That Time We Talked About Assisted Living

This is episode number 38 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so excited that you guys could be with us today because we have a great episode for all of you homeowners, Homeowners, dream homeowners, whoever you are, we've got an episode for you.

Ex-homeowners.

Ex-homeowners, you've been kicked out. We can get you back in.

We'll fix you up.

How you doing, Kev?

Man, I'm doing good. I'm excited. I know this is going to come out a little bit later, but this weekend's Memorial Day and we're going to go on a little vacation.

A little vacay?

Yeah, pretty excited about that. Glad to have a little bit of a heads up from Unlocking the Magic people on how to leave my home so I can go on vacation. That way you don't screw it up.

It's all squared away. Yeah. So, yep. Well, listen guys, if you have not yet, go ahead and hit the subscribe button there on iTunes, Stitcher, Google, whatever else you're using.

So that's like the hardest part for the entire show for you is remembering.

I can't remember all the platforms. If wherever you find podcasts, there you go, we'll be there.

There you go.

You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and as always always at homeownershow.com.

Yeah, and YouTube.

And YouTube.

But you got to be careful when Kevin gets his act together. Yeah, it's gonna be a while. Hey, how you doing, man?

I'm doing good. Yeah, no, it's been a, it's been a good, it's been a busy day.

Yeah.

So I actually, I gave you kind of a side shout out on another podcast this morning. Really? Yeah.

So you were on a podcast?

I was on another podcast. I was cheating on this podcast and went on another one.

How dare you?

Yeah, it was weird, man, because I was being interviewed. And I kept wanting to ask them questions. I thought they were being rude.

Yeah, you're sitting on the other side of the table.

So no, it was fun, but they were asking me where our, uh, where our podcast is available. And I told them, you know, the ones that I knew of, and then I specifically wasn't going to mention the one that you use. Oh, mostly out of spite.

But you did.

I didn't. Oh no, I mentioned you by name and that you used a terrible platform, but I wasn't going to mention it.

Okay. So All right.

But dude, we had the, we had the craziest thing happen this week, uh, in, in our business. And which, by the way, I mean, like, I know everyone out there listening, we don't, we don't talk about my business a whole lot because that's not what this podcast is about, but you've probably heard it mentioned several times that we do pest control. Um, and, uh, that's that. So if you want to hear more about that, you can actually go over to the Shrimp Tank podcast and, and hear all about my business over there. But this week in my business, uh, we got a call from an English gentleman with having an issue with marsupials in his pantry.

Ouch.

Yeah. But the interesting thing was the whole reason he called us is one of my guys went over there to take care of it and he was kind of looking around the house and he came back to the office and he goes, do you know that dude was a knight? And we're like, what?

A knight?

And so we actually talked to him on the phone and we're like, you know, sir so-and-so, it's really nice to meet you. And he goes, yeah, the whole reason I called you guys is because your name's Excalibur.

Oh my goodness. Was he Lancelot?

I don't know.

That's amazing.

I know.

Did he have a round table? Like, I'm so intrigued right now.

We have a very specific market.

Does he know the Lady of the Lake? To what all? Okay.

Expatriate knights living in the United States.

Wow. Yeah.

So that was the whole reason— sorry. That was the whole reason he even liked our business was because it was like, hey, that's the sword right there.

Boom. That's all it takes.

It works for somebody.

Hey, marketing is always going to hit somebody. The goal is to hit everybody, right? Right. But you, at least you hit somebody, right?

So, so anyway, we, we have a really cool episode for you guys this week. We have my new friend Sean, uh, in here to talk about his new business opening here in our community. Um, Sean, how you doing, man?

I'm doing well.

Thanks.

Thanks for having me.

It's really good to have you in the studio.

Thank you.

Yeah. So why don't you— just to kick it off, you've got a new business opening here in our city, and this isn't your first one. This isn't your first rodeo.

First time in Conroe.

First time in Conroe. So give folks a little bit of background. Let them know where you're coming from and how you got here.

Yeah, so it's a little unique. My wife and I, Marissa, she and I took an old Conroe single-family estate home and we converted it to a licensed assisted living and memory care facility. So, yeah, we're in the senior living business. We're not just owners, we're operators. We're hands-on with our residents. We're excited to bring this to Conrev.

That's interesting. So, you bought a house? This isn't like a medical facility?

No. In fact, it's incredibly important that we don't feel like a facility. Going into this, It was really important that, you know, a couple of things. We wanted it to feel like home.

Yeah.

And, you know, we wanted to put together an assisted living facility in a residential atmosphere that, you know, the type of place I'd want to put my parents.

Yeah.

And so, that's kind of how the idea came into place. We got into this through our own experiences looking for a place for, you know, a family member. And yeah, it's been quite the ride.

Yeah. Wow.

Cool.

And I mean, like, you were showing me a picture of this place. I mean, it's not a tiny house. I mean, like—

No, no. It was already a big house to begin with. It's very unique, but it's in the heart of Conroe. It's, you know, on 1 Briarwood Drive.

Okay.

But it's a quiet little street. And of course, the home was completely outdated. It was built in the '60s, blue carpet, you know, but it was— I mean, it's large, but it's beautiful. It's on a beautiful property. And the rule in real estate, don't fall in love with the house. We did. And we paid for that. But there was just something about it that, I mean, it was very unique, very special. And we said, we got to do this.

Yeah.

So you're transitioning this property into assisted living and memory care. And I do want to kind of come back, circle back at one point to kind of talk about what's the difference between that. What have been some of the biggest challenges in creating that environment? I imagine that's difficult to have your feet in both those pools, to have it be an assisted living care but also make it feel like home and having to redo the whole house.

Yeah. It's not easy to take an old house and just convert it. We took the entire home down to the studs. That was a big job. The The city of Conroe is, uh, I think they've, they've had a bad taste in their mouths for unlicensed care homes, you know, in the community. So it took an open mind, you know, when we approached them and said, hey, you know, we, we found this home. They, the, you know, there were some really strict building codes that we, that we had to follow and we did. Um, I mean, ultimately we, we put in a fire lane and, and we've got, you know, striped parking places and, uh, you know, so there's a lot of commercial construction aspects. that went on with the project. But, you know, in

regards to the home itself, we didn't change much of the floor plan. We didn't, you know, we didn't change the footprint of the home. So you're driving past it, it looks like, you know, mom or dad's house. Yeah.

So I mean, it'll kind of have that feel when, you know, people come to visit.

Absolutely. Yeah, exactly. I mean, a big circle drive in the front, beautiful lawn that's finally— the grass is finally starting to grow after we got some new sod in. Got our landscaping. And yeah, so we're just, we're really excited to get it open. It's next month will be 2 years since we, of course, we had Hurricane Harvey. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that hit not too long after we got started on it. And the house, you know, sat empty. And it was a good time, though. I mean, it's a learning process. But, you know, we're, as I said, we're excited to get it open and bring it to the, to the residents of Montgomery County and Conroe.

Yeah. Well, I guess it's better to have it go through a hurricane without any residents in it to kind of see how the property responds.

Correct.

Yeah.

Well, it sounds like you've got plenty of stuff to talk about renovating a home.

Yeah, dude, we could do a whole other podcast on that episode.

Deal!

Yes.

Yeah. Well, cool. Well, tell us, I mean, I don't know much about the assisted living community, those sorts of things. So, you know, you were telling us A little bit just a minute ago that you were looking for a place, um, in your own family. And what drove you to do something like this? Because I assume that if you found the place you were looking for, that you would go, okay, well, someone else is doing that really well and just let them do it. So there's something different about what your approach is other than just, um, you know, a residential style, like a home style field. Now that could be part of it, but I get the sense that there may be more to it.

Yeah, there is more to it. I think that our approach with Seasons, just as an operator, is different. We're about fewer residents, more caregivers. If you go into what I refer to as a big-box facility, which they're being built all the time with these big campuses and the The facilities, the grounds are really pretty and these huge chandeliers. But as soon as you walk in the door, a lot of times, you can smell the neglect immediately once you get inside.

OK.

Mom or Dad or your loved one don't always thrive in that type of environment, being on the 3rd floor in an apartment somewhere. Not a lot of caregivers, but the ratio— there's so many people that there's not enough caregivers to cover all the residents in these bigger, larger facilities.

Right.

So we're about doing it in a smaller environment. We're held to the same licensing standards as these big facilities, but we want to be different by design. And the fact that we're doing it, we're staffed 24 hours a day and we're awake at night, but we get to know our residents on a little bit more personal, intimate basis. We get to I know their preferences and what their needs are and be a little bit more hands-on.

Yeah, that's, that's amazing. I, I mean, just, just from a, from a standpoint of, of trying to understand that business a little bit, that seems like that should be paramount wherever you're, wherever you're going. But I, I think we all, however much you know about this, we all know that This is an age of people that, if you neglect them, there's not a whole lot they can do about it.

Correct. Senior abuse and neglect, it's a real thing. It can be prominent in facilities, especially larger ones where maybe there's not a lot of accountability. Our whole approach to senior living is great food, great care, and Excellent communication and a lot of accountability. So we want to— and when you get into senior living and senior care, it's a team approach. And our staff, we're in the mix with the family constantly. We're in the mix with the residents, physicians, or maybe they're on home health or hospice. So we're working with them. And it takes a lot of good communication skills to be able to do so.

Yeah. Well, and a couple of things that you mentioned about other facilities, like— and I've been to some of these and you're absolutely right. When you walk in, you can kind of smell the neglect and see just how they operate. What is it that you think makes people make that decision and go that route? I mean, is it purely like a call— I mean, people are just crunching the numbers. Is that what's going on here?

Some of it is cost. That could be driving it. Depending on the facility, it could be a facility that accepts Medicaid, Medicare. That could be the only budget that— That they're operating within. Yeah, exactly, that they have to work with. I think cost drives a lot of those decisions. Oftentimes, too, though, The family, the kids, or whoever's related to them, or putting their loved one, sometimes they're making a decision based on where they live. I want mom or dad to be close to my house, but not in my house. So, I'm going to choose XYZ facility right down the road. Well, that may not be the best option for mom or dad.

Yeah.

Yeah, and, and I, I think that, uh, that, that's one of the things. I mean, my, my, um, my wife's grandmother, um, wound up, you know, needing to go into a facility herself. And, and there's a lot that goes into those facilities, um, and you wonder where any of that actually goes. Like, for example, um, I mean, and this is just, this is just part of that I understand, but like You know, the place that, that we wound up having to put her, you know, seized all of her, um, all of her assets basically.

Uh-huh.

And so, you know, here— this was a very generous lady. So at Christmas, um, everybody in our family got money and that no longer was an option because they had every single penny that she, that she owned and all these things. And so it's like all of a sudden, there's a, there's a lot of really stressful things that happen In all of this. And I, you know, I, I think that one of the things I like about what you're saying here is that sometimes, you know, you're pouring all of this money into a facility, and whenever you leave, you're just hoping that they get the care that they need and that, you know, you're spending money in a place that is actually not just

down the road, but a place that is taking care of your loved one.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's huge. You want to make sure that obviously it's ticking a lot of boxes, that it makes sense.

Sure.

To me, it's— and again, we're about being the best in the marketplace. We feel like, to be transparent about it, we feel like we can do senior living better than anybody in town. But it's because it starts from the top down. While we're a private pay facility and we don't We don't do Medicaid or Medicare. We want the best managers and the best staff. Everyone's highly screened, highly trained, and they're very hands-on with our residents.

Yeah.

They're not just there for a paycheck. So we're about really pouring back into our staff and to their education. I look at it like this. Your loved one or grandma or grandpa, they've spent their lives serving others. And now, this is kind of our opportunity and that's kind of what we felt like this was our calling. It's our opportunity to serve. And that was important to Marissa and I when going into this. I mean, it was key.

So let me ask you this question because I know that I've got another friend who actually has a degree in this type of care. And I know that there are people that are literally educated. You mentioned that just a moment, literally educated to care for people that are in assisted living homes. There's a lot that really goes into that. But as someone who eventually will get to this point in life where parents need a place to go, whether it's living with me or living somewhere else, what are some things that I should be looking for that would help me make a good decision toward that end?

When you're looking at other facilities?

Yeah, just in general. It gets to the point where, It's apparent that my loved one can no longer take care of themselves, or maybe the doctors are saying they can no longer take care of themselves, whether you realize it or not, and I have to get into the position where it's time to make that decision. What types of things should I be looking for in a facility?

To break it down, the type of facility depends on the needs of the resident. In the senior living space, you've got independent living, which is kind of like the Golden Girls model. They may still drive. You see a lot of these popping up, these 55 and older communities. It's 55 only and older. Yeah, exactly. But they may have a duplex, and they're driving and they're moving around a little bit. Then, you move on to assisted living. That's where they need help with the activities of daily living— the showering, the eating, the dressing, grooming, and maintenance care, all the activities to live, essentially.

Yeah.

And then, ultimately, sometimes if their needs increase, they have to go to a skilled nursing setting. But now, depending on the type of license that you have as an assisted living facility, a lot of times now, the nurses can come to you via home health or hospice as needs increase without the resident having to to leave and go to skilled nursing. But so just to kind of set the stage, so there's different levels, I guess, of senior living and what that looks like. As far as what to look for, I think the first thing is just how— I mean, what's the vibe?

Yeah.

What does it feel like?

What does it feel like? Does it feel clinical? hallways? Are there people that are just— I mean, obviously, in senior living, you're going to have people that wander, and we'll talk more about memory care here in a little bit. But what's the vibe? Does it feel clinical? Does it feel like a facility? What is the staff? How good is their communication? What are the smells? What does it smell like in there?

Yeah.

So that's a good good place to start. And then, who's running the show? What does the manager look like? Are they good at their jobs?

Are they available?

Being available, yeah. But good questions to ask are, what's your staffing ratios? I mean, how many caregivers to residents do you have on a normal day? What does it look like? What's your staffing pattern? What does it look like at nighttime?

Yeah.

You know, are they staying awake at night? Are they going and, you know, getting in the La-Z-Boy chair and reclining back? You know, but these are questions that you need to ask, right? And so those are good places to start.

Okay, great.

I mean, does proximity to like medical care and emergency services— I mean, I imagine those are pretty— I mean, Yeah.

So, yeah, they're important.

Right.

You know, we could have done, we could have done Seasons in Conroe. We could have done it out in the country somewhere. We could have done it out in the lake, you know.

Right.

We chose to be in the heart of the city. And we are close to other churches and, you know, medical facilities. But that was kind of the point, though, too, is, you know, we want to be close to your house. your office, uh, your church. So if you guys want to swing by Mom or Dad's house and, you know, grab, grab Mom or Dad on Sunday morning to go to church or go to lunch, and, you know, it's convenient. Um, so that was, that was intentional.

Yeah, absolutely.

Cool, man.

Well, so, so let's, let's kind of get into the, uh, the assisted living memory care thing. I mean, so you were kind of describing a little bit there, like, what assisted living looks like. So is Is memory care something that you add on to that or is that a whole separate thing?

Yeah. So it's an add-on. In assisted living, we're going to be licensed as a Type B facility, meaning that the residents would need assistance if they had to evacuate. Remember Type A, the Golden Girls? The state regulations state that they can get out Without any assistance. The Type B, because we'll have residences that are— several of them could potentially be non-ambulatory, in a wheelchair. And so they need assistance. Well, when you get into Alzheimer's and dementia, there is another component to that, which is memory care, specifically to be licensed, to have a license for Alzheimer's.

Okay.

And what's involved in that? More training for your staff. They've got to understand the disease better. The facility itself has to be set up. Every door, even though, again, it looks like home, it feels like home, the entire home, every door has a keypad, has a magnetic lock. So we've got access control. So for those loved ones that are wondering Or they can even go out into the backyard. But the entire premise is secure. We have cameras everywhere, which is good. Again, we talked about accountability.

Yeah.

Very important to me. I can see everything that's going on. Our staff can be in the kitchen area and look on a monitor and see down every hallway. But yeah, when you get into memory care, with dementia, and different stages of that and Alzheimer's, it's tricky. And it's one of the ugliest diseases that I've seen. And being in the business for a while, it tears families apart. But you've got to have some real technique and skill to work around people that have dementia or Alzheimer's. And some of that is aggressive behavior.

Hmm.

Or they just— a lot of confusion. So we customize their care more.

Yeah.

And we have to build activities around them. So it's not— excuse me— it's not general activities for the entire home or facility. It's much more customized. And we have to have an activities director on staff. So we do music and games and we're creating activities that will help the residents You know, help with their memory and help kind of navigate some of that.

Well, I think a lot of us use those 2 diagnoses, you know, in regular conversation. But like someone like me, like I use— I have no idea what the difference is between the 2. I mean, for an idiot like me, what is the difference between those 2?

Alzheimer's and dementia? Yes. Okay. So Alzheimer's is actually— and again, I'm not a clinician. I'm not a physician. Alzheimer's is a form of dementia. Dementia is a stage— the earliest form of it is just memory loss. But when you get into later stages, there's different strains of it, different levels that the physicians will—

When you say memory loss, we're not talking about, I lost my keys.

No. It's like you come to visit Mom and Mom has no idea who you are.

Right.

That's tough.

Right.

Yeah, it's tough. And it's— I have seen it, um, time and again with our, our residents and, and their families. And, you know, part of, part of doing this, again, I mean, we're helping residents, but we're also helping families. And that, I think that's what's been so rewarding for me in this, in this industry is just, you know, we're serving the residents by being awesome at what we do, but we're also, you know, when the call comes in from the son or the daughter and they, they need Yeah. You know, they can't, they can't be the caregiver anymore, you know, and, um, and there's a lot that comes along with that. But yeah, it's awesome because we get to serve families too.

Yeah, that, that sounds amazing because I, and I think that's one of the things that, um, that I love about what, what you're telling me is that, um, it's not just about the person that you're taking care of. I mean, you recognize this is a family and there's a reason that that this person is in your facility, and I, as the person who put them there, may not understand that much. And so you being able to convey back to me what's going on and why, and oh, by the way, I mean, you're kind of a counselor on some level going, everything's gonna be okay. Like, this is normal. You know, those types of things.

Yeah, and it's not, You know, when you make the decision to, you know, move mom or dad somewhere, you know, other than their own home, it's— that's a— that can be a tough thing on anybody. And so, yeah, we're— we are playing counselor a lot, you know, to family members and helping them navigate that. But once they— once, you know, they're there and, you know, they're— of course, the resident has settled in and the family's coming by, which, you know, we love, you know, people coming by. We love activity. We love—

Yeah.

of volunteers, which by the way, help us get the word out on that. I mean, we want youth groups and choirs and people that love seniors. I mean, that's important. And so yeah, it's very cool to help out the families as well.

Absolutely.

And something you mentioned a while back, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to ask you. I don't— again, I'm not well-versed in Medicare and Medicaid. You mentioned that a while back, that that's something that you guys don't do. Is that like a conscious decision that you made in your business? Or is that just— I don't understand how that even works.

It was a conscious decision. But anytime you get involved where you're waiting on payment from the government, that's tough. It's hard to run a business. The reimbursement rates that the government gives you, unfortunately, the level of care, you don't get get that nice of a facility for what— I mean, but if that's all you got, that's all you have. And it is what it is. But yes, to answer your question, I mean, that was a decision because then you've got to have someone on staff that's just dedicated to just the paperwork that's involved with that. It wasn't a path that we wanted to go down.

Yeah. And I mean, not to get political about it or anything, but this is actually something I hear quite a bit from physicians and people like you who operate the kinds of businesses that you do that they've decided to opt out of those types of programs because they feel like it doesn't allow them to give their patients, their clients, the kind of care that they want to be able to deliver.

Absolutely. I mean, because if you're getting, I don't know, $50, $60 a day or whatever, I don't even know what the— honestly, I don't even know what the reimbursement rates are. But it's hard to be awesome and have the resources to be awesome if you don't have much to work with, if that makes sense.

Yeah.

So here's a real, real important question that I think some of our listeners may want to know. That is, how do I start planning for this? Because if I'm not going to rely on Medicare, Medicaid, then resources I know my parents have, I don't even necessarily know what my parents have. I don't know if they've got money. If they don't, I mean, they act like they've got some money or they don't act like they've got some money. So I don't really know.

Right.

I find out information about how much this is going to cost? How can I plan for the future, um, and make sure that whenever I get to that, I'm not winding up, you know, driving a, you know, a Ford Pinto over here trying to, you know, downsize to a little shack so that I can pay for mom and dad to go to a decent facility?

You know what your folks have?

No.

I keep a ledger, bro. Do you?

You know what my folks make?

No, I don't know what your—

I know what my folks make. But no, you It's funny though, because before I got into the business, I really didn't know either. And once we got into this, I was calling up my parents going, you need to create a special place, a thumb drive or something where I just know what the deal is. And part of that is just having a good conversation and having dialogue and finding out. But to answer, and I think you rolled about 4 questions in there. I know I did. He's the king of that. I don't know. So I'm going to try to, from memory, to try to pull it out there. But I think that a lot of— you'd be surprised, actually, a lot of our residents actually have long-term care insurance, which is a

policy that—

Oh, wow.

So we are a private pay facility. But if they have a long-term care policy, then we can help them get reimbursed quickly through their insurance. So mom or dad may have purchased a policy back in the day. and have been paying on it forever. And so, yeah, the long-term care insurance providers will often reimburse some or all of the expenses. Other than that, in regards to planning, some of our residents, usually a son or daughter or family member becomes the power of attorney and is managing their affairs.

Yeah.

And with that comes along managing their money, their assets. And in essence, they are spending down what's available to them. Maybe they— when mom, it was no longer safe for her to be home alone and they decided to make the move, they sold the house and they're using—

They used that money.

Yeah. Other times, there's— I mean, I've seen lots of different scenarios. There's several siblings and everyone's kind of pitching in a little bit for the care. I know you had more questions rolled into that, dude.

No, you're answering the questions because at the end of the day, I want to be able to know that I can pay for something that is not just a hospital for my family member. I want something like you're talking about. This sounds awesome. But I'm no dummy to think that this is equal expense to what that other facility costs. I understand that You pay for what you get. And so just having an idea, I mean, can I come into your office and sit down with you even now? You know, my parents are probably, you know, hopefully a good 20 years away from needing this, but can I come in now and sit down and go,

what did today's cost look like so that I can start planning for this?

Yeah, no, I think that's huge. And yes, to answer your question, come to my office anytime. We can sit down and talk. But yeah, again, it's having good dialogue and it's talking about what resources are available now, planning things that you could be doing now to prepare for when your loved one needs care. That way, there are no surprises, or at least you're prepared for it when it does happen.

I would assume there are better policies out there than others. Just like anything. I'm not asking you to answer that question of where you go. get them. But I'm just telling people out there, do your research.

Do your research. In regards to our loved ones, are there things that we need to be paying attention to to know when it's time to transition?

Yeah. I think that traditionally— well, I say traditionally— most of the population in senior living is female by about 70% female. Usually, dad goes first.

Mom's the home.

And, um, you know, when it, um, usually what I've seen, you know, and maybe some of your listeners can relate to this if they've experienced it, is they, they end up hiring a caregiver first to come, or, or tapping into someone at church, or, you know, can you come sit with Mom? And it starts off with, you know, maybe just a few hours a day, and then it turns into 6, 8, um, and then at some point, you know, you've got a live-in caregiver. And of course, there's a lot of agencies out there now. That's what they do is they provide home care.

Right.

But on an hourly rate. And so, a lot of people start there. But as far as when it's time, when they should really consider it, it's when, again, finances drive some of that because if you're paying someone $20 an hour for 24 hours to come to your house, that gets It's very expensive and you don't always know who's coming.

Yeah.

And you don't always know what they're doing, right? And so, again, going back to accountability.

Right.

So, but as mom or dad, if there's more falls, if they're falling in the home, if there's medication is not being managed properly or they're— a lot of times Sometimes they're overmedicating or undermedicating or just not medicating at all. Ultimately, those are some signs to look out for.

But I imagine those are issues that you guys can solve with care.

Yeah, absolutely. That's part of what we do. When a new resident is moving in with us, moving into our home, we do a full assessment, we build a care plan, we sync up with the physician, and we make you know, do a med review, make sure everything's going good, and then we, you know, try to get things back on track.

Yeah.

You know, ultimately, yeah.

What is the typical transition time for someone like that? I mean, and what I mean by that is, you know, I would imagine it's kind of a big shock to be pulled out of your home, out of your apartment, out of your normal routine of life, and then, you know, here I'm gonna— now I'm gonna be over here at CSIS. And even if it's a wonderful place, I imagine there's some transition time to when they're kind of back to some sense of normalcy when their other loved ones can come in and visit them and say, okay, they're doing good.

Yeah, that's a great question. And I think it varies a little bit from resident to resident. Sometimes I can get a sense for when a new resident might be struggling a little bit? Because, I mean, let's— it's a new place, right? It's a new environment. Of course, again, we encourage the family to make the bedroom, to trick it out as much as they want to. You know, I mean, we want pictures and we want— I mean, you want to hang photos on the wall of grandkids? I mean, make it your own, right?

Awesome.

That's incredibly important. But, you know, there is a little bit of transition time, you know, where the resident is, you know, potentially confused. And so, Sometimes it could take 5, 7, 10 days for them to kind of settle in a little bit.

Yeah.

Others, I've seen the complete opposite where they're like, thank you so much. And it's like, I don't have to deal with mowing my own lawn anymore or worrying about my home issues. And again, going back to serving, if you approach it from that aspect, it's pretty awesome because Again, it's like, let us wait on you, right? Let us be— we try to be 5, 10, 12 steps away from the resident, and we're constantly perusing the house, making sure that everything's good and that the residents are having a great time and being safe. But from that aspect, it's great to serve and help them settle in.

Yeah. Well, and we got, we got some, we put the word out on Facebook that you were coming into the studio tonight. And one of our, one of our listeners, Kristen, sent in some questions. And apparently this is, this is something she's in the middle of right now.

Oh.

And so if you don't mind, I'm going to— she sent us like 3 questions. I was like, man, these are, these are great questions. I'd like to hear them answered. But so number one, when is the best time to discuss with the parents You know, when is the best time to have that conversation about, hey, we need to start thinking about moving you to—

Yeah, I think that once you— I don't think, you know, start early. Start, I mean, start having some dialogue. A lot of times, and again, we get it, it can be a slippery slope, right? When you're dealing with a mom or dad and you're, you know, you're realizing that it's not— doesn't make sense for them to be at home, it's not safe for them to be at home.

Right.

You know, but start early. You know, try to, you know, it's delicate, right? And so, but you, it's important. And so, you know, start early enough to where, you know, and sometimes you're planting seeds a little bit and then you maybe come back around. And then another approach would be to, you know, I have a lot of family that, you know, they just bring mom or dad by Seasons to have lunch with us because again, it doesn't feel like a facility. So it's like we're going to a friend's house or we're stopping by.

Okay.

To get their reaction, their taste for it, to see if there might be a fit there.

But on some level, I can see the benefit of starting early and setting some expectations. I'm a big proponent of setting expectations. I think that anybody that you set expectations for in a healthy way, they tend to rise to the expectation. If you have low expectations, people are gonna, you know, rise to your low expectation. And so on some level, I think that if you kind of say, listen, I, I understand that, um, you know, you're maybe 20 years away from this even, um, but I don't want to get caught and I want you to have some buy-in to what you do. And I just know that I may not be able to be the

one that's your primary caregiver. So let's start talking about this.

Yeah, no, that's huge. And, and I think that, um, yeah, start early and start— do it often. And get their feedback now because you're going to have people— I mean, my dad's stubborn as can be. And of course, prior to his son getting involved in this and being a senior living operator, now he's like, hey, your mom's out of town this weekend. Can I come stay at Seasons? Got an open room? Yeah, I know. Yeah. It's like, all right, Dad, we'll leave the light on for you. Because he sees what it's all about. But yeah, you want to know what their preferences are, right? You want to know. I mean, because some of them are like, man, there's no chance in whatever that

I'm moving anywhere other than my home. You may hear that now, but start early and check in and that could change. That could change.

Well, and let's just assume some people, maybe they haven't started How do they have that conversation now that their parents have—

I mean, it's a tough one, but it's, Mom, it's not safe for you to be home. And it's not making sense financially for me to pay someone else to come to your home. And there are some other alternatives and I just want to have some dialogue about it. Maybe, can we just go look at it? Just being frank and honest. Lay it out, lay it out there. Yeah.

Yeah.

All right. Well, yeah, it's really tough because I mean, I, I think of it this way a lot. Like, I mean, right now I've got 2 small kids and they're basically helpless, right? I mean, they— without an adult around, right, they're helpless. Um, and so I've got to do everything for them, but there's going to come a point where I'm going to need them to do everything for me, right? And That, that, man, whenever you've spent your entire life as the older adult that is wiser and knows what's going on, to have your child come to you and say, you can't do this anymore, like, I'm getting choked up about it just a little bit right now,

you know?

Yeah.

And so, um, I, I can imagine that's a really tough conversation to have. However, you can't just pass that that buck. You can't let someone else have that conversation or let it not happen. You, you have to have it and risk, um, whatever it is that you're risking, right? Or you feel— whatever you feel like you're risking, it may be less than what you actually feel like it is. So yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, here's our next question: can you arrange for assisted living well in advance?

Well, I think we talked a little bit about that, you know, just— I mean, yes, you can.

Um, insurance is an option there.

Yeah, I mean, insurance, you know, long-term care insurance is, is a good place start, you know, saving money.

Yeah.

You know, doing an analysis, if you will, of mom or dad's, you know, financial situation and what that could look like. It never hurts to start early and be prepared for, you know, an expense like this.

Yeah.

And, you know, so yeah, that's, that's a great way to get prepared for it is to look at what resources you have and what's available to you. And then, you know, compare that to what you want. I mean, what you can afford and the type of facility that you want to put mom or dad in and just kind of work back your way into it a little bit.

I kind of feel like this is almost like preparing to send a child to college.

Yeah, yeah, a little bit.

And so I'm kind of wondering if in her mind, if she's going, well, can I come to Shawn's office and go like, look, I've got a prospect for you that's going to be ready in about 15 years. Can we start paying for this now?

There are, I'm sure, operators out there that will say, yes, start paying us a fee and we'll hold you a bet kind of thing. We'll leave a lot on for you. We'll guarantee you a spot. We don't do that. But there are— in fact, I think we touched on it where they're managing all your money. And some of these newer, what they call call, um, continuous care, uh, retirement, um, facility or communities where they're, you know, they've got independent— I mean, it's a campus.

Yeah.

And it's, I mean, you know, it's $300,000, $400,000 to, to just to like get on the list to get in, and then it's a crazy amount per month. But, you know, you're, you're, you know, you go through all of those, uh, silos of, again, independent living, assisted living, memory care skilled, um, and on their campus. But, but essentially, you give them all your assets and they, they spend that down for you. And, um, yeah, it's just, uh, it's— that's, again, to me, that feels like big box.

Yeah.

And that's, that's not what we're, we're about.

But yes.

But kind of your advice is start planning for it financially, find out where you want to go, go talk to those people, make some decisions, start planning for it financially. And know that if you're financially set up, something's going to work out for you.

Absolutely. And her other question fed off the other one. It doesn't really apply to you, but you may know. If you get into a situation where, yeah, we'll take you and we'll leave the light on for you, you'll be ready in 15 years, is that something that is a permanent decision? Is it something you can change? I don't know how those guys operate.

Yeah. I'm sure that they've got contracts that you could get out of whatever commitment that you've made. Usually, in a smaller environment like ours, they see that within a coming couple of months, they need a place for mom or dad, and we work out an arrangement essentially to hold the spot for them. But doing it over a span of a decade might be a little harder. Sure. And so how many residents do you have?

How many residents do you guys set up?

Yeah, so we're going to be licensed for only 14 residents.

Okay.

Yeah. And it's funny, in the state, you can actually have up to 16 residents in a small facility, what they view as a small facility. We wanted to do even a little bit smaller than that, and just because we'll be licensed for 14, 14 doesn't mean we'll have 14 people in there all the time, but that's what we have the square footage for. And again, going back to the premise of keeping it smaller, we can do more. And yeah, we're excited about that.

Yeah. And so, one of the things I see probably larger facilities advertising is like, hey, we've got a really big community for your loved one to get plugged into. I mean, how do you guys foster that with a smaller number of people? Do you feel like that's more difficult? But if I had to live with 14 people, that's more than enough people to live with. Yeah.

Well, again, it goes back to preferences. Sometimes walking 100 yards to the cafeteria isn't always the best fit or getting on an elevator and going down. And again, we've already talked about the level of care that you often find and facilities like that. Now, granted, we're not going to have— although One Briarwood here in Conroe, I mean, we've got an awesome— sorry. There you go. We've got the outdoor space is awesome. We poured a very large walking path to the backyard and got a lot of green space back there so families and residents can go and enjoy that. But we don't have a crazy movie theater and we don't have a chapel in there. We have the churches come to

us, which is pretty awesome. And, you know, we have pastors that come in and—

And they're nearby.

They're nearby. And, and, uh, again, we, we talked about it, we love visitors, you know, but we, you know, we, we try to— again, going back, we want it to feel like home, but, you know, we want the food to be awesome. And, and, you know, we're doing activities, we're, we're watching movies, um, and we want to find out what the residents want to do.

Right.

What they want. I mean, we're in memory care and we're required to have activities whether the resident wants to do them or not. But again, we want to really kind of tease out what their preferences are. And the same with food. It's like we don't want it to feel like cafeteria food. So, I mean, again, customizing it a little bit. I mean, hey, if your doctor says we can have salmon, let's have some salmon. I mean, you guys want Let's eat steak. Why don't you guys help us build the menu for the coming week? And, you know, so we're constantly baking and cooking things that are gourmet foods. And, of course, we have dietitians that we work with to work around dietary needs and things like that.

Yeah. Well, because I was kind of looking at some of the stuff you guys have up on social media and some of the other stuff you put out, and it seems like you guys are— you trying to have a, you know, a better ratio of staff, that those people kind of become the community with the residents. Whereas it seems like the other places are really just trying to say like, like, look, here's, here's a big group of old people you can hang out with. And so you guys seem to be having, having the conversations like, look, we want the people that work here to be part of these people's lives and communities.

And yeah, no, it's— look, and that we, we can have the, the prettiest place in Conroe, right? We can have the best decor and the nicest furniture, but it all comes down to the staff. It really does. And so, again, I'm very particular about who we hire. And again, it's your mom or dad, right? It's a family member. You don't want just anyone dressing them and helping them and working with them and taking them on a walk. I mean, you want them to be qualified, but you want them to come from a good place too.

Yeah.

And I'm pretty good at kind of sniffing out those that are there for just a paycheck versus those that they really care. And there's a huge difference between the two.

And I'd imagine that's a unique individual.

It is, because not everyone's suited to be a caregiver. I mean, it does take a certain type of personality and skill set and a huge heart.

Yeah.

You got anything else, Kev?

No, I think we've hit a lot of really good stuff here. I've been really informed. I started off this podcast saying I don't know much about this stuff. In fact, I do my best to steer clear of nursing homes.

You and I both.

Yeah. That's funny. Part of it is just because I'm like, I'm uncomfortable going into those places. A lot of the time, it is because when I walk in the front door, there's like 16 people in wheelchairs just sitting there.

Just hanging out.

They're doing nothing, and I feel uncomfortable for them.

Correct.

I think that I might could get a little more on board with a place that they didn't feel like they're just sitting there, no one's paying attention to them.

It's brutal. It's brutal. And think about it like this, and that brings up a good point. Let's say you do have mom or dad or loved one in there, you feel bad for— I mean, you almost don't want to go visit because you're— again, we talked about smelling the neglect and just kind of seeing what's going on. Smells like guilt. It does. It does. And so, yeah, we didn't talk much about it, but yeah, guilt does play a big role in this because it's like, oh man, I'm placing mom or dad in a facility. And so, again, going back to a place that feels like home, it's a game changer. It really is.

Yeah.

Well, listen, I really appreciate what you've already talked about. We do want to move on to another portion of our show where we ask everybody these same 4 questions. And we do have a title for it, Craig.

Yes.

The Final Four.

The Final Four.

Yeah. So, just 4 questions that we ask all of our guests. And, uh, you know, hopefully these are pretty simple. Uh, we'll start off easy and get hard. All right. Oh boy. All right. Number 1, no one's failed it yet.

That's good.

Yeah.

And, and he and I even took it and we didn't fail it. So, uh, yeah. So if you want to know what our answers are, go back to episode number 1. You can hear our answers. So, um, yeah, here we go. What's the must-have tool you won't leave your house without?

Cell phone.

Cell phone.

Cell phone. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Too many apps and too— I mean, My head would roll off my shoulders. And I mean, it's 2019. I mean, you know, and I've got kids—

You're just going to own it.

Yeah. I'm just going to literally own it. And, you know, I've got kids that have cell phones and I'm like, dude, put down your phone, right? And I have to, you know, remind myself to put it down sometimes. But yeah, my head would explode if I didn't have it, frankly.

Yeah.

It's a connection to everything now.

It really is.

Yeah. It's amazing. It's amazing. All right, second question. What's a job you've walked away from? So we've had people that answer this as a career, and that's fine if you want to go there. We did have in mind whenever we wrote this question, maybe a job around your home, something. I mean, you've been renovating this—

Yeah.

This home that you, that you're turning into assisted living. Was there anything in there that you, that you thought, you know what, I'm gonna get in here, I'm gonna do this, and, and about halfway through, or maybe even Sooner you go, nope, gotta call someone.

Yeah, so this is, uh, it's interesting though because I've had to become very hands-on. And again, I'm, I am a little bit of a do-it-yourselfer, you know, and so I've had to learn some things, you know. Uh, I, I even, I never had operated a chainsaw before until last year. And, uh, yeah, so I mean, lots of stories. I could keep you here all night. I think that, uh—

Got your man card though.

Uh, dude, uh, you know, I, I I've done— yeah, I'm not afraid to get dirty, I'll put it to you that way. So, uh, but as far as walking away in regards to that, plumbing is not a big— I'm not a big fan. And, you know, uh, and, and electricity, uh, you know, I mean, I can redo a, you know, an outlet here or there or a light switch, but like, I'm kind of a fan of all my limbs and— right, you know, I don't wanna— yeah, so electricity scares me.

Not charred skin.

Exactly.

Yeah, so electricity, it, it scares me a little bit.

We're anti- That's good to know. We're in good company.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, number 3, how do you wind down at the end of a long day?

Red, red wine.

There you go.

Yes.

I've heard that lyric before.

Have you? I don't know.

I can imagine Shawn singing it to himself.

Yeah, exactly. It's kind of hard not to.

Exactly.

Stay close to me. That's good, man. I liked it.

All right, good. Last question. We're in the homestretch here. What are the best pieces of wisdom or advice you've ever received?

Oh, this is hard.

Yeah.

I've been blessed and fortunate enough to have gotten some really good advice over the years, not all of which I've followed, unfortunately. So this is— hmm. I think I got some advice recently that I'm really trying to use and, and utilize, uh, and it's in regards to time management. Because I mean, I've got little ones at home and we've got a new business and we're, you know, we're all over the place.

Yeah.

And, and so things are a little nuts. And so in regards to time management, when something lands on my plate or something new, I'm trying to kind of put it in one of 3 silos or, you know, categories, which is, can I automate this, delegate it, eliminate it.

There you go. Yeah.

Automate, delegate, or eliminate.

Okay.

I'm trying to apply that. It's hard because I'm, again, a do-it-yourselfer and it's, you know, I got this, right? You know, but those— the list just keeps getting bigger and bigger. And, you know, when you're— you find yourself leveling up a little bit, but more things just keep getting piled on. So that's— someone recently gave that to me and I'm like, yeah, I've gotta— I've gotta figure out how to start automating or delegating or, or just saying, you know what, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I think, I think even people with high capacities have to recognize at some point they can't do everything, you know.

Yeah, and that's, that's, that's been hard for me.

Yeah, yeah, because I mean, I think, I think, you know, most, you know, sort of entrepreneurial people want to do everything, uh, because it's control and quality.

It's mine.

Yeah, it's—

yeah, it is, it is. And it's, and it's hard, it is. But it's one of those things that you've, you've You've got to kind of let go of the reins a little bit.

Sure, yeah. Okay, cool.

So the secret last question, I guess, would be if people—

Wait, there's a last one?

Yeah, so if people have questions or they want to get a hold of you, is there a way for people to find you?

Yeah, we're on social media, on Facebook, our website, meatseasons.com. Instagram, my email address, shawn@meatseasons.com. And yeah, feel free to shoot me an email if someone wants to come by for a tour. I think we start tours next week. And, uh, of course we're, we're joining the chamber soon. We're having a ribbon cutting and open house tour event on, uh, June 13th.

Awesome.

Yeah. So fantastic. It's pretty cool. Great. Good times.

And we'll put all those links up in the show notes. Perfect. Yeah.

Well, uh, listen, we, we thoroughly enjoyed sitting down with you. Thanks for, thanks for taking time out to do this. And, uh, you know, uh, listeners out there, if you got any questions, you know, you can get us at info@homeownershow.com as well. We can forward those or answer 'em ourselves. Whatever works. Um, but yeah, I think that'll do it for today. Uh, we're here every Tuesday, so thanks for downloading. Hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode, and we will see you next time. See ya!