Land Development for the Boomer Generation

Mike: Welcome back to the flipnerd.com REI Classroom where experts from across the real estate investing industry teach you quick lessons to take your business to the next level. And now, let’s meet today’s expert host.
Gene: Hey, it’s Gene Guarino, I’m the founder of the Residential Assisted Living Academy, and today I’m your host for FlipNerd. What we’re going to talking about in the REI classroom today is we’re going to be talking about land development and how to use that for the boomer generation.
Mike: This REI Classroom real estate lesson is sponsored by theinvestormachine.com, FlipNerd’s private investor coaching program and your blueprint to investing success.
Gene: A lot of you may be sitting on land. Maybe it’s 10 acres, 20 acres, and you’re not sure what to do with it, or you’ve seen plots of land. And you’re scratching your head saying, “What can I do with this?” Well, you know what, when it comes to the boomer generation, there are a lot of people out there that need a place to live, but they’re not looking for a McMansion.
I mean 10, 15 years ago that was a great play, today not so much. Some of you have gone into apartments, and that is a great play, but [inaudible 00:01:10] because seniors, baby boomers they don’t need as much space anymore. Maybe two bedrooms is all they need. They don’t need a two car garage, maybe just one. Maybe they don’t need three bathrooms, maybe not even two.
So when you really think about it, if you were to take that same plot of land and instead of building McMansions with big huge yards, which means a lot of maintenance. A lot of water consumption, a lot of upkeep on the property and a lot of empty rooms that aren’t being used for anything, and really just change your thought process as into, “Well, maybe we can develop this land so that it’s used for seniors.”
So what would that look like? When you really think about the boomer generation, frankly I haven’t lived in a two story property in over a decade now. In Arizona where I live there’s a lot of one story properties. But an older person, and not that I’m getting that old, I mean I’m a little bit older than a lot of you right now. But the point is when you do get older, because I do residential assisted living, and those elderly folks they haven’t climbed a staircase since 64. Now that’s a joke, you know what I’m saying. But the point is those stairs themselves can become an issue.
So for somebody who is older and baby boomers on the front edge they’re in their 70s right now, they don’t want to have stairs in their homes, so, a one story home. When it comes to space, hey if you’ve got the space, people will fill it. That’s why storage units are off the chart in opportunities. They keep building it, people fill it. They build it, people fill it. They pay every single month to keep their crap.
We’re not talking about that. If they’ve got two bedrooms, it’s one for them to stay in. Maybe one is a sewing room, the train room or a guest room, something like that. So what do they really need? A kitchen, a family room, a bedroom, a bathroom, everything else after that is kind of extra. One car garage because more than likely they’re down to one car. If there’s a second car depending on where you live in the country, it could be outside in a carport or in the driveway. Of course, if you’re in the northeast and there’s weather involved you do need the two car garage.
But the reality is, that extra space is just space, and it gets filled with stuff. Seniors are downsizing, so a smaller home, that smaller footprint instead of a 2,000, 3,000 square foot home that cost a lot more money, maybe it’s a 1,000 square foot home with a one car garage. Maybe it’s that townhome concept where the two homes are next to each other and in addition to that, that one car garage they’re connected together so each unit has a one car garage, but the one story model.
So if you take that same acreage of land and did that with that model in mind, where you could actually build them as you go along. Now, here’s the little secret, today the marketing campaign, they call that independent living. They call those senior communities. They put up a sign and say, “Hey you have to be 55 to live here.” So those people now commune together.
Now, that doesn’t mean it’s a commune, they grow their carrots together and share together. What it means is only people who are 55, so there’s not going to be little kids running around on the street. So you don’t have the same kind of need for those kinds of amenities. It’s a little different, the park is going to have a bench and a fountain but it may not have the jungle gym and the monkey bars, may not have a big swing set. All those kind of things, but the single family home in a smaller setting, single level, and senior friendly inside. So not a lot of elevation changes, the idea of a sunken family room is just a trip hazard.
The idea of a narrow doorway doesn’t work if somebody has a walker or a wheelchair. So wide door, smooth floors, grab bars already standard inside your bathrooms, your showers and toilet areas. So senior-friendly homes in a smaller footprint, one car garage, two bedrooms that type of thing.
Now here’s the kicker, here’s the real big money maker. Inside that community that you developed, your 10, 20 acres, put just one, for now, assisted living facility. Maybe it’s a 10-bed or 16-bed facility that looks like a home, but it’s actually a group home for the elderly. If you want to know what residential assisted living is all about, listen to all of the other sections I’ve done here in FlipNerd where I’ve taught you all about residential assisted living or call me directly, and I’ll teach you and tell you a whole lot more about how that’s done.
It’s an awesome opportunity but the baby boomers are here, and the needs are changing. If you want to go to where the puck is going it’s the baby boomers and their housing needs. This is Gene from the Residential Assisted Living Academy for FlipNerd saying, do good and do well. We’ll see you next time.
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