Strong fit
Configuration, bath ratio and common space all work at your target capacity, and the location matches where your population needs to be.
What to do
Move to inspection and diligence. Verify occupancy, egress and zoning in writing.
Free guide
The Group Home Property Analyzer
Most properties fail for reasons that were visible on the first walkthrough. This is the scoring framework for the eight criteria that decide whether a house can actually do the job.
General education only. Occupancy limits, egress requirements and permitted use must be verified with your local code and zoning authorities.
The eight criteria
What separates a house that works from one that drains you.
Every one of these is verifiable before you sign anything. The ones you skip are the ones that cost you later.
Highest weight
Bedroom configuration
Legal bedrooms only — egress window, minimum square footage, ceiling height, closet where required. How many rooms can hold a bed without violating occupancy limits is the number that matters, not the listing's bedroom count.
High weight
Bathroom ratio
How many residents per bathroom at full capacity? A house that works at four residents can be unworkable at seven. Count showers and toilets separately — they bottlenecks at different times of day.
High weight
Common space
Kitchen size, dining capacity, living space and storage. Shared housing fails socially before it fails financially, and it usually fails in a kitchen that cannot hold everyone at once.
Compliance gate
Egress and safety
Two means of egress, window sizes and heights, smoke and CO alarm placement, stair configuration, handrails. In many jurisdictions these requirements tighten with the number of unrelated occupants.
Operational risk
Parking
Off-street parking count versus realistic vehicle ownership. Street-only parking draws neighbor complaints, and neighbor complaints draw code enforcement.
Population-dependent
Location and transit
Distance to the services your population actually uses: employment, treatment, benefits offices, grocery, transit lines. A perfect house in the wrong place produces constant transport problems.
Cost driver
Utilities and systems
HVAC capacity, water heater size, panel amperage, insulation, roof age, sewer versus septic. Shared housing consumes utilities at a rate the prior owner never planned for.
Population-dependent
Accessibility
Step-free entry, door widths, ground-floor bedroom and bathroom, grab-bar blocking. Required for some populations, valuable for all of them.
Your verdict
Three outcomes, one of which is walking away.
A property score is only useful if it can tell you no. Most operators force the wrong house because they have already emotionally bought it.
Workable with cost
The bones are right but something needs money — a bathroom, a kitchen, HVAC, or accessibility work. That cost has to be underwritten into the deal.
What to do
Price the work before you negotiate. Get a contractor's number, not an estimate from a walkthrough.
Walk away
Bedroom count, bath ratio or egress cannot be fixed within the deal's economics, or the location makes the operation unworkable regardless of the property.
What to do
Walk. There is another house. The one you force is the one that costs you two years.
Before you offer
Verify these in writing. A walkthrough is not diligence.
The property can score well and still be unusable. These are the approvals and confirmations that turn a promising house into a deal you can actually close.
- Zoning and permitted use for the specific occupancy you intend
- Occupancy limits based on the applicable building or property maintenance code
- Egress, alarm and fire requirements at your target resident count
- HOA covenants, deed restrictions and any recorded conditions
- Insurance availability and cost at the intended occupancy and use
- Mortgage or lender requirements, including any occupancy or use restrictions
- Utilities capacity and confirmed average costs at full occupancy
- Accessibility requirements that apply to your specific population
The mistake we see most
Counting listing bedrooms instead of rooms that legally hold a bed. A four-bedroom listing with one non-conforming room and a finished basement that cannot be counted is a three-bedroom house — and if your economics need five positions, the deal never worked at all.
Run the numbers after
A property that passes every physical criterion can still be uneconomic. The Deal Analyzer™ takes the capacity this guide produces and tests it against rent, operating costs and the maximum sustainable property payment.
Free download
Get the full Property Analyzer
The complete scoring worksheet, including the walkthrough checklist, the verification log and the capacity calculation.
Free, no costNo obligationVerification checklist included
Go deeper
Finding the house is step five. Most people start there.
The Acquire Method™ starts with the market and the resident, not the property. Choosing the house first is why so many operators end up with a property that cannot serve the population they can actually get paid for.
The other free tools
- Group Home Deal Analyzer™ — underwrite the house
- Group Home Model Finder™ — what model does your plan describe
- Deal Control Finder™ — which structure fits the seller
- 100 Questions to Ask Before Leasing
- The Deal Control™ Cheat Sheet
Important disclaimer
Acquire Group Homes™ provides education, consulting, business systems and real-estate strategy. It does not provide legal advice, medical advice, clinical treatment, licensing determinations, tax advice or Medicaid eligibility determinations. Requirements vary by property, population, services, city, county and state — nothing on this page states or implies that any model is automatically legal in any jurisdiction.
Operators must verify zoning, licensing, occupancy, building/fire code, fair-housing obligations, insurance, resident-rights requirements and other applicable laws with qualified professionals before acquiring or operating a property. We do not promise "no license required," guaranteed Medicaid payment, guaranteed government contracts, guaranteed occupancy, "eviction-proof" agreements, or that any structure avoids zoning or lender requirements.
Full disclaimers