In this video, we’ll show you step-by-step how to embark on your journey to becoming a successful senior housing entrepreneur.
Whether you’re a seasoned business owner or a newcomer to the industry, this video offers invaluable insights, expert tips, and essential resources to help you navigate the complexities of senior housing.
From identifying the right location and creating a business plan to understanding regulations and building a team, we’ve got you covered.
Join us as we unlock the secrets to launching and managing a thriving senior housing business that not only provides for the elderly but also for your financial success.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to make a difference in your community while building a rewarding business – hit that play button and get started today!
Transcript:
Chris Bounds 00:00
How did you find your way into senior housing?
Brandon Schwab 00:03
Well, I found it because our own family member had to go into one. And it was a really bad experience for us. He went into a place with 200 Plus beds, he had his sick. My father’s dad was 79, when he had his first stroke, and we had his second that was pretty much towards the end, right? When I went in to go and see him, it was a pretty tough time because he could not talk. And when he had a accident, he couldn’t do anything on it. Right. So we pulled the pull cord button back behind his head. And no one came. Five minutes goes by 10 minutes goes by 15 by 20 minutes, like tea, bro, like, I’m
Chris Bounds 00:54
pissed. Yeah, the I need help, like, a nurse should be out here
Brandon Schwab 00:59
as a P because his face was changing colors, because he felt so bad that he couldn’t control it. And I just couldn’t handle it anymore. And I said, I need to go do something like I’d been here doing nothing for this time. And I felt terrible. And I went to go down to get the two people to help them. And I was not very polite. I was angry. And I said, get over there and hurry up and, and at after I went home, I felt bad because I said shit, what’s gonna happen after I’m gone, those two people aren’t going to offer anything of help. I said, I probably actually hurt him. So this whole thing happens. I feel like a total jerk. And then I push it down deep. Like as if it didn’t ever happen because I felt so bad. Fate is going to have it where I get pulled back into it about five years later, my father in law plays the piano down in Florida 328 times per year at the old folks home for $35.
And the painful part, Chris is that he tells the same jokes over and over. So it is painful anyways. But one of the things that I figured out is when I go to these buildings with 100 to 200 people, that feeling that I had back before kept coming back up. So I’d be like, Kelly, is there anything that I can do that I don’t have to go? So I will cook? So I’ll clean? Is there anything I could do? And she just says, No, you have to go. This is the only time you had to see him in this time was different though, Chris, because we pulled into a house. And I said texture Dad, where are we at? I have never been in a home before. So we go into a five bedroom house. And this was different.
It didn’t have the typical odor. When you go into these places with 100 to 200 beds, the odor isn’t very good. The atmosphere is terrible. And this was different. I’m in a home with five people and I go, What is this? And I discovered that that’s how they’re able to do it down in Florida. There’s 1800 of them. In California. There’s 2800 and Texas. There’s 55,000. And I go back home and there’s 55. And I said well, that’s an opportunity because it was cool. So I basically
Chris Bounds 03:22
live where you live in your market. Right? And where’s that
Brandon Schwab 03:25
psych homes in the entire? The entire part of so like Illinois, the entire state. There’s 55. Chris, do you compare it to 55,000 in Texas? So Phoenix, Arizona has 3000 in just Phoenix. But in places where it’s colder, they didn’t open as fast people didn’t quite get it wanted. So I said
Chris Bounds 03:53
some people just moved to Florida as they get Kenyans in the weather. I thought that
Brandon Schwab 03:57
too. But then when you pull up the elder calm population in the country, our state is on the top 10 lists and we are we are number seven. And I said that’s interesting, because they’re all here. And I said, that’s incredible. So I go to our home town and they didn’t have any our home county of 300 plus 1000 People they didn’t have any. So at the time I was investing in real estate for over four years full time and I had 23 homes. I thought I kind of had it all figured out. When I saw this one home with five people, that house outperformed all 23 homes two times a month.
Chris Bounds 04:41
And the ones you had with a long term rentals, like traditional long term rentals. Yep.
Brandon Schwab 04:48
So when that happened, I said you know, I need to get into that because it was very different of what I’ve heard of prior. And I haven’t ever done it like that. where it was be something that it’s in a home like that I’ve always been into the bigger colder places where the atmosphere isn’t very good, where you’re able to go into all of these homes with five to 10 people, I just have never heard of it before. And I said, this is really cool. How do I get into that? And I figured out how to open it up, then I quickly figured out that I need to partner up with somebody. So that’s kind of how I was able to get into it. I partner up with a person that was in the healthcare industry for 30 years. We’ve been partners now for almost eight years. Awesome.
Chris Bounds 05:40
So yeah, I mean, that’s how you see a lot of businesses get started. So you’re still scratching your own own edge. But in this sense, it’s not necessarily scratching your own itch, you saw a problem. And that really hit you in an emotional level. But then you saw the solution to the problem that just didn’t exist where you were, and you were able to take that solution back to your hometown, find a good operator that knew at least had more knowledge of that industry, apply your expertise in what you do, and and start started building from there is that that sounds about right.
Brandon Schwab 06:15
That is we did all of the Opco. In house, we built it how I felt it had to be done. So our first house, I was able to buy it for 250. I put $550,000 into it. So I went over the top. But I felt like if I’m going to ever open up any home, it needs to be of the caliber that if we’re going to put our own family member in there, like it’s up there. Yeah. And that’s how I have done everything for the past eight years. And as we have been able to open up other homes and other homes, we always kept that because we felt that like we can change the industry, we can be part of changing how it’s done going forward. And it isn’t able to happen overnight. But if you just keep on going and and to do homes, we can change how people think of it because today like most people think of the industry as these 100 to 200 Bed type places, which I often compare them to the taxi industry, right?
They have been there forever. Everyone thinks that is going to be how you do it. And then came Uber, right. Uber change what they have how people thought of the industry, because they they would just order it off your phone compared to the old way of taxi taxi. We are the Uber of the industry changing how people think of Aron for their elderly parents. Because if you think of it this way, if your parents, if your parents parents came out of a home, whoever thought it was a good idea to put them in a giant place that’s 200,000 feet? Probably not them, right? Yeah, yeah. Probably the owners that go well, if I put 200 people in here, we can profit a ton of money. But that is what the issue is. We are doing it differently by taking cozy homes that are only 10 to 20 people per home. But our aim is to do hundreds or 1000s of them.
Chris Bounds 08:22
Yeah, it’s such a unique twist on or not really twist it’s just it’s it’s unique way to solve a problem. And as a real estate investor, you’re uniquely positioned to where you can get these homes and you got the expertise to build them out, along with the business partners got the expertise on the car housing side. So what what does that operations look like because this is very different than even Airbnb. So Airbnb, it’s very different from single family like long traditional rentals. It’s an operations business, you’re in the hospitality. Now you’re somewhat in the hospitality business as well. But it’s it’s there’s additions to that. Because there’s there’s special care involved.
Brandon Schwab 09:10
A lot of care. The overall ops piece is tough. It is more of a healthcare operating company every day, that happens to have a asset underneath. That’s how you have to think of it anyone that has experienced fixing flipping homes, you won’t just jump into this and then operate this you have to have. We have for our first home right our first home had 10 people in there we had four rooms that had their own room and then we had three rooms that there’s two people each room, but for those 10 people we had two full time people there to help 10 people so it was a care giver to every five people for the first five plus years. We did that because when you have that type of care Are you can offer awesome help, compared to the competition?
Chris Bounds 10:04
A caregiver has to care for 20 to 30 people that’s all configured like nursing. I don’t know if
Brandon Schwab 10:10
that’s the issue, Chris is, if you are fantastic at it, could you care for 20 people properly? What if two people had a accident at the identical time and they asked for your help? So who would you pick? In what happens is people are able to have accidents, and they just have to wait and wait, and wait. And that isn’t how it ought to be.
We are using technology that’s changing that people get changed quickly. Because we are using technology in that’s what the industry is going to turn into just how taxi taxi is old now, people aren’t going to ever have to do that anymore, because you just order it all on your phone. Same thing where if you have a accident, I don’t think I would ask for any help because I would feel terrible that I could not in I couldn’t have that part fully controlled. But through an app that can tell that they aren’t had an accident. The person can they can offer to help me because they don’t have to ask me anymore. That’s how it ought to be.