I just got a text message from a business owner in Dallas who is working with, as he put it, a “Snitch.” The “Snitch” is a South Dallas homeowner who is essentially tattling tailing on landlords in Oak Cliff (South Dallas) to code compliance officials. The Bird Dog (who they refer to as the snitch for laughter purposes) is essentially a wholesaler looking to make $1,000 – $3,000 per deal that he can refer to the business owners. So let’s talk about what this has to do with Privacy and Anonymity. To begin with, the “Bird Dog” initially goes to the local county website and types in the property address. There, nine times out of 10, he can pinpoint the owner. With this information, he can call code compliance and code can come out, site the home for a violation and possibly begin causing issues for the owner.
Anonymity and Privacy is Important
Here is Another Story:
I remember a few years back, one of my mentors who is also in the real estate business with a wide variety of ventures including Group Homes and Special needs housing had an issue. Apparently, someone that they had asked to leave one of their properties found out who the owner was by looking through the tax roles and state records.
This gentleman lives in about a 7,000 square foot home in the central part of the city, so it is not a gated community and is therefore relatively accessible. One afternoon, the former tenant showed up at his home with a gun in hand! I am not kidding. Please keep in mind, this is in an extremely upscale part of the city and the owner is a family man with a wife and 4 children. Do you think a better privacy or anonymity plan could have protected he and his family??
Here is Another Privacy Story:
As a group home owner or someone looking for information on how to start a group home or someone wanting to scale up their group home business, one of your biggest threats is your client base.
A large landlord once told me another name for tenant is “plaintiff”….I love that line. Your customers may want to have a slip and fall on your property just to sue you! In fact, your clients may want to hire an attorney who is willing to take the case on contingency if the lawyer believes he can exact some money from you.
Remember, the Group Home and Care Home business is nothing more than a sub-niche (and a highly profitable one) within the real estate sector. Because real estate is “Real Property” you can look up the owners online. If an attorney sees that you own three group homes that you bought for $50,000 each and they are now worth $200,000; he knows you have $450,000 of equity.
Do you think the attorney would mind getting his or her hands on 50% of that and then giving his or her client (your previous tenant) 30% – 60% of that? You bet they would!
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HIPAA PRIVACY RULE
Group Homes Owners, Care Home Owners, Nursing Homes and Assisted livings need to be aware of the many different forms of communications that fall under the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Although we periodically make exceptions, 9 times out of 10 we do not provide referrals to other clients due to these issues.
Here is another…
The healthcare space – be it doctors offices, home health companies, nursing homes or group homes is a highly competitive landscape. The more profit there is in an industry, the more competition there will be. When you get started in this industry, do not be surprised if you have competitors hanging outside of your homes on the 25th – 28th of the month.
Do you know why? Because they will “recruit” your clients when they go outdoors to come live with them before the end of the month! If you don’t think that this happens then I may have a beautiful bridge to sell you if you have the financial means!
The same type of thing happens with home health companies. They will literally go into nursing homes and when one home health provider leaves, they will go in and attempt to change the primary home health provider on file for individual clients!
The business can be quite cut-throat. In the home health space, certain clients are worth more than others based on Medicaid reimbursement etc. In fact, we have actually had people call us up after buying our course, and then ask for coaching, but also asking for references in certain parts of the country. Little did we know (at first) what they were really doing! They were not just looking for a reference, they were looking to see where our clients had properties so that they could poach their clients!
This is the reason why we not only do our best to remain relatively anonymous and private. It is also why we do not allow prospective clients to speak with current clients. There is just too much competition as well as liability in this industry (and many others).
Again, everyone has their own way of doing things. We could show pictures of us at the Montage in Maui or the Four Seasons Hualalai spending $3,000 per day….but that is not our goal!
It could potentially make us a target. We could show images of our homes, vehicles or yachts (I do not have a yacht— but I could rent one and take photos!) but again, that is not the image that we want to portray….it leaves a bad taste and could potentially open us up to liability.
We advocate that you too remain cautious in your new found wealth. Do you want to be rolling up to your Group Home in a Brand new CL55 AMG Mercedes or S550? Trust me when I tell you that your prospective customers may get a bad feeling in their stomach. Am I advocating driving up in a beat-up and dirty Hyundai or Truck? No! You need to look clean and presentable, but don’t ask for trouble by showing off your new wealth!
SUMMARY:
Everyone has their own way of doing things. Some people NEED to show off what they have, and yes, it can provide them with additional notoriety which can then assist in marketing their business.
But there are also hundreds of thousands of other group home entrepreneurs and group home business owners out there whom you would never guess make $100,000 – $1,000,000 per year without much work! They may too are hugely successful but chose a more “low-key” approach so not as to invite, what the Armenians refer to as “the bad eye.”
But before any of this matters, you need to get started! We actually can help you to get your website built so you can start recruiting clients or ask us about our Group Home and Care Home business website template that we can provide for you! At a bare minimum, get started with your research on How to Start a Group Home by clicking here!
LEGAL DISCLAIMER
This presentation should not be construed and is not intended to be legal advice. Further, no attorney/client relationship is intended or created by this performance, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, WE ARE NOT ATTORNEYS!. If you have specific questions, please consult with the counsel of your choice. All images, videos, copyrights, and trademarks used in the presentation are property of their respective owners.
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