A Dive Into Setting Up an Assisted Living Side Hustle

Denis O'Brien [0:15]

Hey Money Clan! A very warm welcome to the Chain of Wealth Podcast. I'm your host, Denis O'Brien. 

Katie Welsh [0:20]

And I'm Katie Welsh. 

Denis O'Brien [0:21]

So Katie, really cool. We got to catch up with Emmanuel. We actually had his father on the show a long time ago. Yeah, Chain of Wealth has become a whole family thing now. 

It really has. And he's followed in the footsteps of his father and he's already dug deep into assisted living, and he helps people set up businesses. So if you're looking for a stream of income, this is a great idea for you. 

Katie Welsh [0:46]

So back when we talked to Gene about assisted living, it was more questions about really what it was for me. And now with getting to talk to Manny is really seeing where an entrepreneur could benefit. 

Denis O'Brien [1:01]

Exactly. I had the same takeaway and and I think that there really is a lot that you can learn and it doesn't make a lot of sense if you think about it. Well, before we dive into our interview, if you guys haven't already, don't forget to join our Facebook community. You can head on over to chainofwealth.com/group. We'd love if you joined our awesome community and come and say hi. Alright, Kate, are you ready to dive in? 

Katie Welsh [1:24]

Yeah!

Denis O'Brien [1:25]

Fantastic, let's do it.

Our guest today is Emmanuel Guarino, who is considered the number one realtor for residential assisted living in Arizona. Emmanuel trains entrepreneurs and investors at the Real Estate Aassisted Living Academy and has experienced as a sought after coach and trainer for all things RAL he specializes in helping others take advantage of this mega trend opportunity.

Emmanuel Guarino [2:06]

Hey, how you doing, guys? 

Katie Welsh [2:07]

Good, thanks. So before we start off for somebody who doesn't know what is assisted living? 

Emmanuel Guarino [2:15]

Well, that's a great question. So what residential assisted living is, is, you know, we're all familiar with nursing homes, right? So the idea of a large building, where there's, you know, many seniors who are living there who need help in one way or another, what we do is instead of doing it in a large facility that can be, you know, maybe not so well suited for someone who's in their 80s or 90s. To be getting around. We do a nursing home in a residential setting. So what that looks like is you know, instead of it being 100 unit building, it might be a home with 10 elderly residents in it, and it might be a home where, you know, they're being helped with their activities of daily living, so cooking, cleaning, getting up and out of bed.

So naturally what we focus on at the residential assisted living Academy is showing people exactly how to do that. 

Denis O'Brien [3:07]

Right? So it's kind of taking the idea of that massive institution almost that does a whole bunch of people, but it's making it a bit more niche and sort of targeting people that, you know, want to live in a smaller place and have more sort of hands on care?

Emmanuel Guarino [3:22]

Yes, exactly. So you know, just like how you know, a hotel and an Airbnb serve the same purpose. But you know, an Airbnb sometimes can be a little bit more cozy, right? It can be a little bit more comfortable when you're going on that vacation. Same thing with us, you know, with our homes, there might be a caregiver to resident ratio of, you know, 1-5, 1-6, at a larger facility, it might be 1- 10, 1-20. So we're able to provide better care, you know, more one on one time with the residents and different things like that. 

Katie Welsh [3:56]

Interesting. So I'm just curious to know does the facility looked like a home like on the outside, does it look like a house in the neighborhood or is that? What does that look like? 

Emmanuel Guarino [4:06]

Yeah, it looks like a home that you driven by 100 times and you would have never known that it's there. And really, that's the whole idea is we want it to look like a home, right a place where you feel comfortable living, because the idea of, you know, someone is, let's say 85/90 years old, and they say, I need to move into an assisted living with you know, 100 strangers and it's a big building that may not be the most comfortable fit the most natural fit versus moving into a home with maybe 5 or 10 other residents and you know, be more of a home like setting so our homes are in completely normal residential neighborhoods, not in a commercial areas or things like that. So that really has that great home feeling to it. 

Katie Welsh [4:51]

So it's kind of just like, I don't want to be like completely blunt but basically like a bunch of old people who are roomy?

Emmanuel Guarino [4:59]

Yeah. You know, exactly, you know, you might have, you know, five or 10 or 15, you know, residents living in that home and you might have, you know, two or three caregivers taking care of them. So it's nice because they have that chance to be around other people. But you know, for someone who's maybe not incredibly outgoing, or incredibly social, instead of being around hundreds of people, you can be around a few roommates. And that's usually a lot better for people who are at that stage of life. 

Katie Welsh [5:30]

That's really interesting. So how did you get into this sort of business? 

Emmanuel Guarino [5:35]

Oh, that's a great question. So when my father, Gene, you know, the founder of the Academy, when he first started doing this, you know, we all looked at him like he had about, 12 eyes on his head, you know, we were like, what are you doing, right? You got the seniors and these houses, we did not get it. And my father, you know, I he was telling me, you know, invest in real estate and he was telling me about assisted living and, you know, as most kids do, I said, yeah, yeah, Dad, you know that that's, you know, not for me or this or that. But one day he handed me the purple book, right? And I'm sure your listeners know, the purple book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, right. And I read that book and what felt to be like 20 minutes, right. I just went through it and it was awesome. And, you know, a couple weeks later, I was at a real estate event. My dad, he dragged me along, and I saw Robert Kiyosaki and I said, Oh, my goodness, that's Robert Kiyosaki. And he walked up to my father, and he said, hey, you're the assisted living guy. I got some questions for you. And I just had to take a second. I was like, hold on, hold on, you know, Robert Kiyosaki, you're my hero, and you're talking to my dad, and that would make my dad my hero. 

Katie Welsh [6:51]

Suddenly, your dad is so cool.

Emmanuel Guarino [6:52]

Yeah. And that's when it all clicked for me. And you know, after that moment, you know, I said, you know, Dad - what can I do to help? And he said, you know, we got a lot of students that we teach on how to do this. They need homes, go find them some homes. And so I just went out there, I started knocking on doors, calling, you know, homeowners and just trying to find the right opportunities for those students. And that's how I really got started in this industry from that standpoint.

Denis O'Brien [7:20]

Yeah. And we did have show dad on the show a long time ago, he was actually Episode 49. And this is going to be episode 180. So it just goes to show how long ago there was. So just chatting about assisted living, you know, like, obviously, a lot of the baby boomers are starting to age. So like, how much of a crisis/opportunity, is there really in this kind of a business and, like how many people really need these kind of services? 

Emmanuel Guarino [7:50]

Yeah, that's a great question. And you know, right now, there are 10,000 people a day, turning 65 years old. Every single day -10,000 people. And you know, in our country, we have 77 million baby boomers in the US, they control our economy, they're a huge part of our day to day lives. And you know, one of the big things is, you know, someone who's 65, they might be moving into independent living, which is before assisted living, right? It's kind of like a community where it's kind of like a very serious HOA, they help out with a lot of things and might have a main Community Center, but it's not quite assisted living, which is what we're doing. You know, right now, there's 85, or there is 4000 people today who are turning 85 years old, and someone who's 85 is more likely to be moving into one of our homes. But you talked about the crisis, the opportunity, right? It all depends on if you're prepared. You know, right now, there is about roughly about 1.4 million beds in the US for assisted living. And right now if you take that number 4000 times by 30 times out by 12, you get about 1.4 million people turning 85 every year. So when you talk about the crisis, the opportunity, that's not even that wave hitting the shore of 10,000 people a day turning 65 years old. So when we talk about the best investment for the next 10/20 years, this is it. Right? Because the demographics are there, there are so many people who need this. And we're just at the beginning of it. So it's awesome. 

Denis O'Brien [9:29]

So speaking about your business, I've noticed that your motto is do good and do well. And I'm just really curious, what exactly does that mean? Where does it come from? And how do you guys try to sort of help people? 

Emmanuel Guarino [9:42]

Yeah, you know, our motto do good and do well, what that really means is, if you help enough people, you can definitely help yourself, you know, financially, right? And so I think my father has just been such a great example of that in his entire life, the way that he's lived, right, and he helped so many people get to that financial freedom point, help them out in times where they really needed someone. And he's been able to do very, very well financially as well. So really, that's what we're all about. And you know, one of the big things and, you know, I don't know if any of your listeners have ever put someone into one of these homes, right, a larger nursing facility or things like that, you know, it's scary, you know, it's a time where you're going, I have to trust someone else taking care of my mom or my dad. And so what we get to do right at the Residential Assisted Living Academy, helping so many people have a place where they can put their money they can put their dad and feel comfortable and feel safe and feel grateful that we're helping them in that time where they really need someone looking out for them. So it's a awesome business because we get to help a lot of people and you can also make a whole lot of money too. And that's what I really enjoy about it is, you know, some jobs and things out there. Maybe they make money but are we really helping someone. So that's a really cool thing about this is you get to do both help a lot of people and you can make money at the same time. 

Katie Welsh [11:09]

I like how, depending on which perspective you're looking at whether you're wanting to open a business like this for yourself, or you're on the flip side and thinking about putting a family member in a facility like this. I have a couple of questions on the latter because my mom is a baby boomer. And I like the idea that my mom would be living with a bunch of other ladies and they can have tea and play cards and do what old ladies do. 

Denis O'Brien [11:38]

Don't forget about bridge.

Katie Welsh [11:41]

But I want to know, how much does it typically cost to stay in this kind of home. And also is it different based on location is like for example, Florida. I mean, it could either go cheaper or more expensive depending on how you're looking at it versus like somewhere else in the country. 

Emmanuel Guarino [12:01]

Yeah. So the national average to be in an assisted living home in a private room in the US, the national average is $4,000 a month to be in an assisted living home. Now, I say that number $4,000 a month and sometimes people say, well, Manny, that's a lot of money, you know, $4,000. Well, when we break it down, and we think about what that covers, that's covering everything that's covering food that's covering care that's covering all their bills, the housing that's covering everything, you know, one time, my wife and I were actually walking through one of the homes and, you know, $4,000 It sounds like a lot, but we were like, Hey, wait a minute, it might actually make more sense for us to move into this home. We get our meals prepared for us, we get someone taking care of our laundry. This can actually make a whole lot of sense. it's kind of funny, but, you know, in the US, you know, the national average is 4000. There are people who pay much higher than that, right? That's the average. So when we talk about cities, like let's say somewhere like a Seattle, right, a very hot market, a very nice place to live, if you want to live in assisted living in a very hot area in a nice place, things like that, you know, it might be 7,8,9- $10,000 a month, a month to live into one of these homes. So when we talk about investing, right, sometimes people say, well, I, I live in San Diego or I live in, you know, one of these places where it's very expensive to live. And it's hard for me to make sense of my investments. This is one of those things where we're looking in nicer areas because people pay more to be in those areas. So it can actually be a great bonus from that standpoint. But yes, depending on where you are in the country, you know, the national average is 4000. There's areas that are less than that there are areas that are much more than that. I know in New Jersey, I believe one of their I believe there's state averages right around $6,000 a month in New Jersey.

So a great website is actually called www.genworth.com. And if you type in forward slash cost of care, this organization, they send out surveys to all the assisted livings across the country. And they get back about 18,000 surveys. And they actually give out that information of how much it costs to live in an assisted living home in those areas. And so that's where we get that information from. So that's a great resource. If you're looking into that. If you have a family member, and you're looking to start getting together those costs, that's a great place to start. 

Denis O'Brien [14:41]

So at your academy, what do you guys essentially teach people do you sort of train people how to start and operate these businesses? Are people sort of involved in the day to day or do you sort of Teach outsourcing stuff like what exactly does that entail? 

Emmanuel Guarino [14:56]

So my father and I the way that we do our homes is we're very hands off. So we're not personally in the homes taking care of the residents. Within a residential assisted living home, you'll have caregivers who are taking care of the residents, you'll have a manager who's overseeing the caregivers who's overseeing the residents. And then you'll have an operator above them, right. And that for our situation is us. We're above the manager, we're above the caregivers. So they're taking care of a lot of the day to day and we're focused more on working on the business, not in the business. And that's the way that we teach on how to do this. And that's the way that we run them ourselves. So at the Academy, we teach people exactly how to do that. So the marketing, the staffing, the licensing, we do a live bus tour of all of our homes, so you get to walk through them, meet the staff, meet the residents. We go over all the numbers, the financials, the expenses, and then we also have a lot of fun after hours after the class and getting to meet the students talk with them go over all their questions. So really, it's an A to Z guide on how to run one of these homes, and how to run it on a high level and very successfully. 

Katie Welsh [16:11]

So if I were interested in joining your Academy, where can I find more information out about it? 

Emmanuel Guarino [16:18]

A great place to start is actually the website, RAL101.com. So if you type in RAL 101 dot com, that's going to take you to a page where we have videos for you, we have a free book for you on the topic, that's a great place to get started. And on that page, you can actually schedule a discovery call with one of our associates and they'll talk to you and go over your questions and help you find out if this is the right opportunity for you. And we encourage you to reach out, you know, look at all those videos, give us a call, and we'd love to talk to you. 

Denis O'Brien [16:53]

So how much does it cost more or less to sort of go through the course. 

Emmanuel Guarino [16:57]

So our live training, we actually have it on discount right now it's usually $5,000 to attend right now it's $2,997. We got a great partner program for the live training. It's only $1,000. To bring a partner, we go by the BBB rule their blood bed or bank account. That's what we consider a partner. So if you're sharing a bloodline, you're sharing a bank account or a bedroom, we consider that a partner so you can bring a partner or spouse at $1,000. And then we have an online home study course that was also on sale right now. It's usually $1,500 thousand right now is on sale for $997. 

Denis O'Brien [17:37]

Great, thanks, Manny. Money Clan, we're just going to take a quick break and then we'll dive right back into the Value Link Round.

Kate, one of the things that I really appreciate is education. And I really believe that one of the best investments we can make is in ourselves. It's absolutely critical that we keep learning and develop our skills. And ever since I started using the Great Courses Plus I've found that I'm really accelerating my learning by getting tailored content. 

Katie Welsh [18:04]

Yeah, Den and I have taken a recent interest with all of our podcasts on money management skills and the Great Courses Plus has an excellent course on money management skills where they talk all about how to build a financial plan and how to achieve your goals and really stay on track. It has definitely helped me narrow down and really set focus. 

Denis O'Brien [18:30]

Yeah, and the Great Courses classes recently teamed up with Chain of Wealth to bring you a special offer. You can get a full month of access, if you head over to TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/wealth. That's the TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/wealth. This is really an epic streaming service. They've got over 11,000 videos, so definitely grab your free trial.

Katie Welsh [18:56]

All right, Manny. So I'm curious to know what your retirement plan is looking like these days? 

Emmanuel Guarino [19:02]

Oh, that's a great question. So one of the really cool things about assisted living. And you know, my father talks about this all the time is when people are looking to move into an assisted living, right? When they move their mom or they move their dad and they say, Wow, this costs a lot of money. But then they have to ask themselves the question, well, what's my plan? And so what's nice about assisted livings is even if you do just one, when it comes time to move into an assisted living, you can move right into your own assisted living, and you could be paid to live in your own assisted living. And I think that is the best way to do it, quite honestly. Because, hey, we're all going to be involved in this business one way or another. We're either going to put someone in one of these homes, you're going to own one of these homes or we're going to go into these homes one day, hopefully not soon, but eventually we're all going to get involved and you know the best story about that I can give you there was a gentleman in Phoenix, Arizona, his name was Walt and he was a older gentleman. He was so nice. He ran one of the best care homes in all of Arizona. And I would go by every once in a while to, you know, visit and say hello to him, and he would always be at the care home. But I would ask him, I said, you know, Walt, how much do you work on the business? And he said, Well, about an hour a day. I said, Okay, you know, that's pretty cool. But every time I go over there to visit them, whether it's in the morning or the mid day or the afternoon, he'd be there. He'd be eating breakfast, he'd be eating lunch, she'd be eating dinner. And then at nighttime, he lived in the house right next door, he just walked back home and go sleep there. Now. You know, he passed away. But before he passed away, he even had a Tesla that he bought with cash that could he had a self driving car. So he had his own care home right there to feed them breakfast, lunch and dinner, take care of them. He had a self driving car and I think that's probably the coolest way to go out and retire and things like that. And he was such a great guy. Were you know, very sad that he went. But I think if you're looking for a good retirement plan, tell me something that can beat that. I mean, am I right? 

Katie Welsh [21:06]

Your story reminded me of I've always admired the families where they live in a big house, and both grandparents on both sides are living there. And then, you know, you have your parents and maybe an aunt or an uncle, and then all the kids are there, you know, there's kind of living situations that aren't super common anymore. But I've always thought they've been quite nice to think about. It's that kind of lifestyle, but you're just putting it like 10 times that. 

Emmanuel Guarino [21:35]

Right. Exactly. 

Katie Welsh [21:37]

That's really investing in your future. And then, like, with Walt, he knew everybody there, and it wasn't such a scary transition for him. It probably felt much more natural than that. 

Emmanuel Guarino [21:50]

Oh, yeah. And he got to choose which residents he wanted to let move in and things like that. So that even on top of it, I mean of all things so it's a really cool, cool way to go out for sure. 

Denis O'Brien [22:02]

So do you have a favorite book that you're currently into? 

Emmanuel Guarino [22:05]

Oh, I do. I, I've been really listening to How to Win Friends and Influence People. And every time I listened to that book, you know, and I'm sure a lot of your listeners have read that and you guys have as well. It's such common sense. But common sense isn't always that common, right? And sometimes listening that book, it's like, oh, my goodness, that is so important. That is such a great nugget. And that's what I've been listening to personally.

Katie Welsh [22:33]

And what about a favorite quote, you try to live by?

Emmanuel Guarino [22:35]

Ohh, work hard, play hard, that I would have to be it. That is definitely how my father he I think he really exemplifies that as well as do good and do well. But you know, just growing up seeing him. You know, he was such a hard worker, and he always put his heart and soul into everything that he did. But when it was time to relax, when it was time to hang out and play, he went all out with that too. And I think that's the only way to live life.

Denis O'Brien [23:01]

Manny we've absolutely loved hanging out do you have any last parting piece of advice for our listeners and then we'll say goodbye.

Emmanuel Guarino [23:07]

Yeah well you know if you're interested you know give us a call come check out our website RAL101.com love to get you more information so you can learn about this. And again, you know, you look at the demographics, there's a lot of people who need this so the time is right now. So come on by and let us know how we can help.

Denis O'Brien [23:26]

Money Clan, we've been hanging out with Emmanuel Guarino you can check out his website it is RAL101.com and definitely check it out and figure out if it's something that you're interested in. This is definitely a great way to make money on the side.

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