At what age is a Senior Living Facility Obsolete?

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At a certain age, virtually any type property will become obsolete.  Thus, at what age is it for Senior Living and Skilled Nursing Facilities?   I believe it is more a matter of functionality than age.

In today’s competitive world, Assisted Living Communities that are older converted Skilled Nursing Facilities tend to have challenges in keeping stabilized occupancy.   Often times they have shared bathrooms, small one-room units and limited common areas.  With lower acuity residents, private bathrooms are a must when marketing a facility.   Larger units with multiple rooms that can function as an Independent or Assisted Living unit have great appeal to allow residents to age in a place as additional care becomes necessary.

Skilled Nursing Facilities that have 3 and 4 bed wards (rooms) are very difficult to fill and often times the total bed count needs to be reduced to allow for mostly private or 2 bed rooms.   Even if the facility is accepting mostly Medicaid residents, two residents per room tends to be the maximum that is acceptable.

Other facility challenges include long narrow hallways, low ceilings, lack of elevators, and poor lighting.  Depending on the structure, these challenges can be very difficult to rectify.   While it tends to be the older Skilled Nursing Facilities that were built in the 1960s and 1970s, some Assisted Living Communities built in the 1980s and 1990s can also have a functionally obsolete design and layout.

If lack of private bathrooms and small rooms are the challenge, sometimes a solution is to focus on higher acuity Assisted Living and/or Memory Care where residents have higher acuity needs and can use a bathroom or kitchen on their own.  Unfortunately, there are some communities that have too many design and layout issues to overcome and possibly the best solution is to build a new facility on the existing ground.

To discuss the age, functionality and sale ability of your Senior Living or Skilled Nursing Facility please contact Jason Punzel at 630-858-2501 x 233 or [email protected]  or Joy Goebbert at 630-858-2501 x 230 or [email protected].

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What is the best list price for my Seniors Housing Community?

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As a company, Senior Housing Investment Brokerage, Inc. represents many different types of buyers; REITS, Private Equity companies, Regional Operators, Non-Profits and small, privately owned operators.  When it comes time to sell, typically the most, or one of the most important factors is obtain the best price possible.

As brokers, owners rely on us to provide them with an accurate assessment of the value of their Seniors Housing Community and suggest a list price to help them obtain the best terms possible in the market place.  As a company, over 95% of the time the final sales price is within the price range from our original market analysis.  After determining a market value range, the next step is deciding on a list price.   Typically, we suggest a list price of about 10% above the market value range.   Thus, if we expect a property to sell between $9,500,000-$10,000,000, an appropriate list price would be between $10,500,000-$11,000,000.

Often times, sellers believe that by listing the property at a much higher list price, that it will result in a higher final sales price because buyers will “meet them in the middle.”   From our experience, this is rarely the case and a high list price usually results in a much longer process and sometimes even a lower final sales price.

Buyers who have the capital available to purchase a $5, $10, $20+ million property, are very experienced and tend to have tight underwriting guidelines to achieve the returns their investors require.   Buyers are not going to be “tricked” into paying more for a property because of a high list price, pride of ownership, or because it is a nice, new building.

A high list price usually results in many buyers quickly passing over the deal because they don’t think the seller is realistic and they don’t want to pursue a property that they think there is very little chance of buying at a market price.   When there is little activity at first, and sellers reduce their price to a market price, buyers start to wonder if the seller will continue to reduce their price or if the property has something wrong with it.  Both which can cause more delays and decreased interest in the market place.

It is much more effective to have a list price that is realistic and creates a lot of activity from buyers quickly.  This creates competition among buyers by getting several offers at once and has a much greater chance of driving the up the price than having a high list price that slowly gets reduced because of inactivity.

If would you like to get an accurate market price analysis, please contact Jason Punzel at [email protected] or 630-858-2501.

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Matthew Alley Speaks at InterFace Seniors Housing Texas Conference

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On November 19th, I participated in a panel entitled “Investment Market Update: Who’s Buying, Who’s Selling & Will Velocity Keep Going Up and Cap Rates Keep Going Down”. We had a lively discussion on the current market, and I wanted to share a few takeaways.

1. Who are the active buyers and sellers in today’s market? There is more variety in buyers now than in the past decade. REITs, private equity, owner-operators and even some “mom and pops” have been interested in purchasing properties and growing their portfolio.  The sellers have been more diverse than normal as well.  “Mom and pops” are still very active sellers, but we have seen more regional and national owners look to take advantage of the strong market and either sell their entire portfolio or divest of a couple of properties that don’t match their strategic vision.

2. Are there different buyers for different seniors housing asset classes? Yes, absolutely.  Institutional groups typically chase larger, higher quality assets with consistent cash flow.  Their low cost of funds has driven owner-operators down the acquisition spectrum to the smaller assets that may be underperforming.

3. What are the most important metrics that buyers are using in today’s market? Cap rates are the most important metric when valuing a cash flowing property.  The difficulty comes in valuing a property that is underperforming.  In those cases, a potential new operator will put together a pro forma and land on a rate of return that they’re comfortable with.  Those deals typically see a wide range in offer prices.

4. What is the optimal size for acquisitions? Typically, the larger the offering, the better.  Institutional groups have a lot of equity to deploy and if they can deploy it in 10 $30 million transactions as opposed to 25 $10 million transactions, groups will typically prefer fewer transactions.  One-off or small portfolio transactions have a different pool of buyers, which tends to be less institutional and requires a broker to have a greater knowledge of the individual market and its individual buyers.

5. With pricing so strong in today’s market, why are some owners making a decision to hold? The current market conditions have hastened the timeframe for owners that had a planned exit strategy in the next 12-24 months.  That being said, some owners are trying to increase their portfolio’s profitability and increase value in that way.  Even if cap rates see a modest increase, a major increase in profitability will still see the owner come out ahead by waiting to sell.

6. Should we be concerned about overdevelopment in the seniors housing space? I think it is the biggest risk to the acquisition market moving forward.  This is obviously a market-to-market (and sometimes, submarket-to-submarket) risk.  If the area that an owner has a seniors housing facility becomes overdeveloped in the future, census levels will obviously suffer and valuations will go down.

7. What does the increase in development do to cap rates moving forward?  It adds a level of risk moving forward.  Anything that adds risk – whether it be development, reimbursement or labor risk among others – will naturally push cap rates up.

8. Where do you see the market headed over the next 12-24 months? In the near-term, it should be strong – cap rates are still higher than most other asset classes, interest rates are low and institutional equity needs to be placed.  Further into the future, overdevelopment, government reimbursement changes, interest rate increases, increased regulation, increased tax rates and the housing market could cause a bit of a pullback in pricing.  That being said, I still think the seniors housing space is better equipped to handle this uncertainty than other asset classes.

If you have any questions on the topic of this post or would like a confidential valuation of part or all of your seniors housing portfolio, please contact Matthew Alley at 630-858-2501 ext. 225 or [email protected].

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Senior Living Sells Texas Assisted Living Portfolio

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Matt Alley and Toby Siefert of Senior Living Investment Brokerage, Inc. sold 9 Assisted Living Communities with a focus on Memory Care located in Houston and San Antonio area. Two of the properties were in the lease up stage and the other seven were stabilized. The properties were built between 2005 and 2014. Resident rates range from $5,500-$5,600 per month. The Seller is a private owner/operator and the Buyer is a non-profit entity expanding their presence in Texas. The purchase was financed through the issuance of bonds. For additional information, please contact Matt Alley at [email protected] or Toby Siefert at [email protected] 630/740-0159

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