Hello BP Fam! I'm a Real Estate newbie and a new-ish BP member. I first got into researching about RE while I was on maternity leave for during the beginning of the year. I was deep into thought on how my work-life balance was going to be being a new mom and a career-driven woman. I talked to a lot of other mothers and found that everyone would tell the same story complaining about how ridiculous the American system is for only allowing mothers to be on 3 months of leave and expecting us to go back to work and having to "deal with it" just because society expects us to do so. Long story short, my husband and I made every conscious effort to make a change for ourselves that eventually led us to make this life-changing decision. We are still both working but at least we know that we are setting ourselves up for financial independence and eventually having the freedom to enjoy our time with people and experiences that are most important to us. Bigger Pockets played a very significant part for us to take this first step.

My husband and I purchased our 1st investment property 2 months ago and we are turning the property into a Residential Assisted Living Facility. I work as a Hospice and Palliative Registered Nurse and have been to a lot of Residential Assisted Living Facilities in our community and I recognized that there is a huge need for facilities that can provide outstanding quality of care to our elderly population, hence the investment for a RAL. It's a win-win situation for me. My husband, 11 month old and I are currently house hacking, living in the property while the rehab is ongoing and hopefully staying here until we jump into the next property to purchase. The rehab will be completely done by the end of this week. Woot woot! There is a licensing process with the state of California that takes an average of 3 months (but can be longer) and we need to be cleared by the State before we are able to open our doors and accept residents. 

I was just wondering if there are any other members currently investing in Residential Assisted Living that I can reach out to who is open to discussing strategies that they use, what to lookout for and best lessons you've learned along the way? We have a whole plan of how to scale this business and a vision of how to eventually be passive and I am open to questions and suggestions.

Also, if there are any investors thinking of going this route, please feel free to reach out in case there is something I can help you with. Thank you in advance!

@Stephanie Cruz  

Welcome to BP! I give you a lot of credit for doing what you do: have 11 months old, work in hospice, and living in a place being remodeled at the same time! Very few people could do such a thing! Your commitment to make this happen is obvious. I've been looking into RALs for some time, but haven't found the one that makes sense yet. Happy to chat offline if you'd like. 

Best of luck!

@Stephanie Cruz feel free to PM me.

@Stephanie Cruz this is EXACTLY what I am doing. I am in Texas and have been wondering if I was the only one doing this. HMU.

@Stephanie Cruz I have been looking at real estate invest option for assisted living too, however some of the information I foundonline seems to suggest having a back ground in medical field is more preferable for this RE venture, is this true? Or can anyone jump into this specific niche as long as he/she has the heart for it ? 

Originally posted by @Marvin Tu :

@Stephanie Cruz I have been looking at real estate invest option for assisted living too, however some of the information I foundonline seems to suggest having a back ground in medical field is more preferable for this RE venture, is this true? Or can anyone jump into this specific niche as long as he/she has the heart for it ? 

Just dont be a greedy heartless bxstard. As for experience I didnt have any save for learning from someone for a week, and what I learned from exposure via my wife who was a CNA/CMA (she's graduating from nursing school this Sunday!! Cant wait) So it can be done - but I got lucky and the business had an executive director with lots of experience who stuck by me. I've tried to treat her very well.

Your staff are the key and appreciating your staff/taking care of the residents and placing them #1 is the key to success.  We've been doing ok - I've been in it over 2  years now - that's my .02 --- the out of state corps that buy here and suck every dollar out just have unhappy employees and will have high turnover and develop bad reputations.

How you treat everyone and tell your story is the basis for how I'm trying to be successful (We use Facebook and maintain a good reputation so get lots of word of mouth -- I spend money on FB ads, a Social Media/Marketing firm to handle photos/bulk of the social media and about $600 a mo for old school radio on a station that skews to the children of 80-90 yr old parents)   I had to work up to this advertising budget by fixing a hole host of other things but working so far - I haven't been in it long enough to declare myself a success.   Our team has been what's made or broken us - we've gotten a much improved one from the day I took over.   We still have lots of room left myself included to get better - but it's an everyday grind.

Do not believe the bs you read on here - this is not a get rich quick scheme and it's not hands off - if you leave it to someone else to manage they wont care and it will show.   Great appreciated Staff are everything!

Originally posted by @Marvin Tu :

@Stephanie Cruz I have been looking at real estate invest option for assisted living too, however some of the information I foundonline seems to suggest having a back ground in medical field is more preferable for this RE venture, is this true? Or can anyone jump into this specific niche as long as he/she has the heart for it ? 

Here's an example of how rewarding this can be --- hopefully there is no one that is of Santa Believing age reading this forum -- ha

Our Washer died at the facility - I had to run and buy one at Lowes - the guy that helped me looked like St Nick - somehow we got to talking and he in fact played santa -- so we booked him -- he'd never came to a senior living center before - so it was new to him too - we advertised a family event online - didnt know how many people would come - 

Our Nurse is AWESOME at decorating - I handed over the business card to her, our exec dir and our activities dire - and said spend away - they have our place looking really Christmasy - and set up our TV room with a spot for Santa to sit, tree the whole 9 and made 20 gift bags for kids -- All of our residents but 4 (we have 33 or 34 now - cant remember the census) participated in some form or another which is an amazing participation rate for us - the smiles --- DAMN that was rewarding - I didnt know if they'd like it or not - they are often forgotten on the holidays -- our residents with heavy dementia even responded well and lit up with Smiles -- We took Santa around to the few rooms of folks that couldnt make it down to the activity room for 1 on one --- He wants to come back next year and we will set it up.

Check out our FB -- we have photos there --- those are the little things that make it worth it.  I still have plenty of stress and risk - but this beats my crappy 9-5 I had any day of the week.  Worth all the sacrifices we made to get here.