Buying and running a care home?

paulabear

Hi everyone

Myself and a friend have been talking about owning our own care home since we were in 6th form and working part-time in care jobs. We are now 30 and she is a qualified social worker, while I have years of experience working with different client groups in social care (elderly, mental health, dementia).

We would still love to carry out this dream but have no idea where to start out. Neither of us have any savings and both of us rent our houses. We would be aiming to work for the next five years or so as my children are still young (she doesn't have any) and try to get as much money behind us as possible before attempting to get anywhere with banks and so on.

Do any of you please know where we could start looking into this? My friend says we ought to go with the client group that is likely to have the most available funding, so as to be stable and successful. Also, would it be best to try to get mortgages so that banks would be more likely to consider our business idea?

Thanks for reading

stephenni1971

Neither of us have any savings and both of us rent our houses

would it be best to try to get mortgages so that banks would be more likely to consider our business idea

So you want to borrow money to buy a house so that the banks would want to lend you more money to buy a care home?

Residential care homes have a substantial capital value, as they literally have to have the bricks & mortar to work in.

As a result, to buy one you are looking for the property value ( likely to be substantial ) plus the valuation of the business itself.

You have no savings, you have no property to use as equity, and you have no experience of running a care home so put it this way.

IF you were a bank and were approached by two inexperienced business people for a loan of over £1/2 million what would you say?

How much do you think you will be able to save in the next five years?

paulabear

You're right, it's a stupid idea, isn't it? We thought that we'd be able to do it having seen other people start off with very little - the couple who took over a place I was working in did it with seemingly very little money behind them, and their previous experience only consisted of working as hospital nurses. I'm unsure how much we would be able to save; would need to work out a savings plan and stick to it; thank you for your reply

stephenni1971

I'm not saying it's a stupid idea, but you have to be realistic about these things.

Work hard, keep your eyes and ears open and maybe, just maybe, an opportunity will arise.

If you look at many success stories, it can be more a case of right place right time than anything else.

paulwf

Did you watch the Gerry Robinson programme yesterday? It's on iPlayer if you missed it. You can gleam some info on it about how care home financials work.

paulabear

We definitely wouldn't be going into it blind; we've got a lot of support and we're both happy to work hard. Thanks for your encouragement it's much appreciated.

paulabear

I did, thank you paulwf, I was particularly interested in the place where they had the residents helping to run their own home, which is the kind of model we'd like to be following; I worked in a home that was run on similar lines and it was a happy place where the staff enjoyed working. I'm recording the series

Jenna555

A home care facility is a HUGE undertaking. Do you have any private investors? Have you tried to get an unsecured business loan? How many people will the facility hold? How many patients are you looking to look after?

paulabear

We are not in a position to try to get a business loan at present; I'm just looking for any information that will point us towards what we need to be researching. We don't currently have any private investors as we have not made any kind of business plan; I don't know where best to start looking for guidelines for doing this - is it the same as any other? Are there any sites I could be looking at and relating to our situation and requirements? Books, anything helpful any advice would be appreciated. There is a possibility we could get investment from a family member. Myself and my friend are more experienced in the social care side of it but my husband has been a manager in a different field for a while and so has experience in staff management, accounts and so on.

Wine_of_the_World

I am wondering if the council would be able to help you - perhaps provide a building for you, after all good care homes are in short supply! Also councils often help fund people in care homes, perhaps you could talk to someone there to see if there is a market not being catered to well, which they would help fund. I remember watching a program about a middle age man who needed a lot of care and felt very isolated in a care home with much older people.

I am guessing if it has been a dream for you for a while and you have worked as a career you are not looking to cut corners to make money, but are aiming for a happy, well run care home. Good luck!

Lizz01

Hi Paula

As a starting point I would suggest you either download the factsheet on Residential Care Homes at Scavenger.net or pop along to Business Link where you can obtain the same factsheets for free


Good luck with your plans

Liz