October 30, 2025 • 20 mins
Explore a practical, mission-driven way to sell a longtime home by working with group home operators who value larger, well-located properties and offer seller-friendly terms. Jim Boad explains sober living models, oversight, neighborhood standards, creative financing, and how this option can deliver fair value while doing good.
• what group homes are and how sober living operates
• why larger, transit-friendly homes are ideal
• how sales can be faster with fewer repairs
• creative financing options for steady income
• maintaining curb appeal and setting house rules
• addressing neighbor concerns with transparency
• legal context and reasonable accommodation
• step-by-step process from inquiry to close
• success stories that show real community impact
If today's conversation sparks some interest for you about whether you or somebody in your family is interested in selling, you can get a hold of us at edgroupteam.com or you could go to homeaccelerator.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dennis Day (00:00):
Hi everyone.
Welcome to Getting Your EdgeHow to Downsize.
I'm your co-host, Dennis Day,with my other co-host, Judy
Gratton.
How's it going today?
Judy Gratton (00:12):
It's wonderful, Dennis.
Dennis Day (00:13):
Real estate agents EXP.
Our business model is helpingpeople downsize.
We know firsthand that sellinga longtime home can be
overwhelming financially,logistically, and emotionally.
We are here to help.
Today, guest is Jim Boad,founder of Group Home
(00:36):
Accelerator, a program thatconnects homeowners to group
home operators and investors whoare looking for properties just
like yours.
What makes this conversation sointeresting is that selling to
a group home operator isn'tsomething Downsizers usually
think about, but it is anoption.
It can be a smoother process,good value, even a chance to
(01:00):
know that your home will becontinuing to be used in a
positive and important role inyour community.
Welcome, Jim.
Judy Gratton (01:07):
Hey.
Dennis Day (01:08):
Thanks for having me.
Judy Gratton (01:08):
So, Jim, before we jump into the details, could
you share a little bit aboutyour background and how group
home accelerators came to be?
So I pretty much started myreal career about 2000, became a
real estate investor.
I started doing fix and flipsin the Metro Phoenix area.
I flipped homes in Phoenix tillabout 2007 before the market
(01:30):
really crashed.
And then that's when we gotreally deep in becoming a real
estate team and started listingbank-owned homes.
We saw it coming.
We ran those until about 2010,2011.
Then my wife and I took sometime off.
We got burnt out from runningthe REO stuff.
It was twice the work for aquarter of the money.
But it allowed us to sustainand actually we grew and thrived
a little bit through thatmarket as well, but very hard.
(01:52):
And then 2014, we moved up tothe Seattle area and then we got
back into real estateinvesting.
Then I got hit by COVID, andthat changed all of my investing
strategies because I wasbecoming a landlord at the time.
And it really just pushed me tofind a different path because
it just wasn't advantageous tobe a landlord.
For me, most of my peoplestopped paying and I didn't know
how I was going to survive.
(02:13):
And that's where one night,after looking at all the red on
my spreadsheet, I jumped intothis guy's site that was talking
about group homes.
And it just put me right downthis path of group homes, and
I've been doing it for almostfour years now.
Can you explain how you do this?
Group homes is a generic termbecause there's different types
of and different levels.
There's licensed and unlicensedgroup homes.
(02:34):
I focus on the unlicensed grouphomes.
What I mainly run are soberliving houses or recovery
houses, is what I call them, butsober living, I think most
people know what that means.
There's elderly care, butthere's different levels of
elderly care, which depends onif you need on hand nurses and
staff or just a place forelderly people to live.
And then there it's also foryouth.
They also have them for peoplewith disabilities, whether it's
(02:56):
physical or mental.
Those are the main ones.
There's other offshoots, likethere's ones for people coming
out of prison.
There are ones for youth thatare phasing out of foster care.
And the new big one thateverybody's really kind of
starting to buzz around isco-living.
So just a bunch of peopleliving in one home.
My main focus is the soberliving one.
So your main focus is the sober living house.
Dennis Day (03:16):
Correct.
We work with a lot of clientswho are ready to sell their
longtime family home and moveinto something smaller or go to
an RV or a vacation property.
How does group home acceleratoropen up new opportunities for
them when they know it's time tosell?
Jim Boad (03:36):
We're always looking for more homes, and it's exactly
what we're looking for a lot ofthe times.
We're looking for thosedownsized homes because bigger
homes are definitely better forus in group homes.
The more bedrooms, the better.
You don't really want a studioor a two-bedroom home.
They don't work as well for thecommunity that you're building
either because it's muchsmaller.
Four plus bedroom homes arereally what we're looking for,
or those three-bedroom homesthat you can turn into a
(03:57):
four-plus bedroom home.
Okay.
Judy Gratton (03:59):
Downsizing can be an emotional journey for our
clients.
How does your program create asmoother, more reassuring
transition for them?
Jim Boad (04:09):
The need for group homes of all kinds are so
important.
There's such a need for thempretty much everywhere, and they
really change lives.
The ones that I are amazingbecause I see people coming from
their absolute rock bottom,getting clean, getting into a
place like this where now theyhave a safe, secure environment
where they can work onthemselves and their sobriety
and then move on to their nextphase in life.
Judy Gratton (04:30):
You managing the homes once they're purchased?
Is that also part of what youdo?
Jim Boad (04:36):
I have a team here in my town that manage all of mine.
I work with a lot of studentsthat I train on how to run group
homes.
I have a coaching program thatteaches people how to run them.
And then we have ouracquisition side that we help
people buy these types of homestoo.
Judy Gratton (04:50):
Do you run into pushback from neighborhoods if
they know that you're coming inwith sober housing?
Jim Boad (04:55):
We absolutely have.
And every time we do one, we doget some pushback.
The biggest thing that I alwaysdo and teach people to do is
communicate right away with theneighbors, let them know what
you're coming in to do becauseit softens that blow when you
can express to them how yourhouse is going to have rules and
guidelines and be maintained.
They tend to be one of thenicer homes in a neighborhood.
Oh, good.
(05:15):
When they run correctly, thereare people that run these
incorrectly and they give it abad name.
It's like a fix and clipperthat does really bad work.
We've run into those too.
These are probably people fromthe community they live in.
Most likely they are.
It's very geographicaldependent because the denser
areas tend to keep people closerwhere I'm at.
I'm a bit of a smaller town.
So I have people that come fromquite far away because there is
(05:37):
such a need for what we offer.
Dennis Day (05:39):
In our experience, some homeowners are nervous
about selling.
How might working through witha buyer through the group of
home accelerator process bedifferent than just listing on
the open market?
Jim Boad (05:51):
One of the biggest things we do is we're not
looking to come through and dothe traditional, we're gonna buy
it, inspect it, and then comeback to you with a big list of
repairs.
The biggest things that we'relooking to do is we're looking
to close these out prettyquickly, whether we're doing
them cash or creatively, becausesometimes the creative does
work really well for people.
Downsize is sometimes they havehigh equity in it, and the
large cash isn't as important,sometimes a good monthly payment
(06:13):
or some sort of terms.
Judy Gratton (06:14):
Okay.
Jim Boad (06:15):
We always like to keep that creative door open, but
also we use either hard moneytype loans or private lending.
They're much smoother thangoing through a regular process
of purchasing like an FHA loan,where you have to hit certain
scans.
Dennis Day (06:27):
So you're not scanning the MLS or Zillow
looking for these homes on theopen market.
Are you working mostly withpeople who you network that find
this is an option?
Jim Boad (06:39):
It's a mixed bag.
The MLS has always been ourbest friend.
Having good realtor contacts isreally the biggest superpower
we've ever had because you justget that direct access to so
many different listings.
Once people know you're good towork with, they like to come to
you and bring deals to you.
Because you don't when youdon't play games and you
actually close the deals thatyou say you're gonna close.
Judy Gratton (06:57):
In terms of pricing, is there a specific
area that you like to stay in?
We know that market values haverisen significantly.
How is that affecting you andwhat are you doing about that?
Jim Boad (07:11):
Our model allows us to generate substantially more
than a market rate because we'rerenting these homes out by the
room as opposed to by the wholehouse.
So we can get substantiallymore between 5 and 10x what you
would make as a regularresidential rental.
Judy Gratton (07:26):
A lot of people, when we're talking about
downsizing, they care verydeeply about what's gonna happen
to their home when they leave.
You mentioned briefly thatyou'd communicate with the
community.
What kind of benefits do theyhave from selling to you?
And how can you show them thatyou're gonna contribute to the
community?
Jim Boad (07:46):
Absolutely.
Some of the biggest benefitsare just what the mission is of
what these homes are for.
They're really there to helppeople get back to where they
need to be.
And if people aren't doing theright thing in these homes, we
do have the power to remove themfrom the home.
So if they just sold it to aninvestor who was going to throw
some tenants in there, theymight throw some 23-year-olds in
there that want to drink andparty all night long and plast
(08:07):
the radio.
And there's really nothing youcan do as a landlord.
I mean, yes, you can start topolice and you go down that
process, but we all know what ittakes to kick somebody out in
Washington State right now.
It is not an easy task.
So we have a lot more controlover that.
If we have bad actors, weactually have the power to move
them on.
No matter what type of grouphome someone's opening when they
(08:28):
operate them right, you'redirectly impacting people,
whether it's somebody who needselderly care or somebody who
needs that great place to getsober and rebuild their life.
Judy Gratton (08:37):
You don't put a sign out front, sober living or
recovery home or anything likethat.
So they sort of blend in.
Jim Boad (08:44):
You'd never know with our homes.
Judy Gratton (08:46):
Do you maintain the exterior of the home?
Great.
Jim Boad (08:49):
Absolutely.
It's one of the big things withthe model as well, that you, as
the operator of the group home,basically take on everything.
Judy Gratton (08:56):
The seller can rest assured that their garden
and their green lawn and theirfreshly painted house is gonna
be maintained, whereas that'snot always the promise when you
sell to just anyone.
Jim Boad (09:11):
Correct.
Judy Gratton (09:12):
That's a big benefit for the community.
Jim Boad (09:15):
No, I agree.
In my homes, the guys actuallystart taking a lot of pride in
the homes.
They like mowing the lawns andkeeping them maintained.
They have a good sense ofownership in those.
Judy Gratton (09:23):
Cool.
Dennis Day (09:24):
One of the big questions for me, and perhaps a
home seller, is Am I going toget a fair price if I take this
program on?
Jim Boad (09:33):
Absolutely.
It's not like we can go in andpay over market value for homes
or anything.
And we like to get good dealsas well, especially on move up
homes.
There's updating and thingsthat need to be done.
When someone's owned a homethat long, there tends to be
some deferred maintenance.
Hot water heaters tend to bemuch older.
I'm going to put six, eightpeople in this home that are
going to be active people.
We're looking for good dealsthat account for what we may
(09:55):
have to do to the home.
Judy Gratton (09:56):
What is the age range of people that come into
your homes?
Jim Boad (09:59):
For the sober living, it's normally in that middle
age, but it really is going todepend on the geographical area
that you're in.
If it's a younger area, you'regoing to tend to have younger
people.
But we do have every age rangein our home.
Judy Gratton (10:10):
How do you get these people?
Where do you find people thatneed sober living?
Jim Boad (10:17):
The main source that we use right now is inpatient
drug clinics.
We don't take people that areactively using, and we are not a
rehab clinic.
They have to come to us clean.
So they're normally coming outof a program.
They've already done all ofthat detoxed and they're on a
plan working with counselors.
So what we offer is one thing,and it's affordable, clean
housing.
Dennis Day (10:36):
I'm really interested in learning more
about a different model.
The basic model for downsizers,we put our home on a market, it
sells for a price, andhomeowners get a lump of cash.
But you talked about adifferent model of paying
payments per month.
Jim Boad (10:52):
Can you talk about that more?
Absolutely.
Sometimes we'll have somebodywho has a really good loan that
we may be able to work with andtake over at with a great rate.
That's been a nice thing inthis market where rates have
fluctuated quite a bit.
Who doesn't like taking over athree or four percent interest
rate?
And when people own them aswell, sometimes we can satisfy
them.
How about we give you $150,000down to get you into your new
(11:13):
home?
Arbitrary numbers, and thenwe'll make you payments at this
interest rate for five years orthree years or whatever terms we
come to.
And then that can work outreally well, also, because then
we don't have to come up with asmuch to get into that home.
And it allows us to have a fewyears to stabilize that home,
get it up to the standard thatwe need, and then refinance it.
We'll refinance it and cashthem out.
Dennis Day (11:33):
So they could get a stable monthly income and some
cash so they can move on to thenext phase of their life, but
still have a supplement toSocial Security or their
retirement funds.
Jim Boad (11:47):
It's worked well for some people that are like, I
want to buy an RV and thetravel, and then they have a
nice stable monthly incomecoming off that property.
They still have that reservetoo.
Some people don't always wantall that cash at once.
They'd either don't know how toutilize it or it's just not
important to them at the time.
Judy Gratton (12:02):
If one of our clients was curious about this
option, what would the processlook like for them from the
first conversation to theclosing of the sale?
Jim Boad (12:11):
Really, the first conversation is just uh getting
the address and doing my basicdue diligence and research.
That will tell me a lot becausewe'd have to be in
pedestrian-friendly areas.
I can't be real rural becausewe have a lot of people that
come to us without vehicles.
Sometimes we will have somebodywho comes to us just with one
bag of clothes.
It can be challenging for themif they're too far away.
We have to assess that it's inthe right location.
(12:33):
And then from there, it's justme running my comps.
At some point, I got to comeout and do a walkthrough on the
home to see what it looks likeand then make an offer.
If they accept that offer,we'll close on time and we're
not looking for major repairs.
Judy Gratton (12:43):
Are you working with realtors through this
process or are you a realtor?
Jim Boad (12:48):
My wife is a realtor.
This isn't as much about us asbuilding a real estate business
as it is about building becausemy mission in life is group
homes.
It's helping people open moregroup homes because we need them
so bad.
Right.
We love to work with realtors,they're our favorite because
realtors understand what to do,they understand the rules, and
realtors are worth their weight.
Judy Gratton (13:09):
Can you give me an idea of what a perfect home
would look like for you?
Jim Boad (13:13):
A perfect home would be close to bus lines and
services like grocery stores,hospitals, and doctors.
It would have more than fourbedrooms and more than two
bathrooms.
And if it doesn't have thosethings, it would have the
ability for us to do them fairlyeasily.
Enhance the square footage ofthe home, be able to maybe we
have an open office that couldnow be the fourth bedroom, or we
this extra large laundry roomthat could become a half-bath
(13:37):
and still be a laundry room.
Judy Gratton (13:39):
You mentioned you manage some of these.
Are you working to help otherpeople acquire homes that could
be turned into the group livingmodel?
Jim Boad (13:49):
Absolutely.
In my town, I have 14 activehomes right now.
Wow.
In Shelkland.
It's a very small community,which shows how a community of
11,000 people can support thatmany homes.
I have group home acceleratorin my coaching program.
I help them get into homes aswell.
I teach two methods, how topurchase these homes and how to
rent these homes from people.
The challenge for a lot ofpeople is how to explain to
(14:11):
somebody why you should let medo this to your home.
The initial connotation can bereally negative.
Oh, you're opening a flop houseor a boarding, and they they
instantly that just gives peoplethere's going to be beer
bottles in the yard and sellingdrugs out the windows.
Our homes are quiet.
We have curfew hours, chorelists.
Normally, our homes all havedaily visits where someone's
(14:32):
popping by, so nothing can everget too out of hand.
We give all of the neighborsour phone numbers.
So if there are issues, theyknow how to get a hold of us.
Hey, you guys are parking infront of my house again.
Johnny, stop parking in frontof the house, or we're gonna
have to make you leave.
Dennis Day (14:44):
Do you have any all-women homes?
Jim Boad (14:47):
I personally do not.
I have students that have allwomen homes.
We have family homes.
I don't think you should havemen and women commingled in the
same homes.
It's just a recipe for problemsto me.
I have people that run, itmight be saying the name wrong,
but they're like batteredwomen's homes.
So women who are fleeingdomestic violence.
Those are another one thatthere's just such a shortage of.
And they blend into thecommunity really well, and
(15:08):
they're people that are verygrateful to be there.
Is there time limits on howlong people can stay?
No, we don't have any type oftime limits.
I've got people that I've beenwith me around in three years
now.
They've worked their system.
The way I work it is we havelevels of homes.
We have our entry homes wherewe bring people because you're
the highest likely to relapsewhen you're new to this.
The longer you've been in oneof these types of homes, the
(15:29):
higher probability you have tonot relapse again.
Some of them just love it somuch.
It is affordable living.
They're just paying for abedroom.
Normally, people come to uswith some sort of state or
federal funding, which isawesome as an operator because
I'm guaranteed funding.
As they progress, we can movethem into different homes where
they can self-pay and stay aslong as they wish.
They still have to go under thesame exact rules.
There's no time frame wherethose rules phase out.
(15:51):
Now you can drink again.
That's just not allowed in ourproperties.
Dennis Day (15:55):
Can you give us an example of a success story where
it benefited the community andit benefited the seller?
Jim Boad (16:01):
I think the biggest thing about benefit in the
community is we're taking peoplethat need this help that aren't
themselves being a benefit toour community, and we're getting
them back to being acontributing part of our
community.
People are getting jobs.
One guy, he left about eightmonths ago, and he was one of
our first guys.
He came to us just battereddown.
He was missing most of histeeth and wouldn't look at you,
(16:21):
and he didn't really want toengage.
By the time this guy left, andI shook his hand and saw that
big smile at Pearly White'sbecause he got new teeth, and he
was so grateful and thankfulbecause his whole life had
changed.
He was in his early 30s, andthe majority of his life, he has
been under the influence ofsome sort of drug or alcohol.
He's never been sober thislong.
He had a new job that he loved.
(16:42):
He was heading across thecountry in his truck to
reconnect with his family thathe hasn't seen in years because
of his drug addiction and theydidn't want him around.
So it's not a direct impactwhere, hey, we built a park in
your neighborhood, but it's adirect impact where, hey,
there's 45 people that justbecame sober in this
neighborhood and are nowcontributing and doing the right
thing.
And I think the biggest thingas the homeowner who moves on
(17:02):
from that is knowing that nowtheir home that they've been
able to live in and raise afamily and they've got other
people that are now doing thatsame thing.
Judy Gratton (17:09):
And maintaining the home.
Jim Boad (17:11):
Absolutely.
And keeping the neighborhoodup, not being bad neighbors.
Because that matters to a lotof people too.
They love their neighborhood,they love their neighbors, they
don't want to sell it tosomebody who's going to come in
and do bad things.
Dennis Day (17:19):
Is it possible for the seller to avoid the
difficulties of preparing thehome and the expense of painting
and do an off-market sale?
Jim Boad (17:30):
Absolutely.
The biggest issue I take withoff-market sales for us is it's
challenging when you're theeducated one.
You have to educate the otherside.
That's why I love working withrealtors because they have their
protection and can't say that Itook advantage of them and say
I had representation.
This was a good price.
I'm not bringing up comps frommy neighborhood that are five
times lower than the comps intheir neighborhood.
Judy Gratton (17:50):
What areas are you looking in?
Jim Boad (17:52):
We're always looking in pretty much all areas.
The biggest thing is not rural.
Anything that's close to buslines, anything that's got great
walkability scores, those arealways areas we're looking to
buy homes in.
Judy Gratton (18:03):
Do you look at other states besides Washington?
Jim Boad (18:06):
Absolutely.
One of the things, like I wassaying, with Group Home
Accelerator, I am a nationalcoaching program.
I don't go outside of the U.S.
with anything because I don'tknow the rules.
But the rules for this runpretty much across the USA.
When you start running thesehomes, you asked some questions
earlier about neighbors gettinginvolved, code enforcement can
tend to get involved too.
Because some neighborhoods havea rule where you can't have
more than four or five peoplethat are unrelated live in a
(18:29):
home.
But when you get into thesegroup homes, specifically with
sober living, you start runninginto the Disabilities Act stuff
because now drug addiction isclassified as a disability.
There is federal case law onthis in multiple states where
Oxford House, a big nationallyrun sober living cohort, and
they have their own chapters andrules.
(18:50):
They've had to fight this andthey've taken it to Supreme
Court and won their cases.
Cities had to pay themrestitution for the issues
they've caused that.
So you can normally not have tofollow those rules because the
classifications of this type ofthing.
Dennis Day (19:04):
So if someone was interested, a realtor,
homeowner, how would they get ahold of you?
Jim Boad (19:10):
Easiest way are either social media or just go to
Group Home Accelerator and reachout to me.
I've got a form on there thatyou can schedule and we can talk
and figure out if you've got ahome that works for us and if we
can make you a great offer thatworks for you.
Judy Gratton (19:21):
I think it's a fascinating program.
And I support the ideawholeheartedly.
It would be great for peoplethat are downsizing.
It gives them an option thatmaybe they hadn't thought of.
I think it is definitely apositive for community because
it helps to bring these peopleback into the community and the
(19:42):
home might be better taken careof than just renting or selling
to someone you don't know.
I think it's a great idea, Jim.
I really do.
Dennis Day (19:51):
Thank you.
If today's conversation sparkssome interest for you about
whether you or somebody in yourfamily is interested in selling,
you can get a hold of us atedgroupteam.com or you could go
to homeaccelerator.com.
Jim Boad (20:07):
I think you guys asked great questions and gave a good
synapsis of what I do.
Dennis Day (20:11):
Well it's really great you have this option that
never occurred to me.
This would be a win-win formany people, not everybody.
Like you said, somebody in atwo-bedroom condo, not gonna
work.
But it is another option.
Maybe you get a stable incomethat helps you out in a long
term fashion.
So thanks so much for joiningus.
(20:33):
We really appreciate it.
Thank you to our listeners andour watchers on YouTube.
Information about Jim will beavailable at the YouTube channel
and the audio podcast.
So until next time, thank you,Jim Bode.
Thank you, Judy.
Bye.
Bye.
Hi everyone.
Welcome to Getting Your EdgeHow to Downsize.
I'm your co-host, Dennis Day,with my other co-host, Judy
Gratton.
How's it going today?
Judy Gratton (00:12):
It's wonderful, Dennis.
Dennis Day (00:13):
Real estate agents EXP.
Our business model is helpingpeople downsize.
We know firsthand that sellinga longtime home can be
overwhelming financially,logistically, and emotionally.
We are here to help.
Today, guest is Jim Boad,founder of Group Home
(00:36):
Accelerator, a program thatconnects homeowners to group
home operators and investors whoare looking for properties just
like yours.
What makes this conversation sointeresting is that selling to
a group home operator isn'tsomething Downsizers usually
think about, but it is anoption.
It can be a smoother process,good value, even a chance to
(01:00):
know that your home will becontinuing to be used in a
positive and important role inyour community.
Welcome, Jim.
Judy Gratton (01:07):
Hey.
Dennis Day (01:08):
Thanks for having me.
Judy Gratton (01:08):
So, Jim, before we jump into the details, could
you share a little bit aboutyour background and how group
home accelerators came to be?
So I pretty much started myreal career about 2000, became a
real estate investor.
I started doing fix and flipsin the Metro Phoenix area.
I flipped homes in Phoenix tillabout 2007 before the market
(01:30):
really crashed.
And then that's when we gotreally deep in becoming a real
estate team and started listingbank-owned homes.
We saw it coming.
We ran those until about 2010,2011.
Then my wife and I took sometime off.
We got burnt out from runningthe REO stuff.
It was twice the work for aquarter of the money.
But it allowed us to sustainand actually we grew and thrived
a little bit through thatmarket as well, but very hard.
(01:52):
And then 2014, we moved up tothe Seattle area and then we got
back into real estateinvesting.
Then I got hit by COVID, andthat changed all of my investing
strategies because I wasbecoming a landlord at the time.
And it really just pushed me tofind a different path because
it just wasn't advantageous tobe a landlord.
For me, most of my peoplestopped paying and I didn't know
how I was going to survive.
(02:13):
And that's where one night,after looking at all the red on
my spreadsheet, I jumped intothis guy's site that was talking
about group homes.
And it just put me right downthis path of group homes, and
I've been doing it for almostfour years now.
Can you explain how you do this?
Group homes is a generic termbecause there's different types
of and different levels.
There's licensed and unlicensedgroup homes.
(02:34):
I focus on the unlicensed grouphomes.
What I mainly run are soberliving houses or recovery
houses, is what I call them, butsober living, I think most
people know what that means.
There's elderly care, butthere's different levels of
elderly care, which depends onif you need on hand nurses and
staff or just a place forelderly people to live.
And then there it's also foryouth.
They also have them for peoplewith disabilities, whether it's
(02:56):
physical or mental.
Those are the main ones.
There's other offshoots, likethere's ones for people coming
out of prison.
There are ones for youth thatare phasing out of foster care.
And the new big one thateverybody's really kind of
starting to buzz around isco-living.
So just a bunch of peopleliving in one home.
My main focus is the soberliving one.
So your main focus is the sober living house.
Dennis Day (03:16):
Correct.
We work with a lot of clientswho are ready to sell their
longtime family home and moveinto something smaller or go to
an RV or a vacation property.
How does group home acceleratoropen up new opportunities for
them when they know it's time tosell?
Jim Boad (03:36):
We're always looking for more homes, and it's exactly
what we're looking for a lot ofthe times.
We're looking for thosedownsized homes because bigger
homes are definitely better forus in group homes.
The more bedrooms, the better.
You don't really want a studioor a two-bedroom home.
They don't work as well for thecommunity that you're building
either because it's muchsmaller.
Four plus bedroom homes arereally what we're looking for,
or those three-bedroom homesthat you can turn into a
(03:57):
four-plus bedroom home.
Okay.
Judy Gratton (03:59):
Downsizing can be an emotional journey for our
clients.
How does your program create asmoother, more reassuring
transition for them?
Jim Boad (04:09):
The need for group homes of all kinds are so
important.
There's such a need for thempretty much everywhere, and they
really change lives.
The ones that I are amazingbecause I see people coming from
their absolute rock bottom,getting clean, getting into a
place like this where now theyhave a safe, secure environment
where they can work onthemselves and their sobriety
and then move on to their nextphase in life.
Judy Gratton (04:30):
You managing the homes once they're purchased?
Is that also part of what youdo?
Jim Boad (04:36):
I have a team here in my town that manage all of mine.
I work with a lot of studentsthat I train on how to run group
homes.
I have a coaching program thatteaches people how to run them.
And then we have ouracquisition side that we help
people buy these types of homestoo.
Judy Gratton (04:50):
Do you run into pushback from neighborhoods if
they know that you're coming inwith sober housing?
Jim Boad (04:55):
We absolutely have.
And every time we do one, we doget some pushback.
The biggest thing that I alwaysdo and teach people to do is
communicate right away with theneighbors, let them know what
you're coming in to do becauseit softens that blow when you
can express to them how yourhouse is going to have rules and
guidelines and be maintained.
They tend to be one of thenicer homes in a neighborhood.
Oh, good.
(05:15):
When they run correctly, thereare people that run these
incorrectly and they give it abad name.
It's like a fix and clipperthat does really bad work.
We've run into those too.
These are probably people fromthe community they live in.
Most likely they are.
It's very geographicaldependent because the denser
areas tend to keep people closerwhere I'm at.
I'm a bit of a smaller town.
So I have people that come fromquite far away because there is
(05:37):
such a need for what we offer.
Dennis Day (05:39):
In our experience, some homeowners are nervous
about selling.
How might working through witha buyer through the group of
home accelerator process bedifferent than just listing on
the open market?
Jim Boad (05:51):
One of the biggest things we do is we're not
looking to come through and dothe traditional, we're gonna buy
it, inspect it, and then comeback to you with a big list of
repairs.
The biggest things that we'relooking to do is we're looking
to close these out prettyquickly, whether we're doing
them cash or creatively, becausesometimes the creative does
work really well for people.
Downsize is sometimes they havehigh equity in it, and the
large cash isn't as important,sometimes a good monthly payment
(06:13):
or some sort of terms.
Judy Gratton (06:14):
Okay.
Jim Boad (06:15):
We always like to keep that creative door open, but
also we use either hard moneytype loans or private lending.
They're much smoother thangoing through a regular process
of purchasing like an FHA loan,where you have to hit certain
scans.
Dennis Day (06:27):
So you're not scanning the MLS or Zillow
looking for these homes on theopen market.
Are you working mostly withpeople who you network that find
this is an option?
Jim Boad (06:39):
It's a mixed bag.
The MLS has always been ourbest friend.
Having good realtor contacts isreally the biggest superpower
we've ever had because you justget that direct access to so
many different listings.
Once people know you're good towork with, they like to come to
you and bring deals to you.
Because you don't when youdon't play games and you
actually close the deals thatyou say you're gonna close.
Judy Gratton (06:57):
In terms of pricing, is there a specific
area that you like to stay in?
We know that market values haverisen significantly.
How is that affecting you andwhat are you doing about that?
Jim Boad (07:11):
Our model allows us to generate substantially more
than a market rate because we'rerenting these homes out by the
room as opposed to by the wholehouse.
So we can get substantiallymore between 5 and 10x what you
would make as a regularresidential rental.
Judy Gratton (07:26):
A lot of people, when we're talking about
downsizing, they care verydeeply about what's gonna happen
to their home when they leave.
You mentioned briefly thatyou'd communicate with the
community.
What kind of benefits do theyhave from selling to you?
And how can you show them thatyou're gonna contribute to the
community?
Jim Boad (07:46):
Absolutely.
Some of the biggest benefitsare just what the mission is of
what these homes are for.
They're really there to helppeople get back to where they
need to be.
And if people aren't doing theright thing in these homes, we
do have the power to remove themfrom the home.
So if they just sold it to aninvestor who was going to throw
some tenants in there, theymight throw some 23-year-olds in
there that want to drink andparty all night long and plast
(08:07):
the radio.
And there's really nothing youcan do as a landlord.
I mean, yes, you can start topolice and you go down that
process, but we all know what ittakes to kick somebody out in
Washington State right now.
It is not an easy task.
So we have a lot more controlover that.
If we have bad actors, weactually have the power to move
them on.
No matter what type of grouphome someone's opening when they
(08:28):
operate them right, you'redirectly impacting people,
whether it's somebody who needselderly care or somebody who
needs that great place to getsober and rebuild their life.
Judy Gratton (08:37):
You don't put a sign out front, sober living or
recovery home or anything likethat.
So they sort of blend in.
Jim Boad (08:44):
You'd never know with our homes.
Judy Gratton (08:46):
Do you maintain the exterior of the home?
Great.
Jim Boad (08:49):
Absolutely.
It's one of the big things withthe model as well, that you, as
the operator of the group home,basically take on everything.
Judy Gratton (08:56):
The seller can rest assured that their garden
and their green lawn and theirfreshly painted house is gonna
be maintained, whereas that'snot always the promise when you
sell to just anyone.
Jim Boad (09:11):
Correct.
Judy Gratton (09:12):
That's a big benefit for the community.
Jim Boad (09:15):
No, I agree.
In my homes, the guys actuallystart taking a lot of pride in
the homes.
They like mowing the lawns andkeeping them maintained.
They have a good sense ofownership in those.
Judy Gratton (09:23):
Cool.
Dennis Day (09:24):
One of the big questions for me, and perhaps a
home seller, is Am I going toget a fair price if I take this
program on?
Jim Boad (09:33):
Absolutely.
It's not like we can go in andpay over market value for homes
or anything.
And we like to get good dealsas well, especially on move up
homes.
There's updating and thingsthat need to be done.
When someone's owned a homethat long, there tends to be
some deferred maintenance.
Hot water heaters tend to bemuch older.
I'm going to put six, eightpeople in this home that are
going to be active people.
We're looking for good dealsthat account for what we may
(09:55):
have to do to the home.
Judy Gratton (09:56):
What is the age range of people that come into
your homes?
Jim Boad (09:59):
For the sober living, it's normally in that middle
age, but it really is going todepend on the geographical area
that you're in.
If it's a younger area, you'regoing to tend to have younger
people.
But we do have every age rangein our home.
Judy Gratton (10:10):
How do you get these people?
Where do you find people thatneed sober living?
Jim Boad (10:17):
The main source that we use right now is inpatient
drug clinics.
We don't take people that areactively using, and we are not a
rehab clinic.
They have to come to us clean.
So they're normally coming outof a program.
They've already done all ofthat detoxed and they're on a
plan working with counselors.
So what we offer is one thing,and it's affordable, clean
housing.
Dennis Day (10:36):
I'm really interested in learning more
about a different model.
The basic model for downsizers,we put our home on a market, it
sells for a price, andhomeowners get a lump of cash.
But you talked about adifferent model of paying
payments per month.
Jim Boad (10:52):
Can you talk about that more?
Absolutely.
Sometimes we'll have somebodywho has a really good loan that
we may be able to work with andtake over at with a great rate.
That's been a nice thing inthis market where rates have
fluctuated quite a bit.
Who doesn't like taking over athree or four percent interest
rate?
And when people own them aswell, sometimes we can satisfy
them.
How about we give you $150,000down to get you into your new
(11:13):
home?
Arbitrary numbers, and thenwe'll make you payments at this
interest rate for five years orthree years or whatever terms we
come to.
And then that can work outreally well, also, because then
we don't have to come up with asmuch to get into that home.
And it allows us to have a fewyears to stabilize that home,
get it up to the standard thatwe need, and then refinance it.
We'll refinance it and cashthem out.
Dennis Day (11:33):
So they could get a stable monthly income and some
cash so they can move on to thenext phase of their life, but
still have a supplement toSocial Security or their
retirement funds.
Jim Boad (11:47):
It's worked well for some people that are like, I
want to buy an RV and thetravel, and then they have a
nice stable monthly incomecoming off that property.
They still have that reservetoo.
Some people don't always wantall that cash at once.
They'd either don't know how toutilize it or it's just not
important to them at the time.
Judy Gratton (12:02):
If one of our clients was curious about this
option, what would the processlook like for them from the
first conversation to theclosing of the sale?
Jim Boad (12:11):
Really, the first conversation is just uh getting
the address and doing my basicdue diligence and research.
That will tell me a lot becausewe'd have to be in
pedestrian-friendly areas.
I can't be real rural becausewe have a lot of people that
come to us without vehicles.
Sometimes we will have somebodywho comes to us just with one
bag of clothes.
It can be challenging for themif they're too far away.
We have to assess that it's inthe right location.
(12:33):
And then from there, it's justme running my comps.
At some point, I got to comeout and do a walkthrough on the
home to see what it looks likeand then make an offer.
If they accept that offer,we'll close on time and we're
not looking for major repairs.
Judy Gratton (12:43):
Are you working with realtors through this
process or are you a realtor?
Jim Boad (12:48):
My wife is a realtor.
This isn't as much about us asbuilding a real estate business
as it is about building becausemy mission in life is group
homes.
It's helping people open moregroup homes because we need them
so bad.
Right.
We love to work with realtors,they're our favorite because
realtors understand what to do,they understand the rules, and
realtors are worth their weight.
Judy Gratton (13:09):
Can you give me an idea of what a perfect home
would look like for you?
Jim Boad (13:13):
A perfect home would be close to bus lines and
services like grocery stores,hospitals, and doctors.
It would have more than fourbedrooms and more than two
bathrooms.
And if it doesn't have thosethings, it would have the
ability for us to do them fairlyeasily.
Enhance the square footage ofthe home, be able to maybe we
have an open office that couldnow be the fourth bedroom, or we
this extra large laundry roomthat could become a half-bath
(13:37):
and still be a laundry room.
Judy Gratton (13:39):
You mentioned you manage some of these.
Are you working to help otherpeople acquire homes that could
be turned into the group livingmodel?
Jim Boad (13:49):
Absolutely.
In my town, I have 14 activehomes right now.
Wow.
In Shelkland.
It's a very small community,which shows how a community of
11,000 people can support thatmany homes.
I have group home acceleratorin my coaching program.
I help them get into homes aswell.
I teach two methods, how topurchase these homes and how to
rent these homes from people.
The challenge for a lot ofpeople is how to explain to
(14:11):
somebody why you should let medo this to your home.
The initial connotation can bereally negative.
Oh, you're opening a flop houseor a boarding, and they they
instantly that just gives peoplethere's going to be beer
bottles in the yard and sellingdrugs out the windows.
Our homes are quiet.
We have curfew hours, chorelists.
Normally, our homes all havedaily visits where someone's
(14:32):
popping by, so nothing can everget too out of hand.
We give all of the neighborsour phone numbers.
So if there are issues, theyknow how to get a hold of us.
Hey, you guys are parking infront of my house again.
Johnny, stop parking in frontof the house, or we're gonna
have to make you leave.
Dennis Day (14:44):
Do you have any all-women homes?
Jim Boad (14:47):
I personally do not.
I have students that have allwomen homes.
We have family homes.
I don't think you should havemen and women commingled in the
same homes.
It's just a recipe for problemsto me.
I have people that run, itmight be saying the name wrong,
but they're like batteredwomen's homes.
So women who are fleeingdomestic violence.
Those are another one thatthere's just such a shortage of.
And they blend into thecommunity really well, and
(15:08):
they're people that are verygrateful to be there.
Is there time limits on howlong people can stay?
No, we don't have any type oftime limits.
I've got people that I've beenwith me around in three years
now.
They've worked their system.
The way I work it is we havelevels of homes.
We have our entry homes wherewe bring people because you're
the highest likely to relapsewhen you're new to this.
The longer you've been in oneof these types of homes, the
(15:29):
higher probability you have tonot relapse again.
Some of them just love it somuch.
It is affordable living.
They're just paying for abedroom.
Normally, people come to uswith some sort of state or
federal funding, which isawesome as an operator because
I'm guaranteed funding.
As they progress, we can movethem into different homes where
they can self-pay and stay aslong as they wish.
They still have to go under thesame exact rules.
There's no time frame wherethose rules phase out.
(15:51):
Now you can drink again.
That's just not allowed in ourproperties.
Dennis Day (15:55):
Can you give us an example of a success story where
it benefited the community andit benefited the seller?
Jim Boad (16:01):
I think the biggest thing about benefit in the
community is we're taking peoplethat need this help that aren't
themselves being a benefit toour community, and we're getting
them back to being acontributing part of our
community.
People are getting jobs.
One guy, he left about eightmonths ago, and he was one of
our first guys.
He came to us just battereddown.
He was missing most of histeeth and wouldn't look at you,
(16:21):
and he didn't really want toengage.
By the time this guy left, andI shook his hand and saw that
big smile at Pearly White'sbecause he got new teeth, and he
was so grateful and thankfulbecause his whole life had
changed.
He was in his early 30s, andthe majority of his life, he has
been under the influence ofsome sort of drug or alcohol.
He's never been sober thislong.
He had a new job that he loved.
(16:42):
He was heading across thecountry in his truck to
reconnect with his family thathe hasn't seen in years because
of his drug addiction and theydidn't want him around.
So it's not a direct impactwhere, hey, we built a park in
your neighborhood, but it's adirect impact where, hey,
there's 45 people that justbecame sober in this
neighborhood and are nowcontributing and doing the right
thing.
And I think the biggest thingas the homeowner who moves on
(17:02):
from that is knowing that nowtheir home that they've been
able to live in and raise afamily and they've got other
people that are now doing thatsame thing.
Judy Gratton (17:09):
And maintaining the home.
Jim Boad (17:11):
Absolutely.
And keeping the neighborhoodup, not being bad neighbors.
Because that matters to a lotof people too.
They love their neighborhood,they love their neighbors, they
don't want to sell it tosomebody who's going to come in
and do bad things.
Dennis Day (17:19):
Is it possible for the seller to avoid the
difficulties of preparing thehome and the expense of painting
and do an off-market sale?
Jim Boad (17:30):
Absolutely.
The biggest issue I take withoff-market sales for us is it's
challenging when you're theeducated one.
You have to educate the otherside.
That's why I love working withrealtors because they have their
protection and can't say that Itook advantage of them and say
I had representation.
This was a good price.
I'm not bringing up comps frommy neighborhood that are five
times lower than the comps intheir neighborhood.
Judy Gratton (17:50):
What areas are you looking in?
Jim Boad (17:52):
We're always looking in pretty much all areas.
The biggest thing is not rural.
Anything that's close to buslines, anything that's got great
walkability scores, those arealways areas we're looking to
buy homes in.
Judy Gratton (18:03):
Do you look at other states besides Washington?
Jim Boad (18:06):
Absolutely.
One of the things, like I wassaying, with Group Home
Accelerator, I am a nationalcoaching program.
I don't go outside of the U.S.
with anything because I don'tknow the rules.
But the rules for this runpretty much across the USA.
When you start running thesehomes, you asked some questions
earlier about neighbors gettinginvolved, code enforcement can
tend to get involved too.
Because some neighborhoods havea rule where you can't have
more than four or five peoplethat are unrelated live in a
(18:29):
home.
But when you get into thesegroup homes, specifically with
sober living, you start runninginto the Disabilities Act stuff
because now drug addiction isclassified as a disability.
There is federal case law onthis in multiple states where
Oxford House, a big nationallyrun sober living cohort, and
they have their own chapters andrules.
(18:50):
They've had to fight this andthey've taken it to Supreme
Court and won their cases.
Cities had to pay themrestitution for the issues
they've caused that.
So you can normally not have tofollow those rules because the
classifications of this type ofthing.
Dennis Day (19:04):
So if someone was interested, a realtor,
homeowner, how would they get ahold of you?
Jim Boad (19:10):
Easiest way are either social media or just go to
Group Home Accelerator and reachout to me.
I've got a form on there thatyou can schedule and we can talk
and figure out if you've got ahome that works for us and if we
can make you a great offer thatworks for you.
Judy Gratton (19:21):
I think it's a fascinating program.
And I support the ideawholeheartedly.
It would be great for peoplethat are downsizing.
It gives them an option thatmaybe they hadn't thought of.
I think it is definitely apositive for community because
it helps to bring these peopleback into the community and the
(19:42):
home might be better taken careof than just renting or selling
to someone you don't know.
I think it's a great idea, Jim.
I really do.
Dennis Day (19:51):
Thank you.
If today's conversation sparkssome interest for you about
whether you or somebody in yourfamily is interested in selling,
you can get a hold of us atedgroupteam.com or you could go
to homeaccelerator.com.
Jim Boad (20:07):
I think you guys asked great questions and gave a good
synapsis of what I do.
Dennis Day (20:11):
Well it's really great you have this option that
never occurred to me.
This would be a win-win formany people, not everybody.
Like you said, somebody in atwo-bedroom condo, not gonna
work.
But it is another option.
Maybe you get a stable incomethat helps you out in a long
term fashion.
So thanks so much for joiningus.
(20:33):
We really appreciate it.
Thank you to our listeners andour watchers on YouTube.
Information about Jim will beavailable at the YouTube channel
and the audio podcast.
So until next time, thank you,Jim Bode.
Thank you, Judy.
Bye.
Bye.
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