Frequently Asked Questions
Before we hop on a Zoom call together, I want to make sure your most common questions are already answered. The video above covers the big picture — this FAQ goes a little deeper so you can show up to our call clear, confident, and ready to talk about the vision for your sober living home.
You don’t need hundreds of thousands of dollars to get started. Most people open their first home with a few thousand dollars for first month’s rent, deposit, basic furniture, and initial operating costs. The exact number depends on your market, your housing strategy, and the level of home you want to run. On our call, I’ll walk you through real numbers from real homes so you know exactly what to budget for.
In most states, the answer is no — especially for smaller homes. Sober living homes are protected under the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, which means they generally cannot be zoned out or required to obtain special licensing the way a treatment center would. There are exceptions in certain cities and states, and there are voluntary certifications that can help you access referrals. I’ll show you how to know exactly what applies in your area.
Residents typically pay between $500 and $2,500 per month depending on your location, the level of accommodations, and the support you offer. A single well-run home can generate $5,000 to $15,000+ per month in revenue, and once you understand the model, it’s very scalable to multiple homes. This is one of the few businesses where you can do well financially while genuinely changing lives.
Most successful sober living operators start as an LLC because it’s simpler, faster, and gives you full control. Nonprofits make sense in specific situations (grant funding, certain partnerships), but they’re slower to set up and have more oversight. We’ll cover liability protection, insurance, and how to structure things so you’re protected from day one.
Many of my students start their first home while still working full-time. The key is having strong house rules, a clear intake process, and a reliable house manager or systems in place. Once you have one or two homes running smoothly, this can absolutely replace your income — but you do not have to quit your job to begin.
Screening is one of the most important pieces of running a successful home. Drug testing, background checks, a written intake agreement, and a clear set of house rules will protect your house, your residents, and your reputation. I’ll give you the exact intake process, agreements, and screening checklist I use.
The most common ones I see: relying only on private pay instead of building referral relationships, skipping written rules and agreements, picking the wrong market or neighborhood, under-charging, and trying to figure it all out alone. Almost every one of these is avoidable when you know what to look for.
Residents come from referral networks — treatment centers, detox facilities, probation and parole, drug courts, churches, recovery community organizations, and online searches. The operators who fill their homes fastest are the ones who build real relationships in their local recovery ecosystem. I’ll show you exactly who to call and what to say.
Occupancy comes down to three things: your referral pipeline, your reputation, and your retention. When those three are dialed in, empty beds become rare. We cover a simple system for tracking referrals, follow-up, and resident success so your home stays full month after month.
Yes — and that’s where the real freedom is. Once you understand the model with one house, scaling to three, five, or ten is largely a matter of systems, leadership, and capital. My bigger mission is helping operators build homes that actually last and grow into a portfolio that supports both their family and their community.
You get a full 7-day free trial of my coaching program so you can experience the training, the community, and the support before committing to anything. After the free trial, there is an investment to continue — because real coaching, real mentorship, and real systems are worth investing in. I’ve poured years of experience, mistakes, and wins into this program so you don’t have to learn the hard way. If you’re someone who values investing in yourself and your future, you’ll feel right at home here.
I’ll be straight with you, because I respect your time and mine: opening a sober living home is a real business, and like any real business, it requires you to be willing to invest in yourself before you can expect a return. You don’t need to be wealthy — many of my students started with very little — but you do need to be willing to put real skin in the game, whether that’s time, energy, or money. If you’re not in a place where you can invest anything in your own growth right now, this likely isn’t the right season for you, and that’s okay. Come back when you’re ready.
Our call is not a sales pitch. Because this video has already answered the foundational questions, we get to spend our time on you — your goals, your market, your vision for the kind of home you want to open, and whether the 7-day free trial of my coaching program is the right next step. You’ll leave the call with clarity either way.