectors and state agencies that are coming in to check for compliance. They will come in at least once a year, sometimes multiple times. Sometimes it's to do an inspection on the facility. Sometimes it's to to in the residence. Sometimes it's to do an inspection on like the safe the safety the fire life and safety pieces of the facility to make sure all of those things are in place. So, you have to just be prepared because you're going to have to deal with those people. And they just show
00:02:16 - 00:03:02
up. They very rarely will give you an idea of when they're going to be there and when they're there. Sometimes they can be there for a day or two. Sometimes they can be there for weeks. It just kind of depends on the type of survey that they're doing. And it can be really hard and really stressful. But you have to build and maintain a relationship there as well. It's super important for you to do that. You're going to be dealing with vendors and contractors. And those can be with people that are
00:02:39 - 00:03:29
helping out with food or could be cleaning or repairs or maintenance or just a whole host of things that you're going to have to do inside of the facility. You're going to have to maintain a bunch of these types of relationships. Could be nursing as well. You could have contracts in place. So, some contract management that goes into this and it can be a lot can be overwhelming. It can be hard to track and something that you're going to want to make sure that you have in place so you can be successful. There are a lot
00:03:04 - 00:03:54
of people that are relying on you as the owner and you need to learn how to manage those relationships and how you're going to manage all of those different personalities. It can be difficult um but it's a requirement when you are getting into the world of assisted living and care homes. And so I want you to be aware that you're going to be dealing with a lot of people. So, if you are not a people person, then it might be something that you consider hiring somebody to handle for you or
00:03:29 - 00:04:14
maybe you get a partner that is a little more comfortable with handling those types of relationships cuz it's going to be key. It's something that's just a part of the business. So, you got to be aware of it as you're trying to get things moving forward with your assisted living business. The next thing that I want you to be aware of that's as you're starting your assisted living journey is staffing is hard. You're going to have a lot of turnover. There's staffing
00:03:52 - 00:04:39
shortages. There's a lot of difficulty there. Rates are going up as you're doing this. You're also going to have to train all of these staff. When somebody leaves, you're going to have a new person comes in. You got to train them on all the things. And then 6 weeks later, they might leave again, which is horrible. But right after you get them trained and they're ready to go, they're going to leave. And oh man, it's the worst feeling. And so, you're going to be dealing a lot with all these things.
00:04:15 - 00:05:09
So having some really good standard policies and procedures and training processes is going to make your life a whole lot easier as you're trying to get the right staff and build this culture and build this uh environment where people actually want to stay and reduce that turnover and reduce some of the bad things that can happen with staffing cuz it's difficult. It really is. It is the hardest thing of running this business. I'm speaking to you from experience. It is the hardest thing. So you want to be
00:04:43 - 00:05:40
aware of that. If you don't have a reliable team, your facility, it's going to struggle. And so, you want to build in the time and the resources to really help people along the path to feeling comfortable in being in this business and make sure that they're happy that you have the culture inside of the business cuz that's what's going to allow you to be successful and keep your residents and their families happy and make everything just work for you. So very very important for you to have in
00:05:11 - 00:05:57
place and important for you to understand that staffing is hard. It is the hardest thing you're going to do in this industry. Number three, the third thing that I want you to be aware of is there's a lot of regulations. I've been working in the healthcare industry I think since 2013. I have a masters in healthcare administration. I have owned my facility since 2020. Like I've got a lot of experience in the healthcare industry. I understand a lot of what goes into and that's why I think I'm
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very well positioned to be your coach and help you along the path to launching your assisted living business. And if you want some help with that, stick around to the end of the video. I'll tell you exactly how we can work together. There's a lot of regulations that you need to be aware of. You're going to be having to deal with surprise inspections that just happen inside of your facility. There's going to be rules about the meds and the staff and the ratios and more in the way that you are
00:05:54 - 00:06:40
documenting things. You're going to have to document everything. If it didn't get documented, it didn't happen. You have to document everything. If you want to learn more about an EHR, make sure you type in EHR down below. You're also going to need to have your policies and procedures. All of this paperwork, it like it's required. It's something you're going to need to have as you're moving forward and doing this. You have to maintain it. there's going to be emails or notifications that come out
00:06:18 - 00:07:09
from the state that say, "Hey, we implemented a new rule and you got to do this now and you have to pay attention to those emails and then you have to create a policy that is reflective of that because when they come out for their next survey, they will look and see if you listened and see if you implemented that policy and they want to see that it is in place. They're going to want to look at those things. This is where having a good administrator in your facility is absolutely key. It's
00:06:43 - 00:07:35
the the most important person for you to have in your facility. Facility administrators are just incredible people. So, for those of you that are watching this that are facility administrators, thank you. You don't get told that enough. You are incredible. And just like, thank you so much. You do an incredible job. It's so important for you to be in charge of all of these things because as owners and operators, it's really hard for us to wear all of the hats and do all of the things. So,
00:07:09 - 00:08:00
we hire people, incredible people like you, to make sure that you are running these businesses in a way that allows us to be profitable and have the impact that we want to have on people's lives. So, thank you. The fourth thing that I want you to know as you're trying to get into this assisted living business and start your assisted living facility is you cannot do this for the money. The money can be great. It certainly can be there and you want to make sure you're underwriting. So, go check out the
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underwriting calculator that we talked about at the start of the video so you can figure out if this is a good opportunity for you and or not. But it is an incredible side benefit of the work that you get to do and the impact that you get to have in your communities. If you are just doing this for the money, you're not going to be successful. Your heart's not going to be in it. And it it's not that fun. It's it's hard. It's a hard business. There's a lot that goes into it. It's not easy
00:08:00 - 00:08:58
at all. It's not passive. it's something that's difficult that you're going to like stay up at night and think about and try to figure things out. It's not easy. And so, if you're in this for the money, the money is not that good. It's good, but it is not enough to be worth all of the headaches and and things that can come with this business. So, you have to do this for more than just the money. You have to have your heart in it. And when you do that, it just makes things go so much more smoothly.
00:08:29 - 00:09:23
Assisted living can be incredibly rewarding. You get to make an impact on people's lives, dozens of people's lives, your residents, their families, um the staff, the people that you get to interact with. You get to build relationships and friendships with those people. You give people the families peace of mind that you're taking care of their loved ones. You are providing a job for your staff and a way for them to provide for their families, which is rewarding when you think about it. And
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you get to build a legacy. you get to have an impact that is long-term and lasting for you, for your family, for your residents and their families. And the experiences that you can have there, it is just humbling. It's probably the best word for it. It's incredible what you get to do inside of assisted living. So, there's a lot of headaches. There's a lot of bad things that you need to be aware of as you get into this. It is not just sunshine, rainbows, roses, all of those things. Like, it's not all that.
00:09:27 - 00:10:23
There is some of it though and the pieces of that that are there is incredible and it is so rewarding. And so if that's something that is speaking to you and that's why you want to get into this then you're going to love it. It's going to make all of the hard parts of it just be like this is part of running the business but the impact I have is incredible and it's it's totally worth it. But if you're not in it for those things and you're not in it for the right reasons and you're just doing
00:09:55 - 00:10:48
this because somebody told you you can make $10,000 per month with a house and you want to get five of them so you can get $50,000 a month or whatever, um I I discourage you from doing it because it's hard and your heart needs to be in it if you're going to be successful. If you have questions and you need help as you're trying to move things along, I would love to help you out. Go check out ALI basics at assisted livinginvesting.net/basics. /basics. It's my membership that allows you to
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get in there. We do monthly Q&A calls, weekly tips and tricks, and you get access to me to ask whatever questions you have as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. So, go check us out at ALI Basics. I would love to help you out. Now, we've talked about a lot in this video, the things that you need to know as you're trying to launch your assisted living business. You're dealing with a lot of people. Staffing is so, so hard, and there's a lot of regulations. And I also want you to know
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that you can't be doing this just for the money, but it is incredibly rewarding. And so, if that is something that speaks to you and you're passionate about, then this is going to be a perfect business for you. If you found this video to be helpful, make sure you like the video, subscribe, and ring the bell as well. We put out content like this on Tuesdays. We go live on Thursdays as well, and I love helping and coaching people. So, make sure you're doing all those things so that you can get notified when we put out
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more content like this. 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's one of my favorite things to do, and I'd love to help you as well. Go check us out at assistedlivinginvesting.net. And remember, it doesn't take a lot, just a little bit. Just keep going step
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by step by 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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