The Future of Assisted Living: Who Needs It & Why in 2025!
Apr 22, 2025
Assisted living is for people who need extra help with activities of daily living. It’s not just for seniors—it’s for anyone who needs support with things like dressing, bathing, or medication management. If someone is living alone and can’t get help when they need it, assisted living might be the best solution.
In this guide, we’ll break down who needs assisted living, why niching down can make your business more successful, and how to find the right residents for your home.
Watch this video, too;
What is Assisted Living?
Assisted living provides care and supervision for people who can’t live alone safely. Residents might need help with small tasks like buttoning a shirt or big things like getting out of bed. Unlike home health care—where a caregiver visits only at scheduled times—assisted living offers 24/7 support.
Common needs for assisted living:
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Help with dressing, bathing, or using the bathroom
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Mobility issues—needing assistance to walk or transfer from a wheelchair
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Medication reminders or management
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Cognitive issues—memory loss, confusion, or mental health conditions
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A safe and social environment instead of being alone at home
Many families turn to assisted living when they can no longer provide care themselves. Home health care is also expensive and often doesn’t cover all the hours a person needs help. That’s where assisted living comes in.
Who Can You Serve? It’s Not Just Seniors!
Most people think assisted living is only for elderly residents, but that’s not true. You can choose to serve different populations based on their needs.
π‘ Types of Residents in Assisted Living:
- Seniors – The most common group, needing support due to aging.
- People with Disabilities – Those with mobility issues, developmental disabilities, or medical conditions.
- Mental Health Residents – Individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or other conditions who need a stable environment.
- Middle-Aged Adults – Those who aren’t seniors but need care due to illness or injury.
- Specialized Niches – Some homes focus on cultural communities, such as Hispanic seniors or veterans.
πΉ Example: My Colorado home specializes in mental health care. We have residents in their mid-thirties who need assistance due to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
The more specific you get, the better you can serve your residents. Niching down also makes your home stand out from competitors.
Why Specializing Helps You Succeed
Many new assisted living owners try to serve everyone, but having a specialty makes marketing and operations easier.
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Better Marketing – You can target families looking for EXACTLY what you offer.
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Stronger Community – Residents feel more comfortable in a home designed for their needs.
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Less Competition – A niche home stands out from general assisted living homes.
πΉ Example: A member of my Mastermind program is creating a home just for elderly women. This focus allows them to design everything—from staff training to activities—around what their residents need.
You don’t have to exclude people, but tailoring your home to a specific group can make it more successful.
Finding the Right Residents for Your Home
Once you decide on your niche, how do you find the right residents?
Here’s where to start:
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Partner with local hospitals & clinics – Doctors and discharge planners often recommend assisted living to patients.
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Connect with home health agencies – They work with people who may need full-time care.
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Work with case managers & social workers – They help families find the right care options.
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Use online directories & referral agencies – Sites like A Place for Mom help families find homes.
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Market directly to families – A strong online presence helps people find your business when they need help.
π‘ Need help? Our Business Plan Checklist walks you through how to set up a successful marketing plan for your home!
Next Steps: Take Action Today!
π Want to open a thriving assisted living home? Start here:
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Step 1: Download the Business Plan Checklist to plan your facility.
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Step 2: Need help figuring out where to start? Join the next Roadmap Challenge and build your launch plan with me.
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Step 3: Take action and build the business that fits YOUR vision!
Got questions? Drop them in the comments below! β¬οΈ
Show full transcript π
Transcript
00:00:02
hey friend I'm Brandon Gustafson welcome to assisted living at investing at Assisted Living investing I help beginners like you launch their Assisted Living business in the next 12 months excited to have you here for our topic today our our live and happy New Year uh for those that are that are catching this live or shortly after uh but today we're going to be talking about the top trends that you cannot ignore about assisted living in 2025 so uh let's let's hop into that I'm going to pull this up before we
00:00:28
really dive into this though I want to remind and you to go and grab the free resource that I have the business plan checklist go to Assisted Living investing. netb checklist we've also got a ticker going down across the bottom because I want to make sure that you have some of the tools that you need in order to help you make the progress that you want to make so that you can reach your goal of launching your Assisted Living business here in 2025 so go grab that that free checklist again it's
00:00:53
Assisted Living investing. netb checklist now with that said um I'm going to give you bit of an intro for those of you who don't know me but if you're new here please type in newbie down below I love seeing um all the new people that that join and are learning is as you're trying to figure out you know is this the right thing for you to do um from an investment strategy um and how does assisted living work for my background uh so you know a little bit about me my name is Brandon gustofson I
00:01:20
own and operate two assisted living facilities I do this out of state I've been doing it since 2020 so I live in Utah I uh have a facility in Colorado I have one in Idaho so I've been operating those was out of state for a few years now I've secured over $1.5 million dollar in SBA funding as well uh and I have a masters in healthcare administration so I've been in the industry in the healthcare industry for over a decade have the education background and have a lot of um experience working in in this world of
00:01:49
of just Healthcare and and trying to help people out and and make progress and reach their goals so that's a little bit of background on me uh and for those of you that are live make sure you're typing in any questions that you have we're going to have time for Q&A here at the end of the video I want to make sure I answer those questions for you and uh if you have questions after the fact go and type them in and I will get back to you as as quickly as I possibly can so with that said let's get into some of
00:02:13
these top trends that uh that I'm seeing here in assisted living for um 2025 and Beyond and what this is going to look like as we get into the new year um so the one thing I want to point out here is supply and demand so the the supply and demand and uh when you look at this as a curve if you've ever taken an economics class you know that um when Supply is High um and demand when Supply is low and demand is high it's really good for you to be in in business and that is exactly where we stand today um
00:02:47
Supply is at a record low there are not a lot of houses out there there's not a lot of places for seniors or those needing care and we're going to get into different populations that use assisted living here at the end of the video um so there's there's a lot of different types of people that can use Assisted Living Services or uh long-term care services and there's just not a ton of space for them there's not a lot of houses there's there's not a lot of units for those individuals so Supply is
00:03:17
at a record low and not only is that Supply at a record low demand is already high and I was doing some research on this and the anticipated demand is expected to grow by over 42,000 new beds in 2025 um that's a huge amount like if you were to just simplify that and and boil it down to you know 50 states that's that's a lot um over a thousand beds that are needed in those 50 states and that may seem to you like oh you know what that's that's not very many but in reality when there's already a
00:03:49
shortage um it's it's a lot of beds it's a lot of units that need to be created so that we can serve this population so demand is high Supply is low low this is a great time to be in business so this is something that we're going to see probably for the next four or five years honestly before um supply and demand start to catch up and I think a lot of that's going to go into you we're we're still in a housing crisis in the US and so people will pay a premium for their
00:04:17
single family to be in a home or you're seeing a lot of development projects that are um low density or very low density um apartment or town homes uh those types of houses that are not not really super conducive to Assisted Living um and and there's a lot of that being built because of the housing shortage and these nice bigger um homes that that are much more that are better better suited for assisted living they're not getting built as consistently or as uh rapidly as as some of the other ones and single family
00:04:55
units you know like my family um were the ones that are buying those and so they're just not available for people that need long-term care and the same thing on a commercial St from a commercial standpoint uh there's just not the buildings that are there and um because Builders are focused on apartment buildings and uh and doing that type of stuff rather than focused on on building out Assisted Living so there's just a huge supply and demand thing that really benefits you as a as a business owner as a prospective business
00:05:24
owner entrepreneur real estate investor healthc care professional that wants to get into this type of business uh it's a great time to do that and it's just going to 2025 is going to be a great year for that and it's going to continue on for years to come now there are some problems that I do want to to be everybody to be aware of here as we get into the industry as well um and these are just kind of more broad um types of things trends that I'm seeing here um as as far as like what what this actually
00:05:51
looks like one is accessibility to facilities um and and we talked about that just a second ago with Supply and man there's just not a lot of supply around and so the ability to access those facilities is is low there's also uh the the realities of affordability um it can be expensive for a lot of families to do Assisted Living especially if you're in a private pay area and you want to cater to that high-end um type of of clientele you're going to have the high-end clientele that are there but you may have some
00:06:24
residents you know let's say you're charging $8 to $10,000 per per bed per month and you have some potential residents that could pay five 6,000 but that's not who you're catering to and it just doesn't make sense for you it's not going to make sense to bring that population into your home because you're not going to be profitable at that point um and so that that could be a gap that you know maybe you're watching this you're like you know that's who I want
00:06:48
to be I want to be this 10 to 16 bed facility that caters to uh people that pay5 or $6,000 you know that could be a really good fit for you you want to do the market research on this um and and don't just take my word of of saying this but you do want to to look at that and see where are the gaps where is there uh kind of a a gap as far as affordability for people um Medicaid is another spot that people can can get it and get access to it but Medicaid can be confusing not only from a provider
00:07:18
standpoint you know like me and you who are doing assisted living but for the consumer who has never done Medicaid before and they they don't know how to qualify for Medicaid or how to maintain Medicaid or what does a spend down look like and and how do I do the paperwork to to get that and how long do I need to live in a state before I can do Medicaid you know you're you you're you live in in Florida and you have your parents that live in Louisiana and they want to move down to Florida with you what do
00:07:45
they need to do to qualify for Medicaid in in Florida um those are the types of things that people don't understand and it can be complex that's how they can afford assisted living a lot of the times but trying to figure out how to get to that point can be confusing so affordability is a big one and then quality of care I I talked to so many of you who have bad have had bad experiences with assisted living and that's why you want to get into assisted living um I'm sure there is there are hundreds of you watching
00:08:15
this video right now and that is exactly why you are interested in Assisted Living because your parents had to go into assisted living you finally found somewhere and you you were just like this is very unimpressive like I could do better than this and so you want to start a new facility um the quality of care in a lot of facilities is not as good as as people would like it um and I think it's a part of being in this industry and trying to get people to to see that it's a great investment yes but
00:08:44
there is so much that goes into it and so much that that we need to do to care for our residents um and it's such an important piece of what we do and um it's really sad when people rush into this because they think it's going to be a great investment and they do it just for the money and they don't care about residents and that is not something we should do but it's something a trend that we need to be aware of uh going forward that quality of care of residents is something that needs to be
00:09:11
improved and and we need to see a lot of improvement there uh it's it's lacking right now and so if you are somebody that knows that you can give that good quality of care this is a great business for you um because it's is very much needed in the industry right now so let's talk about some of the things that are new um personalized care um this is if you get into this you're going to hear this this Buzz phrase thrown around a lot patient patient centered care so this is understanding exactly what a resident
00:09:43
needs what what are their needs what what specific things do they have on their care plan and how are you going to U be providing that care um you you see this more broadly talked about in healthcare in the industry I think as a as a nation and as just looking at the the healthcare landscape having worked in it for over a decade I've seen a lot of changes uh that have happened in the industry it's still imperfect there's so so much that still needs to move forward with this but being focused on the
00:10:13
patient and and having personalized care direct to them is such an important thing and something that we really should be leaning into and I can only see that increasing and people being more picky about the facilities that they go to based off of the personalized care that they're going to be provided with um despite there being that supply and demand um piece of of of things that that you need to be aware of in in the industry um even though there's short supply people will still be picky when
00:10:44
they're finding a facility because they want somebody that has that's going to offer them with that personalized care um Community focused living as well people as much as there there's going to be several of you out there that are saying I got this three-bedroom home I want to do a care home minut it and and you you're going to have two to four residents in there and I have a video on that so go watch that video um I I have I think you can do it I think it can be successful um but there's things that
00:11:11
you definitely need to be aware before you jump into that one of the downsides I can see with those is the community aspect of of like being there and and interacting with people isn't there I love 10 to 16 bed facilities because number one as a business owner it's more profit for me the margins are a lot easier to work with and I'm more confident in my ability to generate uh profit at the end of the day but number two it gives my residents it's still small it's still cozy still intimate setting but it still
00:11:42
gives them some friends as well to go talk to and do crafts with and play cards and and play games with um and that is not something that they're going to get as much in a smaller um type of a setting now depending on the resident they may want that that small type of want something super intimate two to four residents they want something really small but there's a lot of residents that that kind of like the idea of having a large group um that they can work with and play with and and and have fun with and do activities with
00:12:11
and eat with um there's a lot of residents that actually like that sense of community and so Community focused living is huge in addition to that uh not only Community focused living from a you know who's in the community standpoint and and the relationships there but allows you to bring in things you know like a hairdresser or somebody to do nails of the ladies in the facility um or um doing other activities like yoga bringing in uh uh just those types of opportunities to create a community focused living here in the
00:12:43
house and bringing in professionals and and people like that to help out I think can really benefit people um in the long run and then I also see using technology technolog is only going to advance uh if you're in this over any period of time you're going to have medical device companies start reaching out to you with products that they would like to sell um or have you use and Sample so that they can then sell it to you um there's and a lot of those are Technology based there's movements to EHR systems and I
00:13:10
talked to a lot of uh those types of companies as well as they're trying to get a foothold in the Assisted Living industry there's just so much that goes into this um but using technology is going to only increase as we get into 2025 and Beyond so how are things going to change this is a good question excuse me um I see tella Health Services actually becoming something that is bigger um so in an assisted living home your residents are still going to have doctors oftentimes a doctor is going to
00:13:42
come to the house um because they need to do in-person checkups but um as telea health um evolves I I do believe that there will be more uh opportunities to leverage telea health and provide more timely doctor visits with residents who don't need somebody that's there in person with them or maybe they have the nurse that's there and doing tell Health with the doctor to meet the needs of uh of the resident and so tah health I think is something that is going to only improve overall the healthcare landscape
00:14:15
and I think it has a big place to play in 202 2025 and going forward inside of Assisted Living um it's a really cool technology if you've never utilized it uh can save you a ton of time and and be much more cost- effective so I I I think tell health is something that's also coming up and then I mentioned this previously but patient- centered care is going to be huge um it's going to be something that people will start becoming more aware of that phrase patient centered care and they will
00:14:44
start looking for it and so as you are getting into this world of Assisted Living you want to make sure that you're catering to that and that you are providing that patient centered care for the residents so that they know that they can trust you and that you are going to meet their needs it's going to be something that people are looking for for sure as we get into 2025 so now I want to talk a little bit know those are the trends that I see um and I wanted to take a little bit of time here on this platform um to to
00:15:13
really explain who needs Assisted Living because I think there's a lot of confusion out there around what assisted living is and and who needs that help and it it's good to understand that so that you can then leverage that with the trends that we're going to be seeing so its core assisted living is for those who need assistance or supervision they need access to help 247 they need access to it like immediate access to it but they do not specifically need care 247 when when somebody needs care for 247 that is
00:15:49
somebody that is in a nursing home and they're they're going to need constant care assisted living is providing a service where if something happens somebody needs to go to the bathroom in the b in the middle of the night and they need help and and if they're home alone or they have Home Care Home Care uh Home Health um stuff that that people that come in but it's the middle of the night and they're not there this is where you need assisted living you can pull a cord you can uh have a button
00:16:13
whatever it is that you have in your facility that says okay I'm here let's let's help you go to the bathroom uh maybe they're doing really well with getting dressed uh but one day they're they have really bad arthritis and their thumbs are just not working they can't button their their blouse or their shirt or something like that um the those are instances where assisted living is very much in need and often times it happens because families are unable or unwilling to help um because of the burden that
00:16:39
that it puts on people and Home Health is becoming too expensive or Home Health like the amount of time that that a person needs um care for home health can't meet those needs so these are the people that need assisted living it can be Elderly Care and and oftentimes you're going to hear about elderly care and that's the the population people talk about when they I think of Assisted Living seniors and and that population when in reality there there's so many more because it is Broad um that that
00:17:06
initial um description that I gave you here those who need assistance and supervision we have residents in our in our homes um that are in their mid-30s um because they my Colorado Home is actually focused on schizophrenia bipolar it's a mental health home and so that's a population that we work with and and we just had a new Resident that came in that's I think like in the mid-30s um and and so we're able to serve that population and it does not need to be age-based it can be and you
00:17:39
can focus your home on on those groups um but you can also focus on um developmental disabilities or um you can focus on youth um you could focus on Mental Health you could focus on middle-aged individuals I have somebody in my Mastermind program that is very specific to wanting to serve a an elderly women population um and the more niched down that you can become I think the more successful you're going to be I was talking with somebody yesterday about doing something was focused very much on Hispanic
00:18:09
families and it doesn't mean that you you have to be very careful with um discrimination and things like that but if you cater everything you know you're focused on a Hispanic population um and and you have staff that that speak Spanish and that are um Hispanic and and know the culture and everything like that you bring somebody else in that that might want to stay at the the house they're not a part of that culture they're not going to want to be there and that's that's fine if you're
00:18:34
catering to a specific population it's okay um and I I think it really makes the residents inside the home feel a lot more comfortable so don't get scared to Niche down and be really specific on who you want to be serving um but that's who's going to need those services and the more that you understand your population and who you want to serve and then you look at these trends that are going to be happening in 2025 and you blend those things and you leverage them together you're going to be really
00:19:01
successful um and it's going to be a lot of fun to to see what you can build with that um yeah so let's get into Q&A so while U people are typing up questions I want to remind you to like the video subscribe and ring the bell as well so that you get notified when we put out content like this uh we typically go live on Tuesdays um and then do long form videos on Thursdays we've missed a little bit the these past couple weeks just because of holiday things and I was on vacation but um yeah we're doing
00:19:30
content on on Tuesdays and and putting out a lot of information for you and make sure you go grab that free um that free business plan checklist Assisted Living investing. netb checklist and if you feel like you need some help and some guidance as you're going through this I would love to to coach you and see if I can help you out um you can go apply to my Mastermind program at Alim mastermind.com and and use that and I can help you out and and teach you use me as as leverage to help you achieve
00:19:58
your goals as we start getting into 2025 I'd love to to help you out with that um so make sure you go apply to that again it's Alm mastermind.com U so I want to pop over here and see if we had any questions on here um so Patrick you said uh just just joining but looking to start my start uh your business what's the best way to find quality workers at your Adult Family Home um yeah so the best I would say the best way to do that to find quality workers is number one one going to be doing some networking
00:20:31
going out and uh you could you could start doing job fairs and and things like that and start uh getting with like the local high school local community college and start doing some network marketing with people um in that vein I think it's a really good and an underutilized um way of helping you find good um staff and and it's going to be pretty cost effective as well to find good staff uh from that from that standpoint and because there's not a lot of people doing it um I think you can
00:21:01
create some really good Partnerships and get some really good staff in place um from that just through those programs especially like local community colleges um I would I would venture to Guess that if there are any businesses and I don't think there probably aren't any if there are any though there's only one or two that are doing this and and so you can really get uh a really good view of who the top talent is in those types of schools uh even trade schools um that Focus on like nursing care and um start
00:21:31
building relationships with them it can go a long way the other piece of that uh the other space I think for you to to be looking at is on indeed indeed is the best um is by far the best job board for you to be posting on for these types of positions this is where a lot of healthcare workers are focused on they they are on indeed all the time um looking for jobs uh they it it is it's a very high turnover type of a position and so you're going to see a lot of people that um they like they you just
00:22:07
cycle through people quickly and indeed is where they're looking for jobs and so um the more you kind of get familiar with how to use indeed and have how to leverage that um the better off you're going to be writing good job descriptions and then the trick there is once you get good people giving them incentive to stay and that doesn't have to necessarily be um PID pay it can be culture the type of culture that you're building at the the facility and and the types of uh benefits that you're
00:22:36
offering those types of things can be really important to retaining that talent that you get in from from those types of of jobs so not only is finding them but keeping them is is maybe even more important than than finding them you're GNA be able to find people pretty easily it's just um making sure that they are the quality that you want they fit the culture that you're trying to build and that's going to allow you to to really be successful so yeah hopefully that that helps you out
00:23:05
Patrick um let's see any other questions uh if anybody has other questions please go ahead and type those in I would love to to answer those for you um I'm going to check something over here on my settings and make sure I wasn't missing anything okay so as we get into 2025 um really excited to hear some of the goals that you have uh if watching this after the fact I would love to hear what's your goal in assisted living in 2025 type those in the comments um and would love to see what I can do to help you
00:23:37
out with that uh and and see where you're at see what I have in my in my arsenal of things to help you out with um that I can send you and point you to to make sure that you are reaching your goals um because I think there's so much that we can do to really make a difference inside this industry as we move into 2025 and Beyond um with that said want to thank everybody for watching this for being here all of you that are here live I love doing these and and seeing things and sometimes we
00:24:05
have a ton of questions like the last few weeks and sometimes we don't have a ton but I'm I'm here for you to help you out and give you some guidance and and provide you with some of the direction that you need to get your questions answered in a way that um you know you're not getting access to this with anybody else and so I want to make sure that you um can get timely answers to your questions so U make sure you're liking the video subscribing R um make sure you go grab that free business plan
00:24:28
checklist Assisted Living investing. netb checklist um and excited to see where you go in 2025 and Beyond and um you know does 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 I want to thank you for watching thanks for being here and remind you that it doesn't take a lot just just a little bit keep going step by step by
00:24:53
step and I promise you if you do and you are consistent and persistent you are going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day
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