90% of U.S. Homes Aren't Aging-Ready. Contractors Who Specialize Are Printing Money

Somewhere in your service area right now, a homeowner is standing at the bottom of their front steps, wondering how much longer they can climb them. They’ve got 25 years of equity in the house, a mortgage rate they locked in years ago, and no plans to move. They just don’t know which contractor to call. If you’re not marketing for this work, they’re not calling you.

The market they represent is enormous. Only 10% of U.S. homes are aging-ready, according to the Census Bureau, which means nine out of ten houses are missing at least one of the basics an older resident needs to live safely: a step-free entry, a first-floor bedroom and full bath, or a bathroom accessibility feature. Even by the loosest standard the Census Bureau measures, 60% of homes still fail. By 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older, and most of them plan to stay right where they are. Every one of those houses needs a contractor.

Eyal Aharon is the founder of HQ Remodeling & Design, a turnkey design-build firm serving Orange County, California’s high-value residential market. He’s spent nine years building a business around this demand. Here’s how the opportunity breaks down, and how Aharon wins in it.

Homeowners are aging in houses that were never built for it

Owners 65 and over nearly doubled their share of home improvement spending over the past two decades, and a record 3.2 million households made accessibility improvements in 2022–2023, up from 2.3 million four years earlier. In Acorn Finance’s national survey of homeowners who purchased between 2010 and 2022, 55% were planning aging-in-place or accessibility modifications in the next 12 to 24 months. Much of the existing housing stock was built in the 1950s and 1960s, long before anyone designed for accessibility, and those homes are now reaching the age where both the house and the homeowner need significant upgrades.

“First of all, you have an aging population, and let’s be frank, they hold most of the money and the equity in their houses,” Aharon says. He also sees the work expanding in scope as adult children move back in with aging parents, turning a bathroom retrofit into a whole-home remodel or an ADU. “Instead of downsizing and moving to a small apartment, a lot of elderly homeowners prefer to expand the house or make a section for the kids to move in,” he says. “Then they remodel the whole house and fit it for the next several years.”

Your move: Pull your last 20 completed projects and estimate how many clients were over 60. That number is your existing aging-in-place customer base.

Start with the four upgrades homeowners actually request

You don’t need a certification to get into this market. Aharon’s aging-in-place work comes down to a handful of repeatable projects, and each one solves a safety problem that gets more urgent every year. More than 14 million older adults fall annually, driving roughly $50 billion in medical costs. These upgrades are an opportunity for you, and a precaution for them.

• Entry ramps. Many older homes greet visitors with a set of steps. Aharon converts them to ramps or adds a ramp alongside, often as part of a full front-yard remodel with an integrated railing.
• Curbless showers. These eliminate the step over a shower curb and accommodate a wheelchair if one is ever needed. “It’s a little bit more expensive, because you need to dig into the existing concrete slab,” Aharon says. “But it makes the difference. It needs to be done right, with the right slope so the water will not go outside the shower, but it also should look good and modern.”
• Grab bars. In the shower and beside the toilet. Aharon ranks them, along with a safe approach to the house, as the highest-impact safety upgrades he installs.
• Pool and spa railings. Most homeowners don’t request them by default, but older clients recognize the value immediately. “The elderly definitely ask to install the railing, and it really helps them get in and out of the spa or the pool,” Aharon says.
  

Your move: Add these four projects to your website and estimate templates this month. Homeowners search for solutions, not categories, so name the projects directly.

Sell design, not hospital equipment

Aging-in-place clients want their home to look like a home. Aharon builds accessibility into the 3D design phase of every project, which for his firm averages $50,000 to $60,000. That way the ramp, the bench, and the railing read as design choices rather than medical additions.

“That’s exactly my selling point,” he says. “Make sure everything also looks good and solves the problem. Many times, that’s what makes us different from a guy who can do everything but doesn’t care about the design and how it looks.”

The details add up. One client with a small shower needed a place to sit. Rather than a bulky hospital-style seat, Aharon installed a foldable bench that tucks away when other family members shower. Another client got a custom railing picked out with the firm’s design team to match the home’s finishes. The goal is a space that solves the problem without advertising it.

Planning ahead protects the look of the finished job, too. “You can do a beautiful bathroom with a nice decorative tile going across, but then eventually you need to put the grab bar in the middle of the decorative line,” Aharon says. “That’s bad planning. You can design it better so everything fits together.”

Your move: Build a small library of accessibility products that look residential: fold-away benches, designer grab bars, low-profile ramps. Show photos in consultations so clients see quality alongside safety.

Learn the codes before you quote the job

Accessibility work comes with code requirements that change from city to city, and getting them wrong means failed inspections and liability exposure. Aharon treats code research as the price of admission.

“Some cities have their own codes,” he says. “For example, the codes for the height of the grab bar. Or when you do a ramp, you need to do it at the right slope. You don’t want it too steep, because then it’s hard to push, or it’s dangerous.”

Before bidding accessibility work in a new municipality, look up the local requirements for ramp slope, grab bar heights, and blocking. Building departments publish their amendments, and online code databases make the research faster than it used to be. The work takes an afternoon. A failed inspection or an injury claim costs far more.

Your move: Build a one-page code cheat sheet for every city you work in, covering ramp slopes, grab bar heights, and clearances. Update it annually.

Ask how they’ll use the space, then quote the bigger project

Aharon’s most reliable sales tactic costs nothing. “I always, always, always ask how they’re going to use the space we’re remodeling,” he says. “This is very important, and then it opens the possibilities. Then you can maybe offer them a better way to use it.”

That question turns up projects the client never thought to ask for. One couple inherited a home with a sunken living room, a two-to-three-inch step in the middle of the main floor. Because Aharon asked about their long-term plans, they told him this would be their last house. They chose to level the floor entirely, eliminating a permanent fall hazard. Only 6% of older households have plans to renovate for accessibility, even though far more will need to. That space between need and action is where the consultation wins the project. .

Adult children are your allies in these conversations. “Usually when the kids are involved, they push more to plan ahead,” Aharon says. When a son or daughter joins the consultation, present the proactive options, not just the immediate fix. Money conversations belong here, too. Many of these homeowners have been in their houses for 20 or 30 years and are willing to tap accumulated equity for the right project. For clients who prefer to preserve that equity, contractor-offered financing gives them another path to say yes.

Your move: Add one question to every consultation script: “How do you see yourself using this space in ten years?” Then price both the immediate fix and the long-term version.

Position yourself as the expert, not the low bidder

Aging-in-place clients are choosing someone to make their home safe for the most vulnerable years of their lives. Price matters less than trust, and Aharon has built his entire business model around that reality.

“I always say, the idea is to make yourself a doctor, not a contractor,” he says. “When you go to the doctor, you don’t argue with him about price. You go with him because you know he’s the expert.”

Knowing your local accessibility codes cold, showing photos of finished ramps and curbless showers, and asking the ten-year question all establish that expertise before you ever talk numbers. Make sure your website lists aging-in-place services in plain language and shows finished project photos that demonstrate care for design and quality of life as much as safety. 

The bottom line

Ninety percent of American homes need work that most contractors never mention in a sales conversation. The homeowners who need it hold more equity than any other group, they’re staying put, and their adult children are pushing them to plan ahead. Learn the codes, lead with design, and ask the ten-year question. Somebody in your area is going to own this market for the next two decades, and the barrier to entry is low enough that it should be you.

Ready to turn safety conversations into signed contracts? Acorn Finance lets your customers compare real loan offers in minutes, so a $45,000 aging-in-place remodel becomes a monthly payment they can say yes to. Sign up with Acorn Finance today.