● FREE KIT

The First House Kit

Opening a sober living home means committing to a lease, insurance and a budget before you have a single resident. The kit puts the order of operations, the ranges worth planning around and the questions worth asking in four files you can use today.

It is built for someone who has not opened yet. Nothing in it promises residents, income or referrals.

Get the kit by email

Free. We will send the kit and a few guides on opening a house.

What is in the kit

  • Startup budget spreadsheet

    One-time costs with a low and high range for each line, a column for your own quotes, and a cash-reserve planner. Totals are live formulas. Every figure is labeled by where it came from.

  • 90-day launch checklist

    The first three months in order, from calling referral sources before you spend money to binding insurance and writing your policies, plus a plan for who to meet and what never to offer them.

  • Go / no-go self-check

    Twelve questions to answer before you sign a lease. Each one is a documented risk. Any "no" means stop and fix it first.

  • What to ask your attorney

    Questions, not answers, grouped by topic, so your first paid hour goes to the issues that matter: zoning, HOAs, resident agreements, wages, referrals and privacy.

Free tools, no email needed

Pro forma calculator

Test one house against your own rent, beds, occupancy and collections.

Open

Requirements by state

What your state says about licensing, certification and referrals, with the source for each line.

Open

How we label the numbers

There is no audited national data on what it costs to open one sober home. The best national source surveys state affiliates, not individual operators. So every budget line in the kit is tagged with how much weight it can bear.

Government source
From a federal or state agency report.
Operator-reported
What operators told a state agency. Not audited.
Vendor estimate
From a company that sells to operators. Treat as a planning figure, not a quote.
Our estimate
Our own reasoning from the sources. Get a real quote before relying on it.
No data found
The research found no figure for this line. Get a quote.

Where the research supports no figure, the budget says “Get a quote” rather than guessing.

What the kit leaves out on purpose

There are no legal templates in it: no resident agreement and no letters. Those depend on your state and your house, and a generic one can do harm. The attorney questions are there so you can get the right documents written for you.

Once your home has a real address, you can list it in the Sober Friend directory for free, alongside your NARR affiliate and state registry listings.

This is general information, not legal advice. Laws differ by state and city and change often. Talk to a licensed attorney in your state before you sign or spend.