The Care Girl Podcast
The Care Girl Podcast
Navigating the Group Home Industry with Anthony Lawson
What motivates someone to turn their first property into a lifeline for homeless veterans? Join us as we chat with Anthony Lawson, the Group Home King, who shares his story of transforming a military career into a mission-driven endeavor in the group home industry. Anthony reveals his strategies for securing VA contracts, expanding services to rehabilitation centers, and collaborating with nonprofits to provide holistic support for residents. His journey is filled with challenges and triumphs, emphasizing the critical need to offer more than just housing—it's about creating opportunities and fostering rehabilitation.
Ever wondered about the nuts and bolts of property management and real estate investments? In this episode, we discuss the vital lesson one property manager learned the hard way about the importance of formal agreements. We delve into the creative transformation of a three-bedroom property into a profitable five-bedroom group home and the pitfalls of inadequate lease terms. Additionally, we explore the transition from residential to commercial real estate with an emphasis on group homes and sober living facilities, highlighting the financial benefits and strategic investments that can yield significant returns.
Looking to break into the group home industry? We've got you covered with insightful strategies and practical advice. From the complexities of starting from scratch to the advantages of buying existing group homes, we cover it all. Learn from Anthony's experience as he introduces an educational program designed to guide aspiring entrepreneurs through their business journey. Plus, get an exclusive peek into the investment strategies of NFL and NBA celebrities, showcasing a unique side of their financial acumen. Tune in for valuable insights and a wrap-up filled with gratitude and encouragement to keep striving for success.
IG: Anthony_theinvestor Facebook: Anthony Lawson LinkedIn: Anthony Lawson Ready to learn the group home industry? Sign up for Anthony’s FREE masterclass to learn the group home industry: https://grouphomesecretsmasterclass.com/webinar-registration (https://grouphomesecretsmasterclass.com/webinar-registration)
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What's up everybody. It's Alex, the Care Girl, here today with Anthony Lawson, one of my partners in crime in the healthcare space. He's in a lot of different spaces but today we're gonna talk about the group home. I call him the group home king, you know, because he actually I met him on Facebook, I believe in a Facebook group, and he was very knowledgeable. I actually book a call with him a while back to talk about group homes because I am a person that does home care and a lot of people ask me about group homes and I'm for me with the personal care home space, but not so much the group home space, but not so much the group home space. And I saw that he was actually, you know, killing it, killing it in that area and we'll talk more about the things that you know we have done as well in a little bit. But I want him to formally introduce himself and kind of give us a little bit of a background and a nutshell of how he got into what he does.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I definitely appreciate that. It's always a pleasure to be on your podcast in front of your viewers. So, first name Anthony, last name Lawson.
Speaker 2:I started because I served in the military and a lot of people may not know a lot of homeless people. The statistics are most homeless people are veterans, which is very sad. So I said you know what? I bought my first property. This was actually a decade now, so I've been investing for a decade. I bought my first property and I said why go the four family, three family route, which every route is different for certain people? So I bought like a giant, giant single family, six bedroom, two bathroom in my home state of New Jersey. And I said you know what?
Speaker 2:I started having this idea because I was. It started because I was at a light and I started talking to the gentleman and he was a homeless veteran. So I said, wow, you know if I can kind of create like a business model out of this? At the time I didn't even know it was called Group Homes. So I just said, said, uh, you know if I can just share out the space, you know, maybe, maybe help out. I I actually acquired the home for first time home buyer program. I took the basement, so full disclosure. You do have to live in the home, so I want to put that out there. You gotta live in the home, so yeah yeah, for the group home.
Speaker 2:So so I did.
Speaker 1:This was a little bit different it wasn't like a full life, more like a whole home situation.
Speaker 2:Right, right right. It was like shared living, right right, but still in the group home environment, you know. And so I took the basement and I shared it out to all veterans. Then I started going to like the VA, getting real familiar and with their systems for contacting their case management, case workers and just seeing if I can get a contract. So after a while I got really good with that. They started sending me a ton of people and who I should contact in the nonprofit, in the nonprofit department that focused solely on veterans. This was in my home city of New Jersey at the time and I said, okay, this is really good. So I started having so much people that I said I need to open up more locations.
Speaker 2:But just starting out, exiting the military, leaving the career behind that I was going down, was law enforcement at the time wasn't necessarily for me. More of a society was dictating what my life should be at the time, because a lot of people in my unit were state troopers, local law enforcement, air marshals, different things like that, and I always was here because in the military they call you by your last name. So it's like, hey, lawson, you should probably take the test, the test's coming up for the law enforcement. So I was like you know what, let me just give it a shot. So I did.
Speaker 2:I did quite a few things while I was really young and this wasn't for me and I knew it was a little bit more. Luckily for me, I did have an uncle. I still do have the same uncle that was in real estate for thirty three years now and it was pretty awesome just to ask him about that shared living experience. But he don't do group homes. So that was something that I had to learn on my own. But it wasn't the uncle like let me hold your hand to success and make sure you're good?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, no, no. He was the one to tell you what to do and if you don't do it, it's just on you. So it was tough love, but well needed. And so I started doing that. And then I started getting really, really creative, because the first home was one thing and it as much money as I can, because I was doing a tremendous service with them. They was loving it, referring me to people outside of the nonprofits and everything too. And then I started doing more avenues outside of veterans, because people was telling me hey, veterans are going to rehabilitation centers too. So I said that's a good point.
Speaker 2:And then I started getting real familiar. I'm not going to say the name of the rehabilitation in New Jersey, but I was really in good cohoons with them, built very good rapport with them and let them know how I can help them and show that the people that was coming out of rehabilitation was just bigger than just giving them a shared living space, because A they needed a job. The second thing is they needed to stay consistent so they don't relapse. So they needed like a 12-step program is what they call in a sober living. They need like an idea, a roadmap.
Speaker 2:So I started connecting them with other nonprofits that I was building rapport with and at the time it was like a real big circle. It was hey, this person could get them credit credit repair. Hey, this person, after the credit repair, let's send them to um, aa meetings and everything that they supposed to do, but let's send them to start applying for job and employment. Then they would send them over there. Before the job and employment it would send them over to the next nonprofit. That's how I was running at the time to do like a get your license in order. You know, let's get them. Like the half of them didn't even have a driver's license, so let's get their license. Or if they didn't want to, you know, if they couldn't pass the test or whatever, they get them a state license so they can at least have employment. So that's what I was doing at the time and it was really really well and I started getting really really creative.
Speaker 1:Um, not because I just started this creative stuff. I didn't have no money at the time, you know, so I I had to force myself to get creative. Yeah, you're the most creative when you, when you're running out or you you like. Okay, I gotta figure something out and make money oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know, um start getting creative and I started doing like option agreements, and I still do options to this day. Options is one of my favorite, because what is what is?
Speaker 1:an option for the people that don't know yes, yes.
Speaker 2:so options you have many different, but the most common one is a lease option, right where you have a lease with a home um homeowner or landlord. You paid him a fixed amount and you agree upon when you're ready to buy the whole home or apartment building, whatever you have on the option, agreed upon amount and agreed upon amount with the lease as well too. So you have straight options. You have a master lease option, which is just typically a straight option. It's just you're putting no lease involved, but you're saying, hey, you want two hundred and fifty thousand, no problem, I give you, let's say, twenty non-refundable. I close in one year. If I don't close, you keep my money. Okay, no problem. So that's the first thing. That's the straight option.
Speaker 2:The lease option is, hence in the name, like rent to own. In some places they say rent to own, you agreed upon amount on a fixed lease, on a month-to basis or just recurring a one year, two year, whatever the case may be. Then you have another thing called a master lease option, which that's very, very common in commercial real estate, which is essentially you have all of these tenants or all these residents in a property. Then from there you're taking hold of the property. Maybe the seller just went out, they had a death in a family, they had a divorce, they relocate and and whatever the situation is, you're taking hold of that property, you're collecting the rents, and then anything above that goes strictly to you and that's what you agree on. So you're collecting, you're the master tenant in that case. That's why your hints is the master lease option. So you're the master tenant and you're collecting everything, and then everything on top of that is like a rev share in a way. So it's different options that you can do.
Speaker 1:So you're basically you pay them the rent and they get some profit from the clients too.
Speaker 2:So you can do that if you want. I typically structure it as nothing changes, but anything above what you was already collecting comes to me because I'm putting in the work to attract the new residents Now. Um, you can do it. Let me take that back in the past. I did do rev share before I did, because that was the only way I could lock it in. So I I've done that before, but I typically like to keep it as hey, you already collected this.
Speaker 1:That won't change you don't have to worry about necessarily.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's a little bit above the rent, absolutely, absolutely, yep bit above the rent.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, it's a little bit above the rent absolutely, absolutely, yep, yep, because you want to make it attractive, you know, um, because they're like okay, oh, I can get, uh, you know, five hundred dollars more. Oh, yeah, that sounds good to me exactly without managing the asset.
Speaker 2:So that's pretty attractive for people yeah so, um, I was doing a lot of that. And that second property I still remember like the back of my hand. Um, and that's what people always say, can learn from my mistake, because I, I did an oral release. I did not lock it in on paper, because at the time.
Speaker 1:Oh, you did, you did that.
Speaker 2:You did a verbal okay yep, yep or verb slash, verbal lease okay, okay, I never heard it like I heard verbal before yep, yep, because, uh, when you go to court, they may say you know what type of lease did you have? Did you have an? Say you know what definitely did you have? Did you have an oral slash written agreement?
Speaker 2:or like what did you have? So you know every court case is different, but you know. So we had a just you know talking and I just said, hey, you know, would you, would you be mindful if I do like a share 11 group home? He was like, what do you mean? So I said, okay, I'm half people out of rehabilitation that need my services. I will pay you your amount. And then at the time it was a three bedroom, two bath in the city of Patterson, New Jersey. He wanted 2,400, which this was almost like a decade, it was like eight years ago and he wanted, he wanted 2400, which is extremely too much. Um the, if I remember correctly, the rental at the time was like 1800 for three, two three bedroom, two bathroom and he wanted 24.
Speaker 2:He wanted 24 because of what I was doing. He was calculating my pockets for what I was gonna make. Okay, so I did the math and I, no problem. So he kind of looked at me like I was crazy and he said you know, it must be something if this guy's agreeing to it. So we shook hands and I said, ok, let's do it. Now the math was I asked him hey, can I drop a wall? I will pay for everything out of my pocket If you need me to remove it, if things go sour, no problem. He said, okay, yep, we could do that. So I had him send it to me in a text saying I had the rights to do that, just to protect myself, and I dropped the wall, made it a five. Two just by dropping the wall made two more rooms. Now I was doing couples in rehabilitation center. You got real creative.
Speaker 1:I got real creative.
Speaker 2:You're dropping a whole wall rehabilitation center. You got real creative.
Speaker 1:I got real creative.
Speaker 2:You've been a whole while Yep, it was 950, not for the couple but for the individual. People would say, well, that sounds like a lot If you do the math. Everything is about math. I got them to the job before they was even could be admitted. They got to go through my process first, get a license, or whether it's Java's license. If they pass the test or state license Typically the state license because taking a test, you got to go to motor vehicles, pass the test and everything like that so the state license.
Speaker 2:Once they get the state license, I will send them over to the other nonprofit at the time, which the other nonprofit would have them go through unemployment and while they simultaneously going through employment, they have to be admitted to AA, which is a sobriety. You know weekly support group, right, they make sure people have their sobriety intact. Once they pass all of that and show proof, then I will admit them. Now when they have a job I nobody was really part-time that I had, it was typically full-time, two couples full-time and I would show them the math and I would say you're better off as a team than having the man struggle because he's coming out of rehab too. So they understood that.
Speaker 2:So I said, okay, if I'm charging 950 for each person, right, that's uh, that's a, that's a um, I think at the time they was making like like three grand a month, you know, for one person three grand, other person three grand, which you know it's like six thousand, yeah. So I said, if you do one one check, this person covered one check, maybe the other person covered one check, it'll work out. So I was getting 950. So if you look, do the math, right, I was getting 950, and my numbers may be plus or minus, by the way, because I don't remember everything per se.
Speaker 2:That was almost okay, so you know 950, but I know I was getting 950, so that's 5700. That was just for the upstairs. Now the bottom was a whole separate apartment that the owner was doing already. I was Airbnb in the bottom. That was bringing in approximately twenty one to twenty two hundred Right. So fifty seven hundred plus twenty two hundred, right, so hold on, let me take a calculator in real time.
Speaker 2:So fifty seven plus twenty two hundred, so 57 plus 2200, that's 7900 minus minus the lease, which is 2400 minus utilities which I was responsible for, of course the electric, the sewage, the water, anything that breaks under a certain amount I was responsible for. So let's just say we take out another, I think every month. It was like close to 2000, but let me just round it up and say $2,000. All right, so that's $3,500 net profit that I was making. This was going on for 10 months. So if you do $3,500, and I was putting it to the side, I was not touching it- so, I collected $35,000 in 10 months in cash flow.
Speaker 2:But the owners start coming around more and more just when it went sour. So I always. But the owners start coming around more and more just when it went sour. So I always tell people put everything in writing with someone to protect yourself. So it started going sour because he started coming around more. It's like, hey, I'm the landlord, you know, I don't really care what you got going on. That was sort of the mindset of this individual at the time and I started getting too many calls from the residents. Hey, you know, this guy is constantly coming around and I mean, he would come around, he wouldn't call, he would just walk through, you know. So that's, that's not the appropriate way to do things. So we parted ways and I took that money and I just did the same thing over and over again.
Speaker 2:And then the next 13 homes was halfway houses, halfway houses. So I started doing halfway houses for people that were formerly incarcerated through my home city of Newark, new Jersey, people that was incarcerated coming in from the state. I was getting contracts with nonprofits, I was getting contracts with the state DOC, and then I started figuring out over time how to get federal contracts, which is like through samgov and everything like that. So, um, I just started doing it and then I just started realizing, over time my home state of new jersey gets well, not even was getting. It still is right now very expensive, like very expensive um.
Speaker 2:So I said if I can do this in my hometown, why can't I do this in any other state?
Speaker 2:so I started figuring out like different systems to where it works. So my next state that I went to was Ohio. People would typically ask why not Pennsylvania, since you're next door, pennsylvania? I was looking at rent per price ratio and I'm saying this stuff so people can hopefully understand and do the same methodology as I was doing. So I was doing the price to rent ratio, which is essentially you look at the price of the real estate, because I like to buy the real estate as well too. At the time I was doing a lot of leases, some of them I won't own, but some of them. I was doing a lot of leases and but in Cleveland specifically, I started realizing like wow, I think my best one to this day. I sold it now, but as far as price price wise, it was almost 5 000 square feet. This was a house almost like a mansion. Um, it had 12 bedrooms not made up like actual 12 bedrooms, 12 bedrooms, five bathrooms. I bought it for less than 50 000 needed renovation, don't get me wrong, needed renovation.
Speaker 2:but still, when I did the math on that, if, if it was 12 bedrooms, even if I did two people in a room right at, let's say, 600 apiece, you could do that math Right. So you know, and I started figuring out, the price to rent ratio makes sense in Cleveland. I looked at other markets there Cincinnati, cleveland, akron, columbus but Cleveland really stuck out to me. I love the history around Cleveland. People may not know the city of East Cleveland, which is two different entities, because people think East.
Speaker 2:Cleveland is Cleveland, so East Cleveland needs a little bit more work but it's a lot of rich history People don't realize a lot of the most millionaires in the early 1900s, late 1800s was where the Rockefellers actually resided was in Cleveland. They had a street in Euclid called Millionaire's Row which was some of the wealthiest people at that time in the late 1800s, early 1900s to live on that street and comprised of people doing oil, oil and refinement business, real estate, different things like that accountancy. So they had at this time they had homes that was nine bedrooms, five bathrooms, very big. But I guess things happened over time. It started coming vacant, dilapidated things like that, and now to this day someone bought one of Rockefeller home back then I got to find the article, I'll send it to you. It was like 40,000. Crazy, wow, only for $40,000?.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. So that's how I started looking at my investments. I said you know what, don't get me wrong. It's not that much of an appreciating market. The price of the real estate went up a little bit over the few years I've been there, but it's more of a cashflow market if you're looking at a rental aspect of it. But I'll still do group homes. So, exiting out of New Jersey, learning the licensing process in New Jersey, exiting out, I started realizing, like you know what, I could buy businesses too. So I started figuring this stuff out in New Jersey. So I said you know, the business essentially is the group home. I love the residents and everything. At the end of the day, it's still a business.
Speaker 2:You want to treat it as a business. You don't want to treat it as a hobby. You don't want to treat it as a side hustle Everybody's family and all you know.
Speaker 1:I think we'll just get all emotional about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, you got to separate. That Cause me I, even to this day I still not as separated, you know, and I go there, I play, you know, even when I stopped by the different States, that I have them in play some Uno real quick with the residents. But then, you know, I have fun and then I go to the next location so you can still be nice. The emotions with business, big difference between personal and business. So, um, you know, and from there I started realizing like I could, I could buy these group homes when I was doing, because, mind you, and my wife would tell you, my then girlfriend but now wife- can tell you that I actually love all of her she can tell you, I used to stay up to about three in the morning every day she would tell you.
Speaker 2:I used to stay up to about three in the morning trying to figure this stuff out, like um, you know I had no, right there oh yeah, I had no mentor this stuff, um, just like the do's and don'ts.
Speaker 2:Luckily for me it wasn't that much of an error. It was trial and error, but not that much of an error as far as cost. Um, only cost was my time, of course, because if I could pay someone faster to get what they know, I would have did that all day long. Um, because, plus, I was saving up my money too. So I was like, shoot, you know, I couldn't. I didn't know anybody that was doing this stuff. So, um, I started, uh, buying them in cleveland. In one year, I bought seven licensed facilities in one year. This was, uh, this is in 2022. I own more now over there. Some Some of them I sold and some of them I own more. The biggest renovation I did over there to this date, which was that was a long story, but it was a vacant nursing home that was closed down and we bought it and turned it into a sober living facility almost 12,000 square feet, very big building and commercial assets.
Speaker 2:I love commercial real estate because people don't know commercial value is based off of the rental income that it receives, so it's a little bit different than residential, where residential is based off of sales comparison, right the comps because you've got a three bedroom, two bath, a thousand square feet. They're going to look at similar homes. Three bedroom, two bath, a thousand square feet, they don't look at similar homes. You know three bedroom, two bathroom and point five mile radius, right, they don't try to go out too far.
Speaker 2:Commercial real estate. If you have a lease that says, let's say, you know, build and sell at a 10 cap in the area and your lease is one hundred thousand dollars, net profit is a hundred thousand dollars. Net profit, right, which is net operating income, which triple net in commercial world means the net of taxes, maintenance and insurance. So that mean the tenant is responsible for everything. But in this case I was the tenant and the landlord. But I did this because if you have rental increases in your lease, you know and I learned this from my other mentor that does commercial real estate then your building is more valuable every year automatically.
Speaker 1:So so I do the game today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, yeah, oh yeah, okay, I do two percent rental increases every year, so I don't even have to think about it. My building will always go up in value every year. So but simple math a hundred thousand dollars, if it's a 10 cap in the area, your building building is worth $1 million. Right, because you want to do? Net operating income divided by the cap rate in the area will give you your sales price or asking price. So that's the value of the building, right? So we picked that up. We started doing that. It was a package deal with the home next door for independent, sober living residents, so we did that and we just kept things going. Then I had this revelation that I should have listened to my aunt, maybe in my early investing stage. But you don't know what.
Speaker 1:You don't know Because I'm like let me get my feet grounded first before I venture out.
Speaker 2:And uh, she was always telling me about detroit. She said, nephew, you should come to detroit. They got homes for a thousand dollars, so it sounds appealing, but we don't have a contractor and this, this and that. I'm like, ah, it's too much right now and don't get me wrong, it's still homes to this day for a thousand dollars, but they need a lot of work. But at the time the home she was telling me about needed decent work and I should have went with my gun and did it but it wasn't like a whole teardown, rebuild no, no, no, the one she was telling me about.
Speaker 2:So and then I still have a lot of family that live in detroit, thankfully. So when I uh need somebody to do a walkthrough, I could just call one of my cousins or my aunt up and say, hey, you know, and then now they can make it, they can make it work. But, um, it was pretty cool because now I'm in detroit. Um, so when I did cleveland that one year, when I said I had that revelation, I said you know what cleveland is? Only, I mean, detroit is only two hours and some change, two hours and 20 minutes, to be exact um, from cleveland. So I bought a portfolio out there with some partners and then already was owning some assets out there outside of the partnership with them, and I just started making it happen. And then now I have a group homes in Texas as well too, buying a whole lot of complimentary businesses with the group home, such as adult daycare centers. We have one in San Antonio. I have another one that's about to go on the contract, which is a package deal.
Speaker 2:It's three oh yeah, it's three adult daycare centers along with two self to self storage centers, so it's pretty cool, pretty cool deal. That's very unique.
Speaker 1:That's very unique. I want to ask you so, for those who say, ok, I have a house and I want to do the group home model, do you what would you say the easiest way for a barrier to entry for them to be? Because they may have a property sitting somewhere and then, like you said, if you their first one to maybe go buy you know, you know, acquire a group home, versus you know if they already have some property. So like, maybe I get a lot of calls from people who have real estate and they want to do that. Should they hire a consultant or or or is there? I know you have programs. I would like to know about your programs as well, because, guys, I actually spoke at his recent conference, mastermind in New Jersey, and it was packed full of information and it was an honor for me to speak. But I learned so so much, and I know some of your students actually have properties that they're leveraging. Can you go into that a little bit?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So it's only two. It's actually three, but I don't count the third way, but and I will explain why. So the main two to get into the group home model is, essentially you start from the ground up to your point. Somebody in real estate is a real estate investor. He or she is a real estate investor and they say you know what I've been hearing about this group home thing, I would like to try it out. It's a very long process. That's how I started out, but I don't recommend that now. Know what I know now, the reason being because you have to go through zoning, you have to go through certifications, you have to go through regulations, you have to produce policies and procedures and all these other documents which, to your point, you said the key word consultant. You have to pay somebody for that if you don't want to do it yourself. Some states can provide you a consultant for free, but you still got to do the work. They're not going to do it for you. So you know and you know you got to make it happen. You know and you know you just got to make it happen.
Speaker 2:Now, my favorite is buying existing group homes. Why? Because let me tell you why. This is a big problem in America right now and it's going to get worse, which is the reason why you they have a Groupon license already, hence the name. That's why they opened. So from there you approach them and say hey, see that you got a Groupon, build some rapport you want to sell. And they say yes, great, y'all discuss numbers, you think it sounds feasible. The problem is, let's say, it doesn't work out. The sellers typically do not know that they can sell a group home as a business they shut down the license.
Speaker 2:When the residents get dispersed, they typically disperse the residents to other group homes. Then they disperse the residents to homeless shelters when the group homes are filled. Now where do the other residents go? When homeless shelters are filled, they go homeless. And this is a big cycle. I see this in my home state of New Jersey, I see this in Texas, because I'm analyzing and such and such, and they say, oh, I had a group home but I shut down the license. And then we say, well, where did the residents go? I dispersed the residents. It's a big cycle. So, and it's very unfortunate because that's another contributing factor to homelessness is the residents in group homes.
Speaker 2:That's being pushed into that narrative because people don't know that they can actually buy the group homes, because the lack of information on behalf of the sellers to know that they can sell the group home business along with the real estate, because they typically shut down a license to sell the real estate. So, um, that's that angle.
Speaker 1:Now the third one usually close yeah.
Speaker 2:so they usually close them down because they've been operating let's call it 20, 30, 40 years and then they just want to retire. They don't want to retire, but hence what we say they work in the business and not on the business. So they don't know that they can sell the business because it's a business. So they treat everyone as family, which I do the same thing with my residents. But guess what? I still know how to distinguish between personal and business. I'm not there cooking granny's recipe, you know. For the residents and different things like that.
Speaker 2:The staff is there, so you have staff, you have operations manager, you have an accountant. You know you have a layer of different avenues for your business. So I teach people run it as a business. But a lot of sellers don't have that, believe it or not. A lot of sellers don't even have a book of value saying, hey, this is what the business is doing. I had a seller well, not even had. I have a lot of sellers like that where we actually have to give it over to an accountant to make it sellable first, even for us to buy it, because the numbers is too vague.
Speaker 2:They have everything down on a notebook for the past few years of expenses. Resident rent.
Speaker 1:You know absolutely.
Speaker 2:But think about it. They're old school. They don't know how to use a computer. You know, or they don't know, how to use it as efficiently. You know to do Excel and Google Sheets and everything like that. So that's another way of a reasoning why they shut it down.
Speaker 2:Then the last thing I say is I don't say you're really a group home owner, but I typically see more people nowadays homeowner. But I typically see more people nowadays. They have the real estate, they like the idea of making a little bit more on the lease, so what they would do is lease it to a group home operator. Now the downside of that is, let me tell you because I tell everybody the pitfalls, even like I said with myself earlier the downside of something like that is if you don't have the right lease terms, you can screw yourself over in your business. I consulted with a lady in Georgia I don't want to say her name In Georgia. I helped her reconstruct her whole business. She had close to 20 group homes, all leashes, though Something happened with the landlord. Now she's down to three in a matter of a couple months Now if the right verbiage or the right whatever is in.
Speaker 2:I don't know what she negotiated with the landlord. We didn't get that far, but I told her how to kind of overcome that and what to do Now. As far as something like that, I'll always say I'm a big advocate for owning a real estate as well, because you control everything. When you control the land, you can control everything. Think about McDonald's. They're not in the hamburger business, they're in the real estate business. They control the land, the building and then the agreements they have with their franchisees. So guess what? A franchisee is not performing, what do they do? They disperse their franchisee, get a new franchisee to come in and they resell that agreement all over again. They're in the real estate business. So it's no different.
Speaker 2:You want to treat your group home business the same. So I teach this foundation because people don't know. You can buy group homes, right? I'm buying group homes, not even in America. We're analyzing deals in Ireland. I flipped two deals outside the country. I'm analyzing the deal right now in London in the UK. So then I told two people in South Africa and they closed, which I got the message.
Speaker 2:So the you know, and it's pretty cool because the fundamentals does not change. Only thing that changes is some regulations, of course, because you talk about different countries, even state to state, the regulations change.
Speaker 2:But, the foundation of it does not change the methodology, how you structure the deal. You know all of that stuff is based on the seller. I always tell people listen to what the sellers say, because half the time they structure the deal based off I'm trying to get in here with no money. They're not even listening with to what the seller is saying, you know.
Speaker 1:So, um, listen to what the seller said that you could work out something, so, um, listening, and listening is key because a lot of times you're going in because what's in it for me? What do they call it with them? You know, that's what the that's what the seller is wanting to know, because the nine times out of ten they have something else they want to do. Um, they, they are, like you said, working in the business versus on the business. And what was the third thing you said? Uh, for people to do yeah.
Speaker 2:So the third thing is um is where they typically have the real estate already and they want a little bit more in the lease. So they find the operator and say hey, you know you could have your business over here and I'll lease my home out to you, but I don't really consider as group home ownership you just pretty much have regular real estate regular real estate with it, with at least um other than that, they're gonna go through the long process.
Speaker 1:Uh, what? What are the options for? Uh, not an unlicensed home, I would say yeah, so the unlicensed is good too.
Speaker 2:That's how I started. Now unlicensed always say first before I even begin on that, always I'm going to be an advocate for license.
Speaker 1:Why?
Speaker 2:Because you can typically get state contracts, grants, federal contracts and county contracts, and it's a lot more perks. Don't get me wrong. You do have to have staff and everything like that, but without the risk there is no reward right. So now with the unlicensed, yeah, you could start that tomorrow if you have the real estate. All you got to do is know how to attract the residents over to your home and then orchestrate the home to where the room is big enough at a good amount of size. Put two beds in there, have a certain demographic that you want to target initially. If you don't narrow down to it, then cast an open net.
Speaker 2:I always say Start marketing to anybody. And then when you get people in, let's say the nonprofits say hey, we have a lot of people coming out of the incarceration system and that can be a key for a halfway house. So then you can know like, okay, cool, let me start focusing on halfway houses. So the unlicensed is actually very, very simple to start. You can just start marketing that to caseworkers right away to get an influx of residents coming through. Screen them out, get your home. Always say get the nonprofits first with the residents.
Speaker 2:If you get the real estate first, the problem that you will have is typically-.
Speaker 1:You're going to have to pay their mortgage or their lease.
Speaker 2:There you go. You beat me to it, yes, and a lot of people will get stuck on that. And you don't know how long it would take for you to fill up the home if you're not marketing. This industry is a people's business. You need to always market. I don't care if your home is always filled. You need to have a waiting list.
Speaker 1:So the you know you know, absolutely because of the home care, yeah, yeah so absolutely oh, because that's the question that, like I said, I get a whole lot of those people that want that they, they, they're having a hard time, you know, renting it out. They want to turn it into, uh, something that is that is more profitable than renting? Um, because a lot of times, sometimes, the mortgage is so high that I mean even they can't charge a certain.
Speaker 1:They can't charge what the mortgage is, um the rent they're still not making a mortgage, depending on where you're at, especially in atlanta, because, yeah, I think sometimes the rates are just kind of crazy. I know somebody was paying like 4 000 something and it was a. It was a re-renovated home, so maybe they had used the equity. It was something that they did to where that mortgage was sky high. The area you can't charge that for rent, the mortgage you're not going to make it. You're still going to be like $1,000 short, which is unfortunate. You're upside down on that, um, so that could have been a strategy to, you know, do an unlicensed, because then the person has stairs too.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah so so, uh, you need people who can move around, that are mobile correct, so again like, uh, some of those non-profits they have, you know was it. Would it be more like transitional people, like you said? Have you know? Was it would it be more like transitional people, like you said, in those type homes? Okay, I think, I think that's good. What do you have coming up that people can come to to get some knowledge or tell us about your program that you have going on?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, For sure. So I've been listening to the feedback of people. I understand that. You know people are in different spaces in their life, so we wanted to create something to where it is meaningful but still impactful with the right information. So we have something now that's on school, which is a brand new system that we're shifting all of our existing clients over if they want to go in there, because they already know the information, so it's optional for them. But if you're brand new, I would say this information you can now enroll into on school, right and 97 bucks a month If you get in by listening to the recording from the care girl right, Because if not the price is more than that.
Speaker 2:But you know, listening to this recording that we shall either go live with to your point and different things like that. But the program is essentially in different tiers. Everybody is in a different stage in their life where they have beginning stages, they have some information on business or maybe know, know how to raise capital and everything like that. So everybody's in different stages. So we have before it was two different tiers, but now it is three different tiers, now to test out some things. So we have that.
Speaker 2:First stage is that school get the fundamentals. It's a, it's a learn at your own pace, modules with PDF downloadables. Second thing is some group coaching. Right, everybody needs group coaching, slash mentorship, more of a hands-on, more of a 16-week program, strictly for what you just said, a license. It's mainly for unlicensed. Now for the highest tier is the VIP program. That's more of a not one-on-one but in a group setting as well, but for buying existing Groupons. Because you need a little bit more. I won't say hand-holding, you still got to put in the work, but you need more information and more time for something like that. Because you got to know how to look for deals, how to speak the off-market lingo. How to look at the numbers. What is the EBITDA? You know stuff like that when it comes to metrics with businesses, so you know it's a little bit more of that, but that's what we have going on in the Groupon Mastery program, and then I even throw some gems on there. How?
Speaker 1:to flip.
Speaker 2:Groupons how to flip Groupons. You can even utilize my team, so when we find a Groupon, you can buy it from us if you want.
Speaker 1:So there's kind of a shortcut to learning curve and then for me, you know money you know or able to access money and they may want to come in and get get some of that. You know, cash flow. Exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah I just it blew my mind, exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah, I just uh, it blew my mind. The model blew my mind, especially when I went to the mastermind and because you know, essentially people will want to start stuff from scratch. So I'm learning now do not start anything from scratch anymore.
Speaker 1:You know, I have home care uh and I'm playing. I'm planning to even buy, you know, existing home cares uh to to build a bigger uh portfolio. Um and then I want to add, I am going to add some. Um, I actually spoke to a lady that has some, has the place in Texas, I think she came through your uh, mastery thing.
Speaker 1:Um and yeah, she called me so, um, working out, working on a few things. So I'm excited, um, and I hope everybody felt that value, uh, because, like I said, anthony is is definitely he, he has, he has the strikes to uh show that he is, he is definitely has mastered this and he's doing so many other things. Where can everybody find you online?
Speaker 2:yeah, for sure. I definitely appreciate that. So it's it's usually the three, of course the linkedin, instagram and Facebook. So LinkedIn is just my first and last name, which is Anthony Lawson. Instagram will be Anthony underscore the investor. I say that again Instagram is Anthony underscore the investor. Facebook, same thing. First and last name, anthony Lawson. So you can catch me there. Hopefully you reach out to me, you know you learn some things and then you know we get it going. And also, too, you asked me what do we have coming up? So if I can speak on that, if that's okay, so what we have coming up right on the forefront? People don't know this in the celebrity world. A lot of them actually came from group homes.
Speaker 1:A lot of people don't know that.
Speaker 2:I actually put that on my stories a few days ago, um, and I can say this on this podcast because it's true. You can look it up. Uh, birdman actually was in a group home, um, and it's a few others that I actually coach and mentor that sign ndas, they sign these. I don't want to say their name, but I actually mentor celebrities as well. They actually own group homes because it's a real good give back for them and it's a business and they can leave something behind for their family. So a lot of NFL players, our coach and NBA players as well too, coming around, but it's more on the NFL side. Even when you came, we invited some NFLfl players out, which you got to meet yeah and um.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, yeah, we, uh, we helped them out and um from there, what I'm, what I'm doing. Now I'm starting to realize and in the celebrity world they do their investments more of the behind the scenes, right, like the people just know somebody from music, hip-hop, entertainment, actor but don't know the investment side of them. So I'm bringing out the investment side of them. I'm having the celebrities that I personally know to come out and speak about what they're doing and to get people branded. So my celebrity friends and contacts, you can do deals with them. Friends and contacts, you can do deals with them. I will have celebrity meet and greets. Paparazzi got a wind of this. Paparazzi will be at a lot of my events with the celebrities. So you can just come out and do some deals, even if you want to grab a booth right, a vendor booth. Vendor booth is important because what does it do? It showcase your business.
Speaker 2:So imagine that A-list actor, adam Sandler, right, which his business partner will be at the event. By the way, speaking, imagine he walked through and stop and say, hey, you do care home. And you say, yeah, I do care home. And then he said, okay, great, I got somebody in the Atlanta area that I know. You know let's do some business. Now you have a celebrity person that's in your business and you could do business with them, you know. So we have a lot of people coming to the event. That's not even on the flyer, um yacht party is the next day, so it's a little bit different structure I am going to be at the yacht party, guys.
Speaker 1:I don't know how, when, where, how I'm gonna get there, but I'm going to figure it out guys.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, the yacht party is going to be. The yacht party is going to be cool because this is more of a relaxed setting and you, it's more of a personable thing. I like personable yeah events.
Speaker 2:You know, and, um, you know, yeah, it's pretty cool. So you get to still learn something from 9 to 12 the next day, and then the yacht party is from three to seven. So, uh, it's gonna be real cool. And then, um, yeah, every year is gonna get better and better. You never know who we may have out yeah, you never know.
Speaker 1:I have one last thing, um. So if, um, we were to ask your family and friends three things that, uh, characterize you, what would you say? Three things that describe who you are that's a very good word.
Speaker 2:I would say ambitious.
Speaker 1:That's a very good word, I would say ambitious.
Speaker 2:OK, I got you. This is courageous and determined.
Speaker 1:Love it.
Speaker 2:Is more. That's what it takes.
Speaker 1:All those. That's those. That's the ingredients of mastering anything and actually winning in life, and I appreciate you for coming on. I'm going to drop everything in the show notes for everybody to go to, including my affiliate link for Groupon Mastery guys and follow him to figure out when this yacht party is going, all of the events. He drops so much knowledge online Just watching his videos online. It's just you can even get a lot of value from and you know, just keep from, keep, keep up the good work, um, because nine times, nine times out of ten, what you're doing, people are getting help, they're getting home today, fun, fun fact today I met a guy who was walking from my motel six 90 years old, uh to the post office.
Speaker 1:I saw him in the post office. He was sweating and you know me immediately being a medical person, the care girl. I was like hey, are you OK? And you know he was like I just don't know. I'm just going to have to walk back over to my house, I mean, which was the motel six, which I didn't know until he told me. So I actually he left before me and I said this man couldn't have gotten too far. So I actually pulled over and and I drove him to his hotel, which was pretty far, and then I said, hey, you know, do you live here? He said, yeah, me and my friend we live here. We're, you know, we're on a retire social security. And I actually gave him a number to a based on income, really nice apartments for senior citizens that he could qualify for.
Speaker 1:So just always an advocate for creating spaces for the elderly and disabled, because sometimes they just they can't help themselves. They have family that you know just may not be in a position to help them or not even in a position for them to stay with them because they don't have room or whatever the situation is. This is not only something that is good to make money, but sometimes you go into it and you, you, if you don't have that human part, that communication part, you're not like thinking and understanding that you still have to be good with people and you still have to care. Um, that's, that's the energy that you need to go into this, because it's still a caring type business.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, oh yes, I couldn't. I couldn't have said that any better. You know that's what I do. You know it's a. It's a business that's fulfilling and rewarding, and I know I'm doing the right thing, because that's why I started. You know, I mentioned, you know, the military and the homeless veterans. That's why I started, and it's just, you know, one of the things that changed my family's life too, you know, you know making it a business and all that good stuff. But to your point, just don't forget why you started, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, servant leader, servant leader, yes, sir. Well, you have a great rest of your night and everybody, I hope y'all felt that value. This is the Care Girl podcast. Once again, follow and subscribe and follow and subscribe to Engine and Lawson as well. Y'all, y'all have a good one. All Y'all have a good one. All right, goodbye, all right, all right.