Free tool
Group Home Model Finder™
Answer questions about who you plan to house and what services you plan to provide. The tool tells you which housing model your plan actually describes — and where the licensing question is likely to land.
This tool provides general education only. It is not a licensing determination, not legal advice, and not a substitute for review by your state and local authorities.
Read this first. Every result from this tool ends with the same instruction: verify with state and local authorities. A questionnaire cannot determine licensing. Only your state regulator can, and only for your specific operation.
Do the people you plan to house live independently?
They cook, clean, manage their own medication, arrange their own transport and make their own decisions without your oversight.
Will you require residents to be in recovery, or to remain substance-free?
A recovery requirement, substance-free environment, testing policy or recovery-based house rules.
Are you housing people leaving incarceration or on community supervision?
A reentry or returning-citizen population, whether referred pre-release or through probation, parole or a reentry organization.
Will children live in the house?
Residents who are parents with custody or placement of their children in the house.
Will you help residents with personal care or daily living activities?
Bathing, dressing, grooming, toileting, feeding, transferring or mobility assistance.
Will you administer or manage medication for residents?
Storing, dispensing, reminding, monitoring or supervising medication — as opposed to residents keeping and taking their own prescriptions.
Will you provide treatment, therapy or clinical services yourself?
Counselling, group therapy, clinical assessment, behavioural health services or any licensed clinical intervention delivered by your operation rather than an outside provider.
Will residents need supervision or monitoring for their safety?
Overnight supervision, monitoring for elopement or safety risk, or continuous oversight — as opposed to ordinary house presence.
Will you deliver habilitation, rehabilitation or structured skills training?
Programmes teaching daily living, employment or behavioural skills as a service you deliver — not simply encouragement to residents.
Next step
Now work out whether the house pays.
Model classification answers what you are legally operating. The Deal Analyzer™ answers whether the economics work.
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 disclaimersBefore you leave the page
The tool gives you a starting point. The decision is yours to verify.
No tool can tell you what your state will decide. What we can do is send you the licensing decision tree, the questions that determine the answer, and the checklist to take to your state and local authorities.