How Next Best Home is paid, and what our data covers
Next Best Home is paid in one way that touches a family's money: a California real estate commission, and only when a family chooses to hire Jessica Solomon as their agent. Care cost guidance, this month's vacancy survey and every community listing are free, no community pays for a placement, a referral or a ranking, and no advisor in the network pays for an introduction. The rest of this page is how to check that, and where the numbers stop.
Also on the record: how far the directory reaches and every Google review in full.
Answered by
Jessica Solomon, Founder, care, legal and financial clarity
20+ years in Santa Barbara senior care, CA DRE #01972520
Every way this business is paid
One table, no small print. If a route is not on it, it is not a route we take.
Care cost, legal and financial clarity
Nobody. It is free to the family.
No hourly fee, no consultation fee and no success fee. The first call, the cost estimate and the vacancy list cost a family nothing.
A place in the monthly vacancy survey
Nobody. Listings are free to every licensed community.
There is no paid tier, no sponsored listing and no ranking for sale. All 48 responding communities are published, including the ones with the highest rates.
A placement or referral
Nobody. Next Best Home takes no placement fee from a community.
The usual referral model pays an advisor when a family moves in. This one does not, which is why the shortlist can include communities that never pay an advisor.
Introductions to advisors, lenders, attorneys and move managers
Nobody, in either direction.
Network advisors do not pay Next Best Home for an introduction, and Next Best Home is not paid for making one.
Real estate, when a family home is sold or bought
A commission, only if the family hires Jessica as their agent.
A California real estate commission under CA DRE #01972520 with Celerity Real Estate (DRE #01965367), disclosed in writing before any agreement. Families who use another agent still get the care guidance free. Jessica typically acts in the role of a real estate referral agent and vets agents for families and professionals.
Clicks and calls on this site
Nobody. They are tracked for our own numbers.
Analytics show which pages families read. No community, provider or lender is billed for a click, a call or a lead.
Our conflicts of interest, named
A business that says it has no conflicts is either unusual or not looking. These are the four that apply here, each with the reason it could tilt the advice and the way it is handled. Every one is stated in a sentence a family can check, and none of them is buried in terms.
A real estate commission
The care advice includes whether a family should keep, rent or sell the home, and Jessica Solomon earns a California commission if that family hires her as their agent. That is the one place where the advice and the money touch. Jessica typically acts in the role of a real estate referral agent and vets agents for families and professionals.
How it is handled: The commission is disclosed in writing before any agreement, the recommendation about the home is the same whether the family lists with her, with another agent, or not at all, and a family that uses another agent still gets the care guidance free. The licence, CA DRE #01972520 with Celerity Real Estate (DRE #01965367), is public in the state's DRE lookup.
Twenty years inside one home care company
A career spent as a producer at a home care agency could incline someone to answer "home care" first. The bias would be invisible in a recommendation and expensive for a family paying hourly.
How it is handled: The answer is driven by the cost model and the ADL answers, and home care and community care are priced on the same page with the same arithmetic, so a family can see the hourly total next to the monthly rate before anyone gives an opinion. No home care agency pays for an introduction or a placement.
The vacancy survey is community reported
Every rate and opening comes from the community itself, and a community would rather look full than empty and cheaper than it is. Data supplied by the party being judged is the classic conflict in this industry.
How it is handled: Every card shows the date that community last saved its own numbers, the site states plainly that it does not audit occupancy or verify a rate before publication, and every page tells families to confirm the opening and the all in monthly cost directly before touring. Nothing is hidden behind a paid listing, because there are none.
Being paid by nobody for the placement
The usual referral model pays an advisor when a family moves in, which quietly rewards the largest community with the highest budget. Declining that money removes the incentive, and also removes an easy way to look credible.
How it is handled: No community pays a placement fee, a listing fee, a referral fee or a ranking fee, there is no paid tier and no sponsored placement, and advisor, lender and move manager introductions are unpaid in both directions. That is why the shortlist can include the small homes that never pay an advisor.
Where the data comes from, and where it stops
The local survey is the original work: it covers Santa Barbara, community by community, every month. National medians are quoted from CareScout and labelled as national wherever they appear, and the site does not stretch Santa Barbara numbers onto another market.
Santa Barbara
Primary data, our own surveyA monthly survey of the 48 licensed assisted living and memory care communities in Santa Barbara: starting rate, entry fee, vacancy, capacity, respite, pets, and the date that community last updated its own listing. The November 2026 cycle shows a median of $7,000 a month and a range of $2,000 to $11,750. Each community fills in its own numbers through a private link, which is why every listing carries an update date.
California
State programs and licensingLicensing through the Department of Social Services, and the programs that pay for care here: Medi-Cal's Assisted Living Waiver, SSI/SSP in a licensed board and care home, and the state rules that govern a residency agreement. We do not publish community level rates for other California counties.
Nationwide
Quoted national sources, clearly labelledNational medians for comparison come from the CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025: $6,200 a month for assisted living, $6,673 for home care at 44 hours a week, $2,058 for adult day care and $10,798 for a private skilled nursing room. Financing program terms come from the SBA, HUD and USDA. Every national figure on this site is labelled as national.
The full scope, including how many communities and licensed beds the local survey covers and why the list is deliberately small, sits on what our directory covers.
What we do not have
- No community level rates outside Santa Barbara. The 48 community survey stops at the edge of the area.
- No independent audit of a community's self reported vacancy or rate. Each listing is that community's own report, stamped with the date it last saved it.
- No hospital, insurance or government claims data. The cost figures are published rates, not what a family was billed after a care level change.
How to check us
None of this has to be taken on trust. Each item below is a public register you can read yourself, in a few minutes.
- California real estate license
Jessica Solomon, CA DRE #01972520, with Celerity Real Estate (DRE #01965367). Both numbers are searchable in the state's public license lookup.
- Every community's care license
Assisted living and memory care communities in California are licensed by Community Care Licensing. The facility number and inspection history are public.
- Financing program terms
SBA, HUD and USDA publish their own loan terms. The facility financing page links to each program rather than paraphrasing it.
- Reviews
Families have left a 5.0 average on the Next Best Home Google Business Profile, and every review is reproduced word for word on the reviews page. The same business is on Facebook and LinkedIn. No review is edited, filtered, bought or removed.
What we are not
- Not a placement agency, and not owned or funded by any community.
- Not a lender, a loan broker, a law firm or a financial adviser.
- Not a publisher of community level data outside Santa Barbara, and not a review site. The reviews quoted are Google's, unedited.
Questions about the money
How does Next Best Home make money?
Two ways, and only one of them is a care fee: nothing. Care cost guidance, the vacancy survey and the first call are free, and no community pays for a listing, a placement or a referral. The revenue comes from real estate, and only when a family chooses to hire Jessica Solomon as their agent: a California commission under CA DRE #01972520 with Celerity Real Estate (DRE #01965367). Call or write any time, 24 hours a day, every day, at 805-883-8800 or jess@nextbesthome.com.
Do assisted living communities pay Next Best Home for a referral or a listing?
No. The monthly vacancy survey is free to every licensed community in Santa Barbara, there is no paid tier and no sponsored placement, and no community pays a placement fee. All 48 responding communities are published, including those whose rates make them look expensive. A community that does not respond is not pushed down for it, it just carries an old update date on its card.
Does Jessica Solomon get paid if my parents sell their house?
Only if the family hires her as the agent. She is a licensed California real estate agent, CA DRE #01972520 with Celerity Real Estate (DRE #01965367), and a sale she handles earns a commission, disclosed in writing before any agreement is signed. The care guidance stays free whether the family lists with her, with another agent, or not at all, and the recommendation about keeping, renting or selling the home is the same in each case.
How independent is the vacancy and rate data?
It is community reported, which is the honest description. Each licensed community receives a private link every month and fills in its own vacancy, starting rate, entry fee, capacity and policies, and every card shows the date that community last saved it. Next Best Home does not audit occupancy or verify a rate before publication, so confirm the opening and the all in monthly cost with the community before you visit. The coverage is complete locally: 33 communities in Santa Barbara, 6 in Goleta, 3 in Solvang, 3 in Lompoc, and one each in Carpinteria, Buellton and Santa Maria.
What data does Next Best Home publish outside Santa Barbara?
National medians and program terms, clearly labelled as national, and no community level rates. For comparison, the CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025 puts the U.S. median at $6,200 a month for assisted living and $10,798 for a private skilled nursing room. A family searching in another area is better served by that area's Area Agency on Aging than by a Santa Barbara average, and we say so rather than stretching the local data.
How can I check Next Best Home's license, reviews and numbers?
Three public sources do most of the work. The California DRE license lookup verifies CA DRE #01972520 and the brokerage, Celerity Real Estate (DRE #01965367). Community Care Licensing at the Department of Social Services verifies any community's facility number and inspection history. The CareScout survey verifies every national median quoted here. Reviews sit on the Google Business Profile at a 5.0 average and are reproduced in full on the reviews page, and the business pages on Facebook and LinkedIn are the same company. Anything else you want checked, call and ask: 805-883-8800, 24 hours a day, every day.
Does Next Best Home have a conflict of interest?
Yes, and it is named rather than denied. The care advice covers whether a family should keep, rent or sell the home, and Jessica Solomon earns a California real estate commission if that family hires her as their agent, so that is the one point where the advice and the money touch. Jessica typically acts in the role of a real estate referral agent and vets agents for families and professionals. It is disclosed in writing before any agreement, the guidance about the home is the same whether the family lists with her, with another agent, or not at all, and a family using another agent still pays nothing for the care guidance. Two lesser ones are stated too: a career spent inside one home care company, answered by pricing home care and community care side by side with the same arithmetic, and a vacancy survey that is community reported, answered by printing the date each community last updated its own numbers and telling families to confirm before touring. No community, lender or advisor pays for a listing, a placement, a referral or a ranking.
Ask us directly
If a number on this site looks wrong, or you want to know how a specific community got on the list, call and ask. The line is open 24 hours a day, every day.
Looking for the survey itself? See who reported an opening.