Building A Premier Memory Care Mansion with Aaron Ameen

🎙️ Welcome back to another insightful episode of the Physicians and Properties Podcast with your host, Dr. Alex Schloe!

💡 What if your next real estate investment wasn’t just about returns but about rewriting the end-of-life experience for thousands of families?

In this episode, Dr. Schloe sits down with investor, father, and RAL Room member Aaron Ameen, who alongside his wife Andrea is building two 16-bed luxury memory care mansions in Tomball, Texas. Inspired by personal loss and a mission to improve senior care, their project, Everwood Reserve, is a blueprint for purpose-driven real estate.

🏠 From single-family rentals to lease-to-operator RAL homes and now to full-scale development, Aaron shares how mentorship, community, and a deep “why” helped them overcome fear and take bold steps into the assisted living space.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ Why Aaron and Andrea pivoted from traditional rentals to memory care development
 ✔️ How to leverage the lease-to-operator model to invest in assisted living passively
 ✔️ What it takes to build a ground-up residential care home—and why now is the time
 ✔️ How personal pain became purpose, and purpose became a real estate plan
 ✔️ The mindset shifts needed to invest long-distance with confidence
 ✔️ How zoning, partnerships, and city support can make or break your RAL project

🔥 Key Takeaways:

✔️ The “Silver Tsunami” is here—and the care system is unprepared
 ✔️ Real estate becomes meaningful when it’s mission-driven
 ✔️ Community and mentorship can fast-track your confidence and your growth
 ✔️ Lease-to-operator is a powerful, passive entry into assisted living
 ✔️ With the right team, your story can become someone else’s solution

If you’re a physician or investor ready to combine profit with purpose—and be part of the solution in senior care—this episode is a must-listen.

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Transcript

Aaron Ameen:  Both my grandparents also had  dementia and so like, there's a lot of personal experience of how we've seen these kind of final chapters of people's lives play out. And there's a lot we saw that we didn't like. So we actually really feel the, the calling as well to be able to pour back into other people's, other grandmas and grandpas and provide a better experience that we  wish we could have provided for our own family.

Dr. Alex Schloe: Welcome to the Physicians and Properties Podcast, the show where we teach you how investing in real estate can give you the freedom to practice medicine and live life how you want. Doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor. Now here's your host, Dr. Alex Schloe.

 Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Physicians and Properties podcast. As always, I'm your host, Dr. Alex Schloe, and today's episode was really special. I had the opportunity to interview a good friend and now a partner, Aaron Am  This episode was incredible. We talk all about getting started in assisted living,  the least operator model, the power of community mentorship.

And just how that can help you grow so much faster and help you achieve things that you could not imagine. Aaron and his wife Andrea, are now working on an incredible project. Two 60 in bed memory care mansions in Texas.  We talk a lot about that project, everything that they've done to get that project ready.

And we talk about how you can have the opportunity to invest in this project. So if you're  interested in  getting started in assisted living, investing in assisted living,  or you just want to know about the power of community, this is the episode for you  at the end. Of this episode, we talk about a webinar that we are hosting on  June 30th.

So if you wanna learn more about how you can invest in this incredible opportunity where you can help provide exceptional care to seniors who need it most in Texas, then go ahead and join the webinar or reach out to Erin or myself. So without any further ado, let's get started with today's episode, all about assisted living and memory care.

 With my good friend Aaron Ameen.

 Aaron, Ameen buddy. Welcome to the Physicians and Properties Podcast. So glad that you're here. Really excited for the conversation that we have planned today. How is everything going in Texas?

Aaron Ameen: Hey, thank you for having me.  I feel like this has been a long time coming. I wanna get you on my show at some point too, but appreciate you having me.  It's getting hot here in Texas, but but always well.

 Dr. Alex Schloe: Awesome, man. Well, excited to have you on the podcast. It's been really cool. Obviously we've known each other for quite some time also in Action Academy, which we've talked about on this podcast, the power of community, quite often in relationships, and I'm sure that'll come up. Throughout this podcast, but it's been great following your journey and seeing everything you've been doing in the real estate space and your podcast and coaching  and now assisted living.

So I'm excited to kind of unpack your journey here on the podcast for folks.  So before we get started, do you mind just sharing a little bit about yourself?

Aaron Ameen: Sure. Yeah. So I'm Aaron Ameen. I live in Houston, Texas with my wife and my three young children.  We have a 3-year-old and 1-year-old twin. So a lot of  love and chaos in the house all at the same time.  By day, I work full-time as a management consultant.  And by night, Andrea and I have built a portfolio of eight  rental properties across three states.

And  recently since meeting you actually, we'll, we'll,  we'll share about the catalyst and the role that you've played in our journey here in a minute. But  we have pivoted pretty hard into residential assisted living.  Two of the rental properties that we own in Las Vegas were actually leased  to residential assisted living operators.

We bought those back in 2019, so that was the first time we ever heard of residential assisted living.  But it wasn't until we heard you on the Action Academy podcast, I believe it was last July or August that the, the light bulb went off in our head that  no, there's a whole group and a whole  section of investors that are getting into this space full time.

And that changed course for us as we joined our group and, and now we're to fast forward. We are currently developing and plan to build two memory care homes, ground up construction in a suburb of Houston called Tomball.  And those will be 10,000 square foot, 16 bedroom, 16 bath.  So 32 beds total.  So that is the shortest version of that story, but that's a bit of who we are.

That's awesome, Aaron. Yeah, it's a, it's a great story honored to have played  even just a tiny, tiny piece to your journey  in assisted living and and so forth. That really means a lot, and I'm glad that you were tuned into that podcast.  For folks who haven't heard that Action Academy podcast, we'll put that in the show notes as well.

But really cool, you know, and I think.  What's, what's so unique about your experience, Aaron, is you have a broad spectrum of real estate experience. You know, also on the coaching side of things as well, what drew you to  assisted living?

Yeah, so a few things. One, you know, a single family residential real estate, I still believe is the.  Best, most accessible entry point  into real estate investing.  There's kind of two arguments you'll hear people make. One is commercial's so much better because you can drive the revenue, which creates forced appreciation and all this extra value.

That's great on paper, but not everyone has the time and energy and resources  to figure out how to run.  A full-time, you know  commercial property, single family real estate is largely driven by the, the market around you.  You buy a house on a street in a neighborhood,  your house is probably gonna appreciate mostly in line with  whatever the values are in that neighborhood.

You should hopefully operate it well and, and profitably,  but even if you don't, in theory, the value will still rise.  So I still believe in, you know,  part of  who I work with and how I help people get into real estate.  Is that single family standard kind of  rental property?  It's a good, it's a good entry point, and it's, it's a big part of the foundation of how we built towards what we're doing now.

We first started investing kind of in our own backyard. Our first rental property was one mile away from our primary residence, and now our, closest rental is a thousand miles away.  So we kind of just followed the path as it unfolded in front of us. We let our skills on, you know,  build organically.

We were  largely a product of our circumstances is what took us down this path. Because when we first were investing locally, that was right before COVID, when COVID hit, it forced me to change career paths. We ended up moving cities and we kind of became long distance investors by. By accident.  But once we realized that was possible, it,  it gave us some of the mental tools to push past some of the, the fear of the unknown.

You know, investing being outta state out of, you know, your properties being so far away to where you can't get to them.  That was a big mental hurdle to overcome.  But once we did that and we, we put some systems in place, we built our teams,  we saw what was possible, and then we just kept following that path over and over again.

To answer your actual question, how do we get into residential assisted living?  The. Two, property number two and and three that we bought in Las Vegas.  They were already leased to assisted living operators when we bought them.  So over the course of six years, as we built this portfolio, we kind of looked backwards and we said, you know, what are the two, what are the properties that are performing best and adding the most value?

And also, which are the ones that we enjoy most?  And we looked back and those two residential assisted living properties, it's a strategy I know you and your partners use a lot, which is lease to operator.  They were the lowest headache, you know, they were paying significantly above market rent.  No vacancy ever.

They covered everything except major CapEx. They even got, you know, infusions of state money that helped  remodel certain parts of the home at no cost to us.  And more importantly than any of that,  it's providing a, a much needed service. You know, these homes were serving adults with developmental disabilities.

And it was having people in my family that  have had to find accommodations like it's, it's not easy to do that.  And so providing a residential environment where people can get those, those services and, and live hopefully  the closest thing to a normal and, and high quality lifestyle as possible, you know, that felt good too.

So I think it was kind of the  recognition that  not only financially does it make the most sense, but it has that impact and.  Opportunity for enabling people to live their best lives. That intersection really resonated with us and once we heard your podcast episode that we mentioned that really it hit  the exact moment that we were having that reflection, and that's what kinda led us, led us down this path.

Yeah, it's amazing, you know, God's timing and things and, and

how that all works out. And I think, you know, one thing that you mentioned that I love. That I really hope folks take away is that assisted living. You know, whether that's for developmental disabilities, whether that's senior living, man, it's so rewarding, right?

Like it's, it's, it's this beautiful blend of, of real estate and business, but also also fulfillment that you don't get if you're like renting out an Airbnb, you know, or short term rental.  And so, you know, it, it is certainly hard work. Especially if you're owning and operating, of course, the least to operator method, which you mentioned  and explained beautifully, is a more passive way to do it.

And that's how we got started. But the owning and operation side of things, it's, it's more time consuming and is certainly quite difficult. But man, how rewarding is it to be kind of in control of providing really exceptional care to seniors who need it most, who aren't getting it otherwise, and.  We're gonna talk a lot more about assisted living, but I did want to jump back to one other point you made in terms of long distance investing. A lot of  folks that are listening to this are physicians and maybe they don't live in a area that would be a good place to invest locally, and they're scared to invest long distance.

So you did mention that  that was a big mental hurdle for you to, to jump through. What was, what did that hurdle look like? What were some things that  concerned you investing long distance, Aaron, and then what were some ways you overcame that?

So this is kind of, has become my sweet spot, like I said, more by accident than anything else. But really when I sit that back and think about what would I do if I owned the property next door and it was a rental property and there was, you know, repairs or some type of  rehab that needed to be done, I'm probably not the one that's gonna do it anyway.

You can ask my wife, like I, I barely want to like hang pictures on the wall 'cause I'm afraid of screwing it up.  So it's also a little bit of internal reflection and just knowing like, where can I add the most value as a real estate investor? And for me, it's not putting my hands on the home.  So some of it was that, but second is there's just this fear of the unknown that we all sit with.

Doesn't matter what the context is. People don't like ambiguity. People don't like uncertainty. And when you're not near. An asset, especially something where you have a lot of money tied up.  You instinctively like start gaming out the worst case scenarios of what could happen. Without really pausing to, you know,  consider what is most likely to happen.

One of my favorite quotes is risk is what's left over when you think you've thought of everything.  And I think a lot of people get stuck in their own head trying to de-risk everything down to nothing, and that's just not possible. So I had to change my relationship with risk and I had to really.

Get past this idea in my head that I had to control everything part of my story, which you probably don't have time to unpack right now,  I am a,  you know, recovering alcoholic and I, I spent a lot of time, you know,  a lot of inner work trying to come to peace with the fact that you cannot control everything.

And that was a really pivotal turning point in, in my own mindset.  Now tactically, what does that look like?  Putting teams on the ground, building systems that you can trust. Building something that fits into your life, right? Do you want to be super hands-on and involved in your business or do you wanna have a team and you know, people that are, are running that business for you that you can manage and keep track of.

So I think some of it is just optimizing for your skills. Your lifestyle and then putting the right people in the right seats. I do think there is a skill to understanding what types of questions to ask of these teammates. In rental properties, it would be a property manager, an agent in residential assisted living.

You're also potentially vetting operators, you know, placement agents, whoever it might be. But you know, at some point you just,  it's about building the right network, getting past those hurdles of fear, and then trusting the systems that you put in place.

Absolutely. That was a perfect answer. You know, and I think  one key thing that you, you hit on too, is like, you're not gonna be the one that's doing the repairs, right? Like you're gonna  still gonna. Hire someone, like a busy physician that's listening to this.  Even if you own the house next door and you need it, you know everyone's afraid of toilets, right?

Like you need to replace the toilet. You're still gonna call someone to do that, right? So it really doesn't make a difference.  All of our rental properties, except for our basement, which we house hack.  Some of them I haven't even seen all of our assisted living ones. I've never even seen it in person, which is pretty crazy when you think about it.

But, you know, with all the technology that we have these days and with Zoom and with able to video walkthrough and with the, the 3D, you know, renderings and the I'm blanking on the name of it,  the Matterport that you can just,  you know, essentially walk through the house, like  it is easier to invest long distance than it's ever been.  And it hasn't changed anything. Something breaks, we still call a handyman. And so. It it is not as scary as you think it may be, and maybe investing long distance is gonna offer better returns or, or  get you the opportunity for a, a really sound  real estate investment that you wouldn't have otherwise if you were stuck with your backyard. I.

Yeah, I think that people sometimes also get a fear of a blank map, where once they decide that, oh, maybe I am comfortable with investing long distance.  Then they get overwhelmed by the idea of, well, where should I invest?  And that's where like,  you know, you guys in row room,  you have a, a framework that basically is like a build your own business plan type thing.

And one of the very first questions  that you ask is like, what's the location?  Right? So how do I find out in,  in assisted living, what are the local regulations and requirements? What's the timeline for getting things like permits and licensing? These things can have a dramatic impact on whether an investment's viable for you or not.

And so picking that location and, and  opening up getting outta the constraints of your home market, it provides more options for you, which in turn, you know, lets you figure out where's the best place you can place your money and make the most impact while still meeting your own personal goals.

Yeah, I completely agree. And that comes back to relationships, community, you know, having that accountability to help lean on which, which. Is provided in a Mastermind program, whether that's the Row Room Action Academy, any others? I would encourage folks strongly to consider joining a community that can help you.

And that's gonna take away a lot of that fear of long distance investing or a different asset class or like, Hey,  what the heck do I do next? And, and so that's really gonna help you grow so much faster. So I do think that that is huge to hit on. So Aaron, you mentioned that you were doing lease operator two of your homes in Las Vegas.

You didn't live there. I think Lease operator is a perfect way to invest in assisted living and do it long distance. And we're gonna talk more about owning and operating, of course with Everwood Reserve and the project that we're working on,  but as a Lease operator model from long distance. What were your thoughts in regards to that?

Any challenges, hurdles, anything like that that you ran into?  And what are your thoughts in terms of getting started through the least operator model?

Sure. So one quick correction. We did live in Las Vegas when we bought those, but to be very honest, the difference between how we interface with those companies and those houses now, you know, five years after we moved away from Las Vegas versus when we lived there,  I. It's almost identical. It was about building relationships, understanding who the influential people were at that company.

By the way, the company that was under lease when we bought it was acquired, and then the company that acquired them was acquired.  So it's a large, you know,  know, undertaking just to keep a pulse of like, who are the key decision makers, who are the caretakers there day to day? So we visited Las Vegas, you know, a couple times a year, and every time we go, we always make a point to stop by.

I try and make sure to first observe the condition of the house and make sure it's the condition that we would be comfortable with if we were running it  right. That's you can't tell somebody how to run their business, but at the same time, if you observe something that's unsafe or wouldn't meet the standards that you would want  you're absolutely empowered to, to speak up as the owner.

So I build relationships with the people in the corporate office and also with the, with the caretakers and even to the point where I know some of the residents, the longer term residents that have been there we keep a pulse, you know, we try and do quarterly or at a minimum biannual walkthroughs. I.

Whether that's  us being there in person when we're visiting  or sending one of our trusted people on the ground, just to, again, get eyes on the property, make sure everything is in good shape,  and make any repairs or request any repairs that might need to be done.  One of the things I love the most about least the operator in, in that scenario is that the state does inspections too.

Some people view those state inspections as liabilities because. The state might request that you do something that you otherwise wouldn't.  I view that as a benefit. I think the more people that are keeping eyes on the property and making sure that it's in  livable condition, that everything's up to standard, that's a benefit to everyone.

You're not gonna be at risk of your license getting pulled. It's a check and balance on the operator to make sure that they're not doing anything they shouldn't be doing.  And it's, it provides it de-risks a little bit for me being 2000 miles away that, you know, hey, the property is in the condition that it needs to be.

So I really am very careful with  the P word. I don't use passive very often, but this is pretty darn close to passive.  When we do get pinged, it's, you know, oftentimes just to approve or maybe reach out to a vendor for one of the larger expenses that's maybe five minutes outta my day. And and then another five minutes to go pay the bill.

But for the most part, it's been a pretty hands-off experience.  And again, I feel good about the  value that these homes are contributing to the local society and and, and economy. There.

Yeah, I agree. I think I think that is all really good points. And  yeah, we, we, you know, for example right now, one of our least stop rider homes, the air conditioning just broke and it's Phoenix, Arizona, right? So like, it's really hot. And so that has been.  A fairly difficult thing to handle. But again, yeah, it just  required a few phone calls.

We talked to home warranty folks. We talked with the, the heating and air company that's gonna come replace it. And unfortunately it's still quite a big bill.  But you know, these things do happen and, and outside of that, right, like it is quite, I. Quote unquote passive. And,  and I've talked about it multiple times on the podcast, that truly passive income does not exist because you're still even doing due diligence on a deal if you're just doing mailbox money or private lending or something else that's even more passive.

And so  I, I do agree, but yeah, the least operator model, especially on the assisted living side of things, if you want to own the real estate and be in control of at least the real estate.  Doesn't get any more passive than that for sure. So thanks for sharing that, Aaron.  I will say one other caveat for folks on the least operator model, and I'm sure Aaron can attest to this, is it is all dependent on your operator, right?

And so everything relies on your operator. That is your sole tenant.  And so you have to make sure that you're vetting  that operator well, that you're asking them all the right questions. You make sure that they  have their heart in the right place for taking care of seniors or developmental disabled. Individuals.  And so that is really, really important to, to do that, to vet them make sure their financial background looks good, make sure they have cash reserves,  make sure that they ultimately, as I mentioned, are in it for the right reason. And so because things can really go south if they're not and they realize like, oh, this is actually really hard work.

I, I don't think I can do this. I wanna break the lease. And then you're kind of stuck  trying to find another operator. So that's really important as well.

Absolutely. And I would also say in comparison, like I am a single family rental property owner. That is where I view the majority of my foundational skills and exposure to real estate came from, Comparing lease to operator assisted living to a standard rental property. It's a lot less day-to-day oversight.

You know, you're, you're not having to deal with lease renewals every year and vacancies and people leaving your house is trashed and, and stuff like that.  I'm not saying not to invest in single family, I'm just saying compared one,  one next to the other. Lease operator with a good proven operator, like Alex mentioned,  can be a really good way to own those single family type homes.

Or, or potentially even larger ones depending on what strategy you're going after.

Agreed. Yeah. And it's the best opportunity to cash flow in this current environment. I mean, we've seen  where the real estate market is and how hard cash flow is. It's really hard to find a good long-term rental that's gonna cash flow in this market with interest rates where they are. And so  this is an awesome opportunity to do that on more of the passive side.

And  you know, for example, our lease operator homes, homes. They cash flow as well, if not better than a really well run Airbnb. And, and I can say that because we have an awesome, unique Airbnb geodesic dome property in the mountains of Colorado that causes way more headaches than our least operator model does.  And so it's just something for folks to consider. And if you want to know more about that, feel free to reach out to Aaron R. Or myself. And check out the row room and, and we can talk more about the least operator model. But Aaron, let's pivot now to something way more exciting than least operator.

Let's talk about the project that you're working on right now. So  let's get after it, man.

All right. Yeah, so I think it's actually a good parlay because when we joined the row room, when I heard this podcast episode that I'm gonna keep referencing, that really changed the picture for, for us, you know, the original idea was that we did that reflection. We looked back across our portfolio, what was performing the best, what was, what did we feel best about?

And we,  we recognize that those two. Residential assisted living homes were the best in our portfolio. Then I heard this episode and, and, and about your mastermind. We joined and my initial thought was that we would just look for more lease operator long distance rentals and it would kind of fit into that niche that we were already comfortable with and familiar with.

What we found instead is the more we learned about not only the opportunity and the incredible demand that already exists, but the 15, 20, maybe even 30 years of tailwinds of that demand increasing, and then the lack of operators and and people that are, are there to fill that need.  We kind of grew, we being, my wife and I kind of grew.

Towards, you know, maybe we could actually operate this ourselves. We went through all your onboarding. There's another thing we haven't really talked about yet, which is also like  figuring out what's your end goal and what are the problems you're trying to solve in your own life. Like, what are the things you wanna enable?

And what we kind of did  concluded is that single family rentals and even lease to operator probably were not going to get us to the financial goals that we had for ourselves. Nor was it gonna probably make the impact that we knew we wanted to have.  So the more we learned, the more we got comfortable, the more we surrounded ourselves with other people in the row room who had made this commitment that they are gonna launch their own assisted living homes.

The more courage we had to explore, you know, a bigger and better vision for, for what we wanna do.  So fast forward and what that means is that we, we ended up signing up for a mentorship with Brett Shot, who does the, the memory Care Mansion model. And so we combined a lot of the resources and network and support from the row room along with Brett and his team's tutelage.

And we scoped out our own memory, memory Care Mansion project here in Tomball, Texas Northwest suburb of Houston. And so since last September, we have been scoping out this project. You know, it's June as we're recording this. And we went under contract on seven acres of land at the end of January.

And through, since then, we've worked with the civil engineers, architects, builders. We've brought on a few different team members. We, we secured you know, preliminary approval for a bank loan, and we even launched a capital raise.  And so we have everything in motion and we're. As we record this about a couple months from, from closing on that land to beginning construction, it's a very long-term project, you know, so it's gonna take 10 to 12 months to build these two mansions and develop the raw land and probably another 10 to 12 months to ramp up and stabilize.

But once we are up and running and stabilized, you know, we'll have 32 beds in in Tomball, where based on our research and understanding, there's already 150 bed shortage and that's only gonna get worse. And best part, you know, in our minds is there's no comparable developments in the pipeline.

So we're really well positioned to serve that need in the community.  And also, you know, we just feel so fulfilled and empowered by the impact that this is gonna make, that it really, it fires on every cylinder for, for my wife and my, my vision for what we want to do.

Absolutely. Yeah. You and Andrea have have done amazing things as soon as you guys got into the route and we're like, man. These folks are gonna crush it. And, and you certainly have and shout out to the red pod as a whole. You guys are all just crushing it. And so it's been really cool to follow along on the journey. The other thing that I think is worth mentioning was how excited Tomball Texas was for this project. When you, when Andrea and yourself presented what you were looking for with the space and the land, do you mind telling folks a little bit more about that and kind of the zoning difficulties that may have come up?

Yeah, absolutely. So the land that we found was currently zoned for agriculture is a piece of raw land. It has, you know, it's completely undeveloped. There's a lot of things we had to navigate just to even make sure that we could go under contract and that the project was viable. But rezoning is one big hurdle that a lot of people face with development.

We had to actually work with the seller. Since we're in a long escrow period to cooperate, to submit for rezoning before we even close. So first we had to find a seller that bought into our vision and supported the project that we were trying to do. Was willing to have a long escrow period and was willing to sign on the, on the line for rezoning applications.

Then from there, we had to take it to the city of Tomball. They had four different checkpoint milestone meetings, so it's about a three month process. You have to take it. You have to make your initial case for what is the project, what is the purpose of the rezoning?  They have to put communications out both written.

They put it in the local paper. They mail all the surrounding neighbors and they, they basically put the good word out in the, in the city to see if anybody objects. And then there's a council of people that come in and  ultimately vote on whether they approve or deny the rezoning. So again, there were four checkpoints, but Andrea, my wife, she, she went and made the case and  the support was unbelievable.

So if the, one of the meetings she made, you know,  the. Here's the vision, here's the need, here's our understanding of what we can contribute. And then the council members actually went and did their own independent research. They started calling around different homes, seeing, you know, are they full? Is there a demand for this?

Like what is the, what is the sentiment around this in our community? And they came back and they had nothing but nice things to say about.  You know,  not only is this project needed in our community, but this is the type of thing that we would wanna see in a commercially zoned property. We don't wanna see somebody come in and build some 200 unit luxury apartment building in our, our nice little town of Tomball that's known for, you know  southern hospitality.

And, you know, it's a lot of farmers, right? Like, so this fit the vision of their city too. And it even culminated in the mayor who was at the final meeting you know, shaking my wife's hand and saying, you know, welcome to Tomball. So. That's the type of stuff where, you know, you really feel that when the cities rally behind you, you can see that they have in their own words and own research validated the impact that you can make.

You know, that that's what gives us determination when we're fighting through a lot of the other red tape and and difficulties of the project too.

I love that story. 'cause yeah, it shows the need, it shows the impact that you can have on the community and it shows how well you guys really prepared for those meetings. I mean, yeah, they're ready to give Andrea A. Key to the. I think and let her become like assistant mayor which is awesome. And so I think that, you know, the big takeaway from that for folks that are listening is that zoning changes may need to be, may need to happen, but it's really important to share your vision, share your journey, share the story, share your why. And a lot of times these different municipalities, they don't even know what residential assisted living is or what a memory care mansion is. So they hear assisted living and they immediately think like this big box facility, once you guys expend like, Hey, we're building two 16 bed luxury memory care mansions that are gonna be absolutely incredible and like, add to the landscape and provide this great service and provide jobs like it, what a, what a win-win for Tomball.

And so like really, really excited. About that and not to mention that you guys did your due diligence and saw that 150 bed shortage. Aaron, what, what are some other things that you're really excited for about this project?

So I think that the, the barriers to entry are pretty high when it comes to taking on something like a development, you know, not only the new build, but then the, the overarching business. But I think, you know, there, there's a personal story that we haven't really cut on yet, which is, My wife, her, her father had early onset dementia that set in when she was 19, and he passed when she was 26.

He was in this big, smelly facility with, you know, poor quality of care. Everyone was overworked, you know, underpaid. Just not a great environment. Same thing. Her grandparents also, they, they lived well into their nineties, but they're, you know, they had Alzheimer's and were in pretty poor conditions at the end of their lives, and  that experience really stuck with her.

Both my grandparents also had dementia and so like, there's a lot of personal experience of how we've seen these kind of final chapters of people's lives play out. And there's a lot we saw that we didn't like. So we actually really feel the, the calling as well to be able to pour back into other people's, other grandmas and grandpas and provide a better experience that we wish we could have provided for our own family.

So when I see how Andrea lights up at the idea, all the little programming, all no detail is too small to her as to how to enhance the experience and make people feel welcome, personalized care, all this stuff.  So really excited about some of the programs. That we're gonna be able to offer and and how we plan to uplevel the, the quality of service, and then honestly, the profitability and all the backend business.

You know, it, it's built upon the quality of the service. So this is something that we're grateful in the RAL room, that it's not just a bunch of investors looking at dollar signs, thinking like, oh, this is a great financial opportunity. It's like, no, this is an opportunity to make an impact. And if you do that, if you do lead with service first and quality of care, then the profits will follow.

So I think that's one element that, that we feel great about. We've built a, what we think is a rock solid business plan.  We've designed the returns for our investors to reward, you know, they, they're, they're taking on some risk. It's a development project. There's a lot of things that have to go right.

But we really feel like we've built a win-win deal that can be a home run for.  For everyone involved. So just excited to be able to socialize that, share it with our investors and and the community at large.

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, we're, we're so excited to partner with you guys on this project 'cause we see your passion. Like I mentioned, we, we love you guys and, and we're so proud of what you guys have already done and accomplished and all the hard work that  has happened. So Charlie, Luke, and myself are excited for the partnership there and you know, really excited for this project to kick off.  I think too, you know, like you mentioned, Andrea is. Programming and leaving no stone unturned and, and just the level of care that folks are gonna receive at Everwood Reserve, dude just is, is so exciting and blows my mind. And  that's why we started the route room, as you mentioned, like imagine a world where the, the. Baseline, or not even the baseline. That's probably not the right term, but the like. Expectation is care. As good as folks are gonna receive it, ever would.  That's what I want for my grandma, my grandpa, my mom, my dad. When that happens, and the only way this is gonna happen is if we all open tons more of these homes.

I mean, we've already talked about the shortage. I mean, we're a million bed short. We're.  A trillion dollars development wise behind in terms of investment. Like  the need is so massive and the supply is not there, and it is in no way keeping up with the demand to come.  But imagine if we can shift the paradigm of senior living to be as good as what Everwood iss gonna be.

And so like, man, it's just such an exciting project. We're so pumped about it. And not to mention the returns are fantastic as well.

And one thing I'll add too, right. I, I appreciate that and.  Putting ourselves in a room with people where everyone has that aligned philosophy and sentiment. I mean, the row room is full of go givers. People who actually do care.  They care more about the quality of care than they do about the profits.

Obviously the profits are important, especially when you're  trying to run a business that's gonna sustain. But I really do appreciate that because I, I don't think  that every room full of investors is thinking about the service first. There, there are plenty of people that are driven primarily by money,  and one of the things that drew us to residential assisted living is that the average person that actually gets into this and sticks with it.

They do have that big heart  and those are the type of people we wanna be surrounded with.  And I know every  listeners to this show, you know, folks most likely in, in healthcare, like you enter because you have a big heart.  And you know, being able to serve people in that way is, is incredibly important.

Same thing with the, you know, the mentors and the groups you choose to join.  Like do these people share your values and, and can you see, you know, getting into these big.  You know,  complicated projects together and and weathering the storm because the, your belief in the cause is, is great enough to overcome.

So I just wanted to add that element too.

Yeah, that is well said. That I completely agree. And I think  one thing that's really important for folks listening to this is to understand maybe a little bit more about the team and the support new,  new development is, is tricky. And it's a long process as you've already mentioned and there is some red tape.  But the team that you guys have built, I think is incredible with Brett, with Joe, with with us.  And you know, I'm really excited to see how that goes. Do you mind speaking a little bit more about some of the experience there?

Sure. Yeah. So, you know, core to the team is my wife and I, Andrea's got a background in social sciences. So she has a master's degree in  community development and really understands just the different stages of development of the human mind.  She also has a background in nonprofit and program  development and management.

So again, very  people  oriented.  Not only from a tactical standpoint, but how to really understand, you know, what drives people.  That combined with her personal experience in senior care, you know, she's really bringing a lot to the table there.  My background's in management and operations and particularly on the finance side.

So I'll be  largely the, you know, the CFO  and and financial guy.  Then we are lucky to partner with you guys both from your the expertise you bring from Row Room, but also open Range Capital, which is your guys fund.  So we're teaming up to help go find the capital partners we need to fund this project.

So we get, we get to not only spend time with you guys and and, and get your, your perspective as RA operators, but but we get to put our heads together and bring this opportunity to a broader base of people.  We also have you know, Brett and Laura, his wife, they run these exact homes.

They've built this exact floor plan.  They've gone, you know, end to end through the full project lifecycle of what they're, they're running us through.  So we're using their exact playbook and that includes, you know, the, the very difficult work of finding  viable land, figuring out,  you know, we talk a lot about the project in its current form, but what we don't talk about is the 25 different pieces of land that we looked at before this  and the three months that Andrea spent driving all over Houston, getting frustrated 'cause we couldn't find anything that made sense.

Right. It's,  it's, that is actually a good thing,  right? That we had a steady hand in someone with experience that could help us say no to 25 pieces of land  before we found the right one.  Because, you know,  without someone with that perspective and experience, we might have landed on something that wasn't a good fit.

So Brett and his team are bringing that end to end project support.  And beyond that, we found a great local GC who's done, who has, you know, 40 years of experience in Tomball. Their office is about two miles away from the land.  They know this place inside and out,  you know above ground and below ground.

And and we,  we just feel like we have a, a really well-rounded team that can cover all the bases that we need to cover, and we have the right perspectives to help you know, prevent us from making mistakes, but also realize the upside and and the different ways that this business can succeed and add value.

Absolutely. Yeah, it's gonna be an incredible project, an incredible opportunity.  We are planning to host a webinar If folks are interested in learning more about this project please sign up for the webinar. We'll include the link here in the comments,  reach out to Aaron, reach out to myself.

We'll have plenty of different ways. We've already done a webinar that we have available too, if folks are like, Hey, I just wanna know a little bit more and I don't wanna  wait any longer for, for the webinar project. So  lots of opportunity there.  And, the webinar is gonna be on the 30th.

So if folks are interested in knowing more, if you don't wanna wait that long,  this podcast is gonna air on June 25th. Go ahead and reach out to Aaron or myself and we'll send you all the resources that we have.

Aaron also has made an incredible website where you can model your returns on investment. It's the first webinar that we recorded and a bunch of other  great information on there as well. So we'll include the links to that in the show notes.  Aaron, anything else that you want to add?

No, I, I, I appreciate the opportunity to, to join and, and share this story.  I think the RAL room is full of people who have made this commitment  that they know they want to get into this industry.  There's an overwhelming need for good operators and people They not only have the big hearts that it takes to, to navigate some of the choppy waters, but also want to be in, in the room and surround themselves with the resources they need.

And so I, I can't say enough good things about the impact that being in the Row room has had on us,  and I just wanted to share that to anybody who might be on the fence about whether, you know, this is the right fit for them or, or good decision for them.  Put yourself in a room surrounded by people who are doing it  and and you know, you will rise to the challenge.

And I hope to to see more, more people in there  along with us.

Yeah, we did not pay him to say that too. So. Thanks, Aaron.  Really,  really appreciate the, the kind words and the feedback there.  Well, folks, we're, we're excited for Everwood Reserve. We're excited for this project. Tomball, Texas, the seniors that live there  are gonna get some really exceptional care and, and just.

We want you to join us on this journey  if you're interested. So  without any further ado, we'll go ahead and wrap things up.  And with that it is Aaron Ameen and Alex Schloe with another episode of the Physicians and Properties Podcast signing off.

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