All Forum Posts by: Tom Pappas

Hello Charlie, You are right that a community of individual homes is difficult for delivery of daily care for assistance with mobility issues and cognitive decline. Nancy Fox, a leader in the Changing Aging movement was the first administrator for one of Dr. Thomas’ Green House Project homes. After decades of work in the industry, and in Green House design and administration, she is very comfortable with the model of establishing relationships with a home health provider for on-site care. The home health services industry struggle with the cost of providing services where clients are spread across a geographic area. In Nancy’s model of a Kallimos Community (https://kallimos.com/), caregivers are able to manage multiple clients without down-time spent traveling. Since the home health is provided by a third party, the community does not need to be licensed as a care facility, so costs related to regulatory compliance with inspections and staffing are facilities are not added to the cost of care. In Nancy’s opinion, this care model, combined with the social capital of a cohousing community when properly supported with trained staff can result in quality care. But since I am not an elder care specialist, I have to defer to Nancy and Dr. Thomas for help in building a care component for a community based upon the community’s individual resources, needs and social structure.

Hello Aaron, There are conventional loans available to owner occupiers for shipping container homes. One of many examples of lenders is Fairway https://www.fairway.com/articles/how-to-get-a-loan-for-a-shipping-container-home. But I agree with you that seniors would not be wise to buy a home if the return on investment does not make sense. An interesting trend in the senior housing industry is that the average stay for a senior in a traditional institution is shrinking due to the costs of the services. Operators tell me that the objection to the costs are from the children of the elder who don’t want mom to spend down her savings, fearing that she will run out of money and that there will not be any left to pass down to the kids. So building housing that will both provide mom with a safe place to live and a good life experience is hard. The problem is that the number of middle income seniors, aged 75+ years old will increase from 8 million to 14 million in 5 years (by 2029). Most will have health needs (1 million will have cognitive impairment, 9 million will have mobility limitations and 3 million will have “high needs”) . Of these 14 million, 81% will not have the resources to pay for assisted living and care which is now at the cost of $62K annually. So then 86% of middle income seniors remain at home and 25% of them are cared for by a family member. Building an environment where people can safely age in place and obtain needed care makes for difficult family decisions. My aim is to help a few families with options that will help. Thanks again for your comments Aaron.

Hi Bruce, thank you for your thoughts and for the questions. They are really good points that I have spent many years working through. I got interested in senior housing in 2015 when I helped a friend put a financing deal in place for a Green House project in Tennessee. That led me to Nancy Fox and Dr Bill Thomas, the leaders in senior housing innovation. I worked with Nancy for several years developing a real estate model for Kallimos Communities where we developed a model that drew on Dr Thomas’ innovations in nursing home care and what he called Green House 2.0 that would further personalize senior care. Our model also relied heavily on Ross Chapman’s work on pocket neighborhoods, Charles Durrett’s work on cohousing and Nancy’s work on building community in a senior living environment. My role on the team was to develop a model for the real estate and when the pandemic of 2020 ravaged senior living, our work was disrupted as building in the industry paused.

My work with Kallimos Communities made me aware of the complex web of factors like geographic isolation, workforce shortages and limited transportation options that make providing adequate senior care in rural communities an intractable problem. My wife and I decided to move to our land in South Texas and I was able to observe the problem up close and came to embrace the vision of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging. USAging believes that every person should be able to age with optimal health, well-being, independence and dignity in their homes and communities. To achieve this, rural areas need innovative infrastructure and values that supports people as they age. I believe that I can help support this vision through bringing attainable and affordable housing to rural areas and help with fill the services gap by what Nancy calls “social capital” rather than financial capital. Village to Village Network (https://www.vtvnetwork.org/) and Men’s Sheds Association (https://usmenssheds.org/) are successful models of people building community to improve the aging experience.

So drawing on Dr Thomas and Nancy’s work and incorporating cohousing and pocket neighborhood elements into my communities, I have chosen to use shipping container homes in areas along the Texas coast where storms frequently cause wind and water damage. My cost to build a 900 sf to 1,200 sf container home is about $90 / sf and that cost comes down in a production environment where materials can be purchased in quantities and the workforce is working on a standard floorplan with multiple units in process simultaneously. Because these communities would be in smaller towns and rural communities, the licensing jurisdiction is the county, meaning that code requirements are more often vested in the fire marshal and are less onerous than city requirements for the buildings and the site improvements. So utilities, roads, drainage, entries and other infrastructure costs are lower than in a suburban development. As Bill Thomas says, “the greatest amenity in a senior community is community”, so investing in things that will promote togetherness and cooperation are high priorities for the population that I am addressing.

The funding model also relies upon bringing together different groups and structuring deals to meet their diverse objectives. For profit and not for profit investors can be brought into the financing structure to work together to meet the needs. I will be happy to share structuring for the capital requirements and operations for various fund objectives. Thanks again for sharing your perspectives Bruce. They are very helpful.

Hi Grady, it would be a much different cost profile to try to build to the same scale as the large senior communities wouldn't it.  I'm not sure how that would work, but I am guessing that another factory housing type would be better for urban housing.  Maybe something like what Toyota is doing with prefab building.  The development that I am working on is more rural, where land is available and seniors live in more isolation and have a harder time connecting with their rural neighbors. I am also counting on a few 55+ seniors selling their homes to escape the city (Austin, Houston, Dallas) for a more affordable community where their retirement savings will go further and where they can connect with other seniors.  Thank you for your thoughts. Tom.

As a former CPA and attorney who managed a distressed property investment fund, I've analyzed countless real estate opportunities. Today, I want to share why I've pivoted to developing container home senior communities and the investment analysis behind this decision.

Background: Running a distressed property fund taught me to identify undervalued opportunities and market inefficiencies. After exiting that business, I began exploring innovative solutions to the growing senior housing crisis. This led me to container home development.

Key Market Factors:

1. Senior housing demand is outpacing supply
2. Traditional construction costs are skyrocketing
3. Fixed-income seniors need affordable options
4. Sustainability is becoming a critical factor

The Container Home Advantage:

• 20-40% lower construction costs
• Significantly faster build time
• Durable steel construction
• Highly customizable
• Lower maintenance costs
• Sustainable/recyclable materials

I've already completed one container home conversion and several studio/guest houses. The insights gained from these projects have validated our initial assumptions about cost savings and construction efficiency.

Future Vision: We're now developing a complete senior community model that combines:

• Affordable container homes
• Community-focused design
• Sustainable practices
• Scalable business model

Investment Perspective: From my fund management experience, I see three key advantages:

1. Lower capital requirements than traditional development
2. Faster time to market
3. Multiple revenue streams (sales, community fees, services)

I'm sharing this to start a discussion and get feedback from the BP community.

Questions for discussion:

• What challenges do you see in this model?
• Has anyone else explored container homes for senior living?
• What factors would you consider before investing in this type of project?

Looking forward to your insights and questions.

Investment Info:

Single-family residence other investment.

Co-founder of Visio Ltd, operating a real estate investment fund across 48 states dealing in distressed single family homes sourced from financial institutions and sold to fix & flip and buy & hold investors. $100 million equity & debt managed.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I was interested in the finance and legal aspects of operating a multi-state buy and flip equity fund. I was intrigued with the prospect of buying distressed properties in bulk quantities and finding local investors who could rehab them and put them back on the market.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We used an REO broker to find bulk packages of foreclosed distressed houses for sale from banks.

How did you finance this deal?

We had 20 high net worth investors who placed equity and debt with us with a profit splitting arrangement.

How did you add value to the deal?

We bought lists of homes and sold them off individually.

What was the outcome?

We sold 70% of the packages off in 90 days and the remaining 30% were sold in 12 months. We distributed profits to investors quarterly and returned a 45% IRR to investors annually.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The complexity of selling nationally forced us to expand our headcount. As large investors entered the market to acquire single family houses, our margins were squeezed and we ultimately could not maintain our target investor returns as the market totally changed.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

We handled everything in-house from the point that we acquired the properties to listing them on our website and pushing them out thru an internal sales force that did outbound calls to investors.

I'm Tom Pappas from Victoria TX, specializing in custom container homes. With 4 years in container conversions, we're transforming shipping containers into modern, efficient tiny homes and small homes.

Currently working on a small, 10 home, senior housing development. Expertise: Container home design, sustainable building, alternative housing. Looking to: Connect with investors interested in container homes, share knowledge about factory construction, and learn from the BP community.

Feel free to reach out if you're interested in container homes or factory building practices!"

Offering custom container home builds featuring:

• Fully customizable designs
• Sustainable materials and methods
• 8 -week construction timeline
• Special multi unit pricing
• Energy-efficient systems

Looking to connect with:

• Investors interested in container housing
• Property developers exploring shipping container housing options
• Anyone curious about container home construction