Senior Housing Investment Opportunities: How Baby Boomers Are Reshaping Real Estate

Sherri Combs (00:00)
we know that it’s about three hundred thousand dollars per door to build new.

we know that the cost of care minimum for a family starts at $5,000 and that’s for the lightest care possible. As their care becomes more, anything to do with memory or they need a little bit more assistance with showers or bathing, anything like that, the care can be as high as $18,000 per month right now on average. And that’s at existing prices where these homes that have been built have been in existence for 10, 20 years.

Cody Crabb (02:02)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Cody Crabb, and today I’m talking to Sherri Combs, founder of Silver Streak Senior Services in Dallas, Fort Worth area, we’re gonna be talking about how America’s aging population could reshape housing and real estate and a whole lot more. Sherri, thanks so much for for coming on the the show today. We really appreciate it.

Sherri Combs (02:22)
thank you so much for having me, Cody. I love your show. Appreciate being here very much. Thank you.

Cody Crabb (02:26)
So your your business is is not necessarily real estate adjacent. However, you bring this kind of unique perspective that I think is really interesting. first of all, introduce yourself and and the platform a little bit and then we can get into that. I just got so excited, I just dove right over that. So yeah, feel feel free. tell us about what you do and what your what the platform does.

Sherri Combs (02:47)
Absolutely. So Silver Streak Senior Services is a platform with three pillars in it. Think of it like a nationwide directory. seniors and caregivers, families could find go on there to find their local government and charities. They can go on there in any state across the United States. They can find expert resources and articles and a little bit of celebrating seniors in the spotlight. They can also find service providers. These are the

Backbone of every community: the painters, the plumbers, the electricians, the realtors, the mobile notaries, the caregivers, the hospice, the physical therapy, all 170 categories of service providers, and there more coming on every day. And the idea is that we make stronger communities when we can help make the good guys easier to find.

And we background check them, we license and verify them, we reputation check, so we interview every person before they go live on our platform. That way we make sure that that, you know, you’re not sending a felon to your grandma’s house to clean out our gutters when you need help and you can’t be there to do it yourself.

Cody Crabb (03:56)
Yeah, well and and that’s like you said, I mean it’s it’s you just never know. You never know who who people are. And the the idea that someone could kind of have this extra layer of really, I mean, it’s not a huge layer, but that would deter most people from that have any sort of bad intentions. So

Sherri Combs (04:14)
The search engines we use today are really data mining. That’s what they were created for. They kind of fell into directory by accident. So they they are registered as data mining companies. So that’s their primary thing they want to do. the rest of it just sort of happened to fall. But the toothpaste is sort of out of the tube. They can’t really put it back in now. And now you can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys in any search engine anymore because there really isn’t much vetting.

Cody Crabb (04:40)
let’s talk about Thumbtack just as a as a way to frame it. So Thumbtack is a business that on on its face seems pretty similar to yours. They have a directory, you go online, you pick a person, they they come to you. Now tell me how operationally you they operate differently than than yours.

Sherri Combs (04:58)
Yes, so Thumbtack, you can you can list on Thumbtack free, but what happens is when I go on ThumbTech as a consumer and I say I’m looking for a mobile notary, ThumbTech sells that lead now to the three notaries. And so my lead and for my information was just given to three notaries and I’ve got three notaries calling me, pinging me, doing stuff because they have to pay for that lead generation whether they get it or not.

Right. So they set a budget. It might be $45 a week, $45 a day, $45 a month. But it’s you the minimum, I think, is $15 a lead. Angie’s list is $65 a lead to the contractor minimum. And you may or may not get it. So now you have a hard sell to not lose your $65 or your $15 or whatever your budget was set at. The higher you set your budget, the less people they sell it to. Right. So if you’re gonna pay $150 a lead, you might get it to be the only lead.

But as a consumer, how do I know who’s supposed to be calling me? And anybody could call up and say, I’m calling from did you call looking for this? And you know, randomly they could do that because it doesn’t tell me. And my information has now been sold to other people and it’s become a bidding more. It’s not really, it’s a great money grab, but it’s not really fair to the business owner or the consumer. It guarantees nothing. So we wanted to take that model.

Aside and just a very nominal monthly rate. Our lead capture is more like if somebody’s hovering over the site, there’s a pop-up that says, Would you like them to call you? They can go on the links. We create beautiful landing pages for them. So it’s everything you wish it was, the way to search for things. No hard sell, but we do lots to promote and highlight our vendors in local communities as well.

So there’s a lot of promotion for them. It’s not just to sit on our website and wait for people to find you. It’s we’re we’re actively promoting you in lots of ways, not just on social media, but on TV, direct mail, sponsorships of fraud education network classes inside senior centers. So there’s lots and lots of ways for us to drive consumer awareness to you. And we we because we vet you and they our customers, our seniors know it and the caregivers know it, we try.

we collapse the trust to consumer life cycle in nanoseconds. It’s they instantly know they can trust you and and that’s a great relationship to have out of the gate.

Cody Crabb (08:15)
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, that’s what a that’s a great explanation.

I’d love to hear kind of your perspective on how things are gonna change over the next, let’s say, ten years, as far as demographic shifts and and how that’s gonna affect real estate.

Sherri Combs (08:29)
Yeah. I wrote a book about that called The Just In Case Plan. And the first three chapters are dedicated to the demographic shift. It’s won four awards so far, including one for social change from Indy, from the Indy Association, which is kind of a huge award. it was really warm my heart to see that they are recognizing that we need to pay attention. And in that book, I talk about how in the year 2030, for the all every baby boomer.

Will have reached the age of 65. And from that point going forward, we are going to see that there are more seniors in the United States than there will be children for the first time ever in our United States history. And it will continue that way for the next three to four decades. Our birth rate has slowed, and the seniors are there, and we’re gonna see a huge shift in our demographic. Japan went through it, other Netherlands went through it.

Other people have gone through it and we are, as a nation, woefully ill-prepared for that.

Cody Crabb (09:33)
Yeah, I think I I think I heard from another guest that there needs to be something like seven hundred thousand more beds or something by the end of the decade. And we are like the most we’ve ever built in a year is like twenty thousand or something like that. So yeah, that’s that’s scary. That’s that’s crazy. you know, we’ve we’ve had some guests that talk about things opportunities such as opening things like care homes and and and places like that. but you brought up something interesting that I’d never even thought about, which is

sometimes the the actual design of how people are building n both both new constructions and and how they’re renovating or remodeling is changing. And it’s there there’s kind of an interesting shift there. And this is something I’d never heard. So I I definitely would love for you to to talk to talk to us a little bit about that.

Sherri Combs (10:24)
Yeah.

So we know that it costs about in sitting in rooms with some of the biggest CEOs across the country of s of assisted living communities, we know that it’s about three hundred thousand dollars per door to build new.

we know that the cost of care minimum for a family starts at $5,000 and that’s for the lightest care possible. As their care becomes more, anything to do with memory or they need a little bit more assistance with showers or bathing, anything like that, the care can be as high as $18,000 per month right now on average. And that’s at existing prices where these homes that have been built have been in existence for 10, 20 years.

The new ones at the new prices are going to price us right out of that. And builders know that. And staffing is also a problem. So, how do we care for an aging population that’s going to dwarf society when there’s no, then there’s a lack of homes? We’re already at 95% capacity. And staffing is a real big issue. So you could have the best long-term care insurance in the world for going into a facility, but you might not have a bed in the facility. You might not have a place to put your parents or

Or your spouse if if they become a lot to handle. So how do we get those resources in the home and how do we make our home and modify our homes to accommodate that? So what we’re seeing a shift in, knowing that that might not be the answer, the solution to this, is we’re seeing multi-generational homes come into existence right now. Lots of multi-generation, two living rooms, two master bedrooms, one’s definitely downstairs, and sometimes one upstairs.

So you have a little bit of a separation and privacy there for a while. But we’re seeing a lot of multi-generational homes or remodels being built. Certainly now people need to think about adding shower bars and just different things. You can put them in very decoratively so that they’re still there and they don’t look so institutional, you know, when we think about that. We think, I don’t want this big ugly shower bar or you know, whatever. But you can make them beautiful, right? Nice chrome swoops and stuff like that. I did that in my own bathroom because

We’re not getting any younger, right? It’s coming for all of us, right? And so to prepare for that and have that capability is is good. People do want to stay in their own homes for as long as they can. Seniors do as independently as possible. And that’s why I created Silver Streak to make help seniors do just that, but then also to help the caregivers that that are now.

didn’t think they would be a caregiver, but have no choice because they either can’t afford it or can’t get them into a home or there’s nothing available, or perhaps their their parent was a victim of fraud and they don’t have the resources now to pay for what they had planned for their whole life. We see a lot of that, three and a half billion dollars a year in fraud of seniors alone, going right out of this this country every single year. And that’s widely underreported.

Cody Crabb (14:02)
and something that you mentioned before too is it’s it this if the fraud affects everybody, but one of the reasons that seniors are affected kind of at a higher not necessarily a higher rate, but like they tend to you tend to hear stories like this. it’s there’s all kinds of technology involved and not saying that no seniors use a use technology, but I’ve taught my mom how to use a smart TV and let me tell you, there are there’s issues there. No, it yeah, it can be. And and the other thing too, like you said, any not only can anybody fall for it to

Things are changing so fast with AI and it’s so convincing. I’m a video editor and I’m like literally I may not have a job in a couple of years because it’s it’s doing that. So I feel that very much. That’s that’s very important to to call that out as well.

I find this really interesting because usually when we’re talking about real estate, we’re talking about real estate from a real estate perspective. We’re in in this conversation, we’re talking about real estate from

somebody who’s seen the the shifts and stuff, but not necessarily like someone that’s in the in the game of real estate. One thing I’d love to hear is so let’s say somebody is looking at their local demographics, they they find that they’re gonna have a lot of seniors that are probably going that are starting to move to their area or that they’re they are just for whatever reason they are predicting that. What are a handful of things that

someone could add to a a rentable home or a rentable living space that would be things that might catch the eye of of potential tenants that that could be good value adds for that.

Sherri Combs (15:36)
So I think one of the things that I entertained for a while before I decided to build this nationwide platform was renovating the home into a adult daycare.

type thing because a lot of times we have working people, executives, we have the sandwich generation, those caught between their careers and raising a young family and now having to care for an aging parent. And we never know when that’s going to affect us. You know, your parents could be 70 years old and feel like they’re in the peak of health, but they could have an accident, a stroke. I mean, it could change it

Cody Crabb (16:07)
So fast.

Sherri Combs (16:08)
so fast. And so then what do they do?

Where’s those resources? Where do they go? So having that at their fingertips is important, but having that plan in place. So, you know, you can’t, if they’re not ambulatory and able to get rides and things like that to like a senior center themselves, you can’t just park them there all day. Those aren’t really accommodating for that. There that’s really for a little bit more spry senior. If you have anybody that needs any kind of help.

then I would say if you’re looking for those opportunities, that’s a really good opportunity. Overnight services require a lot more regulation. You have to have one attendant for every eight people that you have. so you have to have a full-time attendant for that. But you do an overnight is highly, highly, highly regulated and they’re really cracking down on that because they’ve seen some neglect there as well.

And so, but an adult daycare is something that is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. So you would want a quiet room, you know, you would want to have bathrooms that have accommodations with the higher toilets because it is harder on the knees to go down that far, right? you want want grab bars to be able to pull themselves up and to be more independent. you might want to have

things for like you know the door alarms if a door gets opened, you know, you’re aware of it, things like that. an open kitchen type facility where you have, you know, you could do cooking classes. You want to, it’s required that if you’re going to do a daycare, that you have activities for seniors. You don’t just park them in front of a television. So you have a place, you might have that two living room structure where one is a little more TV and puzzles and card games and lively and one where it’s a little more quiet where the

the quilters and the soft music and you know that kind of thing, maybe want to go, right? so you and and you need to really look at that. But it is much easier to do an adult daycare maybe open seven to seven than it would be to do an overnight. And and there’s definitely a need for that because busy executives want their parents not just sitting home all day because when your parents

cognitive abilities to start to shift a little bit. It can be dangerous to have them cooking, leaving the water on, leaving the stove on, leaving a candle on. And it’s just easy to do. How many times do we find ourselves doing that, you know, in our 40s or 50s or 60s, where we’re like, what did I walk in this room for?

Cody Crabb (18:42)
Well and not to mention the fact that that it’s it’s not like it’s only dangerous after you notice the problem. Like it before the problems happen. Yeah.

Sherri Combs (18:51)
So

those kinds of facilities are really needed, but nobody wants to put their mom in a place where they just go there to sit on somebody else’s couch and go into a vegetative state. So you have to have an activities-based and and and it’s an you know, it’s an honorable thing to take care of somebody’s f through their final years on this l planet, right? On this earth. And sometimes we don’t look at it that way, but it really should be

more celebrated that we’re taking care of somebody in their final years because these people our aging population we’re standing on the backs of what they built right they fought they marched on things they fought for freedoms we don’t even know we have the luxury of having so we’re continuing that fight but we got this far from what they built so it’s an honor to see them and to make their last few years as comfortable as possible before they’re no longer with us and to gain their wisdoms and their insight

their perspective, their patience, their kindness, things that only they can give us. We can’t get those things from Google. So take advantage of the seniors in your life and and doing that and find a way to honor them and protect them and to you know, preserve their their dignity. because we’re that next gen that’s that we are building the system you and I will age into as well and setting the example for our children. And

Cody Crabb (20:12)
Good point. You don’t even have to really do it for a selfless reason. You can just say, Hey, I don’t want you know, I don’t want to be in that situation. So

Sherri Combs (20:17)
We set the we

lead by example, right? Yeah, yeah. But in when it comes back to real estate, that is something that is needed and could do very well. So if you’re looking and you’re thinking, hey, I’m gonna address this problem, it can be quite lucrative to do that. But you it does need to be, I would definitely stick with single story, you know, for sure, obviously. you’ll need to have an in home office, but you know, maybe more larger living spaces than bedrooms in that.

case, the size of the bedrooms wouldn’t even really matter if you’re going to do an adult daycare, you know, because you would want them in more of the common areas. So it’d be bathrooms and larger living areas. Maybe even taking out a smaller attached bedroom to a living room to open that area up, turning a four bedroom into a three bedroom, for example. So you have those larger areas, it it will it that could be an option and an opportunity. I myself had considered that as well.

Cody Crabb (21:11)
Well, yeah, that’s really interesting. w one last question before I let you go. We’re kind of running short on time. but I would love to ask you, like, let’s say someone has a a property and they’re like maybe they’re kind of imagining they can rent to fan like a multifamily sort of situation like this. give me a couple of things in that regard that would be like good ads to be like

You know, like I’ve seen this in kind of disability sort of environments where someone will say, I’ve the best ADA compliant house in the county and so I always have people to rent it. So I’m curious if you have any insights on something like that.

Sherri Combs (21:47)
So there are aging in place specialists that can come out and give and inspect your home and give you checklists and give you recommendations. We actually have some of them on our site, and those are growing throughout the United States because people are interested in that, especially investors, to get the house ready. But things like shower bars, low thresholds, curbless showers are big. So if you’re in the middle of, hey, I’m gonna redo this or remodel this.

I would probably have an aging in place specialist come out and give you that checklist. Could be the best couple hundred dollars that you spent to give you things that you don’t even realize that make a difference, widening doors for wheelchairs, ramps, low thresholds. Like I said, there’s a lot of different different things like that that that can be very, very useful and very helpful.

Cody Crabb (22:37)
Ironically, y you haven’t been named a single thing that wouldn’t be pretty useful for anybody, really. I mean, how many times have I tripped getting getting out of the shower? Like so it’s it’s it’s good to think about even just for a selfish reason, like you like people people like who who you’re gonna live with.

Sherri Combs (22:52)
leg

and it’s easy to get in and you don’t want to have surgery the boot hanging over the you know now it’s yeah all those things. Yeah. They and they really are doing a a really good job at them. And I will tell you there’s even your electronics. So the smoke detectors, there’s companies out there that specialize in in your different, you know, carbon monoxide smoke detectors, but they have the kind that will shake the bed even. So that would help somebody get up. So it will shake your bed to get you up if there’s if your smoke alarm goes off. Because some people have hearing aids.

And they don’t hear the alarms. They take them out at night so they can sleep, and they might not hear the smoke detector going off or the smoke alarm, so it will shake their bed.

Cody Crabb (23:30)
Yeah, that that is that is the exact kind of stuff that I’m like, I would never have thought of that. That’s really interesting. well thanks again. I think this has been great conversation. if people want to learn more about the platform, what you do, how can they get in touch or how can they find you online?

Sherri Combs (23:48)
Yeah, so you can visit silverstreakhelp.com That’s silverstreakhelp.com and you can see the platform there. You can reach me through the platform at [email protected] as well. And that comes to me directly. And I’d love to have a conversation about that. anybody has any questions or anything, you can find with the book, The Just In Case Plan. You can find it on Amazon also, which is addresses all that demographic shift.

it’s very well researched and yeah, that’s where you can find me.

Cody Crabb (24:21)
Perfect. Well, thank you so much. and it’s been great to have you here. let’s all think about this a little more as something that is not necessarily in the future. It’s it’s kind of just already here. And it’s just gonna be more so. Yeah. So thank you so much. audience, thanks for your time as well. Make sure you don’t miss another episode. And Sherri, we’ll see you next time. Thanks so much.

Sherri Combs (24:42)
You Cody, thank you so much. Thank you.