Insights · Provider Vetting Checklists

Touring assisted living? Take this checklist.

October 23, 2026 · Legacy Lane Senior Navigation

An assisted living tour is a sales event — a pleasant one, usually, with fresh flowers in the lobby and lunch if you time it right. There’s nothing wrong with that. It just means your job on the tour is different from theirs: they’re showing you the building at its best. You’re inspecting the place your loved one might live. These questions turn a tour into an inspection.

The care questions

• Staffing, day and night. How many staff for how many residents — at 2 p.m. and at 2 a.m.? Night staffing is where brochures get quiet.
• Turnover. How long have the caregivers been here? High turnover means your loved one is always being cared for by strangers.
• Needs assessments. Who decides how much help a resident needs, how often is it reassessed, and what triggers a move to a higher — pricier — level of care?
• Medication management. Who handles medications, what does it cost, and what happens when a dose is refused or missed?
• Growing needs. If mobility fades or memory worsens, can this community keep caring for your loved one — or will you be moving again in a year?

The money and contract questions

• The full fee schedule, in writing. Base rate plus every level-of-care tier plus the add-ons: medication management, incontinence care, transportation. If it isn’t on paper, it isn’t real.
• Rate history. How much did rates rise in each of the last three years? A gentle first year followed by steep annual increases is a pattern worth knowing about now.
• Deposits and refunds. What’s due before move-in, and what comes back if plans change — or if your loved one passes away mid-month?
• The discharge policy. Under what circumstances can the community require a resident to leave, and with how much notice? Uncomfortable question, essential answer.
• The contract, to take home. Any community that won’t let you read the full contract away from the sales office has answered a question you didn’t ask.

The daily-life questions

• Eat a meal there. Not the chef’s tasting — a regular lunch, in the dining room, with residents.
• Compare the activity calendar to the afternoon. Then walk the halls and see what residents are actually doing at 3 p.m.
• Come back unannounced — a second visit at a different time, an evening or a weekend, when the building runs on its regular crew.
• Talk to residents and their visiting families. Ask what they’d change. You’ll learn more in five minutes than in any brochure.

Red flags worth trusting

• Pressure to sign today — “this apartment won’t last.” Apartments last; good decisions take a night’s sleep.
• Vague answers about night staffing or turnover.
• Strong odors in the hallways, or call bells going unanswered while you watch.
• A fee schedule or contract that can’t leave the building.

If the tour is memory care, add these

• How are exits secured — and what happens, step by step, if a resident does get out?
• What dementia-specific training do caregivers receive, and how often is it refreshed?
• How do staff handle hard moments — agitation, sundowning, a resident who refuses care? Ask for a real example, not a policy.
• Is the price all-inclusive or tiered? Memory care is sold both ways, and the difference shows up in year two.
• When would you tell us you can no longer care for her? Every memory care has a limit. Knowing where it is, now, beats discovering it during a crisis.

One last piece of logistics: bring two people. One asks the questions; the other writes down the answers and watches the hallways. Tours are designed to be remembered warmly, and memory is a generous editor — notes aren’t. Photograph the fee schedule if they’ll allow it, and get the name of the person who answered each question, so a different answer in month three has somewhere to land.

After the tour, do the arithmetic that matters: the total monthly cost at the level of care your loved one needs today — and one level up. That second number is the honest budget, because needs rarely move in the cheaper direction. Two communities compared on that basis will sort themselves out faster than any star rating can.

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