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Fix Care, Earn Returns: How Boutique Senior-Living Homes Deliver Better Outcomes and 18–22% Target IRR

By October 30, 2025Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Erika speaks with Brandon Schwab, a pioneer in senior living investments. Brandon shares his journey from traditional real estate investing to focusing on senior care, driven by personal experiences and a desire to improve the quality of care for seniors. He discusses the significant need for change in the senior care industry, highlighting the advantages of cozy home environments over large facilities. Brandon outlines the investment opportunities available in this growing sector, emphasizing the potential for both financial returns and community impact. He also shares his vision for scaling the business and the importance of providing compassionate care to seniors.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Brandon Schwab (00:00)
    The top cause of people dying in this industry is from an ulcer caused from sitting in your own waste for three to four hours. And then you turn and your 85 year old tush tears and it gets infected with your own waste. So imagine that’s the biggest cause of death of seniors throughout the country. How is that okay, Erika? I think that is disgusting and that needs to be changed immediately.

    Erika (02:02)
    Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Erika and today I’m excited to be chatting with Brandon Schwab. He’s been changing things up in the real estate world with his passion for senior living investments with Shepherd’s or Shepherd Premier Senior Living. Brandon, it’s awesome to have you on the show today.

    Brandon Schwab (02:26)
    Fantastic. Thank you for the overall, the overall, the chance here to talk to you today. Thank you.

    Erika (02:38)
    Yeah, I’m really excited to dive in because what you’re doing is really different. So tell me about how you got into the real estate world with investing and then what brought you to senior living.

    Brandon Schwab (02:53)
    So back before I, so I first got into investing in 2010. So I was wholesaling from 2010 through 2012. And then I got in 2012 to 14, I began building a 23 home portfolio of homes with folks in all of them. So I did build up income coming in passively of 5,400 each month from

    2012 to 14. I got into investing full time because what I was doing prior kind of got hit hard by the 2008 crash. And by 2010, I figured I needed to get into doing something different. From 08 to 2010, I was helping investors clean homes, paint homes, do things like that. And I did that for two years. And I just saw what they were doing.

    Then I began wholesaling from 2010 through 2012. And that was good. I earned income from that and I got exposed to what it was like to have active income that was from investing. And then 12, I began earning passive income from building a group of homes that was throwing off two to $300 each 30 days per home.

    And over two years, I built up 23 homes. So that’s kind how I got into investing is because what I was doing before really didn’t function that well. How I got into how I got into investing, caring for seniors really wasn’t anything that I ever thought I would ever do prior. ⁓ I had something happen to our own family member where he went to a giant facility. So my father flew in 58.

    Chopper and he was part of the 601st Air in the Army. And when he was killed when I was only two and a half, his father was a giant force on me to what a father figure was. when, my…

    Grandpa had his stroke at 79 and his second one at 80. The asset class kind of touched me for, think, the first time. And I think it’s one of these asset classes that until it hits you on your own, until it hits you personally, you don’t really think of it, right? You want to avoid it and think if you don’t think of it, it isn’t going to ever happen to you. And I kind of found that that isn’t going to be the case.

    When our family member went to a giant facility, I saw what it was like, right? And when he had…

    to have help, which you could tell by the odor. We pulled a thing back behind his head and just waited. Now granted, Erika, I was only 28 at the time, but what I saw was, no one came. Five minutes, 10 minutes, by 15 minutes, his face changed colors to like this particular color right here. Like his face would change colors. And by 20 minutes, not so proud, Erika, to tell you that I lost it.

    I went down the hall to go get help and I got him help, but not necessarily in a fashion that I am very happy to tell anyone, because I was very direct and I wasn’t very kind. ⁓ I was 28, I would like to think today at 43 that I would handle it differently, but at the time I got him help. But when I drove home that day, so I realized that although I helped him in that instant, I knew that those two…

    people that I got to give them care really weren’t gonna be a big fan of me and how I treated them that day. And then I felt really, really bad driving home. And then I didn’t really know how to process that, but like that was the first experience I had in the overall asset class. when I realized that I probably hurt him more than I helped him, I felt really terrible that I did that, right? And I pushed that one down deep. ⁓ So like years later, I founded a

    investment club where I was talking in front of 100, 120 people ⁓ each month. And I would teach them how to invest, right? A couple years after that, we were down in Florida and I saw a cozy home in central Florida that was converted to care for seniors. And I saw the difference of what a giant factory feels like in a cozy home.

    When I saw this cozy home of five people in one house, frankly, I felt pretty dumb that I didn’t have any clue. This is like what I was looking at, Erika. It was a cozy home in Winter Park, Florida. And I remember pulling up and it was on a…

    It was on a giant cul-de-sac and I looked at it and there was houses on each side and I was like, what is this place? Because typically in Florida, they don’t have them out, they have them up. 10, 12 floors full of seniors. Now the catch was our father-in-law played the, his, he played, he played some shows at the old folks home 328 times per year for 35 bucks.

    And when we would go down to Florida, Kelly would drag me to the shows because what I figured out is when I went to these giant factories, that feeling that I pushed down five years prior would come back up. The overall odor. So I don’t know if you, if you, if you ever gone into those bigger facilities, but the odor is typically pretty poor. The overall atmosphere is terrible. I felt that they treated them very poorly. And what I pushed down deep,

    would come back up. And when he would do all of his shows, I would get very antsy and I would try to get out of there. And this time, this was July of 2024, we pull up into a five bedroom, three and a

    home in Winter Park. was probably 3000 feet. And because I was investing, I kind of knew that was about a $350,000 house, right? And I saw it and I walked in and I was just like, huh.

    kind had the arms crossed and I was looking around and it had fire heads throughout the whole building. But one of the first things that I noticed is the odor was different. The atmosphere was different. The caregiver was playing cards with them at the front table as I walked in. Now, at this point, I’ve been investing here for four years full time. I have our own investment of 120 people. I think I’m gonna kind of have it figured out.

    Right. But what I realize is I don’t have anything figured out. Right. The asset class that I’m in, I don’t have any clue what this really is. Right. So ⁓ as I looked into what was going on in this home, I asked the girl in charge, said, hey, what do they pay each month to be here? Like fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars per month. So Erika, she furrowed her eyebrows like this.

    and goes, and kept on walking, right? She literally didn’t even answer me. And I felt so dumb that I didn’t have a clue what I was looking at, right? And I feel a bunch of investors that I talked to don’t even know that these homes are out there, right? So when I drove home from Florida, I was thinking of it, of like, what could that place be? So I ended up calling her and I said, Sarah, what do they pay each month?

    because I’ve been thinking of it the whole evening, right? And she goes, Brandon, oh my God, I thought you were just kidding. They begin at $5,200 a month. Now, Erika, this is 10 years ago. Like this is in 2014, right? And there was five people in that house, right? So I’m like, I’ve never seen a 25 plus thousand dollar house for income when back home, I had 23 homes getting 1800 to 2300.

    each month for the whole house, right? This was a cozy home that was generating over 25 grand. So that’s how I first got into it. I was exposed to that and I took that idea back home. And when I came home, I said, you know, five people in a house is great if you own it and you’re in healthcare. Because I wasn’t, I took the concept and I built out a home that had 10 folks in it, 10 people.

    felt like a good model that I could hire an awesome team to actually give excellent care. I felt like five wasn’t enough, right? So I opened our first home in 2014 and ⁓ we didn’t open up home two to like five years later, right? It took us time to really kind of figure things out. But what we did is we jumped in and kind of figured things out.

    second home was open in 2019, then I just kept expanding from there. In 19, we raised about $23 million from investors, and we turned that into $38 plus million of assets over five years. So we took the idea, the concept, now we’re really growing from there because the overall asset class is huge. The opportunity is gigantic.

    Erika (14:14)
    Yeah, it really is a huge opportunity and talk more about that. Can you explain how this is ripe for being a win-win situation between what’s going on with our country’s needs and then how this works with investors?

    Brandon Schwab (14:33)
    Well,

    if you think of what’s going on today, so I think if you offer any person that is able to hear this, option of putting their family member, say they got a phone ⁓ call at 2 a.m., right? And their person in their family fell and they need care in 48 hours. Do you know where you’re gonna take them and how? So most people don’t, right? But if you’re given a option,

    Or two options. One is a a giant factory with 100 to 200 plus people in it or a home with 10 to 20 people in it. But here’s the top thing. If the giant factory has one caregiver to every 20 to 30 people, first, the cozy home has one person offering care to every five to eight. What are you going to choose and why if cost is equal?

    The answer to that’s pretty easy. if you don’t ⁓ know that there

    Erika (16:16)
    It’s a no-brainer.

    Brandon Schwab (16:23)
    a other option, which I did not, I would assume that you would have to go to the giant factory facility. with that premise, if that’s the overall foundation that, so I’ve asked that question in front of thousands of people. And every time I’ve ever asked that, they always say a home, right?

    It’s kind of like the idea of taking your kid to say public school or say private school. Do you want your kids taught by five to eight people or

    like one teacher that has to teach five to eight kids or in a giant classroom of 20 to 30? That’s a pretty easy answer that I think even if you haven’t been exposed to caring for your family member,

    that’s older, you could answer that question pretty easily, particularly if public school costs is equal to the other. It’s an easy choice. But if that’s what everyone would choose, why wouldn’t they choose that when their older parent has to go through that same thing? And as far as investors, lot of people that do what we do with these cozy homes, they own one, maybe two houses. They’re typically in healthcare. They have a healthcare

    history, right? And they open up one, two, possibly three homes. So the industry is fractured because there’s all of these homes that are for, that are owned by one person, so one to three homes, but they don’t function together. What we’re doing is we created a niche to help pool together those properties to build a giant portfolio of homes that function together. Now, if you look,

    Here, our logo has three homes, but it has heart in between, right? The overall industry caring for seniors has to have heart first, putting people first. Unfortunately, the industry isn’t quite that. The industry focuses on earning dollars first. And unfortunately for everyone that’s hearing this, you or your family member is not going to get great care at the giant factory type options.

    And unfortunately in our company, that’s the, F word, right? We don’t use the F word ever talk on any of our homes. We have cozy homes, right? There’s a huge difference. But if something isn’t changed, that’s where all of us are going to end up. Right. And if you look at a other ⁓ type of a industry, if you look at the taxi cab industry, do you think the taxi cab industry couldn’t have come up with their own app? Just like Uber.

    They could have, right? But why didn’t they, Erika? Did they not do it because they didn’t have anyone on their heels pushing them and they felt pretty comfortable, didn’t they? But they left the door open for Uber to come in. So I feel like we’re the Uber of this asset class because the folks that are doing it today have giant facilities that are just really comfortable, right? And they are comfortable offering terrible care that isn’t okay.

    And there are some pretty terrifying facts that I would tell people is that.

    The top cause of people dying in this industry is from an ulcer caused from sitting in your own waste for three to four hours. And then you turn and your 85 year old tush tears and it gets infected with your own waste. So imagine that’s the biggest cause of death of seniors throughout the country. How is that okay, Erika? I think that is disgusting and that needs to be changed immediately.

    We put people first over earnings, right? We will earn, but that’s not our top choice. We have to do it properly where we feel good

    the overall ass that we are putting out care for people first. And plus I don’t think any investor would want to invest in something that doesn’t take care of people in there properly, just to earn dollars. That doesn’t feel good.

    Erika (20:45)
    you know, really things don’t have to be this way because as you said earlier that you’re offering the same amount of care for the same amount of dollars and we didn’t even talk about the opportunity with investors when it comes to the future here. So there’s even more to that here.

    Brandon Schwab (21:07)
    There is. mean, unfortunately, if you look at the overall facts, there was just a article posted this year that was forecasting by 2030, we have a need of 775,000 new units that have to be put out to keep up with the 2030 aging that is coming. The fact is we are short a giant quantity and we’re only on track to be able to put out

    ⁓ 191,000 of those units. So we are short over 550,000 units by 2030. And the overall cost of that is a giant figure, right? And unfortunately the

    coming, right? And we’re in an asset class that unfortunately financing is not keeping up with this, right? There is not enough financing options for people just like us to go get

    to go purchase homes and to help change that, right? The only financing that is out there is the HUD-232 loan, which is a very good loan. It’s a 35 to 40 year perm loan. They give 85 % LTV and four to

    % interest. But the problem of that error, cause it takes up to two years to close. So if a person needs to sell today,

    can they hold out two years until they actually are gonna exit? So most people can’t. So we figured out a huge opportunities for us and investors to pool together capital in a fund vehicle that we can pay cash for properties. So the thought of it is if you can pay cash close quickly in 30 to 45 days, you can get a giant discount of up to 50.

    plus percent, because you close quickly, because every other person takes up to two years to close. There’s a massive opportunity that’s good for the investors, and it’s also good for the folks that are in there, because they have other options. We are going to give our country options, and we’re going to be the Uber of this industry giving folks options.

    Erika (23:28)
    That’s really exciting. I know earlier we were talking about all that upside expansion, which makes this a good investment while being good for the community. Can you share more about what you’re looking to build out as this grows?

    Brandon Schwab (23:48)
    Yes, so we’ve been doing this for over 10 years, right? Our first homes for the first eight years, I kind of did it the hard way, right? I would purchase a home that was five to 10,000 feet. I would go through the upfront process to get the upfront permit that would take three to two years to get, which would give us access to do this. And then I would take six months to finish that house, fix it up, do ADAs throughout.

    a ADA kitchen, a commercial kitchen, a fire system, all of that would take me six months. And then it would take me six months to fill it, right? So we weren’t cash flowing for 18 to probably 24 months. And what I found is we can scale by buying existing cash flowing companies that are owned by nurses. We found a niche of how I can contact them.

    privately and close on deals that aren’t even up for sale today. In what we’re doing, the first eight years, I did it the hard way, right? That taught us how to do it, right? But the last two, two and a half years, what we’ve been doing is we’ve been buying existing portfolios that have people in it, right? The homes need some help. They typically need a good paint job. The flooring has to be changed, but those are things that we do to properties and

    We add value by once those are completed, we can add an extra thousand to $2,000 each month per person and add value to the overall business. And that’s really what we do, right? And that is the opportunity that we have that we can give investors because investors today are looking for options to invest anyways, right?

    but they’re also looking for an option where they can invest and they can feel good on what they’re investing in, right? So where else could you go where you’re investing into homes first with an aging tailwind of 25 plus years of expansion, right? So like healthcare is not going anywhere anytime quickly, right? It has proven from 05 to 15 to outperform the S &P.

    apartment buildings, office, industrial, and retail by over five and a half percent during the 2008

    Nobody’s talking on it because it’s not as appealing of a asset class, but I’ll tell you, it’s a very good place for people to be looking and we give an option for them to invest in it. Right. I will tell you that most people that are in this asset class are not looking for investors. Why?

    because they have access to really

    capital because their family members can get capital from a private credit facility at one to 2 % interest. And they give loans to their family members at three to 4 % interest. So they wouldn’t give investors anything over that because it’s not interesting to them, right?

    we give an opportunity for investors to invest in an asset class and earn a very good return where they would earn eight to 12 % plus a portion of how the asset performs, right? So we have a five we have a five

    506 C that allows us to talk on it publicly. it, you have, this isn’t for everybody, right? Folks have to be a good fit for our fund, but it allows you to invest in an asset class passively without having to have any history of doing it. You could invest in our fund. And what’s interesting of what we’re doing with the fund is we pay cash for homes.

    And then every two years we do take out financing through HUD. Then we pay the investors. Then we keep doing that over and over for 10 years. So we’re basically going to take a upfront chunk of cash and turn it into a very valuable portfolio at the end of 10 years of 300 homes. that’s a, and the investors get part of that. They’re part of the upside. And it is pretty exciting. I think if you look at all, all their asset classes today and all the

    the different things out there. So maybe caring for seniors isn’t the sexiest asset class out there today, ⁓ but it definitely provides very, very good returns that are backed by free and clear assets, which is unheard of, because that gives investors protection. Because if anything ever happens,

    There’s a ton of other funds out there, right? And they put a first lien on the asset for 80%, and then the investors come in back behind that, right? So if anything happens, who do you think gets paid first, Erika? The investors or that first lien?

    The first lean, right?

    So unfortunately, the investors aren’t in a very good position. With us, we’ve built it where it is a different vehicle than what they’re used to, but it allows them to feel the upside of a fixed return upfront. Plus, ⁓ they would get part of the overall asset performance, both cashflow and at the end of 10 years, when we put it up for sale, they would get part of that overall upside as well, which is critical. I think it is a very good…

    It’s like win-win. We target a overall IRR of 18 to 22%. So those that are gonna be happy with that, that’s an awesome fit. Those that are looking to earn 30 % every 30 minutes, we probably aren’t a very good fit for you.

    Those that are fine with 18 to 22 over 10 years. This is a 10 year term. We do have an option that you can get out as early as five years, but the overall IRRs that they aren’t gonna be as good, right? The overall IRR of 18 to 22 % target is hit with a 10 year term.

    Erika (30:10)
    Yeah.

    Yeah, you know, there’s a lot of people that come on the podcast and, you know, talk about what they have going on, what kind of opportunities out there, but I don’t think I’ve seen quite a win-win situation like yours that you can really put your money towards in an investment and make a difference at the same time. And I know that ⁓ you also have

    Brandon Schwab (30:51)
    Thank you.

    Erika (31:03)
    ⁓ events where you talk more about how this works. So you want to share now ⁓ more about that there.

    Brandon Schwab (31:10)
    Yes. So what I do is

    Thursday evening, seven Eastern, we jump on a call where I have up to 50 seats, right? And I go through a 45 minute talk on the overall opportunity. Then I open things up for about 15 minutes to answer questions. ⁓ If you go to our site,

    dot fund at on the very ⁓ slick home page. You can join our event Thursday evening. Takes about 10 seconds, right? You can join and then you can jump on Thursday evening. You have to confirm it on your calendar and you’ll get the text messages. But that’s a great place. We’ll dive into the overall details on our homes. I will take you through homes, talk on the.

    overall opportunity, the finances, our team, I will introduce you to our team. Where today I just want to give value of what the asset class is for anyone that’s interested. That’s a great place to go to kind of dig in further and figure out if it is a very good fit for you.

    Erika (32:28)
    Yeah, that’s exciting. So is there a link that they should go to if they want to attend or how should they reach you?

    Brandon Schwab (32:37)
    Yeah, so either I could, so I will get that to you. And if you, as you guys post this, you just post it in the details. ⁓ But if you, the probably the easiest way is go to SPSL.fund and on the homepage, it’s a very easy clickable button and then you fill it out from there. But I will get you a direct link that you could post in the overall all podcast details. Now keep,

    in mind folks, we are only doing this call until we hit our target of $120 million. We currently have commitments of $40 million and we only have $80 million that is left. So we will be doing this every Thursday till we hit the $120 million total. And once we are full, we are gonna close it up, then people would have to join a waiting list. So hurry, don’t take forever.

    We anticipate doing it through the end of year into the first part of 2026, but after that we anticipate to be fully filled up. We have a combination of both family offices that invest and also private ⁓ folks as well. Doctors love what we’re doing because they get the asset class, right? Sometimes other people that don’t really get the asset class, have to kind of teach them on the asset class first.

    But it’s a very good opportunity because this is going to affect everyone that’s on here, right? There’s a fact that 70 % of folks in our country are going to need this type of care during their lifetime. So if it isn’t going to happen to you, it could happen to your partner. It could happen to their family, their parents. At the end of the day, it’s going to affect all of us. And if you want to have your parents

    or you live in a giant factory with giant hallways, or they treat you like cattle, then don’t do anything. If that isn’t a good option for you, I would definitely consider every folk on here to put, know, 20 % of your investment portfolio needs to include this asset class. One of the things I’ll cover on the call on Thursday is some history.

    history of how this asset class performed from 05 to 15. And I’ll give you a factual chart of how it performed as far as ROI ⁓ to investors from 05 to 15 to document how it compares to other asset classes that I feel are very popular today. A lot of people are talking on.

    different asset classes and you can just see how this performs compared to those during tough times. Because at the end of the day, I don’t really care how any asset class does when everything is going good. I wanna see how it performs when kind of things hit the fan. And the 2008 crash really tells you that. And from 05 to 15 gives you a good timeframe that includes a 2008 crash of how an asset class actually performs, right? In over 10 years, right?

    So it isn’t a fad, it’s a thing that’s there. And when people need care, they have oftentimes they’re gonna have their home and 38 % of our country owns their own home free and clear. And when you can use the home free and clear to pay for what we do in our homes, people find that that’s the biggest hurdle that they don’t think they can afford five to 8,000 each month.

    I’m going to tell everyone here and quote me on this by 2030, the price, if we don’t do anything to quickly change this, the price is going to get going at $10,000 per month. Because as you add 550,000 people that don’t have any place to go, the cost is just going to go up. And quote me on that by 2030, you’ll see starting prices at 10,000 per month.

    And the unfortunate part is the families throughout the country can’t pay for that, right? Or if they do, the value of their house is going to get chewed up so fast by 10,000 per month. So we have to jump in now, right? Before it gets too crazy. And the opportunity is today, not in 2030. We have to fix it today because unfortunately there isn’t enough capital going to this asset class.

    to fix that problem. I just read an article that estimated

    The cost for the 550,000 beds that are unmet is 275.

    with a B, billions, $275 billion to fix those beds. Now our fund isn’t gonna fix all that. We are only asking for 120 million, right? But we are gonna do our part to offer a cozy home option to give people that have the financing and the opportunity to pay for it a choice to choose a home.

    over a facility. And I guarantee you, when you see these two just side by side, it’s an easy choice. And on the call Thursday night, I take people through each, so up to two of our homes, or you can feel what they are on the inside. Very different. And it’s a very easy choice once you compare.

    Erika (38:24)
    Yeah, absolutely. mean, being, you know, chatting with you today, Brandon, mean, wow, wow. There’s, there’s a lot to take, take in here. And, ⁓ you know, I, I hope with you being on here that more people jump in on this opportunity because there there’s certainly a need for it. And there’s also such an opportunity for investors as well.

    Brandon Schwab (38:43)
    Thank you.

    Thank you. mean, yeah, so it is a huge opportunity. It’s a thing that is going to affect all of us. And it’s an opportunity for investors. So even if they just put 20 % of their overall investment portfolio into this asset class, it allows them to have a good asset class in there.

    And this is a hold for 10 years. This isn’t a hold for two years and flip it, right? And there is a reason for that that I will cover Thursday evening. So I’ll give you a hint. There’s a advantage piece of it that helps you when you’re in for five to 10 years, right? So I will cover that Thursday, but I found quite a few of our investors wanted a tax advantage and we figured out how to do that.

    So I will cover that Thursday evening, Thursday evenings as well. ⁓ But there is a cap on that as well, right? So that’s what causes people to get going quickly is that they want that tax piece, that tax advantage.

    Erika (40:02)
    Yeah, yeah. that tax advantage can make a big difference as well. Well, Brandon, I really appreciate you coming on the show sharing your time, your story and ⁓ how you’re transforming the real estate investing space with what you’re doing.

    Brandon Schwab (40:13)
    Thank you.

    Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I thank you for the

    Erika (40:22)
    and full.

    Brandon Schwab (40:29)
    to add the info. I hope that I have opened up eyes to folks that didn’t know that this overall asset class was out there and they could definitely think of it in the future and we could give them an easy option where they can.

    truly passively invest and be part of a huge future that is helping seniors coast to coast. So our aim is 300 homes by 2035, and then our aim is 3000 homes by 2045. So there’s an opportunity to be part of what we’re ⁓ by jumping in early. But I will tell you, it will fill up quickly. I’m aiming to fill this by the end of… ⁓

    the end of 2025. So, if you want, tax advantages. Thank you.

    Erika (41:25)
    For our listeners today, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pros podcast. We’ve got more conversations lined up with experts like Brandon who are out there building fantastic real estate businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.

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