For Texas care home owners and the people about to become one · Greater Houston
A home that runs itself,
so the people in it get to be human.
You did not get into senior care to be on hold with the state. I build the AI back office that takes the paperwork, the missed inquiry, and the empty bed off your plate, so your hours go back where they belong: in the living room, with the people who moved in trusting you.
Every tool below is free and real. Use them before you ever speak to me. Or start with the six license paths →
What actually changes
01 · Today
You are the back office
The marketer, the biller, the recruiter, the compliance officer. At 11pm. Again.
02 · After
You are the owner
The home that answers every family, and never loses one to a night nobody picked up.
E. Crossley
89.1%
occupancy at large investor-owned senior housing communities, Q4 2025. Industry weather, not a small-home number.
NIC MAP
806k
units the U.S. is short by 2030
NIC MAP Vision
$5,250
median monthly rate a Texas family pays for assisted living. A price, not your revenue.
Genworth 2024
$540
the HHSC license fee alone for a 16-bed home. It is not what opening one costs.
HHSC
The thing you are actually fighting
You did not open a care home to do data entry.
Nobody ever quit a job, bought a house, and took on the state of Texas because they were excited about a binder. You did it for the people. Then this happened.
The missed call
A daughter phoned on Saturday. Nobody picked up, because you were changing a bed. By Monday she had placed her father somewhere else. You never even knew she called.
The lost referral
A discharge planner sent you one family. You were slow getting back, because you are one person. She never sent you another one.
The binder
The paperwork the state needs, that eats your Sunday and produces nothing at all except the right to keep operating on Monday.
The empty bed
The math only works when the house is full. It is not full. You know the exact number and you think about it at two in the morning.
The burned-out owner
You opened a care home to care for people. You now do data entry until midnight and you cannot remember the last time you sat down with a resident.
Why it matters more here than anywhere else
A home that is behind is a home that feels behind.
Every hour you spend chasing a compliance binder is an hour you are not in the living room. Your residents feel that. They cannot name it, but they feel it.
Every call that goes to voicemail is a family in the worst week of their life, sitting in a hospital corridor, deciding they are on their own. They do not call back. They call somebody else.
And every empty bed is a home that cannot keep the caregiver who knows how Miss Ruth takes her coffee. Full homes are stable homes. Stable homes keep their people. The staff who stay are the only thing a resident actually feels.
The back office is not admin. In a care home, the back office is the care.
What this actually is
People think this is about buying a house. It is about a home that runs itself.
Yes, there is a house underneath it. Yes, the license is what turns it into a business, and yes, that is why the economics work at all. All of that is true and none of it is the point.
What you are really deciding is whether you spend the next ten years being the back office, or owning a home that has one. That is the whole choice. Everything below this line exists to make the second one possible, and you can use every piece of it right now, for free, before you ever speak to me.
Schedule A · The six paths
Your six paths, one schedule
Every Texas senior living path in one view. “Min. state fees” is the floor of what the STATE charges: LLC, license, background check. It is not what opening costs. It excludes the fire and life-safety build-out, which on a licensed home is the biggest number you will pay. Tap any row for the full breakdown.
| Ref · License type | Residents | State license | Min. state fees | Revenue / resident | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
P-01 Adult Foster Care Care for 1–3 adults in your own home | 1–3 | Conditional | $340 | $1,200–$3,500/mo | Full sheet → |
P-02 Boarding Home Room & board for 3+ seniors — no personal care required | No state cap | Conditional | $340 | $800–$2,500/mo | Full sheet → |
P-03 HCS Group Home Medicaid-funded home for 3–4 adults with intellectual disabilities | 1–4 | Conditional | $1,090 | $3,000–$8,000/mo | Full sheet → |
P-04 Type A ALF Up to 16 ambulatory seniors with a state license | 4–16 (Small) | Required | $760 | $3,090–$5,250/mo | Full sheet → |
P-05 Type B ALF Memory care & higher-acuity seniors — 24/7 awake staff required | 4–16 (Small) | Required | $760 | $3,500–$7,500/mo | Full sheet → |
P-06 ICF/IID Dual-licensed Medicaid group home for high-support IDD individuals | No state cap | Required | $1,360 | $4,000–$12,000/mo | Full sheet → |
Adult Foster Care
Care for 1–3 adults in your own home
Residents
1–3
Min. state fees
$340
Revenue/mo
$1,200+
Full sheet →
Boarding Home
Room & board for 3+ seniors — no personal care required
Residents
No state cap
Min. state fees
$340
Revenue/mo
$800+
Full sheet →
HCS Group Home
Medicaid-funded home for 3–4 adults with intellectual disabilities
Residents
1–4
Min. state fees
$1,090
Revenue/mo
$3,000+
Full sheet →
Type A ALF
Up to 16 ambulatory seniors with a state license
Residents
4–16 (Small)
Min. state fees
$760
Revenue/mo
$3,090+
Full sheet →
Type B ALF
Memory care & higher-acuity seniors — 24/7 awake staff required
Residents
4–16 (Small)
Min. state fees
$760
Revenue/mo
$3,500+
Full sheet →
ICF/IID
Dual-licensed Medicaid group home for high-support IDD individuals
Residents
No state cap
Min. state fees
$1,360
Revenue/mo
$4,000+
Full sheet →
The rule everyone gets wrong
Do you even need a license?
1–3 residents
CONDITIONALNo state license, if you meet every condition
You enroll with HHSC as Adult Foster Care. State fees are small: a $300 LLC and a $39.75 background check. The exemption is not automatic. It holds only while all of this is true:
- · You live in the home. It is your primary residence.
- · You have three residents or fewer. The fourth requires a license.
- · You are not doing anything that triggers a license on its own.
Break any one of those and you are operating unlicensed. And if you want Medicaid to pay you, contracting with HHSC or a managed care organization brings its own certification and contract requirements on top of this. These are people in your care, not a test.
4 or more residents
LICLicense required
The 4th resident triggers a Type A or Type B assisted living license ($300 + $15/bed). Texas no longer issues the old Type C. Bigger lift, bigger income.
Where the capital actually goes
The state fees are small. The building is not.
Texas does charge very little to license you: $300 for the LLC, $39.75 for the background check, $540 for a 16-bed ALF license. Anyone who stops the story there is selling you something.
A licensed 16-bed home is not a house with more beds. It is a Life Safety Code building. Sprinklers, fire alarm, egress, ADA, a local fire marshal plan review, a certificate of occupancy. That work runs into tens of thousands of dollars, it is the largest single number in your budget, and none of it is a state fee. Budget the building, not the license.
Model your real numbers →Texas LLC filing (Secretary of State)
every path
Background check (IdentoGO + DPS + FBI)
per person
Adult Foster Care enrollment (1–3 residents)
no license fee
Type A / Type B ALF license (16-bed)
$300 + $15/bed
HHSC inspections (Life Safety + Health)
first two visits free
Fire and life-safety build-out, plan review, and local permits
NOT a state fee. Usually your LARGEST single cost.
A licensed home is a Life Safety Code building, not a house. Sprinklers ($8,000–$22,000), fire alarm ($2,000–$6,000), egress, emergency lighting, ADA access, local fire marshal plan review, certificate of occupancy, food permit, and HHSC plan review. Costs are quote-dependent and can run higher on a two-story or a larger build.
See exactly what the fire marshal checks →More ways to get paid than you think
Who actually pays you
Most operators only know about private pay, so their beds sit empty waiting for it. There is more than one payer, and knowing which is which is the job. Below is money that arrives at the home, and then money that arrives at the family. They are not the same thing, and mixing them up is how a budget breaks.
Private pay
R-01The family pays you directly. Texas assisted living runs a median of about $5,250 a month (Genworth 2024 Cost of Care). That is the median PRICE families pay statewide, weighted toward big communities. Your rate is yours to set and to defend.
Medicaid (STAR+PLUS)
R-02Texas Medicaid pays for assisted living services through STAR+PLUS managed care. You contract with the resident's managed care organization, not with the state directly, and you bill that MCO. Source: HHSC STAR+PLUS.
HHSC Residential Care (SSI-level residents)
R-03A licensed ALF program: the resident pays room and board out of their own income, and HHSC pays the provider a service rate on top. The resident must score 18+ on HHSC Form 2060. Source: HHSC Community Care Services Eligibility Handbook, Section 4700.
Long-term care insurance
R-04The policy pays a daily benefit, and many policies let you bill the insurer directly. What it pays varies enormously. Read the policy before you count on it.
And this is how families pay, which is not the same thing
VA Aid & Attendance
The most overlooked money in senior care, and the most often misexplained. It is a pension enhancement paid TO THE VETERAN, not a payer that reimburses your home. Nothing bills to it. For a veteran with no dependents who qualifies for Aid & Attendance, the maximum annual pension rate is $29,093, about $2,424 a month (VA MAPR, effective December 1, 2025). A family may use it toward your rate. You cannot invoice the VA for it.
The drawing set · open access
Every sheet in the operating system
The full underwriting, licensing, and operating toolset. Open access, no gate. Score a deal or jump straight to the sheet you need.
Take the 30-Second Quiz
Answer 4 questions, find the exact path you qualify for.
Start the quiz →Build My Roadmap
Match your property to the right license and get the exact steps, costs, and the income it throws off.
Build my roadmap →Score Your Deal
Feed any deal. Get an instant go / no-go with full underwriting: NOI, DSCR, levered IRR, plus whether it is strong enough for Erika to co-invest. Works in any metro.
Score a deal →Compare 7 Paths for One Address
Enter any property. AI sizes every senior-care business it could legally become and projects profit, cash needed, and payback time for each.
Compare my options →Let AI Run Every Department
You own the business. AI runs sales, marketing, billing, hiring, compliance, and makes AI itself recommend you: the work a salaried back office does, for a fraction of one hire.
See your AI staff →How to Get Paid
Every payer beyond private pay: VA, re-entry, Medicaid, SSI, and more.
See the payers →List a Property, Instant AI Read
Drop your address or your empty portfolio homes. AI reads the deal in seconds, then Vanda calls you with the numbers.
Get my AI read →Pass Your Next Inspection
Already open? Run a mock HHSC survey, see your exposure ranked by violation severity, and get a drafted Plan of Correction before a surveyor walks in.
Check my readiness →Already Open? Get Found by AI
Families now ask ChatGPT and Google AI for the best senior living near them. Run a free scan to see how visible your home is today, and what it takes to be the one AI recommends.
Run my visibility scan →Finance It
SBA, construction, HUD, bridge. A private intro to a licensed lender.
See loan options →Free Templates
Admission agreement, P&P outline, referral letter, rate sheet. Copy and use.
Get templates →Compare All 6 Types
Side-by-side fees, licensing, capacity, and income: the full breakdown.
Compare types →Powered by Erika · done for you
Want it built for you?
The free tools get you the plan. What a home actually brings in depends on your beds, your rates, and how full you keep it, and I will not pretend to know that before you own it. What I can tell you is my half: the back office a senior living business normally staffs with an administrator, a biller, a marketer, an intake coordinator, and after-hours coverage. Here is how you get that for a fraction of one hire.
AI Partner Intensive
Pay up front, sit with Erika two hours, and walk out with a personalized AI agent built for your exact deal. The fastest way to start. $1,500.
Book 2 hours, $1,500 →The $3,500 buildout
Erika builds your full HHSC package and your AI operating system, the back office a senior living business normally fills with several salaried hires, hands it over running, and teaches you to drive it. $3,500 once, yours to keep.
See the $3,500 buildout →AI Department Staff
Every morning it writes the work for you: the compliance checks, the money moves, the social post, the answer capsule that gets you quoted by AI, the recruiting note. From $2,500/mo for the Referral Engine, or $5,000/mo for the full agent stack.
See your AI staff →