How Sober Living Homes Became a Recession-Proof Real Estate Business | Jim Boad

Jim Boad (00:00)

And if you get into this for the right reasons and you find the right network and the right people and they’re out there, then you will be infinitely successful in this business and you will genuinely change lives. Because there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing somebody leave one of my homes.

with a job. I’ve had people leave that came to me with no teeth and wouldn’t look me in the eyes, that left with a smile and a handshake and a Chevy truck that was their dream truck headed across the country to go see their family they haven’t seen in 15 years because they alienated everyone they know and love because of drugs and alcohol. And now they’ve been sober for the longest time they’ve ever been sober as an adult. it’s life changing.

Scott Bursey (01:10)

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey Glad you’re with us. Today we’re joined by Jim Boad founder of Group Home Accelerator and Shelton Housing First. Jim spent years in single family investing, working flips, rentals, and new construction before he found the work he now calls

his passion Building and Running Sober Living Homes. Listeners, get ready for a straight talking conversation about housing that changes lives. And a corner of real estate most investors walk right past without ever seeing it. Jim, welcome to the show.

Jim Boad (01:53)

Super excited to be here.

Scott Bursey (01:54)

Excellent having you here. And to help our listeners get up to speed, please give us the ninety second highlight reel if you will, of how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Jim Boad (02:05)

Absolutely. after I got out of the army, which I just did my short little three-year stint, I had met my wife there. So that is what made me not want to be a lifer because I loved the military. We got into real estate investing. It was something that we could do together. We’ve loved working together. We’ve been together over 30 years now and worked together for about 27 of those. So we got into real estate investing and started doing fix and flips. I got a book called Buy It, Fix It, Flip It.

And it broke everything down very easily for me. And that was really my first introduction to coaching, even though it was through a book. And we started in the Metro Phoenix area, we did one, that one turned into two, those two turned into 10. And we had a full-blown real estate team, we had a full blown, construction team, and we were flipping like crazy. And then we got to hit that beautiful 07-08 market. I got very blessed that we had some foresight.

Because I was coaching and I was in a lot of groups and masterminds, and we were all seeing what was coming because real estate investing stopped making sense. It’s like, how can I buy a home today that’s distressed and sell it tomorrow for more money than what aftermarket repairs should be? it’s just the formula was gone. so during that time we moved up to Washington State, started just a real estate team, and did REOs. We sold, the foreclosed properties in that big wave of foreclosures. So

That downturn helped us survive. I hated what I did because it was literally three times the work for a quarter of the money. and we were working for the banks. So it wasn’t the most fun time I had in my career. And then a few years after that, about 2014, we started real estate investing again up here in Washington State. We started the BRRRR model. We were buying them, fixing them up, refinancing them, renting them out, and that went really, really good until COVID came.

COVID changed my whole world again. I was watching my whole portfolio go down. Everyone stopped paying rent seemingly overnight. I’d call and ask, hey, how can I help? Can we just get on a payment plan? And they just said, I don’t have to pay rent anymore. And there’s nothing you can do about it. And they weren’t wrong. So, in desperation, one night, I’m scrolling online. I don’t even know how I came across it. I came across this coaching program that talked about.

A recession proof business model called Group Homes. To me, it sounded really clinical. I didn’t really understand what it was, but I dug in. And one of those models in there was Sober Living And that really resonated with me just because my past, I do come from a family of addiction. And it’s stuck with me forever. It’s kept me out of addiction because I saw what I never wanted to do or be, but I always wanted to help and I never really knew how. And within a few weeks,

I started shifting my whole business model towards this and filling my homes. It happened insanely fast for me. I haven’t seen it happen that fast for anybody yet. But I was in that perfect storm. And, now today we’re up and we’re running. we’ve got fourteen of these homes actually active and going. And I’ve been doing Sober Living Homes for about four years now. And that’s where we are today.

Scott Bursey (04:59)

Thank you for sharing that, Jim. That gives us a great place to start. what really caught my attention about you, Jim, was the way you flipped the usual investor question. Instead of starting with what a house can earn, you started with who it can help. And then you built a real business around that answer. That order matters, and it changes every decision that comes after it. Taking that a step further.

What makes a Sober Living Home work?

Jim Boad (05:28)

What makes the Sober Living Homes work is structure. And it’s a very simple structure, but it’s a very intentional structure. And once that structure starts to fail, the whole home fails. And then you’re failing everyone in that home. And at the end of the day, the biggest thing that we work towards is protecting the people that are in our homes.

Scott Bursey (05:47)

What does a good house look like day to day?

Jim Boad (05:49)

A good house day-to-day looks like we have a lot of rules. So when people come into our home, they’re not coming there for housing, they’re coming there for structure. And because we only take people that are coming out of an inpatient drug clinic. Sober Living Homes aren’t a place to get sober. They’re that bridge that helps you stay sober till you’ve got the strength and fortitude to be able to remain sober on your own outside of the homes.

getting people back to society without drug addiction. And our homes look like our guys, get up, they go to meetings, we have house meetings, they have chore lists, lots of hangout and good mental downtime. and, we do lots of checkups on them and make sure everybody’s doing good. We help people try to get jobs when they’re ready, because not everybody’s ready to go back to work right away after recovery.

Scott Bursey (07:14)

That’s gold right there. Thank you for highlighting that. Talk to me about this, Jim. Where do new Group Home operators get tripped up first in your opinion?

Jim Boad (07:25)

I think the first place that trips most people up is one not understanding exactly what this is. I think the second thing is not understanding that this isn’t a regular rental where you can just throw a rental agent in it and they’re gonna deal with the majority of things for you. You really have to run this like a different style of business, and it really has to be a people-first business because the ultimate goal is we have to keep people sober. And then from there everything else flows.

into that normal state. But until you really have those rules, guidelines and models and systems in place, you’re gonna not do well in this. And most people look at this a little backwards, they’re either looking for a house before they’re looking for the relationships and making sure that this is gonna work in their area.

Scott Bursey (08:07)

what’s one piece of advice you would tell them before they open their first Sober Living Home

Jim Boad (08:14)

the biggest piece of advice I give anybody before they open their homes is making sure they’re doing it for the right reason. Cause if you’re just jumping into this for higher cash flow, which it is, the cash flow is ridiculous on these. But I’ve noticed in life, the more people you help, the more you actually get back, just as a byproduct, whether you’re trying to or not. so that’s the first metric in this. And then the second one is just making sure that people are coachable and ready to listen and follow models and systems, because there is a proven path for this.

Scott Bursey (08:42)

Jim, where do you think the biggest opportunity is right now for someone starting a Group Home today?

Jim Boad (08:48)

it’s almost everywhere right now because there’s a few spots in the country. The Denver area is a little oversaturated with this. They were ahead of it and I don’t know what sparked them to grow as robust as they did. But I don’t go almost anywhere else in the country and see that there’s not a need for this. And it doesn’t have to be a huge metropolitan city. I live in a town of about eleven thousand people and I’m able to run

fourteen plus homes and help hundreds of people at a time. So if you’re in a big city, the opportunity is even larger because there’s even more people that need your help.

Scott Bursey (09:21)

Let’s talk about the process. How do you find the right people to fill the homes?

Jim Boad (09:25)

Absolutely. And that starts with where I really start people down the first path of research. You need to research your area to make sure, because I do have a guy here even in Washington State, right in his backyard, there’s quite a few of these homes. It’s not oversaturated, but he goes 30 miles down the road to the next town and there’s almost none. So your research really matters. And what that research looks like is your continuum of cares, your nonprofits, your inpatient drug clinics.

Department of Corrections is a really big one for us as well because we work with people that are processing out of prison and coming back in. It’s called the re-entry. And they have to follow all the same rules and things like that as well. So it’s another really cool thing that mixes perfectly with the Sober Living Homes And really it’s that research and it’s most of those places that are gonna feed you because, like I said in the beginning, we’re not a rehab. So we need people coming to us after some level of established care.

and recovery.

Scott Bursey (10:59)

Switching gears, wondering what is the hardest pushback you get from neighbors or cities?

Jim Boad (11:05)

so cities normally it’s a lack of knowledge from the cities. they want to call us boarding homes, even in my town, we have a rule where you can’t have more than five people that aren’t related that live in a home together, but we do have specific rules and things that we run under the American with Disabilities Act that allow people in recovery to be able to be more than five people per home. And so educating the city is the biggest one, and it runs into that with the neighbors as well, because

These aren’t a slumlord-proof business. You can absolutely be a horrible operator and allow people to do drugs and not have curfews. But once I talk with the neighbors, because my biggest thing is talking to the neighbors. I don’t want to slip these in the middle of the night. And then now they’re finding out and the whole neighborhood’s talking about what it is and making things up, where I like to knock on doors and say, this is what I’m doing. We’re here for recovery. Here’s my personal phone number. If you have a problem, call me.

But we have curfews. we have 10 o’clock, quiet hours and lights out. you’re not allowed to do drugs. We’re not allowed to work on cars in the yard. You have to maintain the yard. So ultimately, over time, we become one of their best neighbors. And what once they start to see that and understand what we’re doing and the true mission, it does change that. So hearts and minds, but you’ve got to change them because in their mind, you’re bringing drug addicts into their neighborhood, you’re bringing criminals into their neighborhood.

They’re gonna be up all night partying and it’s just not the case with the well run Sober Living

Scott Bursey (12:29)

And that’s a winning recipe. A well-run silver living home. Jim, please tell us, what does Group Home Accelerator look like a year from now?

Jim Boad (12:39)

it has been such a wild ride. I started Group Home Accelerator at the beginning of the year. And what it is I lay out the roadmap for people on how to start these businesses. And it’s pretty intense and I’m absolutely involved in your dealing directly with me and my wife. My wife works in this business with me and we run two different sides of it. I run the top-end business aspect of it, and my wife actually runs the homes. So you’re getting the down and dirty boots on the ground, and you’re getting that higher level actual.

business aspect of it. And we really help and take you by the hand and take you from the very first step to making sure this works in your area, helping you identify, inpatient clinics and things like that are going to feed your home. We help you find the right style of home. We help you work through that. Cause I work with a lot of people that have never even bought a home. And the cool thing is you don’t actually even have to buy a home. I help most people rent homes to do this. So it becomes a whole nother

cool thing for the economy because now there’s a real estate investor, there’s an operator, there’s all the people you’re helping. and then I take you all the way through to having a full home and then scaling and beyond.

Scott Bursey (13:39)

I guess the big question is who are you hoping to help next?

Jim Boad (13:43)

Absolutely. And I’ve got two avatars that we look at in this. like I was saying, there’s that investor avatar and then there’s that heart first avatar. And really it’s right in the middle that it is the sweet spot because if you’re just looking to get into this business for the sweet cash flow, this is not the business for you. It’s not going to work well for you. You’re not going to run the homes properly. And if you just care about people but don’t look at this as a business.

you’re gonna fail as well because at the end of the day, you do have bills to pay and you have to pay bills on this. And it takes a lot from you. So you should make a good living as well. And that is a beautiful byproduct of this business when it’s run right, that you get to help more people than you ever could imagine. And you actually get to make more than you would if you were doing just a one-off individual rental.

Scott Bursey (14:27)

That’s good stuff right there. Jim, if you could describe for our listeners, what does your professional network look like right now and what sort of value have you achieved by being in the right rooms with like-minded individuals during the course of your career?

Jim Boad (14:42)

Absolutely. My network now is smaller than it’s ever been just because I’m in an industry a lot of people don’t know about or understand. So it’s growing and I’m working hard to keep it growing. From my past, though, I believe heavily in coaching, training, getting into network groups, doing masterminds, going to almost anything that you can in the beginning. And then, you can filter it down to what works best for you. But right now it’s been tough because

There are a lot of recovery type events that happen, but they’re not as much about teaching you how to start and run these things as it is about some best practices in the homes and with the people that are in the homes. So it’s growing for me now, but my intent is to bring a lot more awareness to this and a lot more great rooms for people to step into to actually learn how to do this more and be with people that are doing this.

Scott Bursey (15:30)

Your network really is your net worth.

Jim Boad (15:32)

Absolutely.

Scott Bursey (15:33)

Jim, let’s dive deep. If someone’s listening and wants to open their first Group Home and do it right. Not fast. Right. What is the first move they should make?

Jim Boad (15:44)

Absolutely. And what’s beautiful about that is you can have that speed with the proper process. So the first thing you really should do, in my opinion, is you need to reach out and you need to get some help. you need to find some level of coaching. You need to either pick up some books because there is a sea of information out there. And with AI right now, it’s ridiculous how much you can find. the value that I bring to people isn’t the information, it’s the process.

that I bring to them that is more than that. And AI has never kicked somebody out of a home in the middle of the night. AI has never had to Narcan somebody. So, that’s the first step I tell everybody, whether it’s reaching out to me or someone else in the industry that can help you, that will save you years and infinite amounts of money. So that’s the biggest step I tell people. And then really the basic three step process to open these quickly and

properly is doing your research on the front end, finding the right home, and then having the right rules, and guidelines.

Scott Bursey (16:38)

That’s some incredible advice. And Jim, you really have given us a lot of great insight today on your niche. But is there any additional words, a golden nugget or two that you would like to leave with our listeners?

Jim Boad (16:52)

Well, this is an industry that needs operators. It needs people so severely. I can’t even express that enough. And you gotta get into this for the right reasons.

And if you get into this for the right reasons and you find the right network and the right people and they’re out there, then you will be infinitely successful in this business and you will genuinely change lives. Because there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing somebody leave one of my homes.

with a job. I’ve had people leave that came to me with no teeth and wouldn’t look me in the eyes, that left with a smile and a handshake and a Chevy truck that was their dream truck headed across the country to go see their family they haven’t seen in 15 years because they alienated everyone they know and love because of drugs and alcohol. And now they’ve been sober for the longest time they’ve ever been sober as an adult. it’s life changing.

So I know that’s not the nugget that I think some people are looking for.

But it’s the nugget that I think really it affects everyone.

Scott Bursey (17:47)

And that’s a powerful nugget. One more thing before we wrap, Jim. You wrote the book called Group Home Accelerator. Can you tell our listeners about it?

Jim Boad (17:58)

Absolutely. it’s basically the outline of my coaching program that we do. And it starts you exactly from A to Z on how to open these homes and it really takes you by the hand and walks you through it. And, some fun stories in there and some fun things, but really it’s a nice little field manual on how to start and run a Group Home

Scott Bursey (18:16)

That’s one our listeners need to know about. Jim, for our listeners that want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you on future deals perhaps. What’s the best way for them to plug into your pipeline and reach you directly?

Jim Boad (18:31)

Absolutely. I’m on pretty much all social medias and then just my name, jimboad.com is my website and that guides you to all the things that I offer and to even just my YouTube videos and things where I try to give as many tips and nuggets as I can on a regular basis.

Scott Bursey (18:47)

Jim, thank you for joining us today on the Real Estate Pros podcast.

Jim Boad (18:51)

It was amazing. Thank you.

Scott Bursey (18:53)

It’s been an absolute master class. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like Jim Boad who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.