Introduction to SASH with Rebecca Bomann

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

The following is a podcast from a qualified senior care provider, hurt, on the answers for elders radio show, and welcome everyone to answers for elders radio. Is We are here in the month of October, as we have just gone through summertime and we’re looking into fall and the end of the year upon us, and I am very excited about a brand new guest that we have on our show today, and this is somebody that can help our families go through the transition of what do we do with mom and dad’s home or your if you’re a senior and looking to downsize? How do you get from one step to another? I know a lot of the Times it’s just kind of an overwhelming situation for families, and so we are here with the CEO and founder of Fash and a woman that I have come to know that I highly respect, and her name is Rebecca Bowman. Rebecca, welcome to answer for elders radio. Thank you, Suzanne, thanks for having me. Well, I am excited because we’ve didn’t have you guys on the show before and I’m a big fan of what you do because through this hour I want to talk to you a little bit, but I will also share to our listeners a little bit about my story and what it was like to sell my mother’s house, and it was overwhelming for me and so certainly for you. Is Tell us a little bit before we get into the story. Tell us a little bit about fast and what you do well, is a service that was founded specifically to help seniors and their families through the homesale process and we are a unique blend of social work and senior care and real estate and we provide services and homesale options that you just can’t find in other book bridges because we founded to do this. This is our mission and we’re passionate about it. Hm Well, and and you know, one of the things that I’m I’m so impressed with what you do is because you have that caring heart for seniors. There is such an important process because I think a lot of times in the real estate market alone, how many times have I run into real church? They don’t understand the emotional process of what a senior that may have lived in their home for sixty years, you know, full of memories, full of where they raise their family, they probably lived there with the spouse and their spouse may no longer be with us. There’s all different types of reasons why leaving that home can be emotional and traumatic and on top of that a collecting stuff over how many years it’s it can be overwhelming exactly. And the the part about putting a sign in front of the home or signing listing documents or entertaining buyers is such a small part of the whole process. It’s it. I think it’s even less than ten percent, because you have the whole emotional and physical process of basically saying goodbye to this home that has become so dear, so familiar. This is where all the family memories are, the Holiday Memories, you know, every corner and wall and plant in the home is familiar and so leading it is hard and there’s grief involved in sadness and it needs much more than just someone who has a real estate license. That needs someone with empathy, compassion, someone who allows the senior who can go through to go through their grieving process and give them the support and help every step of the way. And I think part of that you almost have to realize that not only are you working through the grieving process of a seer, but you also work it through grieving process of the adult children. They have their childhood memories in a home they may feel an emotional attachment to. You know, this is my old bedroom and this is what you know. I don’t want to see that go. So obviously you kind of become this person that works with the whole family. Is that true? Little Bit we do, and I have sat down at the kitchen table and had, you know, ten or twelve family members sitting all around that kitchen table looking at me wondering how we’re going to get through this whole step together, and every one of them was concern for mom or dad or grandma or GRANDPA and who it is. There’s a lot of family dynamics involved with the sale of mom or Dad’s home and you know that can be sticky sometimes and a little challenging, but totally doable and getting the right team of people to help through the process is really one of the most important things for the adult children is getting all the help to go through it well. And it’s also how do you you know there’s a whole process of you understand from day one when you come into a seniors home, you guys do the entire process. Is that correct. You help with sorting through things, you help locate a state sale people. How much of that process do you do? All of it? So we because it is such an enormous process. We do believe that the best help that families can get is sort of the whole nine yards where they are able to just hand over the keys and allow us to handle everything for them, allowing them to be just the sun or the daughter supporting mom and dad in their transitions their next hare community. So yes, the sorting, the packing, of downsizing, moving, getting the home ready for market. We also provide a cash advance of financial bridge if they need it for assisted living. And then, of course, as a full service real estate Brookridge, we sell the home and and if, if there’s improvements that need to be make made to the phone to home. You guys do that. I’ve been on your website and I’m seeing the transformation of what you have, you know, created with so many of a seniors home and you’re actually able to get higher top dollar for it then is that correct? We are. That’s correct. So we’re license contractor and we have renovated hundreds of seniors homes and what we’re doing is just getting it ready for a new buyer. What what are buyers looking for in a home? What will help them want the home? Maybe some updating, some some repairs, getting it ready so that instead of feeling like they’re doing a fire sale or they’re selling their home as is, the senior can be really proud that they’ve got the prettiest home on the block when they put it up for sale. And that’s what we can come in and help with. That is so awesome. And we are talking again to Rebecca Bowman, and Rebecca, she is the CEO and founder of Fash Services and rep I could tell us a little bit about how you started in this world? It’s a unique concept. It’s something that’s that’s amazing for our seniors and I’d love to know a little bit about your history. Well, about twenty years ago, my grandfather, who was eighty two at the time and a retired Marine Corps veteran. He served in the Marine Corps twenty one years, was living in a two story home and he was very independent and he said, Rebecca, I don’t want to live with my kids and I don’t want to live with old people, and so, but he couldn’t live by himself anymore. He lived in a two story home with the stairs and I was worried about him falling down the stairs. So my husband and I invited him to move in with us and we bought a large rambler and we were going to give grandpa the master sweet so there’d be no stairs and he’d have his own little place and he dinner with them every night and and I’d be his full time caregiver. Well, we thought, no big deal, will just put GRANDPA’s home on the market and we’ll be done in a few weeks. Well, of course not. As you know from your own experience, it turned into months of hard work and stress and expense and by the end of it my grandfather was just spent emotionally, physically, financially, you know. Month of this and I thought to myself, this is a man who served our country, raised for kids, he was in English year. He deserved a better last homesale experience than this. And I looked around the market and I saw there’s a lot of real estate services but none that provide the full neal deal support specifically for the needs of seniors who are going through this process. And so, after know and care my grandfather, that’s what I did as I started flash. You know, I have to say, had I known you existed when I went through what I did, because because people, I think families, don’t realize the amount of work and the amount of overwhelm that it takes to deal with somebody that’s lived in a life for, you know, fifty years, who lived a life in a home. I know from my mother when I was going through her stuff, and I’ll, I’ll, I’ll weave in my story a little bit, but I remember opening boxes where she had pictures that I drew and elementary school that she still had. All she had, any recital that I ever had was in this box, you know. So all of these little little things that she had collected throughout my childhood I opened up and and you know, it was an emotional process for me alone, and it’s really hot. was really hard for me to go through all of those little pieces of paper and then I had to just throw them away, you know, throw them in the dunk and so there’s not emotional thing that I went through as shot her. It’s huge piece and on top of that, I think you know, is the time from work that we think about. Families have to invest right a home on the market and you know, I really want in the next segment for us to talk a little bit about what the process is, because I think a lot of times we think, oh, we can just pack up mom and dad stuff. We don’t even think about they might probably are downsizing. So now you’re dealing with what do you take to the next resident? What do you do right with the other items? How do you distribute personal items to you know your family members. You know what happens if somebody starts fighting over you know items. Think exactly if you’re a senior and you’re in a situation where you know you need to downsize but don’t really know where to begin. I know it’s really, really important right now that Rebecca and staff services is a wonderful resource for you. Whether you’re just downsizing to a condom or something like that, or maybe you’re going into and more as a skilled care situation or an assist a living community. The Sash can help you and we are very excited to have rebecca with us this hour. So in between before the next segment, Rebecca, how do we reach you? We have a website at Sash Servicescom. So that’s Sash Servicescom and our phone number two thousand and six five zero, one, four, three seven five, and that is our our office number to reach. Well, Rebecca, we are very glad you’re here and we’re going to talk this hour about how do we downsize, how do you sell a seniors home, especially if that senior loved one may live not close to you or may or are working a full time job, anything like that. They can help you. So in the meantime, everyone, Rebecca will be right back right after this answers for elders radio show with Susan Newman. Hopes you found this podcast useful in your journey of navigating senior care. Check out more podcasts like this to help you find qualified senior care experts and areas of financial, Lego, health and wellness and living options. Learn about our radio show, receive our monthly newsletter, receive promotional discounts and meet our experts by clicking on the banner to join the Senior Advocate Network at answers for elders RADIOCOM. Now there is one place to find the answers for elders