How to Buy a Sober House
An Investment Property Acquisition Guide

This audiobook is narrated using a digital voice based on Dr. Hunter T. Foote. Vanderburgh Sober Living once closed a recovery home in Holden, Massachusetts, because the town had no public transportation and residents could not reach meetings or jobs without a car. That closure led to the Area Survey, the five-step market test at the center of this first book in the Sober Living Real Estate series. The survey runs in a fixed order, from demand and resident funding through referral networks, walkability, and local competition, and a failure at any step is a reason to walk away. Once a market clears, the book turns to the building. It sets a working minimum of 3,000 square feet, with a sweet spot near 6,000, and one full bathroom for every six residents. Its Site Evaluation Blueprint sizes bedrooms at 70 square feet for the first bed and 50 more for each additional bed, and it underwrites every deal at 80 percent occupancy. Parking and zoning, the two objections raised on almost every walk-through, are rarely real obstacles. The final part covers deal structure through the author's own acquisitions. In Worcester, a seller who needed to delay a sale for tax reasons agreed to a lease with option to purchase. In New Bedford, the seller donated the operating business for a charitable deduction while the real estate sold separately. In Kannapolis, North Carolina, three co-owners on one title reached agreement through a small deposit and a short post-closing occupancy. A case study follows the Mulberry Recovery Home in Springfield, Massachusetts, a 10,000-square-foot building bought from a court-appointed receiver. Within 18 months of closing, it appraised at more than three times its all-in cost. This volume is for investors who already understand real estate and want to apply that skill to recovery housing. Financing and upfit are covered in the two books that follow.