Real Estate Investing & Senior Living Acquisitions | Roberto Carabetta

In this episode of the Assisted Living Podcast, Andy Hernandez sits down with Roberto Carabetta to explore the intersection of real estate investing and senior living acquisitions. From building a real estate portfolio in Canada at a young age to transitioning into the U.S. senior care market, Roberto shares how he identified the massive opportunity in assisted living — and why he went all in.

We dive into the reality of investing in senior living communities, why this space is more business and operations-driven than traditional real estate, and what separates successful operators from investors who fail. Roberto also breaks down the current market dynamics, including the growing demand, limited supply, and the upcoming senior housing crisis heading into 2030.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

• How Roberto started in real estate investing and scaled his portfolio
• Why assisted living is a business-first investment, not just real estate
• The biggest mistakes investors make in senior living acquisitions
• Why having the right operator is critical to success
• How to approach acquisitions, transitions, and building trust with staff
• Marketing strategies to grow occupancy in assisted living communities
• The future of senior housing and the supply vs. demand crisis

If you’re an investor, operator, or simply curious about the business behind assisted living, this episode gives you a real, behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to succeed in one of the fastest-growing sectors in healthcare.

Connect with us!
• ALP on Instagram: / Instagram.com/theassistedlivingpodcast
• Andy on Instagram: / Instagram.com/AndyaHernandez
• Minnect: / expert.minnect.com/@AndyHernandez
• Maravida Senior Living: / maravidaseniorliving.com
• Roberto Carabetta on Instagram: / Instagram.com/roberto.carabetta

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another episode of the Assistant Living Podcast. Today I have Roberto Cavanetta with us today. Thanks, Andy. Brother, uh, you know, we met through uh at PBD's lounge and we've gotten kind of close and happened to be just by coincidence, we're in the same space. Uh, you're in the assisted living uh space and and you're into the acquisition side uh of things, and so are we. And there's uh we've hit off on a lot of different things, but I want to bring you on to talk about first your background, how did you get into the business? And then from there, how have you evolved in the business and what you have going on and the future of the business? So, how did you get your start in assisted living? But let's back up. Who are you?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

I'm Roberto Carabetta. Yeah. No, first of all, thanks for having me on the show. Uh it's a pleasure, man. Like you said, we connected really well uh in our group. So uh pleasure being here. Thanks. So a little bit about me. I was born and raised in Canada. Uh, born in Toronto, Canada, uh, about 10 years old. Uh, my family moved about 30, 40 minutes west of uh the Toronto downtown. And that's where my teenage years, my early 20s, is where I started understanding that real estate is a component that you need to excel, to growth, for financial stability. It's not your nine to five job that's gonna get you there. So I'll tell you that at age 17, through my mother's connections, she used to work at a top six bank in uh Toronto area. So she got me in. At age 17, I was a bank teller. And then my mind started opening up at that age. The reason being is I used to serve walk-in customers. So 20, 25 years ago, people used to walk into the bank, cash their checks, make deposits, take out the cash, etc. So then I saw a common theme month over month while I was being a teller. And I saw these people coming in with monthly checks and the same people coming in, whether he's a lawyer or general contractor or a factory worker, they came in with $1,500 checks every month. And I said, wow, this is interesting. It's a it's a common denominator I noticed. And I found out that these were all rent checks. They had their business or they had their employment, but they also had a real estate component to their cash flow, to their financial portfolio, and they had rental units. So then I started thinking and doing some research at age maybe 18, 19, but how am I gonna buy a rental unit? If these guys can do it, why can't I? Right, right? Like, sure, they're older than me, they're more experienced, but it's just a matter of education at that point. So fast forward a couple of years, it was age 21 that I drove down to the downtown Toronto. Back then, you got to realize 25, 30 years ago, Toronto was really blank. It was a blank canvas. They didn't really have high-rises and condos like they do now. It was like, I call it a mini New York or the potential to be a mini New York, uh, because even the proximity with Toronto and New York, they're very close. So at age 21, I went to a sales office by myself. Sales agent convinced me to buy this unit. It was a great unit. It was a condominion, one of the first few builds in the downtown Toronto area. And without any knowledge or education, I signed my name on the dotted line. And I purchased that condominion at age 21 without even telling my parents. Oh my God. Yeah, they were pretty old school each other.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

How'd you come up with a down payment? Just working and saving, or how'd you do that?

SPEAKER_01 3:34

So it's not like it is now. You don't need a $200,000 down payment. So back then, I remember it was $5,000 on signing, okay, which I took from a line of credit because I worked at the bank. So they gave me a $5,000 line of credit. In 60 days was another $5,000 down payment. So I worked up, saved $5,000. So over like a six or eight month period, they only needed $20,000. So I was able to do that. Whether it's through line of credits or or or working or savings, I came up with that $20,000 down payment. And that just kind of gave me the confidence, gave me the confirmation that, hey, I'm doing the right thing. At least I'm taking that step forward. All that stress of signing on the dotted line kind of went away. Now you're like, damn, this is real. Right. Like this is gonna be mine. So fast forward a little bit. My goal was to buy seven rental units by the age of 30. Okay. I achieved 10 rental units by the age of 35. Okay. Uh my seventh one came after the age 30, but I'm still satisfied with my goal, my what I achieved in Canada. So these were condominiums, single family homes. Uh two condominiums, and the rest were single family or uh townhome style houses. Yeah. And all investments. And what I did is waited for the appreciation on my first investment, took that money, bought the second investment, two investments go up at the same time, take that money, buy the third, and so on and so on. So really it's none of my capital. I just use my initial down payment, that $20,000. Using a leverage over the deal. And the rest just flowed, right? It's just leverage uh through the HELOCs and refinancing. So, in that meantime, that was my cash flow. That was my retirement bucket. Uh, I knew I didn't have access to that cash in my 20s and 30s, but I saw that long-term vision that real estate had. You see the Donald Trumps of the world, the uh real estate tycoons, they're all invested in real estate somehow. Whether they own a block, whether they own a tower, whether they own 200 units, they're in real estate. So I knew that was my plan for longevity. So growing up in Toronto, I left the bank uh about six years after my start. I ended up working with my father as a general contractor. He was very successful. He had his own company. He immigrated from Italy to Canada at the age of 17. So when you immigrate back then in the 70s, you got to work with your hands. There's no education, there's no real technology back then. There's nothing really to do except work in a factory or start your own business somehow. So he started his general contracting business. Worked with him eight, nine years, and we did everything ourselves. We did the drywall, we did the demo demolition, we did the tile setting, electrical plumbing, all the trades we did ourselves. And I'm like, dad, this is hard. Like I enjoyed what I did, but it was hard. Right, hard. Yeah. So you he we wake up at six, we're on the drop site at seven, we come home at six p.m. After dinner, we're both asleep on the couch at seven o'clock, eight o'clock. You gotta do it again the next morning. Yeah, yeah. And the old school Italian, you gotta do it Saturday. Yeah, oh yeah. And then remember some Monday holidays.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

So I'm thinking, dad, this has to be a better way. Why don't we start subbing out? Let's expand. Instead of doing one job or one project for five months, why not get two or three projects in five months? Smart. And then sub it out. I I I love him. He was my best friend. I love him. It's all good. I'm not hating on him, but he didn't see that expansion because he was trained in the old school mentality as an immigrant to keep money in the pocket. Right. He goes, Why are you gonna give money away? Keep it for yourself, don't pay anyone else. We can do the work. So we butt heads like on the business side. And I said one day I said, Dad, I'm gonna leave you. I said, I love you. Yeah, you're getting old. Is your dad still alive though? No, unfortunately, he passed eight years ago. Sorry, sorry. But it it was a blessing in a way that when I left him, yeah, and not in a in a in a negative way.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

What would he tell you when you say, hey dad, like I'm out.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

So or I'm gonna leave you. What I did is I I I printed a piece of paper, which was a contract that I made up. Right. There was no AI back then, so I had to like write everything because I wanted it to be official in a sense that dad, I'm serious about my future, about my mindset, about my expansion. So I wrote wrote a one-page contract or whatever it said, and I signed it at the dinner table. I said, Dad, we talked. I said, You gotta sign it. He ended up signing it, he understood my vision, he never held me back, he just didn't want to take the risk by himself or or take any risk uh for that matter. So we signed the contract, everything was happy. Uh, but I him passing was a blessing in disguise in a way that those five years in between when I left from his passing, he enjoyed his life. He didn't have to work as hard. Right. Because I found out that he was showing up to the job site because of me. He felt like that friendship bond that, hey, I'm gonna teach you, I'm gonna be your mentor to spend time with me. So once I went on my own, he slowed down a lot. Right. He spent time with his friends, more time with my mother. Oh, what a blessing. So that five, six, seven years after I left and and and between from when he passed, I I saw him laughing all the time, right? Having his cigars, drinking his wine, his scotch with his buddies, his friends, traveling to different countries around the world. He lived his life in that time frame. So things happen for a reason. Absolutely. We we both know that things happen for a reason. Yeah, whether you find out today, tomorrow, next year, things happen for a reason.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Absolutely. So let's back up. So, you know, there's a lot of different advice out there where you see on social media, like the Grant Card domes, where you want doors, you don't want single family homes, those are just you're a slave to those type of properties. If you had to do it all over again, would you do it the way you did it, or would you try to get like a duplex or or or you know, an eight-unit, 10-unit uh type property versus buying a single home, single apartment?

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Yeah, so I guess a little bit of uh advice for newbies in this real estate investing space is why not hack the system? Buy a duplex, you live on one side, the renter lives on the other side, or buy a larger single family home, you live in the basement, renter lives upstairs. Essentially, they'll pay your mortgage, and you might even have extra cash for that month. Right. Five, six hundred dollars extra a month. Yep. So that's the hack that I would use if I started over again. I'm not upset at what I did or how I started because it it evolved me to where I am now, right? It let me expand, it let me understand the real estate space. But um, yeah, I just like I call it hack the system.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Right, right. So you go through this progression, you end up now you're in your 40s, and you start getting into the assistant. How do you find out about the assisted living? Because you're not even from this space, you don't have a healthcare background. So, like, how did you come up on this space?

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah, so I lived 40 years in the Toronto area growing up, living my life. I really enjoyed it. It was all positive. But then that period of 2021, 2022, my wife and I said, Hey man, why don't we change up our lives? Canada's cold. I'm a beach guy, palm trees, weather. I got an Italian background, it's a beautiful uh country there. I'm like, why do we move to Italy? Wow. We look at each other, we're like, let's do it. Uh that didn't really work out because the reason is I didn't see a future for my kids. Right. Like, yeah, I can sell all my real estate in Canada, move to Italy, live like my little king that I am. But what are my kids gonna do? Right. They're gonna look at me lying on the beach all day, go to the espresso bars. What are they gonna learn? So an opportunity came up in my wife's uh circle of friends. One of the friends um asked her to partner on a diabetic management clinic. Okay. But that clinic was located in South Florida, in the actually here in the Hollywood area. So that was our way out of Canada, starting our new life. In 2023, we ended up moving our whole family, my two kids, my wife, ended up moving to Fort Lauderdale area at the age of 41. That's where the real estate game changed for me. It was no more single-family homes, it was more commercial real estate, larger scale. I started in multifamily. I acquired three multifamily properties. Okay. I went to mentorship programs, I went to education courses, I joined groups that were teaching me how do you do this, how do you do that? So I used the syndication model to acquire these multifamily properties. And it was there that I got into the assisted living senior care space. One of my partners three years ago sent me an underwriting. Uh, I opened it up, he didn't tell me nothing about it, and and I didn't really pay attention to the address so much. I just my eyes went right to the returns, to the numbers, right? Like naturally. And I said, wow, this is like a 3x multiple in five years. I'm like, this is impossible. Right. Because you don't see that in real estate. No, you don't. It's not a get rich quick scheme. Right. So I didn't believe him. I didn't believe the underwriting. Uh, I'm a nerd myself on the underwriting side, on the numbers. So I dug in deeper. It took me about two, three weeks to punch holes in this underwriting to make it not a 3x multiple. So it was a it was a 3.2x multiple that he gave me. On the performa, they gave me. Yeah, yeah. On the underwriting, on the five and performa. This is the T12, this is year one, year two, and so on. So I knocked it down from a 3.2 multiple return to a three multiple return. Okay. I'm like, still good returns. Yeah, very good returns, yeah. So after all my research, all the information that I gathered on assisted living, on memory care, I knew there was an opportunity in this space. So I put multifamily aside and I said, you know what? I'm all in in this assisted living space. A, because I can make a difference for my family and my financial situation. B, you can make a difference for the residents. Uh you give better care, then those residents feel like they're at home. Right. C, you give a better life and a better opportunity to the staffing and to the people around you. So it's a win-win for a lot of people in this space if you do it correctly. So ever since about three years ago, just under three years ago, I've been all in in an acquiring mid-market senior living communities.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

So were did you have any fear because it was the unknown? Like you don't know this space? Like the numbers look very good, but and you you you did the underwriting, you came at a three times uh uh multiple, uh, but was there any doubt what you were getting yourself into?

SPEAKER_01 14:38

As an entrepreneur, as an investor, you you always have doubt, right? Whether it's doubt at nighttime, you can't sleep and you got butterflies, or whether it's doubt for a couple hours and you're like, yeah, I'm doing the right thing. No solid investment has no doubt. Right. There's always a sense of nervousness. If you're not fearful, you're not gonna win or you're not gonna exceed. But doing the research, collecting the data, asking questions, understanding the business first before I purchase that first asset is where that calms down the nerves and where that solidifies my doubt or my fear. Like, hey, I'm doing the right thing, but you're always fearful. Right. But you have to do your research, your data collection.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I tell people all the time you gotta put you know your something on the table. If not, you're you're not gonna you're not gonna grow and you're not gonna have anything in life. So that's part of it. But uh, so you buy so you acquire your first uh community. How did that experience go? So you close, now you have this beautiful property. Now what's next? So the performers always look the best.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

These three X multiples look so shiny and so bright, right? Uh you perform X amount of rent in year two, year three, and so on. So our first community that we acquired was just outside Savannah, Georgia. Okay. It was in a tertiary market, and I thought, hey, tertiary market, a little bit less competition. We did our comp research and we found out that the closest one to us was newly acquired, and they were getting $3,500 a month rent. Okay. And it was five, six miles down the road. We purchased this community at $2,400, $2,500 rent per month. So I said, wow, that's a huge opportunity to get a thousand dollars increase within a couple months at least, or the first year. But when you acquire an assisted living community, nothing goes as planned the first couple months because there's a huge transition. It's not, oh, I'm gonna go in and guns are blazing and increase rents. Now you get that sense of human connection. You can't be that evil guy going in and increasing the thousand dollars. You have to do it gradually. You have to show the residents and show the staff that you're here for them. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 17:02

You're not here as this investor businessman making millions of dollars. So I've been through so many acquisitions when it comes to assisted living. We're probably I was part of a fund that raised a hundred million dollars and we acquired uh I think it was five communities within a two-year span. It was just a crazy, I was a CMO there for two years. And uh yeah, that was one of the biggest uh challenges that we had was really uh getting the staff's uh trust when we first came in because they didn't know what angle we were gonna come in, and we were very cautious of setting uh uh any type of notion that we were there just for money, right? Like that was never our play. It was always we always had the resident first type mentality because we wanted our staff to understand that we wanted to put the resident first before any any profits or anything, uh, you know, any revenue that the company was gonna make. Um, but you're absolutely right. That's uh that's one of the biggest things. And one of the biggest issues that I have with this particular market is these private equity firms that are coming in because they're looking at data, they're looking at the numbers, but they don't understand the human element to the business, and that's where a lot of these problems and now they're fire selling, right? Like you're seeing all these private equity firms that are like, we gotta get out of the space because we don't know how to operate in it. So uh it's just such an uh such an interesting dynamic. What's one of the misconceptions that investors have about this business?

SPEAKER_01 18:20

So, in my world of single family and multifamily investing, it's all about the real estate, the four walls, and what that real estate uh can generate. The senior care side really has nothing to do with real estate. I'm underwriting the business. So it's a business within a real estate block. So the investors, and even myself, I had to understand this years ago. And I educate my investors. So what we we raise capital as as a team to to fund and purchase these uh assets. So I have to educate investors. You're buying a business, you're gonna buy a small HVAC company, you're gonna buy a laundromat, you're gonna buy a car wash. It's the same mentality. You're buying a business first. So it's operationally heavy. You you you know exactly what I mean is that high expense ratios, high turn turnover in staffing. You have to get the numbers right for the business to succeed. Whatever appreciation that real estate has essentially is just a cherry on top. And in today's market, real estate might not appreciate all that much like we're used to the last 15 years.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

So it's it's it's a business first strategy.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yeah, absolutely. I I tell people all the time, uh, oh, I want to buy an assisted living facility, I want to buy a hundred beds. And they I get a post all the time. I said, Okay, great, who's gonna operate it? My first question always is who's gonna operate? Well, we'll get a management company. I go, okay, that's the first mistake you're gonna make. Uh, because these management companies, man, I tell you, I've come across so many of them. Uh one, they don't know what they're doing, two, they're in it for the wrong reasons. Three, they don't care because they don't have skin in the game. So they're just collecting their 5% and just going through the motions, and then if you fire them, they go on to the next community. Yeah, because a lot of these investors don't come from this space. And I tell people all the time if they're great opportunities to invest in these things, right? Because the the numbers, there's not enough senior housing for what's coming in 2030, right? Exactly. Like that's why you're seeing them go up. But you better have somebody on your team, like we have our partner, Lonnie Steckler, phenomenal operator, has been 30 years in the business, has uh built uh multiple assisted living facilities. So we trust in him. If not, we wouldn't invest in the business. So I I always go back to operators in this space will always win over the investor that has a lot of money.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

100%. And I tell everyone the same thing that you just mentioned is operations first. Your number one hire is the operator. In-house, outhouse, whatever you want to call it. Your number one is is your operator. So being this newbie in the space for for the last couple of years, uh we uh used third-party management companies or operating companies, but we took a stance of let's give them a part of the equity. And and and we've been with the same operator for three, two and a half years, and now they have skin in the game on the equity side because they see the growth and we walk them through the whole investment strategy, but they've also contributed actual dollars to the investment. So now they have real skin in the game, right? And in the agreement, the management agreement, hey, if you don't perform A, B, C, D, you're not getting paid X, Y, and Z. So they are motivated to work and for this business to succeed and the revenue to increase and the expenses to decrease. They're motivated. But yeah, you to your point, you are a hundred percent correct is that operator doesn't care at the end of the day. They'll jump to that next investment group, they'll jump to that private equity group, they'll jump to that mom and pop owner. They're collecting their five, six, seven percent. They don't care. It's hits a paycheck every month. Oh

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Absolutely. That's all it is. Absolutely. It's like a team of two and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a good idea. I've seen everything. What's your experience on the uh on the marketing side when you're now you grab these uh communities and you have to go now bring in residents? So like what what's your what's your strategy there to really highlight uh the community in the area?

SPEAKER_01 22:22

So we're acquiring I'm gonna say stabilized occupied uh communities. There's 70, 80 percent occupied already. So yeah, there's room to grow, but we're not at a disadvantage of 40, 50 percent occupancy that we have to blast out this media marketing across the state or across this huge uh huge county. It's more of a community connection. Go to the local fair, like uh in in the Savannah one, there's a lot of southern uh hospitality, southern feel. So we're we're very uh vocal in those little fairs or the the county fair or or or the the farm that the local churches across the street. So even in Central Florida where where I uh own five communities, we're out there in our own little community in Orlando and Sarasota and Lakeland, doing the outreach at the community level. Okay, with the industry professionals, but also with communities, community events. We bring in education experts into the facility that attracts families, that attracts new interested uh families in the community. So we're giving value and educating them in a certain topic, and now they see, hey, this community really resonated with me. And then maybe in one or two years they might bring mom and dad in there. So it's getting that reputation in the community that we find the best value for our marketing dollars.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

No, I think that that's such an important point because it's not only going to the hospitals and trying to get referrals in the digital marketing, but it's really establishing a relationship with your community because you're an extension of that community, you're taking care of people's grandparents, mothers, and fathers that are uh, you know, they're members of that community, right? So if you can really connect yourself to the community and be an extension of that, you're you're gonna win. Yeah, you're absolutely gonna win if you and if it follows with good service. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

If you have that reputation, that recognition, right? It's like uh, I'm not name-dropping, but a Dunkin' Donuts, right? They're on every corner. Sure. They're they don't have the best coffee, right? But they're known because they're always visible because of the reputation. So you as a owner of a community, if you have a reputation of the best care or the best staff, or they hey, they have the best educational topics once a month, or they house uh a barbecue in their courtyard once a month or a second Thursday of the month, if you're known for that, chances are that community is most likely to bring their loved ones there. It's it's it's a reputation based, but that reputation doesn't come without the good care. Right, right. So they they kind of go hand in hand.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

No, absolutely, absolutely. So uh, you know, 2020, uh 2030 is upon us, there's gonna be about 80 million um baby boomers. What do you see this like what do you see the landscape uh of this industry being uh you know, four years from now? And are we going to be able to meet the need that the market's going to require? No.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

No, we're not gonna meet the need because I'll tell you some stats is one in five Americans will be 65 or older in 2030, like you said, so 80 million. That's a huge number. Yep. And maybe the average person thinks, oh yeah, there's tons of these assisted living communities everywhere. Oh, I see them on every corner. Yeah, they're there, but they're not meeting the demand. So right now, today, there's a $2 billion shortage in new development for senior care. Meaning you have to inject $2 billion today to keep up with today's demand. Obviously, we're not injecting $2 billion tomorrow. Right. So now we're behind the eight block. To top that off, 60% of major markets across the nation, 60% have zero permits allocated to new build for senior care. Wow. So that $2 billion shortage that I'm talking about, it's only gonna double, triple, quadruple in three, four, or five years. Because you know permitting doesn't happen overnight. No, it doesn't. That whole pipeline takes three to five years to come to fruition. But what are they building if they do get permits and new build? Is A-class facilities, granite countertops, marble floors, fancy pictures. Right. You see them everywhere. But how many people, how many seniors or how many families can really afford that in five years? Right. Maybe now, but in five years, the way the economy's going, the way they people are spending money on X, Y, and Z, they can't afford, or that demographic is going to shrink for the affordability of that A-class facility. So that gives us mid-market owners and operators a lot more runway, a lot more opportunity. So yeah, you have the it's basic economics, you have the demand, and you have a lack of supply. Right. So to me, that's one of the major reasons why I got into this space three years ago is basic economics 101, supply and demand. Yeah, of course. Right. Yeah, the operations like we spoke about. Yeah. But at least you have a solid foundation on supply and demand.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

100%.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

100%.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

I completely agree with you. You know, the government, you know, at the local uh well, at the state level, has uh, you know, Medicaid gets funded by the federal government, but then the states control it and they've created the long-term care programs, right? And they they had to start doing that so the middle market can afford these places to stay and afloat. But the question I have for you is do you see a world where the federal government starts building these things because they're out of a crisis or starts really funding these things with SBA loans? Like what do you see this? Because it's gonna become a crisis because people have to work these days, they can't sit back home and take care of mom and dad or grandpa or grandma. So this is gonna become a crisis. It's not today, but it's coming, it's on the horizon. So what what happens? What reactionary step does the government take to alleviate this? People understand with healthcare, right? It healthcare is the backbone of the economy. People don't understand that. More so now than ever. More so now than ever. So what do you how do you how do you see this crisis going to be managed by uh the federal government?

SPEAKER_01 28:33

It it it's gonna be a mess. Um, they I I don't know if this is the right move or not for them, but they have to incentivize new development, they have to incentivize conversions. Maybe the hotel industry is slowing down, convert motels, hotels. Multifamily might be a little bit tough to convert, but you have to incentivize these developers to build or convert. And they're not gonna spend right now on new constructions like cost $300,000 per unit for a new development, new build. Developers are not gonna spend that when they can purchase it for $100, $150,000. Yeah, the replacement cost is out of out of control. It doesn't make sense right now. The only way they will develop it was with incentive from the government. Correct. I'm not giving them incentive, I don't have the cash to fund their projects. So yeah, the government has to play around with the rules, play around with the incentivization. It's inevitable that we need more space for seniors. We can't leave the seniors on the street. Sure. Like you said, son and daughter have to work, or or they can't take mom and dad at home. Like back in our generation, you're from Cuba, I have the Italian background. We took grandma, grandpa in our house. We took elderly mom and dad in our house, and we cared for them as long as we can. Like I have a 93-year-old grandma that's still on her own, widowed, still on her own in her house. Fortunate for her. But if she can't do that any longer, I can't take her in my house. My mom can't take her in her house because you can't really give the care that she's needed. So yeah, that there's gonna be a huge problem in a handful of years.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

Oh, yeah, it's it's it'll be here quicker than we know, and then you know, everything the government does is reactionary, and that worries me. And uh, I think that you have to incentivize the builders, the operators to build these things, right? But what I don't want to see is them just come in and complete uh just them taking over completely of the space because then they're gonna ruin it. Sure, they don't have the operational background, they're gonna ruin it. That's what I fear a little bit because they're gonna react and but yeah, uh the crisis is coming, right? Maybe we should start a commission. Who knows? Let's do it, man. Maybe go somewhere Congress.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Why aren't they talking about it now at that level? Like we touched on the private equity firms, they're they're starting to circle around smaller sized communities. They're understanding there's money to be made. You made a point before, there's they don't know nothing about care level and operations. That's gonna be a whole new opportunity for us, right? But if they're circling around, why isn't the government talking about it? Right, right. They're not talking about it openly that that I hear about. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

No, they don't. They're not gonna correct it in one or two years. Well, I mean, there's so many things going on in the country right now. Sure. So I think this is at the bottom of the of the issues that are going on right now, and they're not really bringing, but but this is gonna, this is the bubble that's gonna burst, and it's gonna be a problem, a huge, huge problem. People don't realize it. Uh, it's gonna put a huge strain not only in assisted living, but the whole entire healthcare uh uh uh healthcare system is going to face some real challenges. Doctors, uh, people are not going to school anymore to become doctors. Uh nurses are uh are becoming ARMPs because they want to make more money, so you don't have a lot of nurses in the like it's just it's a trickle-down effect, and you're starting to feel the impacts now. What I worry about is what it this is gonna look like in 2030. Yeah, and and people are living longer.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Yeah, with medication with whatever's out there right now. People can live longer. Sure. Like, I don't know the exact uh uh average lifespan, but it's not what it was five, ten years ago. It's like 72 or 73. So you don't think that's gonna expand 100% in five, 10 years? Yeah, it's gonna be. People are gonna live longer, whether they're healthy or not, they're gonna be a physical human being on Earth for a longer time.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Yeah, it put the strain on the uh economy. Yeah, absolutely. What's this look like going forward? Uh are you still in acquisition mode? Like what's your your your vision for your your organization here in the next couple years?

SPEAKER_01 32:47

Yeah, so we we own and operate five communities in the Central Florida area. Uh it's a band from Sarasota to Orlando, and it's a very tight band that our communities are in. And that's done strategically uh with a reason. Our expansion, we are in acquisition mode. We're scheduled to acquire three to five new communities this year and next year, but strategic. So we have that band in Central Florida. We might buy one a little bit north, one a little bit south, one a little bit east, but the dots have to be connected to make it economically make sense for our operations team. You can I I'm not a believer that I have one in Texas, one in California, one in New York. All you're doing is spinning your head around. Yep. So if it's concentrated operations and econom economies of scale, and then now you build on that reputation. So it's like that Dunkin' Donuts thing. Now you're on every corner essentially. So if you have four, five, eight, ten, twelve communities in this large race. Makes a lot of sense, yeah. To me, it's like now you're it's marketing on its own. And then now people will have that brand recognition. Yeah, you yeah, you create the brand awareness, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that's our strategy. We're in acquisition mode, we're expanding across Central Florida, a little bit north, a little bit south, but nothing too too dramatic in distance. Uh, and then I we we really, really like that west coast from call it Naples all the way to Sarasota. Region eight. Yeah, even even north of Sarasota, it's huge expansion.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

No, I love the Naples Fort Myers. We have a branch there, we serve uh over 200 patients in that area. Um, it was a challenge though, let me tell you. Everything is yeah, it took us five years to get established there because people like what you're talking about, they were connected to the people that were there, established brands, and here come the new kids on the block from Miami. You know, of course, we come with a lot of uh false pretenses or whatever you want to think about us, but uh we had to prove ourselves in the market and we had to gain that trust, and now it's going phenomenal. But it's such a such a great market uh because of of of of the demographic there, right? You walk into a public s and you see a lot of seniors, and um it's just a great overall market. So yeah, I agree with you there. Uh where where can people find your your communities?

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Yeah, so online maravitaseniorliving.com uh has a list of the communities, what we offer, what we uh strive for, what the mission statement is. Uh check out maravitaseniorliving.com.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Amazing, man. Well, thank you for for coming on and sharing everything you got going on and sharing your story, which is a pretty cool story. I didn't know the in depth uh part of your story, so that's pretty cool. And uh we got to do it again, man. Thanks, Roberto. Yeah, nah, thanks, Andy. Appreciate it, appreciate it, man. Thanks. Thanks. Yep, catch you guys on the next one.