The Boomer Wealth Transfer ($2.5M/Yr Opportunity) │Boris and Amanda Palomino E507

A massive demographic shift is already underway—and most investors aren’t paying attention. Rich Somers sits down with Boris and Amanda Palomino to break down why residential assisted living is quickly becoming one of the most compelling and recession-resistant real estate asset classes in the country. With millions of baby boomers entering the age of care and a nationwide shortage of beds, demand is accelerating while supply struggles to keep up. The conversation dives into how small, boutique care homes generate strong monthly cash flow, why this model avoids many of the regulatory pressures hitting Airbnb, and how investors can combine real estate appreciation with an operating business under one roof. Boris and Amanda explain market selection, licensing, staffing, and how these properties can produce meaningful income while still qualifying for powerful tax advantages. Rich also explores why this asset class is protected, how leverage and creative financing can be used responsibly, and why the “sandwich generation” is driving long-term demand for high-quality care options. This episode is a deep, practical look at an overlooked real estate strategy—built on fundamentals, demographics, and real operating leverage.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

By 2030, the majority of the baby boomers are going to come into the age of care. The age of care is 65 and older, right? Right now, I'm going to talk about California. California right now has 6 million seniors. By 2030, that number is going to be at 9 million seniors. There is a massive shortage of bets right now, nationwide. It is projected that there's going to be a shortage of 500,000 bets minimum nationwide. This is a recession-proof business. During COVID, people preferred our boutique style homes versus the big facilities. Here's a big thing, too. Nobody's going to shut us down like they're shutting down Airbnb. We are getting a lot of students that they're shutting down the Airbnbs or losing money. Why? Think about it. Who would shut me down? Who would lobby against me? Big pharma? Not tapping into their pockets. Insurance or helping insurances. Why? Because they much rather, whether it's Medicaid, whether it's private pay, the resident pay me six, ten thousand versus them paying up to $50,000 for them to be in a skill nursing facility. So they're not going to come after me. There is nobody that really is going to come after us because we're helping the senior community, right? We're not tapping into anybody's pocket. That's what that's why Uber started having problems. That's why uh Airbnb started having problems because they poked the hornets next.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

All right, guys. Today, I got a husband and wife duo that are doing big things, making big moves in the residential assisted living space. And they're gonna be dropping a lot of game, a lot of value. They are good friends of mine, and I got Boris and Amanda Palomino. Welcome to the show, guys. Thank you, Ray. Thanks for having us. Yeah, appreciate you guys coming on. Um, this is an asset class that uh I think is is really, really taking advantage of the tightening uh, well, the 40 million retired baby boomers that are happening right now across the country. Uh they call this the greatest transfer of wealth in American history. And just to put it in perspective for the listeners, today uh the baby boomers own about 51% of all the wealth in America. Um, and the millennials only only 9% currently, which is crazy, right? And so all that wealth is gonna shift hand. But also with all these folks retiring, they're gonna need to go into residential assisted care facilities uh and all that sort of stuff. So I love that you guys are taking advantage of it. What do you guys like about this um this time right now to get in the game?

SPEAKER_01 2:30

It is a perfect time. Um, there's a lot of businesses, as you say, it's the largest transfer of wealth in America. And for some reason, the millennials, the other generations, don't want to take advantage of that. So, to give you an example, one of the homes we just acquired, the landlord sold it to us finally because his kids didn't want it. The the kids didn't want to manage it, they didn't want to deal with it. And we're starting to see that trend a lot. And so that's a huge opportunity for a lot of uh entrepreneurs or future entrepreneurs to jump on these deals. You know, uh get the the assets that are out there, get the properties, and turn them into something that is highly, highly sought after.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

So now I I always say uh when you're investing in something, like look at the macro perspective, look at the supply-demand, look at the fundamentals, like what kind of shifts are occurring? And you guys have earmarked the shift of 40 million retirement boomers. Uh, this is not going to slow down. Um, and so you know, you think about the demand that's gonna be coming out of this with the demand to um have enough beds and assisted living care facilities for these folks. Um, Amanda, what uh what are some other things that you like about this time period today?

SPEAKER_00 3:43

I think the population is aging and aging very quickly. There's a lot of new medical conditions that are popping up recently. We have care personally in our care facilities, we have cared for a handful of 65-year-olds. So when you think of senior living, you typically think 90 and up or 80 and up, and um, who truly can't care for themselves. In fact, we have 60-year-olds in our care facility who aren't able to care for themselves, who thought that they were going to have these big dreams of retirement, but unfortunately need full assistance with all of their um daily living tasks. So I think right now the population is aging and it's something that most people don't consider.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Do you think that uh putting your parents or grandparents into these facilities is considered taboo?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Absolutely. For many, many cultures. It's definitely taboo. However, we live in a different generation now, and it's called the sandwich generation. For example, me, I am part of the sandwich generation. I have young children that I am caring for being pulled in so many different directions at the school, drop-offs, at the sports, um, busy chauffeuring them around everywhere. And then we've got aging parents as well. And so now I'm being pulled in two separate directions, caring for aging parents, caring for my young family. I'm not always there to care for my aging parents. Therefore, this is the sandwich generation. I'm sandwiched between these two generations. We're now finding alternative measures for assistance with our aging population. I think absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Yeah. And I think that um, you know, I when I think about my family, my mom grew up in Taiwan and it's a different culture. And so I could definitely see like what you're talking about with the taboo thing. Um, but I think it's definitely more accepted, like widely accepted in in our society. Um, I think about my dad's head of the family, like his mother, she's not around anymore, but she was in one of these uh larger assisted living care facilities where it was kind of like a little community and that sort of thing. And we would still go visit her, but everything was kind of taken care of the food, the treatments, the medicate, the medicine. Um, and she had her own little social circle there, which was pretty cool to see. And she actually enjoyed it. Um, and so I can see the pros of this. When folks go out to buy these residential assisted uh care facilities, is there any sort of strategy in terms of like market selection? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Um we you gotta look at the city, right? It's like anything in real estate. You gotta make sure that that area is not oversaturated with in California, they're called RCFEs, residential care facilities for the elderly. In these homes, we're allowed to care for up to six residents. And you wanna make sure that there's not a lot of those in your area. One, two, you wanna you wanna look at the demographic. Okay, you want to make sure that it's not an area where there's a lot of young families. That even your neighboring cities, you have seniors around there and whatnot. Um, and also you want to make sure that the property is gonna appreciate, right? Because one thing I tell everybody that about this uh this industry, this is the McDonald's. I always compare it to the McDonald's part. For everybody out there who thinks McDonald's is in the business of hamburgers, sorry to write it to you. They're not, they're in real estate. So this is the same thing. You're acquiring assets, properties, and you're you're turning them into a business. And so that's another thing you need to look at. You want to make sure that these homes that you're purchasing are gonna appreciate because that's how you're able to pull money out and buy another and another and another.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yeah. And uh that's a good point. I mean, for the folks listening to this that aren't aware, you know, if you think Mike McDonald's is in the hamburger industry, the cheeseburger industry, they are really one of the biggest real estate uh operators in in the entire world. And um, you know, they have the franchise model, and so they'll find a franchisee to come in and operate one of their locations. But McDonald's owns um the majority, uh very close to all their um assets. And so it's a big real estate play. They're collecting, uh, they're collecting rent from the the um the franchisee, also taking a franchisee fee. Um, and then they got the depreciation, the tax benefits, and then all the long-term appreciation that goes with uh owning land state um real estate long term. So you guys are essentially running the same playbook, but this is residential care facilities. You're buying in great locations, adding a ton of um, you know, uh amenities and areas to where you can bring in active income, and then the real estate's gonna go up over the long haul, and then you can get a cost seg study and uh use the depreciation from the cost seg study to offset a lot of the income that this thing is spinning off. It's a huge tax play that a lot of people listen to this. Um, you know, if you have a tax problem right now, getting a cost seg study and getting into a piece of real estate that is producing high income like this is a huge play.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Yeah, and you we haven't even talked about you, you know, you brought it up right now, the tax benefits of having an RCFE or a residential assisted living, huge. The depreciation now with the new bill with 100% depreciation, that's huge, also. There's so many other aspects that come into play when it comes to this industry that people don't even know about. We're just scratching the surface.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Question for you about the tax benefits. So, does the IRS consider this an active stream of income? Meaning you can use the cost seg study to the depreciation from a cost seg to not just offset the the income that this property spits off, but also use it to offset any active streams of income that you might have if you're like a high-income earning W-2 employee, for example.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Absolutely, yes. Yes? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah. And this is a really neat industry too, because we kind of talked about the real estate and the the properties. What most people don't know is cities can't deny you from opening these care facilities either because we're protected by the Fair Housing Act.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

That's huge.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Seniors are a protected class. So we can open up a residential senior care facility in any city and they cannot deny you.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

That's huge. Um, and I want to go back to the tax benefits just real quick because this is important for anyone listening to this. Most real estate investments in asset classes that you get into multifamily, long-term rentals, um, investing into self-storage, office, uh, mobile home parks, you know, uh, or maybe you have uh, you know, a property that you're gonna operate as uh, you know, a long-term rental, you're you're not going to, unless you're considered or qualified for professional real estate status in the eyes of the IRS, meaning you make the majority of your income as a real estate professional, uh, you can't use the depreciation from these real estate investments to offset your active income. And so if you are an active, uh your high high-income earning W-2 professional making a couple hundred grand a year, or maybe you're a doctorate attorney making three, 400K a year, you likely have a huge tax problem, right? You're paying, you know, 60K, 80K, maybe 150K a year in taxes. Well, that's a big problem. And so getting into this asset class, similar to two hotels, the IRS considers it an active stream of income. And because of that, you can use the depreciation um to also uh offset your active income, which is a huge tax play.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

The reason for that is because we're actually running a business. We have employees, we have not only the income part of it, but we have a lot of a lot of expenses that offset that income. We're running an actual business, and my business pays for the mortgage of that property.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Yeah, that's huge. So, uh, Boris, how how much can uh one of these assisted living care facilities make in a month?

SPEAKER_01 11:18

On average, um, it and it varies state by state. So I'm gonna speak about California. Uh on average, for six beds, you can make around 38,000. Damn 38,000, 40,000 growth.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

40,000 a month?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Sometimes more than that, depending on, yeah. So you um build by bed.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

And any bed in a shared room up to a private room can go from anywhere from like 5,000 to 10,000 per month.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Damn, 10,000 a month.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah. I again think about it. I mean, you open up a home in Malibu or like here in San Diego would be like La Jolla, right? Which is high-end area. You can charge a lot more, right? Um, so it really depends on the area. So on average, you're looking at 38 to 40,000 growth and then up from there.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Yeah, up from there. Okay, so 60K potentially, $60,000 a month. Um, and then what is the uh what is a typical uh length of a of a care like like a stay? Is it typically 12 months? Is it two years? What does that contract kind of look like?

SPEAKER_00 12:22

It definitely varies. We've had residents who come into our care just to pass away, so they're only with us for a few days. And then we've had long-term residents who have been with us for seven, eight years. So it really depends on their level of condition, what's going on with their medical um diagnosis, and then how much we're really able to care for them. And then the service that you provide too plays a huge role in that.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Is it typically like pretty low turnover? Because once they get in there, they're they're they're less likely to leave, assuming that everything is going well.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yes. Our residents come into our care expecting to pass away, and that's the last home that they'll live in.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Damn. Yeah, we've we've rarely had anybody move out. Um, we've had a few, but that's because they were there for respite, just temporary. And then they move out back home or whatever because that's because they're able to do it. Majority of our residents cannot go back home. A lot of the times the doctors will say, Hey, it's unsafe for you to live at home. So that's why we call it the oh shit industry. It's a lot of people don't prepare for it. Nobody thinks about this. It's not until, oh shit, mom fell. What do we do now? Right. And so that's why like most of our residents are with us the rest of their life.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

That's really good. So, okay, so 60K a month top line. If you have um a really nice property, 6K per bed or per room. Um, and then what do the expenses look like?

SPEAKER_00 13:49

Okay, so our overhead typically looks like um employees, your food, all of your insurances. There's liability, there's commercial property insurance, even though it's a residential property, you're still you're still running a business out of it, workers comp, um, all of your employer taxes and and payroll associated fees, your food, your activities, your marketing. Sometimes you do have to pay agency fees, meaning an agency will find clients for you to move into your care facility. So that's all um under the umbrella of marketing as well.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Okay. So you don't even have to lease your own place out. There's there's third parties that will do it for you.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

They will do the marketing for you, and you just pay them a fee to find you the clients, and then you are still showcasing the services that you provide in your care facility.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

So uh, you know, we're in California. So California, for example, is there a minimum in terms of like nursing and nurses you gotta place for these uh these um what do you call them, by the way? Great point. I keep I keep coming up for the I'm like thinking of the word. I'm like, what do you call it? So they're caregants. They're what? Caregivers.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

No, residents. Oh, the residents. Oh, the residents and caregivers. And then there's caregivers.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Okay. So um is there a minimum uh number of caregivers that you need per number of residences?

SPEAKER_01 15:01

No, um, we abide by what's called Title 22 and so uh health and safety code. Okay, what's Title 22? That is the regul the regulating laws for RCFEs. Okay. And so when you become an administrator, you have to take an 80-hour course and you basically study Title 22. Your test is based on Title 22, and in there there's no set mandate for minimum caregivers. Normally, we like the standard is two caregivers during the day. Okay. One and so you for six residents, you you know, you only need two caregivers.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

That's pretty pretty easy. And and how much is a typical salary for one one full-time caregiver?

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Uh, full-time caregiver starts at minimum wage, actually. So um, there's a misconception that you have to be a nurse or have a medical background to even work in a care facility. That's not true. We hire caregivers. We, as administrators, get to train our caregivers on the day-to-day duties. And then it doesn't mean that we don't provide medical care. We actually work with home health or hospice through the client's doctor's office and they will send nurses into the facility to provide that medical care. We as a care facility are a social model of care, not a medical model of care. So we employ caregivers. And these caregivers start at minimum wage and up. And then if you choose to have like a house manager or hire on an additional administrator, then you pay them accordingly.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Got it. And is there a general rule of thumb for having a house manager?

SPEAKER_00 16:35

With one care facility, it's not necessary. Um, your caregivers, as long as you have really solid process and procedures, because that's really what running a business comes down to process and procedures, you have a solid blueprint of how to run that care facility, then your home runs itself. And there really is no need to have a house manager if you choose to be involved. If you don't choose to be involved, there's a lot of people who do this as passive. Then yes, definitely hire a house manager because at the end of the day, you're still caring for somebody's life.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

That makes a lot of sense. Are there third-party property managers that that solely just uh operate these uh facilities?

SPEAKER_01 17:11

There's a lot of people out there that will open them up.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

And, you know, they'll they'll put like an administrator or someone to run them. When you really scale, is when you're kind of able to do that, right? Once you start scaling and having more homes, you're able to do that more and more and more. And that's that's kind of what we did as well. When we started over 10 years ago, it was us. Like we were in there the whole time. And as we scaled, as we set processes and procedures, like Amanda said, we're able to step back, step back, step back, and then work on our business, not in our business. And so, yeah, is it possible? Yeah, a lot of people are are doing that. But for the most part, uh most people want to be involved in it because you're caring for somebody, right? You want to be involved in the day-to-day of the care of the residents, go see seeing what's going on and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

And by the way, if you guys are listening to this right now and you're like, damn, this sounds really cool. I want to be a part of it, I want to learn more. Boris and Amanda are giving away all the listeners a free ebook uh to learn exactly how to get in the game, all the details, the A to Z. You can go to the Palomino, it's Palomino Senior Living Academy.com and uh get your free ebook there, uh, and then make sure to mention the podcast. Uh so you got me thinking, how do you go over six beds? Is there a way to like legally do that? What if you have a property with like an ADU in the back? Or maybe is there a way to like buy two properties next to each other and combine the lot? Like, what are some ways to go above the six beds?

SPEAKER_01 18:42

So there's two, there's several ways about it. Okay. Number one, you have to ask your local city for conditional use permit. Some cities are going to be very reluctant because most homes are R1, low density, and they want you to go through the process of city council to go through an R2, R3. That's it's really difficult. It's just rare when cities do that. Um, as we mentioned earlier, if you stick to six bets or under, no city can deny you. The other way, and this is a loophole that you're talking about ADUs. As long as that ADU has a separate entrance, separate address, you can now make that one a facility. Because of the sizes of an ADU, you got to keep in mind you want your residents to be comfortable. This isn't just about money. Okay, you want your residents to be comfortable. So comfortably you can fit about four in an ADU, four residents, so four beds.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

But still, you know, now you're at a, you know, you've expanded your operation. You can share resources, meaning your staff, uh, a lot of the things that you know go back and forth. And then you increase the value of your property because now you have an ADU.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Yeah, that's true. I like the idea of having like private rooms, um, because it sounds like they're gonna pay max, which is like they have more likely to be willing to pay $6K, especially if you're in a good location, if it's a nice private room, private bath, correct? That's correct. Okay, so Amanda, um, so what Boris is saying is is essentially you could have a six-bedroom single-family house and have six in the front. And then if we did an ADU in the back, that was a four-bedroom ADU, you could potentially go up to 10.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

And and do you need a special permit or approval with the city, assuming that four-bedroom in the back is an ADU?

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yes. So it's not necessarily with the city. What you're doing is getting a separate license on that property. Since you're maxed out at six on the first location, now the second location is a completely separate license. You go through a separate fire clearance process with with your city. But because it's on the same lot, you do get to share a lot of the resources. So you can still have care, for example, like caregivers in in facility number one in the front, they're doing laundry for all 10 residents. They're cooking and then passing meals over to the second facility. So there's a lot of shared resources that really make that model profitable.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Curious. If you bought a uh lot next to a current facility that you're already operating and then you you bought the property next door, do you need to get a special permit to operate that one as well?

SPEAKER_01 21:18

As long as it's under the same corporation as the same owner or no.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

It's just separate licenses. Um, if you're zoned proper uh a higher zoning, R2, R3, you can have more residents. You're not capped at six. You can definitely increase it and you can have a 15-bed location, a 14. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

So the key is to find a single family house with uh R3 zoning. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

That that's that's a jackpot.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yeah. So now you can increase your capacity. The only difference is the state will require you to have some, you know, different um caregiving positions. Maybe you need as uh one caregiver to be an activities director. One employee has one specific role. Maybe you have some extra things in the home. It's not impossible. Right now with the six bed, though, my kids are the activities directors. I've got the Girl Scouts coming through and doing activities, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:09

So if we can go up to 15 beds, we're looking at potentially $90,000. If you maxed out $6,000 per room, you're looking at $90,000 top line. And then give us an idea on like just generic, what does a typical expense ratio look like? For example, I'll give an example. You know, in the multifamily game, this is very generic. It's not a one size fits all, but generally speaking, about 50% of all the gross income is going to go towards expenses on a multifamily deal. When the hotel game, because there's a lot more on-site staff, there's a lot more uh variables, you got housekeeping, all this stuff, the expense ratio for hotels, generally speaking, is about 65%. So for every hundred grand you make, about $65,000 of that is going to go towards expenses, $35,000 to the bottom line. So give us an idea with the residential assisting living space. What is it a general rule of thumb for expense ratio?

SPEAKER_00 23:00

It's actually very similar to the hotel space because employees will always be your highest expense in this space. Absolutely. That's good.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

That's that's pretty good, though. I mean, this is single family residence, and then I mean, guys, you can pick up these properties um for relatively low money down. Talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Yeah. Um, there's so many ways to pick up these properties. You don't need a turnkey property, that's a big mistake people think. You buy houses that needs some renovation, which it works for you. You're buying, you're getting it at a lower rate, right? You're gonna put a little elbow grease in there and make it nice. Remember, we do not need to be ADA compliant. That's a big misconception because we're not a medical facility. So there are some things you have to put bars, grab bars, things like that, uh, you know, some ramps, but even your ramps don't need to be ADA compliant, right? So you you grab a home that at a relatively low price, you do the renovations, and it it's a win-win for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Yes. Um, which brings me to my next point with the low, no money down. I mean, we're talking primary residence loan. Um, you got the FHA three and a half percent down. A lot of these banks and credit unions will do five percent down. Uh, here's a hack, here's a pro tip for listeners. I've done two of these uh in the past, and uh Navy Federal Credit Union. If you can get a membership there, you don't need to be prior military um or a veteran, but if someone in your family is, that's usually the easiest way to get in. So it could be an uncle or grandfather. Um, if they were part of the uh the military at some point or a veteran, you can use that to get access to become a member. They will do up to a million dollar loan amount with 0% down on a primary residence. And so theoretically, you could use that loan product to get in 0% down, negotiate the seller to cover your closing costs, and get into assisted living care facility for zero money down and then live on the property, right? Um, when you're signing the loan docs, it's like, hey, like as long as you have intentions to live there as a primary residence, what happens after? You know, people go through divorces, people get uprooted from their careers, they lose their job. Plans change. This is not prison. They can't make you live at any property. This is not prison. So plans change. Hey, I decide I want to go get a permit and operate an assisted living care facility. How long does the permitting process take?

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Anywhere from four to six months.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Four to six months. Okay. So then six months in, you get the permit and then you convert it, and boom. Now you got a cash-flowing business, you own the real estate, you own the asset, and you got in for zero down. Uh, Amanda, what other expenses? Permitting, the equipment, break that down. How much does all the other stuff cost for someone to get into this?

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Yeah. So the application fee is about $1,000. That goes directly to the state. And then they do require three months of operating expenses, anywhere from $40,000 to $70,000.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Who requires that?

SPEAKER_00 25:54

The state. When you collect that? Where do they? They just want to look at a statement that you have funds available for three months to pay staff. Um, and they just want to know that you know how you know.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

What if you said, hey, I'm going to use a zero percent credit card?

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Then you pull your money out of a credit card and put into it. You stick it into your business account.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

They don't care where the money comes from. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

They don't care where the money comes from. They just want to know that you have access to these funds.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

That's huge. And so that's all you really need to get going. What about the equipment though?

SPEAKER_00 26:21

It's just furniture, furniture, and fixtures. So the way I like to equate it to is Airbnb. The same way you would furnish an Airbnb is exactly how we are furnishing our senior care facilities. Only difference is instead of a regular twin bed, I may be using a hospital bed. So you want to make our residents comfortable too.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Are those beds really expensive or are you?

SPEAKER_00 26:41

No, not at all. In fact, a lot of our residents are approved for hospital beds through their insurance.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Yeah. So we haven't even talked on about any of the insurance programs, too. We mentioned rates for private paying clients. There's actually a lot of amazing insurance-based programs that pay equivalent rates for low-income seniors.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Okay. So, so what does that mean for someone less than this? They can get into a care facility and how's the insurance company going to help them out?

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Because insurances works with Medi-Cal here in California. So it's Medicaid nationwide, Medi-Cal here in California. And there are managing care plans with certain insurances that will pay for the care of a resident in a care facility. So it's guaranteed payment.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

100% of the cost.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

They will pay 90% of the cost.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

90%. Yes. And off 6K, they're paying like 50 5600, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Yes. And the resident is responsible for paying 90% of their social security income, which comes out to about $1,500 a month. And then this managing care plan will pay the remainder of your private paying.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Damn, that's really good. It is. And is it is it hard to get approval for that or is it relatively easy to get it?

SPEAKER_00 27:50

It's relatively easy. You just need an active license.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Damn. Okay. That's huge.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

And so uh essentially 90% of a lot, like I'm, I guess I'm curious for you guys, what percentage of your residences are using insurance?

SPEAKER_00 28:02

I like to do a mixed bag of private pay. And then I definitely love to help out our lower income seniors who typically can't afford to be in a boutique-style senior living facility where we, you know, cater to their personal care needs. Uh right now, we're probably doing 10% of this insurance-based program. Most of it is still private pay.

unknown 28:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

And another thing I thought of is like the primary residence lending for a single family is some of the most competitive rates out there. 30 year aim, very, very low aggressive interest rate, uh, even in today's environment, relative to what you're going to get, you know, buying an Airbnb, for example, where you're going to pay a premium in the rate because the lenders see that as more risk. So that's pretty cool. Amanda, I'm curious, what what are some uh what are some levers that that one could pull, like just some some strategies to really make your facility stand out, reference the other ones in the neighborhood?

SPEAKER_00 28:53

So most people think that when we give tours, we're giving a real estate tour. I'm not showcasing house. People could care less about the house. We're showcasing our services. What is it that we can do to promote quality of life for our seniors? What type of activities do we have? What type of meals? How can we customize the day-to-day for our residents? So when you go to a hotel, what amenities do they have? What is going to make you feel so comfortable that you never want to leave that hotel? That's exactly what we do in our senior care facilities. We want to we want to customize the care for each of our residents. That's why we love the smaller scale.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Is a pool too risky to um provide as an amenity for some of these uh older folks?

SPEAKER_00 29:35

I'd say so. We actually specialize in dementia care. Yeah. So 90% of our residents do have some form of dementia. So pools are probably not recommended.

SPEAKER_02 29:45

What if grandpa dave wants to go for a a nice morning swim and a speedo?

SPEAKER_00 29:49

You know, grandpa dave is probably skinny dipping then.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

No, we we actually do a lot. We actually started this, and a lot of um RCFEs weren't doing this when we started. We implemented an exercise program. So when therapists would come into the facility, we would say, Hey, can you give us some range of motion exercises that we can incorporate into our exercise routine? And so every single day, our residents, Monday through Friday, we give them the weekends off, they uh they get range of motion exercises, right? Because that it helps in several ways. One, they exercise, they live longer, they are more at peace, they're calm, they have quality of life. But also it helps our caregivers because the more they're able to do for themselves, the less work it is for our caregivers. And it just helps everybody around. And that's one thing that we implemented from day one. And if we get a new resident, for example, and he has specific um therapies that he needs to do, a lot of the times the therapists can show us and we can just create those every single day versus the resident just doing them once a week when the therapist comes in and that's it. So we kind of follow up with stuff like that. Yeah. Um I wanted to touch back on a on the point where you said about the the lending.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

There are now banks who are they are specializing in lending in RCFEs.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

It's an SBA 7A loan.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

All right, okay. And what was happening is they were seeing people come in to the bank asking for a loan, and they were looking at this the you know, the traditional way. The average rental property goes for 6,000 or whatever, right? And that's when we started, we started explaining to a lot of banks and a lot of lenders, like, no, no, no, you're looking at this the wrong way. Let's go back to that 40,000, 60,000 a month because you're looking at the income of the property. No, it's per bed. So now a lot of banks are jumping on it and saying, that's a great industry, that's a cash flow industry. Now we can lend on that. Not only that, I'm glad we talked about all of this because it kind of brings it all together. We talked about the licensing process, which takes six months or it gets it could take longer if you don't know what you're doing. Um let's just say six months, you don't have to pay on that property until you're licensed and you're cash flowing. So that's another incentive that the banks are using in these SBA loans for assisted livings.

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Yeah, that's huge. Can you get um these like DSCR non-QM loans like you can in the real estate space? Like now I'm talking, you know, no uh tax returns, they're just gonna size it up based on the income of the property. Yes. Yeah, we've done them all. I I can't personally I can't stand getting loan because we're always refinancing stuff. And I'm like the the girls on the team will tell you, like, because they they do all the the back end paperwork and it's the paperwork.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

I absolutely hate it.

SPEAKER_02 32:56

Like some of these lenders, especially like the um the more conforming like lenders that are looking at every little thing. I'm like, dude, they want your your your blood type, your spinal fluid, dude, your they want you to take a drug test. I'm like, dude, it's it's insane. Yeah. Yeah. And so, but then there's also like really great lenders that are more relationship-based and they're just like, hey, like, we trust you guys. They look, they look at you know the experience of the sponsor, the operator, they look at your schedule real estate owned, and then they really look at the asset. And they don't want to look at like 19, 20 different entities and all this. I'm like, guys, it's just like never-ending. And so um, we got a couple loans done last year, and I'm just like, it's just so much paperwork. It's like freaking insane.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

That's my department.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Like getting them to the finish line is like crazy. Um, but anyway, so I always I always appreciate getting loans done to where they're very relationship-based.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Well, this isn't actually this loan program Boris is talking about is a pretty solid one for this industry because the S Base 7A lends on projections.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

And they give working capital and construction funding on top of the loan to purchase the real estate. So it's a it's a really great program that they're offering right now. We've actually utilized it to get into one of our properties. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

We've utilized everything.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

We've done we've done it all.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Uh seller uh seller financing. Yeah, we've done a hard money loan.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

Like all of them. We've done all of them.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Yeah, yeah. I love that. I personally think seller financing is the best. I mean, we're we're in the hotel game and um, you know, it's it's quick and easy. Negotiate your own down payments, sometimes it's low, even no money down, and then uh, you know, um very competitive interest rates, negotiable, no prepayment. So I got a question. Yeah. Because there's residential care facilities on the market for sale. Right. Yep. Is there a big play to buy a portfolio of like, you know, build up, you know, four, five, six of these things in in the same market? You have one, you know, core set of operations that can operate all of these together and then go to the marketplace and selling them as a portfolio. Is that a is that a play?

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Yeah, it is. It is. You absolutely can do that.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Uh, we personally are not building our portfolio for that. We're building a legacy. You just had a um Palamine. Yeah. Yeah. You just had a guest. I forgot his name. I'm sorry. I was listening to his podcast with him. And he said, build a business that builds a legacy. And that's what we're doing because my daughter wants to take over eventually. But yes, you absolutely can. Yes. You know, it's not that simple though. Welcome to my life. Here comes the bad news.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

I'm always like, hold on, guys, listening. Okay. It sounds really sexy to just buy a portfolio of these senior care facilities. However, you cannot transfer the license of those locations.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

You still have to go through the entire licensing process under your own LLC.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Now, what if you sell the LLC?

SPEAKER_00 35:55

Then you're also purchasing any issues, problems, workers' comp cases, liabilities, lawsuits.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Because I bought um one multifamily deal out in Cincinnati uh on the Kentucky side, his eight-unit building. And it was it was the guy, the guy was gifted this property by his uncle, and he and he didn't want anything to do with it. He didn't want his uncle to know that that he sold it. So he was like, I need to sell it with the LLC. So I actually bought the LLC, knowing that risk, and I was okay with that risk. How was the reputation? It worked out fine. There was no back end stuff on the back end. I was okay with the risk. I didn't have investor capital, it was all my money, and I was getting a really good deal. So I was okay with it. Now, uh, and it worked out. But in the event that the buyer knew all the risk and they're like, hey, like I'm good with it, can they essentially buy the LLC and have it come with the licenses transferring?

SPEAKER_00 36:46

They would transfer, they would have to do a transfer within the state and still go through partial licensing applications. So it's there is still some transfer that has to be done at the state level to approve that. Um, but yes, then at that point it is possible. Um, but just keep in mind, too, with these care facilities, we do get random inspections by the state agency to come through and walk through and comb through our properties. And all of these reports are public record. So do your due due diligence, read those um licensing reports, make sure that these facilities have really clean, solid records, um, no bad reputation because there are several and it's all public. You can go on on the state website and search these up. But you can look up the record to see if they've had it's called type A or type B deficiencies, if there's been any elder abuse in the homes, things that you could technically inherit just by keeping the business name. Sometimes you want to change everything.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

Sure. Amanda, what are the biggest risks um that you see new investors make uh or the biggest mistakes you see new investors make when they're getting into this industry?

SPEAKER_00 37:51

Gosh, so many. So many. Where do I begin? Yeah. The very first mistake is the property acquisition.

SPEAKER_02 37:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 37:59

Not all properties will work for a senior care facility.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

What type of properties don't work?

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Um, I'll tell you what does work because it's a lot simpler than we think. Single story for sure. As many bedrooms as you can get. Um, you have to remember we are working with seniors who use assistive devices, which means canes, walkers, wheelchairs, hoyer lifts to transfer them to and from a bed if they can't walk anymore. So you need a lot of um square footage in these in these rooms to maneuver that equipment comfortably, preferably bedrooms on one side of the house for safety reasons.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

Really? Break that down.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Yeah. So you are required to get a fire clearance through your city and part of that fire clearance is egress, meaning safe exit during a fire. How do your residents who are asleep at night, how do they exit that facility? Do you have caregivers running all over the house?

SPEAKER_02 38:51

Got it. Okay. I see.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

In an emergency situation to evacuate your residents, or are they all located in one central location where you can easily evacuate?

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Interesting. Um, I was also thinking, like, while you were just telling me this, this might even work for a uh, and you tell me, you guys tell me if this is something that will work. What if you bought an apartment building that was, I don't know, let's just say a 10-unit or 12-unit apartment building. Could you theoretically rent out, and it's all one bedrooms, all 10 of the units at 6K?

SPEAKER_01 39:26

That's not gonna, unfortunately. That would involve it. Um, I actually had an investor call me and he's like, hey, I have this property in the valley, can we do it? Yeah. I said, no, because once again, you you have residents who have dementia, right? You want somebody in the house supervising everybody at once. So if they're in separate rooms, now you're talking about like the independent assisted living, right? And that's kind of what they are. You have your big box facilities, as they call them, and those are almost like a resort style. I think you mentioned your family member was in one of those. Yes. They have the activity room, they called leisure world. Yeah. So there's like the Brookdills, the Athertons, you have those big ones, right? So that's kind of something similar to that. Unfortunately, for what we're doing, it won't work more than the more intimate care. Right. You need more intimate care. And also one of our goals is to have quality care. Right? We've heard all the horror stories of all these big facilities and even on the smaller ones, right? Um, the caregiver to resident ratio, you're lucky if it's 1015 to one. In our homes, it's two to one. So two residents per one caregiver. So that's how we're able to customize the care. And also once you go, you know, over one floor, the regulations come in, you go over multi-bed, a lot of things change. So for our business model, that unfortunately wouldn't work out.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

Sure. What's a way that someone could uh look up and see, you know, if if a particular neighborhood doesn't have a ton of other care facilities, um, and kind of look at the you know, the market selection, if you would, that you were talking about earlier, Boris.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Yeah, so our governing agency is DSS, Department of Social Services. Okay. That's who, when we say the state, and we've been saying it throughout the podcast, it's Department of Social Services. Same people that go and do child care and adult living facilities, that's the same ones that oversee us. So yeah, you go on DSS's website and you can look it up. You can type in either facility name, zip code, city, whatever, and then you can see how many are out there. You can see how how many bets they have. And Amanda touched on the reports, the annual reports. That's where you're able to see the reports. That's where we're able to see if they have deficiencies. That's where you're able to see if there's issues with the staff or any issues with the ownership or whatever. Yeah, you're able to find everything there. Um, then you can see how many facilities are in that zip code or in that area or in the neighboring cities or whatever. Yeah, that's one tool that we use to identify. That's just one of the tools that we use to do a market analysis on potential homes that are gonna open up.

SPEAKER_02 42:10

Okay, I love it. All right, I want to I want to do something kind of fun here. I'm gonna ask you guys just like rapid fire questions. Um, as if I'm like someone brand new getting in this industry, and I'm just gonna ask you guys rapid fire questions like how much can you make a month? What is a typical bed sell for? Um, down payment, all that sort of stuff. You guys ready?

SPEAKER_00 42:28

Ready?

SPEAKER_02 42:28

Okay. So um to start, um, Amanda, how much, how much uh can one residential care facility make in one month?

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Gross, you're looking at maybe $50,000 a month, net about $10,000 to $12,000.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Okay. And how much does the typical bed sell for, whether it's a shared versus a private room?

SPEAKER_00 42:49

Shared rooms on average um across California, about $5,000 is the current average, probably $5,500 is current average. Private rooms about $8,000 to $10,000.

SPEAKER_02 42:58

Really? I thought $6K was the cap. No, no. Oh, there's no cap. There's no cap. Really? There's no cap.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

So if you if you had all privates, if you had all privates, then you can charge eight to ten thousand for those privates or up depending on level of care you can.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

Okay, so like six to eight to ten. Okay, I started saying so potentially 60k. Yeah. Got it. That makes a lot of sense. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

But that's if you stay within the six bets. Yes. Yeah. If you go over, that's a different number. Now you're increasing. So if you go to 14 bets, yes, that's a different number.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Got it. And and what percentage down does it take to buy one of these uh care facilities?

SPEAKER_01 43:30

Are you talking about a established care facility or the property to start one? Just buying the property. Just buying the property. It depends. It depends. If you as low as what? If you're a uh zero percent, zero percent. You can get in these homes as low as zero percent. Like zero down. It depends on your situation. If you're you're a veteran, you get great deals. If you're a first time home buyer, you're in and you can buy several for zero down.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

And and um, how much does it cost to get one of these uh Permitted and up and running.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

About a hundred thousand.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

I was gonna say anywhere from like 70 to 100,000 to get up and running.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

But you could use a zero percent business credit card. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. The number one thing we've learned with working with mentors, you never use your own money. If you can utilize other people's money, that is the way to go. And that was a huge mistake we made. We used our own money. We don't do that anymore. We use other people's money. And now there's so many resources: zero percent credit cards, uh, loans. There's so many ways where you can get into these businesses with very little money out of pocket.

SPEAKER_02 44:35

Damn, that's huge. If not zero. So just to recap, we're looking at potentially zero percent down. We're looking at using zero percent credit card to get all the funding to get this thing up and running. And Amanda, you said $50,000 a month top line. And how much net?

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Net about $10,000 to $12.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

Damn, $10,000 to $12,000 nets. And uh, that's huge. That is absolutely massive. Why is right now the best time to get in the game?

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Because by 2030, the majority of the baby boomers are gonna come into the age of care. The age of care is 65 and older, right? Right now, I'm gonna talk about California. California right now has six million seniors. By 2030, that number is gonna be at 9 million seniors. Let's let's do the math. Each home, how many people can you have? There is a massive shortage of bets right now, nationwide. It is projected that there's gonna be a shortage of 500,000 bets minimum nationwide. This is a recession-proof business during uh during COVID. People preferred our boutique style homes versus the big facilities, right? So we were slammed, we were so busy. Here's a big thing, too. Nobody's gonna shut us down like they're shutting down Airbnb. We are getting a lot of students that they're shutting down the Airbnbs or losing money. Why? Think about it. Who would shut me down? Who would lobby against me? Big pharma, not tapping into their pockets, insurance or helping insurances. Why? Because they much rather, whether it's Medicaid, whether it's private pay, the resident pay me six, ten thousand versus them paying up to fifty thousand for them to be in a skill nursing facility. Huge. So they're not gonna come after me. Yeah, there is nobody that really is gonna come after us because we're helping the the senior community, right? We're not tapping into anybody's pocket. That's what that's why Uber started having problems. That's why uh Airbnb started having problems because they poke the horn its nest.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Amanda, break down the tax benefits.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

Okay, so right now you're running a business out of your real estate. So you get all of the tax benefits benefits of running a business, all of those expenses. We talked about the employer expenses. Um, our dog, our dog, our he's a trained therapy dog. He's a tax write-off, too, because he's employee of the business.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

That's huge.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

My kids, talk about my kids. My kids are on payroll.

SPEAKER_02 47:01

I've seen photos of your dog. He's like the support dog.

SPEAKER_00 47:03

He's a therapy dog.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

Therapy dog. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 47:06

Not a service dog, a therapy dog. That's the loop.

SPEAKER_02 47:08

And what does your dog do?

SPEAKER_00 47:10

Our dog is like an emotional support. He just walks around, wags his tail, and he's so happy, and the residents get to pet him, and that is it. That is all he does. That's his sole job, and he's a tax write-off because of that.

SPEAKER_02 47:20

I love that. I love that. That's huge. Now, if you can get a cost seg study and you're a high-income earning W 2 employee, you can use the tax benefits from a care facility uh to not only offset the income it spits off, but also offset your taxes that you might pay at your W-2O job.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

Absolutely, especially if you have an S-corp because all of that income flows through you. And then you get to use your personal expenses to offset that business income.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

This is why it's important to have the right tax people look at your portfolio, look at your at your uh businesses because they can set it up the right way.

SPEAKER_02 47:53

Yeah. Who who who is the uh Amanda? Who is the perfect person to get into this industry and buy a care facility?

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Somebody who is truly passionate about caring for people, not just an investor. You're caring for somebody's life. So you have to have a true interest in the livelihood and the care of the seniors in your care facility. We see a lot of nurses. Nurses are great um at running their own because they already know patient care. Um, we see a lot of couples getting into this industry too. And then just somebody who knows how to hustle and knows how to figure things out when times get tough. I think that's any business owner, though, right? How to pivot.

SPEAKER_02 48:32

So good, so good. Um, and the folks listening to this right now, if you're listening to this, you're resonating with the story, you're like, hey, you know what? I want to get into the industry. Amanda and Boris are dropping a free ebook for you guys. If you mentioned the podcast, where can they get that ebook?

SPEAKER_01 48:44

The ebook is on Palomino Senior Living Academy.com. Okay. Or you can send us a message through our Instagrams. Okay. Uh, I'm Boris V Palomino.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:54

Amanda Palomino.

SPEAKER_02 48:55

Okay. And you guys are doing a uh in-person kind of workshop where people can come out and tour all the facilities with you guys and really get behind the scenes for a day with the Palominos. How can they get in touch with you for that?

SPEAKER_00 49:06

That's right. You can just find us on our website, um Palomino Senior Living.com, and reach us there.

SPEAKER_02 49:13

That's so cool. Uh guys, I appreciate you guys coming on the show. Dropping so much game, so much value on this, you know, I think this vehicle that's going to be the next big thing. We got 40 million retiring baby boomers. They are Boris and Amanda Palomino. I'm Rich Summer's listeners. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you guys the next one. Peace.