Free tool. Print it, use it on every tour.

The touring checklist

Every community shows well at 11am on a Tuesday with the marketing director walking you past the fountain. This checklist is how you see past the tour. Print one copy per community and fill it in within an hour of leaving, while it's fresh.

Print this checklist

First impressions (trust your nose and ears)

• Does it smell clean in the hallways, away from the lobby?
• Are residents out of their rooms, engaged, talking? Or parked in front of a TV?
• Do staff greet residents by name as you walk?
• How do staff talk to residents: like adults, or like children?
• Drop by unannounced a second time, at a different hour, before deciding

Care and staffing (the questions that matter most)

• How many caregivers are on duty overnight, for how many residents?
• Is someone who can pass medications on site 24/7?
• How are care levels defined, and what triggers a price increase?
• What happens after a fall? Who calls you, and when?
• What would make the community ask a resident to move out? Get it in writing
• How long has the executive director been here? The med-tech lead? Turnover at the top usually shows up in the care

Safety and the building

• Grab bars, walk-in showers, good lighting in the actual room you're offered, never just the model
• Call buttons or pendants: average response time, and who answers at 3am?
• For memory care: how is the building secured, and what's the plan when someone tries to leave?
• Earthquake and evacuation plan: where do residents go, and how do families find out?

Daily life

• Look at the actual activity calendar from last month, then ask which events really happened
• Can residents wake, eat, and bathe on their own schedule?
• How do residents get to doctors' appointments?
• Are visitors welcome anytime, including mealtimes?
• Ask a resident, away from staff: "What's the food honestly like? What would you change?"

Food

• Eat a meal there, unannounced if possible
• Look at a full week's menu, including dinner (the meal where corners get cut)
• How do they handle dietary needs: diabetic, low-sodium, soft foods, kosher?
• What happens when someone misses a meal? Does anyone notice and check?

The contract and the money

• All-in monthly number for your parent's current needs, in writing
• "If my dad needs more help in six months, what does this room cost?" In writing
• One-time community fee: amount, and what happens to it if the move doesn't work out
• Rate-increase history for the past three years
• Notice period and refund terms if you leave, and the move-out triggers
• Have an elder law attorney read the admission agreement before signing; one hour of review is cheap against this contract

Red flags (any one of these deserves a hard pause)

• Pressure to sign today to "hold the rate" or "hold the room"
• Nobody can answer the overnight staffing question with a number
• They won't show you the actual room, only the model
• Vague answers about what triggers care-level price increases
• Staff who don't make eye contact with residents in the hallway
• A recent serious citation on the state record they wave off without explaining what changed

How to read a community's California inspection record

This is the part most families never learn, and it's the single best free research tool that exists. California inspects every licensed assisted living community and board-and-care home (the state calls them RCFEs), and publishes the results. Marketing awards measure marketing. This record measures what happened.

1. Go to the state's Care Facility Search: ccld.dss.ca.gov/carefacilitysearch (California Department of Social Services).
2. Search the community's name (or the address if the name is ambiguous; some communities operate under a license name that differs from the sign out front; the marketing director will give you the license number if you ask).
3. Open the facility's record and look at three things: license status, inspection visits, and complaints with their findings.
4. Understand citation types. Type A citations are the serious ones: an immediate risk to residents' health or safety. Type B citations are violations that matter but pose less immediate risk. Read what the citation was actually for; a paperwork lapse and an unattended fall are both citations, and they are not the same thing.
5. Look for patterns, never single events. Any building operating for years will have something on file. What matters: repeated citations for the same issue, multiple substantiated complaints about care (falls, medications, neglect), or anything serious in the last 18 to 24 months.
6. Bring it to the tour. "I saw the citation from last year about medication management. What changed afterward?" A good community answers specifically: what happened, what they fixed, how they verify it stays fixed. Defensiveness or surprise is its own answer.

Want a short list that's already been checked? Start here