How to Start a Profitable Supportive Housing Business for Veterans and Seniors

Gary Travis (00:00)
I think it all it all starts with the why right in the beginning. Are you doing it for the right reasons first and foremost? Because with this model, as long as you do your homework, you get your referral base down, you’re networking, you’re communicating effectively, it’s gonna work in every market. So you can have a rental property and you can enjoy your $100, $200 a month or just breaking even, or you can actually have some real returns and have a why behind it.

You know, there’s so many investors out there that you have so many doors, no idea who’s living in any of them. You know, what if you have a success story and be like, hey, we’re actually making a difference here?

Scott Bursey (02:07)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast, powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And today we’re joined by Gary Travis, the founder of Guardian Grounds Homes. Gary isn’t just an investor, he’s a Marine Corps combat veteran, a firefighter, and former law enforcement officer who has spent his entire life dedicated to the service of others. Today we’re diving into how he leverages that same dedication to create supportive housing for veterans.

Seniors and justice impacted individuals. Get ready, pros, because Gary’s gonna show us how exactly to scale a business while building a legacy of service. Gary, welcome to the show.

Gary Travis (02:47)
No, the bigger.

Scott Bursey (02:47)
It is an honor to have you here, Gary. And for our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please tell us how did your career become ignited and where are you pouring your fuel now?

Gary Travis (02:58)
So it really started from after high school and during high school. I was always the guy that people came to with problems. So my level of service really started at a young age. After high school, I joined the Marine Corps. I was an explosive dog handler with multiple combat tours to Afghanistan. After getting out of the military, I then, you know, pursued law enforcement, which was a natural kind of movement out of the military into law enforcement. And at about ten year mark, I transitioned into firefighting.

And during that time of just service, I always felt I’m always I’m putting a band-aid on things. And it was just this constant reminder and the the same faces that you would see coming into jail or coming to courts, and you’re like, Am I really giving that whole continuum of care? You know, we’re we’re serving a purpose and you know, the job has to get done. But if there’s something that I can do to maybe stop that recidivism, to maybe not see that person.

Come back into the jail and actually see them integrate with their family. So that sparked a interest in real estate and how to create that bond. Because I was looking for it’s lack of community and it’s lack of safe and affordable housing. So can I produce that? Can I create that? And do I have the energy and the drive to do it? And I was like, I do. So Garden Grounds Home was born after.

I went down to Dallas, Texas for an event. It was actually a real estate entrepreneur event. I stayed in a hostel and backpacked in each day. And I called my wife on the third day and I was like, We’re gonna do something different. And I don’t know what it is, but it’s time time to start doing research. And soon after that, Gardener Grounds Home is born. Me and my wife started it and here we are.

Scott Bursey (04:35)
That’s an incredibly powerful journey, Gary. And what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to bridge the gap between high-level real estate investing and a mission-driven model that directly addresses the housing needs of those who have served our country and our communities. Your story is inspiring.

Gary Travis (05:42)
Thank you. And it’s you know, it really came from a level of passion. And it’s finding that why behind what you’re doing. And anything that I’ve ever gotten into, I need to have that component, that component of what is the why? And is there a hill behind that? Because the hill is also that driving point that I’m constantly looking for. It’s like what is the next challenge? What is the next thing that we can take on and conquer? And the housing, ⁓ it initially started with veterans. I was like, okay, let’s help veterans.

But then coming from law enforcement background, I’m like, well, we also want to help out the re-entry community. And then I got into, I just want to help out dudes. I just want to help out guys, you know, various backgrounds. A lot of it centralizes on trauma. And, you know, I I like to say, you know, trauma doesn’t have a face. You don’t know what it is or where it comes from. But, you know, a lot of the same things that we bring into these homes help with that trauma and help with getting people back on their feet.

Scott Bursey (06:37)
And your passion truly resonates, Gary. We’re interested to hear your perspective on what do you see as your biggest strength in balancing the high touch human element of your housing mission with the hard numbers of real estate investing?

Gary Travis (06:50)
I think what we bring to the table is a little different. There, you know, if you look online, there’s a lot of different housing. There’s sober living, there’s co-living, you know, various forms of group homes. But we didn’t come into this just wanting to make money and this is just a business. This was a passion that is creating a platform to be able to replicate this in a business mindset also. So we have two different minds that we have to work at the same time.

But that why and that commitment to the individual is the one that brings that balance. Because in we we’ve traveled and seen so many different homes and you see the ones that are just business. You see the ones that are just the paycheck. You see those. But because we came into this without caring about the money and just wanting to help people and bring that passion and bring that why. And I’m still working full time as a firefighter. So we’re we’re gonna be good.

We’re gonna grow this at the rate that we wanna grow it and you know we’re just excited.

Scott Bursey (07:46)
That balance of heart and dedication is clearly the winning recipe that makes your model work. Thank you for highlighting that. And Gary, curious to know, looking under the hood of the business, when it comes to operating in the specialized supportive housing space, what’s one operational challenge that you’re most focused on to optimize?

Gary Travis (08:07)
think it’s it’s building the the relationships. The housing, you know, it comes and goes with your referral base. And if you only stick with one base, you’re not gonna outlast it because grant funding can get cut out sometimes. We can see in the political spectrum, there’s a lot of fundings that are getting cut left and right. And you know, sometimes the future is unknown for a lot of these big organizations that have been doing it for a long time. And you know, generally that’s a trusted resource.

that you know you’re gonna get, you know, people you’re gonna get referrals. So just you knowing that and realizing we went from veterans, but now we’re in the re-entry space. And now we’re also in the senior space because a lot of seniors they can’t afford apartments. They can only afford a bed and they just want a couple of dudes to watch football on Sunday. And it’s like that’s a community we want to help with also. So having multiple referral streams is really the key to success.

And this and if you pigeonhole yourself in just just one, you know, you’re really really taking your chances.

Scott Bursey (09:07)
That makes total sense. Great insight. And Gary, digging a bit deeper into the market, with the current market shifts, where do you see the biggest opportunity to expand Guardian Grounds homes and serve more of those in need?

Gary Travis (09:56)
I see there’s there’s definitely a different models. There are different models to this type of housing. There’s the apartment complex, there’s the the house where they’re putting twelve people in a three bedroom, two bath, and they’re converting a closet into a room. You know, the style that we’re kind of creating is bringing that humanity back to affordable housing. It’s almost like the modern day affordable housing for Airbnb. So that’s the kind of model we want to bring. We want to bring

A nice house and a nice area. We want clean walls, clean beds, everything you should build a show with a backpack and live completely fine. Just like an Airbnb mod. And if it’s there for two months or six months, or we don’t even have a cap on how long people stay. So the first house that we started, it was supposed to be a six-bed. It was a three-bedroom. We converted to a four-bedroom, two-bath. And after about a couple months, none of the guys want to leave.

And they all want to have private rooms because they want to stand for a long time. It’s like, awesome, let’s do that. So being able to be independent and have that, you know, the ability to flux between different ideas and be like, You guys all want to stay here? Okay, we’ll get another house. You know, some of these programs is six months and you’re gone. Six months your funding, gone. So we’ve stuck with kind of the private pay side of it. We’re looking into different contracts.

different referral streams, but really our strength is in our independence and our not needing to force it because I am working full time. So we’re able to grow this naturally without having those barriers or we have to make the rent. We have to make this. And now you’re you’re putting people in these beds that maybe need a higher level of care. But you’re fitting them in your bed ’cause you have to. So we have the luxury of being able to do that at this point. And

Growth for us. I mean, anyone knows in California across the nation, affordable housing is one of the biggest ticket items. Homeless veterans, you know, just individuals on the street. So the ability to grow this, I think in the right way, is huge because there’s a lot of wrong ways of doing it. That has been getting funding from the government for such a long time. You know, we’re here to push them out and be like, no, we can do this better. This be a better model.

You know, let’s bring back decency and caring for the individual back to affordable housing.

Scott Bursey (12:14)
Spot on, finding those niches where the mission meets market demand is brilliant. And you spoke of your model. Where do you see Guardian ground homes in the next, let’s say, twelve to twenty-four months?

Gary Travis (12:26)
the twenty-four months, once we get our second house stabilized, I mean, it’s changing every day. I mean, ⁓ we just came back from vacation, already had meetings set up for the rest of this week of because bringing this model out now, all these real estate investors are like, I want to know more. Tell me more about this. I’m I’m sick of my rental property and fixing toilets. It’s like I have an opportunity, you know, but it’s it’s for the right cause and it’s for the right opportunity.

partnering with the right people that don’t look at people as a paycheck. It’s like there’s still people out there that actually care, but it’s finding them and being able to bring this to light. So the next year, 24 months, it could change tomorrow. I mean we’ve we’ve bridged the two homes in six months, but we also don’t want to grow so fast that we outgrow our capability to keep that core value of what we have. So it’s patience

which is the opposite of what I’m built for. I’m not built for patience. But getting into this real estate investing world, it’s definitely something that I’ve learned, you know, through scars and trials and tribulations. But it’s definitely ⁓ made me a better person for it.

Scott Bursey (13:33)
I love that framing. Looking at the landscape ahead, from your vantage point as a specialized operator, what threats are you keeping an eye on that could impact the affordable or supportive housing sector?

Gary Travis (13:45)
I think it’s just keeping the reputation alive and keeping our model protected from the ones out there that are doing it for the wrong reasons. Because you hear about supportive housing, immediately a majority of the people they think, it’s a flop house. This is gonna be a house on the street that ruins the whole place. Like you would never know in our house that there’s multiple people living in there.

‘Cause we go we do a multiple tier process interviewing individuals. And if someone’s not the right fit for the house, they’re not going to come into our house. We’re not going to also just put them out on the street. We’ll re-refer them out to maybe a higher level or someone that needs a little extra supervision in their form of their recovery. It’s really dependent on where they’re at in their journey. And we try to meet them there and we don’t want to set them up for failure by bringing them in knowing that it’s not the right environment for them.

Scott Bursey (15:17)
Spot on. And Gary wanted to ask about the investor side of things. How do you measure the ROI of a project that is inherently social impact driven while still keeping your partners and investors excited about the returns?

Gary Travis (15:31)
I think it all it all starts with the why right in the beginning. Are you doing it for the right reasons first and foremost? Because with this model, as long as you do your homework, you get your referral base down, you’re networking, you’re communicating effectively, it’s gonna work in every market. So you can have a rental property and you can enjoy your $100, $200 a month or just breaking even, or you can actually have some real returns and have a why behind it.

You know, there’s so many investors out there that you have so many doors, no idea who’s living in any of them. You know, what if you have a success story and be like, hey, we’re actually making a difference here?

We’re actually bringing people off the street, seeing them turn their life around, reintegrating with their family. I mean, if that doesn’t get you fired up, I don’t know what does. So being able to bring that with, you know, we’ve obviously been through a pandemic and but affordable housing’s not going anywhere. And if you’re able to produce it.

without having leverage of you know having a grant over your head that you have to meet and it gets wiped out from underneath you. That’s a lot a lot of the programs fail. You know, they’re slowly dependent on things getting renewed every couple of years. But with our private pay model, we’re able to fill those gaps. We’re able to fill those beds when other places can’t, you know, but we also work on those referrals and partnerships to have that multiple stream effect. So

It’s consistency. It’s being able to let them know you never have to fix a toilet again. And you don’t have to pay pay a property management company, you know, so much every month to repair things at four times the cost. You know, we take care of all repairs up to about five hundred dollars. We’re in the house every week. We’re actively fixing toilets. I grew up plumbing. You never have to worry about a toilet. We’ll take care of it. And our response time is definitely better than anyone else.

Scott Bursey (17:16)
Do you find that your investors are more aligned with the mission than they are with the standard ROI metrics?

Gary Travis (17:23)
I think in the partnership so far, ⁓ luckily starting off with this, we haven’t needed any investors. This has been, you know, bootstrops, bootstraps, homegrown since the beginning, self-funded, haven’t taken out any loans. ⁓ luckily we’re able to leverage properties that we already had and family connections. So we haven’t bridged into needing an investor. But the one thing that I want to bring to an investor is a proven track record, a reputation.

and a drive that it’s gonna get done no matter what. And I think with my background and family support and what we’re doing and what we’re building, it shows and echoes that across the way.

Scott Bursey (18:00)
absolutely. It most certainly does show. And Gary, you’ve dedicated your life to service from the battlefield to the front lines of fire and law enforcement. And now to real estate. If a fellow veteran or first responder is sitting on the sidelines, nervous about taking their first step into real estate investing, what is the most critical mindset shift or strategic step they must take today to ensure that transition is successful and

Sustainable.

Gary Travis (18:29)
I think a lot of it is also remembering what you’ve done and where you come from and the training that you’ve been through. There’s so often, especially in the military community and the first responder community, we forget all the things that we’ve already done. You know, we’re always behind, we’re always behind the ball and we’re constantly trying to climb the hill. And it’s like every once in a while look behind you and see what you’ve already done and see, you know, into the future and what you’re able to create. And also understanding there’s a community out there.

That will support you. The veteran community in entrepreneurship through Warrior Rising through a lot of these different organizations, it’s a Google search away to a lot of you know different resources that are ready to help you out, especially in the real estate community. They’re all over, but you have to say yes, you have to step forward. And we’re not gonna, you’re not doing this in a non-controlled manner. You’re not, you know, come up with your plan.

All the things that you’ve learned about planning, preparation, keeping it simple, you’re just doing it again.

Scott Bursey (19:27)
Spot on. Gary, it’s apparent that you’re you put a high level of emphasis on networking. Are you part of any peer groups, networking groups, social groups, investment groups, anything of that variety?

Gary Travis (19:39)
⁓ currently right now it’s all ⁓ local in a sense. So there’s a veteran entrepreneur tribe, there’s all these real estate networking events. I mean, you throw a rock, you’re gonna hit a real estate event out here, and they’re free to go into. And these are people that want to do things. They want to do deals, they want to meet you and know what you’re doing. And once I start telling them about what we’re doing, they’re like, tell me more. And you just immediately made a friend. So a lot of it is just.

Getting yourself out there, communicating, going into these veteran groups. I’m also in a Syracuse University does a veteran program for entrepreneurs. ⁓ also did the Warrior Rising programs. So really it’s just getting out there, use your AI generation of things. What do I need to do? Who do I need to talk to? And how do I need to create this? And I mean, the path is there, but you gotta walk it.

Scott Bursey (20:29)
That’s a huge distinction. And Gary, you have given us just a tremendous amount of value here today. Is there any additional advice you’d like to leave with our pros?

Gary Travis (20:39)
I think it is. I mean, if you’re gonna do it, do it now. I mean, it’s same thing going from law enforcement into firefighting. Everyone thought I was crazy. Everyone thought, like, what are you doing? There’s no way you can start over. I did. Was it hard? Yes. So that that’s part of the excitement. The part of the i anything easy in my eyes is not worth doing. You know, it’s not a hill. That’s the hill I wanna go up. So once I get to the top, I’m ready for the next thing. And then in firefighting I started, you know.

You have more time off. The schedule is different. You work a lot of hours, you know, one after another. So you’re able to have a couple other days off that you normally didn’t have in law enforcement. And then, you know, this real estate mission started and it’s like, no, I could do both. You know, but it’s just prioritizing, making sure family is first. You know, definitely in the beginning, you start you get down this tunnel vision route and you just need to take on, knock all the walls down.

And then you look back and you’re like, ⁓ okay. Well, I gotta remember to go get my family and bring them with me. So a lot of those things, you know, talking with other people that have done this, you know, they’ll definitely help you along the way, you know, letting you know where the the shortcomings are gonna come, where you’re gonna be falling. But you know, you just gotta do it.

Scott Bursey (21:50)
If I’m hearing you correctly, be proactive and follow your heart.

Gary Travis (21:54)
Exactly. You you can’t go wrong with that. You know, if you have a why behind what you’re doing, if you’re, you know, lost, remember what your values are. Remember why you got into this. Why is there that feeling inside of you that’s pulling you towards that? Don’t forget that. Lean into that. You know, I’ve had a my journey into faith in the last couple of years and every time I turn a corner, it’s showing it right in front of me. What are you gonna do next? This is what we’ve talked about.

You know, what is your ministry? What are you creating? And I mean, that’s been the drive that I’ve been running with, you know, for so long. And, you know, by me leaning into my faith, that’s also that platform that helps me reflect on what I’m doing to remember what I’ve how I’ve gotten here and where we can go with this.

Scott Bursey (22:38)
That is so powerful. Gary, this has been pure gold. And for those of our listeners that want want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to plug into your pipeline and reach you directly?

Gary Travis (22:53)
I think just check us out online. We have a referral pipeline through there, Guardian Grounds Homes. We’re on Instagram, we’re on Facebook. Really just introduction. I mean, the best conversations I’ve had were start off with just no idea what we’re gonna talk about or where our connection lies. But the more we talk about the more we see it, you know, that’s that’s how it starts. Start a connection. Hey, how can we help each other? How can I help you? Because that’s the biggest thing I think.

in growing Guardian Grounds Homes is I’m also been able to have this conversation with so many different demographics and so many different organizations. When I have a conversation with someone like, I need to get you connected with other people. I can’t I have nothing you know to help you out, but I know the people you need to get in contact with. And without that conversation, they would never have had those connections. So my biggest asset is the networking that we’ve done.

And the willingness to want to give that out to anybody.

Scott Bursey (23:50)
It’s about serving others.

Gary Travis (23:52)
Got that right.

Scott Bursey (23:52)
Gary, thank you for joining us today. This has been an incredible conversation.

Gary Travis (23:57)
Thank you for having me.

Scott Bursey (23:58)
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 Gary Travis, 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 on the next episode, everyone.