Digital Social Hour - The Queen of Assisted Living I Isabelle Guarino DSH #375

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

Isabelle Guarino comes on the show to talk about her journey on residential assisted living. APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Digital Social Hour works with participants in sponsored media and stays compliant with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations regarding sponsored media. #ad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Change thousands of lives. I mean, I would like to say that. Definitely my favorite real estate investment opportunity for sure. Children and the elderly are some of the most vulnerable people that we, you know, have on planet Earth. And to me, being able to care for people, you know, who cared for us, who gave a lot to us, that means a lot. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe it helps a lot with the algorithm it helps us get bigger and better guests and it helps us grow the team truly means a lot thank you guys for supporting and here's the episode all right

guys isabel guarino here today coo of impact housing group and trainer at residential assisted living academy the premier source in education for senior housing and residential assisted living. Thank you for coming on today. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here. Absolutely. I'm excited to hear about your world because I don't know much about it. Okay. So how'd you get started in all this? Well, my grandmother needed assisted living and we were looking for a place for her,

was disgusted by the options and knew that there needed to be something better. My dad had been a real estate investor for 40 years. And so we kind of put two and two together and jumped right into the world of residential assisted living. Wow. So why were the options so disgusting back then? Oh my goodness. I mean, even still now, if you walk into some of these facilities, the care is bad. They'll have 30 seniors to one caregiver. Wow. One person can't take care of 30 people. Yeah. So they're only seeing them like once a day then. If even, right. Because if they're getting a bunch of call buttons and attending to someone, they may not ever get to you. So it's pretty bad. The food can be pretty bleak and it's just, it doesn't feel like a home. You walk in and it feels like a hospital and

we didn't grow up in a hospital. So, I mean, hopefully none of your listeners did either. Right. And so we want that home-like feel. And so this was a totally opposite experience where it's a literal physical residential home in a regular residential neighborhood, better quality care, four to one ratio or five to one. Wow. And the food's better and it's just a more home environment. Yeah. That's great. I would never want my, my mother to be in a home of a one to 30 ratio with bad food. No. Yeah, that sounds, because you're spending your final years there, that sounds horrible. Absolutely. So quality care. And so we wanted that for my grandmother. We were looking for a place. We found one of these homes and purchased the business,

purchased the real estate, was up and running. And with the intent to move her in, she passed before we could move her in. But we kind of fell in love with the industry in the meantime, because in all the forms of single family real estate, we were not cash flowing the way that we were with these types of homes. So it just made a lot of sense. Yeah. I've seen you talk about how you would prefer this over owning 20 Airbnb houses. And apartments, like 50 apartments, you name it. This is so much, in my opinion, so much more profitable, way less work, and you're not dealing with all this turnover in and out, in and out all the time. Right. Because you're just kind of facilitating. You're hiring the nurse, you're finding the tenants, and you're just kind of-

Yep. Hiring that licensed administrator so it doesn't even have to be a nurse, right? But licensed administrator, they hire your licensed caregivers and you own and operate the business and the real estate. So five, 10 hours a week, once it's up and running, it takes a while to get it up and running for sure. But once it's up and running, it's a lot more hands-off than people may think. Wow. Five to 10 hours a week is nothing. I do that a day with my podcast. Exactly. Right. If you could do this, you could do that. Yeah. That's impressive. But how much capital would you say? Because you have to buy the house, right?

Well, you could lease the house. So four ways to get started. You could lease a home to use for this. That'd be a cheaper way to get in, right? Someone's already renovated it and you're going to come in, lease the property to use for this. You could buy a single family home and convert it to become. That'd be the cost of the real estate plus the renovation. You could buy land and build a custom home from the ground up. For those states where you're allowed to have 10 to 16 residents in a home,

I highly suggest a ground up build because you could do a perfectly suited home for this. The fourth way you could get started is to buy an existing business like I shared in the beginning that we did. So it's already up and running. You're buying the real estate, buying the business. Yeah. Interesting. Four ways, four different capital needs. And then depending on where you are in the country, it's going to range too. But let's just say somewhere between $300,000 and $3 million. Yeah, that's cool because depending on how much finances you have, there's different options. Absolutely. And we highly encourage people to not use their own money for this. Wow. Any form of real estate, you really

shouldn't be using your own money. But especially this, there's so many people getting 0% on their money, sitting in the bank, doing nothing for them. If you could offer them 12, 15% on an industry that will touch their heart, makes an impact, like they're going to say, yes, this is the easiest thing I've ever raised capital for. Especially these days, man. I mean, everything's going down. It's nice to have some stability getting 12, 15% a year right now. Oh, heck yes. Especially these days, man. I mean, everything's going down. It's nice to have some stability getting 12, 15% a year right now. Oh, heck yes. And talk about it. I mean, this is, we're on the precipice of this. We're going up with the silver tsunami coming. Like this isn't something that works now and in five years, like Airbnb, right? It's just been steadily

declining as an investment opportunity versus right now we are on the precipice of the next 20 years of this massive silver tsunami of seniors who are coming into the market who are going to need home care and assistance. Right. All the baby boomers, right? All the boomers, they are coming. Yeah. They populated fast. Now they got to get taken care of in their glory days. They need our help. Yeah. Yeah. Because Airbnb, there's that whole Airbnb bus. It got saturated. Yeah. So with this, you're not seeing any saturation yet? No, we're currently 1's that whole Airbnb bus. It got saturated. So with this, you're not seeing any saturation yet? No, we're currently 1.3 million beds short. Damn. And they're only projecting to build 50,000 beds per year. So there is a massive need. I mean,

I wouldn't do something and then train other people how to do it if I wanted to keep it all for myself. I love to teach people how to do this because there's genuinely a need. And if I taught everyone I ever came in contact with and they all opened 10 beds, it still wouldn't be enough. There's so much opportunity. And the reality is we're all going to deal with this one way or another. Either we're going to be lying in the bed or writing the check for someone who is. That's true. Right. Or we could be owning the real estate, owning the business, having a place for our loved ones to go if and when they ever need it. And I know we're both young, but probably not something we're often thinking about, but it's kind of one of those

long-term plays. You have it in the family, you have it as a place if and when you need it, it's cash flowing. And whenever it is your time, there you go. Hop right in there. Hop right in, leaving your kids a blessing, not a burden. Everyone dies. So this type of business model is sustainable over decades, over centuries. Absolutely. It's probably been around for a while. Been around for a while. We're definitely not the first ones to do this, but I think that we are one of the first people to kind of come in and make it more of a professional business because 80% of this industry is run by immigrants. And I'm not saying they're not running it professionally, right? They absolutely are to a certain degree,

but a lot of them work in the home, live in the home, care for the seniors themselves. We're kind of the first ones to come in and say, no, we're going to run this more as an investment opportunity, hire the licensed people to work in the home and just own the real estate and operate the business. And how do you find the elderly people to take care of? Great question.

Marketing comes in many different forms, but one of the most popular ways is working with placement agents, which are basically like realtors for seniors. So when a senior falls and breaks their hip and the doctor says they can't go home alone, the family works with a placement agent who will say, okay, what, you know, amenities do you want? What price point are you looking for? What location works for you? And then they'll take you around to a couple of different properties. You'll choose the best one for you. It doesn't cost the family anything. Oh, insurance covers it. No, the home owner or the facility owner has a contract with all these agencies. Wow. So they will pay half of the first month's rent.

So if it costs seven grand a month to live in the assisted living home, you'll owe them 3,500. That's not bad. No. I mean, paying for speed, because if that senior is going to live with me for an average of three and a half years

at seven grand a month, I'll pay 3,500 all day long. Yeah. And does that cover food? The seven grand to live in the home? Oh, yeah. So a private bedroom, private bath, their food, 24 seven care. There's typically a private chef in the homes, activities, all sorts of different fun stuff. I'll take a private chef at 75.

That's what I'm saying. I'm like, you know what? There's a lot of people who come into our homes or even hear me say that number and they're like seven grand a month. That's insane. How do people afford that? I'm like, you tally up your mortgage. You tally up if you had a private chef, someone doing your laundry, bathing you, wiping your bum, giving you your medication, like all these different things. It costs a lot. All your activities, all your entertainment, it costs a lot for you to live. Why do you think it's not going to cost a lot for a senior to live? Especially for a senior because they need extra care. They need the care, right? I'm not getting bathed. Yeah, I don't think I'd want that at this age at least, maybe when I'm older. We'll see. So how many homes do you have

right now? Currently, we own and operate three homes and then we invest in a bunch across the country. But I teach and train people how to do this. For the last 10 years, we've been training people at the RAL Academy how to do this. We've got thousands of students across the country who've opened homes. It's not a franchise. So I don't own their homes or take anything from them. I just show people how to do this. That's incredible.

You've changed thousands of lives. I mean, I would like to say that. That's incredible. Because it's passive income. They're getting paid every single month. And it's five to 10 hours a week. I mean, this sounds like a no-brainer. Yeah.

It's definitely my favorite real estate investment opportunity for sure because of the longevity in it, because of the inevitability of it, and because it does serve a really population that's going to need us, right? Like children and the elderly are some of the most vulnerable people that we have on planet earth. And to me being able to care for people, you know, who cared for us, who gave a lot to us, that means a lot. It's a great service too. Absolutely. I think you can sleep at night knowing you're providing a great product and a great service. Yeah. I mean, that's what I try to teach all of our students to do. I'm like, there's enough people doing harm in this world.

There's enough people who aren't giving the seniors what they need. Be one of the good ones. Yeah. The average family, I just saw this, can't afford a house anymore. That is crazy. Crazy. When our parents were growing up, that was easy. Like out of college, they got a house. Yeah.

I heard, I just had this group called Retirement House on the podcast. Yeah. I don't know if you've seen them. Uh-uh. But it's like six people. They're all between 70 and 90. Oh, on TikTok. Yeah.

Yes, I love them. Yeah. So they're awesome. They just came on and they 90. Oh, on TikTok. Yes, I love them. Yeah. So they're awesome. They just came on and they were saying when they got out of college, houses were like 20,000 bucks. It's crazy. And now the average house is like 450. It's insane. I mean, truly, it feels like, and people will say this to me on TikTok, they're like, the boomers ruined everything, right? Like they got everything the best and we can't do that anymore. And I'm like, well, the world is different. You could be making money off having a podcast,

but they didn't have that opportunity, right? They had very different opportunities. We have, the world is our oyster right now. You know, you could be friends with someone in Beijing, who's your best friend. They didn't really have that openness and connection that we have. So pros and cons to everything, but definitely real estate. It's a whole nother ballgame what we're dealing with and what they have. Absolutely. What was the toughest part about getting started? Was this profitable right away? You know, it takes a minute to get it up and running. You're definitely going to be in a deficit while you're building up and getting those residents. So it could be taking you,

depending on your marketing and what you're doing to fill those beds, it could take you six months to a year to get full with residents. So you really need to have that reserve of capital set aside so that you're not screwing yourself over. Because obviously the home, the renovation, and then that reserve while you're getting full is going to be important. But I think the hardest thing in any business is people, right? And not just the seniors. A lot of times it's the daughter Judy's, right? It's the adult child who comes with them and they have a lot of wants and needs and a lot of emotions during this time of life. They feel very guilty. Even if you're the best home that they've ever seen, they still feel guilty about putting their loved one in the care home. Yeah. I think they feel guilty because they want them to move in with them, but they don't have the time to commit to them. Right. So they feel guilty about it. I say that to people all

the time. They say, we should take care of our own seniors. I'm like, great. You are so blessed if you are able to just quit your job and full-time take care of your loved one at home. If your home is ready for a senior to move in and you have all the time in the world, because when a senior needs care, they need it. They need it now. It's not like mom jump in the car. We're going to Johnny's soccer game. Like it's painful for them to get out of bed and walk to the living room, let alone get in the car, walk 200 yards, sit in the bleachers for two hours. That's not happening. So if you can quit your job and take care of your loved one full time, amazing. That's a blessing. But a lot of people can't do that. Not to mention, right, quit their job, not have the dual income. Like you just said, people can't even afford housing these days. How are they going

to do that with, you know, not two incomes in the household? It just puts a lot of strain on the family. And so sometimes putting them into a home is a better solution. Absolutely. Have you talked to elderly patients about how they feel about nursing homes and other assisted living facilities? Yeah. And most of our residents come from large facilities. They had terrible experiences and now they're coming to look for an alternative solution. And so we hear horror stories all day about the neglect. Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest? We'll click the application link below in the description of this video. We are always looking for cool stories, cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life. Click the application

link below and here's the episode, guys. That's happening in the larger facilities, whether it's from the adult children, the daughter, Judy, or the senior themselves. And it's really, it's just not okay. So we have to do better as a society. That's so, yeah, I wouldn't want to spend my last days in that environment. I wonder what the fix is. Cause I guess, I guess this is the fix, right? I mean, I like to think this is the fix because live-in caregivers, right? So if it's not a family member and you're going to hire someone to come live in with you 24-7, the average cost in our country today is $27 an hour. So if you need 24-7 care at $27 an hour, 19 grand a month. Wow. So that's what, 240 grand a year? Plus your mortgage, activities, food, cable, utilities, you name it. Most Americans cannot

afford that. Definitely not. So they may promise their loved one, don't worry, you can stay at home. I'll pay for in-home care. And then they're like, like, I can't do this. Right. And so then they're like, oh, well, I'll get someone who does like the during the day while I'm at work and I'll do nights and weekends. Right. Well, now the adult child just gave up their life like we just talked about, because if you are working a full-time job and then going to care for a senior nights and weekends, like say goodbye to going to book club, poker club, wine night, you name it. Like it's not happening. Yeah. That's terrible. What were you doing before this? I know you interned at Disney. Yeah. And you had two Fortune 500 jobs. Yeah. US Airways and Disney. So amazing opportunity at both of those jobs. But I was a flight attendant for two

years before I had done this. Nice. Yeah. Today I kind of felt like back in my flight attendant days, flying in, flying out in one day. Yeah. Wait, what was the airline? US Airways. US Airways. American Airlines bought them. Oh, okay. I was going to say I never flown them, but I do fly American. Yep. All right. So what were your routes there? Oh, all sorts of stuff. I was on reserve. So they send you wherever, wherever you go. I was at a DCA for a while and then out of Phoenix. Wow. Yeah. That is an interesting lifestyle. So you didn't even know like where you were going on a given day. No, they literally call you and they're like,

you're going on a four day trip. And then they send you the thing and it'll be like Phoenix to Las Vegas, Las Vegas to Boston, Boston to Charlotte. And you're just like, okay. So do they pay for your hotel and stuff? Yeah. They cover the hotel. You know what's really interesting about being a flight attendant, and people don't know this, when you sign up for the job, you're like, oh, my God. They'll flash it with like a really nice hourly. Like its start pay is $45 an hour or something. You're like, oh, wow. This is pretty good. Right?

This is great. That is only for flight time. The whole rest of the day you're getting paid $2 an hour That is only for flight time. The whole rest of the day, you're getting paid $2 an hour. What? Yeah. So flight time. So AKA when they are boarding, when you are boarding a plane, the flight attendants not being paid. Oh, that's why they don't give a **** about it. Yeah. Sometimes I put the light on and ask for help and they don't come. No, they're getting paid $2 an hour during that time. And that's when everyone needs help and they're not being, you know, like everyone's all need a blanket you know yeah wow so then you know when it evens out that 45 plus the two

it's like you're gone for four straight days like and you're getting compensated right that whole time that you're in the hotel and sleeping and whatever at two dollars an hour yeah it ends up being basically minimum wage damn and most of these airports that they have the flight attendants flying out of, they're pretty expensive cities, right? DC is super expensive. San Fran, LA, you know, all these places, they're expensive to live. So yeah, they don't have, I mean, some of the airlines have, you know, bases in smaller locations, but most of the major ones, it's all the big cities. So it's pretty pricey to live there. And then you've got like this, you know, you're not making a lot of money. So I did not know that. I assume they made decent money, honestly, but no, the longer you're there, the more the pay goes up. And so eventually it starts to be like,

okay, but most people need extra support at home. So we might have to start tipping them. We should, right. They're probably wait, wait, they'll probably start asking. Everyone's got their little machines, right? Those are, that's actually a pet peeve of mine. Because do you tip on takeout orders? Oh, I have to. I feel bad. Yeah, I feel bad. So I tip 15, 20%. But like that wasn't a thing growing up. No, because I came here to get my own food. That's what I mean. But they flip it over and there's no option to not tip other than exit out. You know, to me, the thing is like recently all the coffee shops now everyone's on the trend of where they have the workers stand outside in the drive-thru line. So now it's like, I feel like I have to tip because you're standing

in the sun, the rain, the wind, whatever it is. And you're being so sweet. Like how's your day going? And I'm like, Oh, now I have to tip yeah throw a dollar yeah I feel like Dutch bros and I don't know who started doing that but yeah now everywhere does that everywhere it's crazy they're all out of the car talking to you Chick-fil-a my pleasure it's just like oh my gosh yeah everyone wants to tip these days man I feel like growing up that that was not a thing no no it was like sit down restaurants where I'm being served right and now it's like it doesn't matter yeah it is nuts um so two years as a flight attendant, what did you do after that? Well, I had saw that my dad was, was dabbling in this and he, you know, had looked for the home for my grandmother. He got

into it. And so on all my off days, I just like go in his office and he'd been in real estate my whole life, but he wasn't doing this. He was doing fix and flip wholesale, low income apartments, all sorts of different stuff. And I was like, why are you hanging out with old people all day? Like, what's going on? And I wasn't making a lot of money. And so I was like, hey, let me help you. Let me help you.

So on all my off days, I would just come hang out with him and learn from him. And eventually I was like, hey, if you pay me this much, I'll leave and I'll come be your assistant. And he was like, OK. So quit my job and started working for him. And there was just two of us and he owned two of the homes at the time and had just started the RAL Academy. And since then, we now have eight companies, the three homes, and he passed in 2021 and everything got passed down to me and my siblings, which has been a blessing. But it went from the two of us to a 50 person team.

And it's been an amazing journey. 50 people. Wow. How did you scale that quick? You know, I had no idea what I was doing. Really? Yeah. I didn't have any business acumen, but he did.

And he really did an amazing job of teaching me what it means to be a business owner and how to scale. Right. And we, at first it was like, I'm doing the marketing, the social media, the payroll, I'm doing taxes at the end of the year. I'm doing this, that, everything. And then it would be like, where am I so overwhelmed? And we always use the little four box chart.

That's like, what do you hate and, and you're bad at. And that's the first box you've got to hire, hire those jobs out because you really shouldn't be doing them. And you need to be focusing on the, what you love and what you're good at box. And so every time it's like, we start to feel overwhelmed, put everything in those, you know, four little categories. And that's your, that's your position that you're hiring for. And slowly we started hiring and hiring over the years. And now I've got an amazing team of people who do everything for me so I can live in my superpower, which is, you know, sharing and talking all about the business. Incredible. Yeah. I think people try to do everything, but like you said, you need to outsource at a certain point.

You have to delegate and elevate. I live and die by that. I love that. Um, did this recent real estate, I don't know if it was a recession or not, but like the interest rates going up, did that affect the business at all? You know, it definitely, people getting in, it's a lot harder now. You do need more capital to get started, but it really doesn't affect it that much because the reality is we're cash flowing more than most other real estate investment opportunities. So a single family investor, oh, it definitely impacted them, right? Because now they're like, oh, my margins are tight. Can I even get someone who's willing to pay this much for the home where I'm making my

couple hundred bucks a month? For us, it's different when the profits are 10, 15 grand a month on one home. Yeah. And you're saying cashflow a lot and I'm doing the math in my head. 7,000 a month at five tenants each house is $35,000 a month. Not five tenants. You're having somewhere between six and 16 residents at home. So in Arizona and Vegas, we're allowed 10 residents. Wow. Yes. So averages in our states is $4,500 a month per person. You can get up to seven. It just depends on if you're located in the most luxurious part of town, what amenities you have. So we'll go average, right? 4,500 times 10, 45,000 coming in. 30 grand in expenses, five grand in mortgage or debt service. That's 10 grand a month right there for you. 10K net a month with five to 10 hours a

week. Yeah. That is incredible. Eventually, eventually, right? Yes. You'd say once you fill up. Once you fill up and once you've done that work. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But if you're a good marketer, you could fill up quick. You should be filling quick. Exactly. Like we always say, when should you start marketing? Yesterday. Yeah.

No, for real. In my head, I feel like six to 12 months is a long time. I feel like I could fill up a house in like a month or two. I would love to see you do it. I think you could because you are an expert marketer. Yeah. What's the quickest someone's filled it up from one of your students? I would say two months.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I could definitely do that then if someone's done it. Yeah. What's the quickest someone's filled it up from one of your students? I would say two months. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I could definitely do that then if someone's done it. Yes, it can happen. It's all like we talked about with the placement agents. That's an amazing way to pay for speed and fill the beds faster.

But then also silly things, like you'd be shocked at how many of these homes don't even have websites. Don't even have a website. Like that is business 101, right? How is someone going to find you, right a website having you know a presence online so when someone's searching for care homes in the area you need to pop up yeah seo and just simple online marketing but then also relationships having brochures and business cards and the hard copy items because

when you go talk to the local church, synagogue, temple, and tell them, hey, I'm the new care home. You know, I'm right down the street. We'd love you to come visit. If you ever have any seniors in your, you know, community who need care and assistance, let them know we're right around the corner, you know, whatever. You build that relationship. You'll leave them with brochures. You know, if daughter Judy is a religious sort, you better believe she's going to go in and talk to her pastor and say, my mom's dealing with dementia. What do I do? And if you just walked in the week before, he's going to be like, hey, this cool guy, Sean Kelly, here's his brochures, homes down the street.

Old school marketing, baby. Old school marketing. Yeah, with the older people, they need to see it visually. They're not on social media and stuff. Absolutely. So like Facebook is good because daughter Judy, that 50 to 70-year-old, she's on Facebook. But the senior definitely is not. Definitely not. Yeah. You might have to start a TikTok for each house.

Oh, you definitely could. Like retirement home. They are the cutest. They got like six mil and they're just killing it, man. They're like the new age golden girls. I love it. No, that was such a inspiring episode getting to hear how some of them grew up. And it's crazy that that was just one lifetime ago. It's not that far from where we were. And it's more wild to think that our grandkids are going to look at us and think that like, wow, you guys are so archaic. Yeah, we're ancient. Yeah. You got kids yet? I just had a kid. I had my first son eight weeks ago. Wow. Congrats. That's a big deal. Thank you. That's so cool. Yeah. I want kids around probably 30. There you go. Travel a bit. Got a little time. Yeah. Yeah. Did you plan it? No. I love the honesty. No. I'm a planner. So am I. I'm very type A, but you know, sometimes, you know, we plan and

God laughs, they say. Life happens. I wasn't mad. I always wanted kids. And definitely, he's a blessing. He's such an angel. He's the sweetest little guy ever so far. Let's pray it stays like that. Yeah. Take over the family business one day, too. I hope.

That's the goal. His dad's an entrepreneur, too. So either one of our businesses. I love that. What are you working on these days? And where can people find out more about this? Yeah. Actually, the newest thing that we have coming up is we are relaunching our podcast,

which is the Assisted Living Network. So it's all about assisted living. It was a podcast that my dad had hosted a while ago. We went on pause and we are reinvigorating it. So that'll be coming back March 15th. So we're excited about that. And people can find out more about that wherever you listen to podcasts, Assisted Living Network. And to just learn more about assisted living in general, ral101.com is a great place to go. Free webinars, free books. You can schedule a call with

me or my team and we can share all about assisted living with you. Perfect. We'll link it in the video. Thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Thanks for watching guys as always. See you tomorrow.