Market and Strategies with 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 providers heard on the answers for elders radio show. And welcome back everyone. We are here with Rebecca Bowman from fast services. And Rebecca, I’m so glad you’re here on answers for elders because I think a lot of seniors today are looking at they’ve spent, you know, their time sitting in their house during covid nineteen and are thinking about, you know, maybe it’s time to start thinking about getting rid of, say, thinking about downsizing all the different types of things. Is You sitting there looking at four walls and and you know, I’m curious. We haven’t heard a lot about the real estate market being bad. I think the real estate market still strong even though our conomy has been top is that correct? Tell us a little bit about what’s going on in the world. Yep, you are so right, Suzanne. Right here in the puget sound market we have a seller’s market, so there’s not enough inventory for buyers who are looking to buy a home. And even during covid even during the challenges of the last few months, there are a ton of people still out looking for homes and there have been on homes that were selling, bidding wars, multiple offers, homes getting bid way up over asking, and so seniors are in a great position if they want to sell their home. They’re going into a market right now or there’s a people lining up to buy their home. Whether the home is an original condition or updated, there’s a there’s a very strong market of buyers out there right now, you know, and there we probably have a lot of ideas of what we think we need to do to sell the house. I guess my question is, what are some of the common misperceptions about that process? Well, sometimes folks believe, you know, I’ve heard it all kinds of ways. I’ve heard folks say, well, Gosh, don’t we have to renovate the whole thing before we can put it on the market? And know there’s a lot of homes that go on the market that are they are in original condition. They have the one thousand nine hundred and seventy five kitchen, but if they’re clean and tidy, you certainly can sell a home in original condition and still have a lot of interest in people looking at it. UPDATES are nice to do, but that’s just optional. The bigger thing to Lucas on with getting a seniors home ready for sale is what are deal breakers that might be in the home that could be a turnoff for buyers. That’s where the household items are really big thing. If there’s so much in every room, it’s hard for the buyers to imagine it being their home because it looks like someone else’s home. And so the sizing the the household items and decluttering the home, getting it tidy and ready for market, a nice deep clean, tiding outside, those are the basics. And then updates is just optional and certainly renovating is nice, but it doesn’t have to be done in order to sell a home, especially in this strong market, and I would imagine the Roi are doing it, upgrade is not as significant as it could be in markets where there’s where you have to be more competitive. Obviously, if it’s a if it’s a buyers market, then you have to pay more attention to that. Is that correct? That is correct. And you know paint and carpet is a there’s always a great return on investments for just that clean, fresh, fresh paint and carpet in a home. But it’s the optional. So this weekend we’re going to be putting a home on the market in Seattle that was original to one thousand nine hundred and forty two. So it’s been in the family in one thousand nine hundred and forty two and, Suzanne, not a thing has been done to it. The electrical panel has fuses in it. That’s how old it is and without renovating, because the buyers market is so strong, we’re just going to tidy it up and put it on the market. So see, year should never feel like renovating is a must or, you know, imperative, because that can need be kind of paralyzed and stuck, you know, being worried and can’t sell without it. You know, and it’s interesting too because obviously just maybe the biggest help that you can provide families at this point is just helping to get rid of the clutter and helping to maybe stage the house a little bit nicer so that people can walk in and they’re not looking at pattered furniture because it’s the same recliner that dead’s been sitting in for thirty five years and he’s not going to take do those things and all the time, which is great, you want to take that recliner to their assisted living or their new place. But certainly in this situation, you know, you might want to do some staging, you might want to do some, like you said, some painting and just basically generation, you know, general things, but decluttering is a huge piece of that. I’m sure it is a huge piece. And for us, because we focus on helping seniors, we never forget that the outcome of this sale is going to pay for their care for the rest of their life. Right, if we can make another ten or fifteen thousand or forty or Fiftyzero for our client with a few things done to the home, we are going to do that because we want to in crease what they get to walk away with so that they have that much more in resources to pay for their care for the rest of their life. It’s so important to squeeze every nickel out of their home for their care, which is our goal from the get go. Well, and that is so important. And certainly to think about what the cost of care is in the future. It’s certainly a valid and very important consideration and we are here for our listeners just that you’re listening to the amazing, Wonderful Rebecca Bowman, and Rebecca is a CEO of sast services and SAST services all of greater puget sounds and you guys help families transition out of their here a senior to transition, transition out of their home into the next destination. What that might be could being based on a death of the senior? Could it not be? As well, it could and and we are called often when when sometimes when our clients are on hospice and and end of life is near. Yeah, we are. We feel really honored that we can handle the home sale for the family so they don’t have that one big thing way on them. They can focus on mom and dad during the time that they have with them or after Mama Dad has passed away. But also we help our clients buy another home. So in many cases we help them sell the big three stories and help them move into the one story cottage that makes sense. And so it’s right both the buying and the selling and that whole package of care from start to finish. You know that. You bring up a question too, because obviously for a family to want to be with their loved one and not having to deal with the house or things like that. I’m sure there are things that you know I’m using the word paralyzed families from making these kind of decisions to move forward. You know, besides the things that we talked about, did I find missing anything? Well, a lot of families are paralyzed just because they don’t know that there’s people out there that can help them with us, and you know, we hear from really well meaning and great adult sons and daughters who feel like they have to handle the whole thing themselves. They don’t know that there’s folks out there who can do an online auction of mom or dad’s things with a nationwide audience of potential buyers. They don’t know about placement advisors who can help find mom a place to live, and they think that they have to do the phone calling to forty or fifty different residences. They don’t know that they’re as realtors that specialize in helping seniors, and so they feel like they’ve got to take it all on themselves. And I you know it’s football season and so them going you can imagine watching a quarterback go out in and have a game against an entire team in that quarterback is all by himself. Well, that doesn’t make any sense. And in the same way. We believe adult sons and daughters can build an outstanding team of professionals that help them, that are there. They’re supporters that are providing hands on assistance, support and also sometimes just as shoulder to lean on because, as you know from your personal experience, it’s stressful and hard and having really competent, caring professionals on your team to help you through the process and because a huge difference. Well, I can only imagine, and certainly you know as especially for families like I did. I lived an hour and a half away from my mother. I’m sure you’re dealing with families all over this place. Is that correct? They are. I we assisted a family in the last year where the adult daughter was in Saudi Arabia working miners there. How in the world can she help? So her dad’s home here in the piaget sound area and you know, go through the whole downsizing and and so I personally drove him to his new place to live. We helped him with his estate sale, we helped clean his home out, we provided update to the family and then we spruce it up and got it ready for sale and and sold it. You know, families these days are not around the block from each other, they are right AAR and wide, they’re across the state, they’re in another state, they’re in another country and suddenly they hit this enormous learning curve of Oh my gosh, mom has to downsize from our home. I’m here. Maybe they not only have a career but they also have their own children to take care of. How in the world do I press pause on life and take six months right mom ord that through this? It’s just so overwhelming and paralyzing and and there’s so many folks here to help them get through that well. And it’s also you know, you don’t have to take the time off from work like I did, so you don’t have the loss of pay for your own life and knowing that everything that’s going to get done is going to be done with the highest level of quality and care and certainly with the heart in the right place to help our senior. So, Rebecca, how do we reach you? We have our website at Sash Servicescom. Sash Servicescom. We are also on different social media accounts so you can read stories of how we’ve helped people. We also have a toll free number that I haven’t given out, which is Tripoli four hundred, so triplate four hundred seven, two seven four. Wow, that’s a that’s an easy one to remember. So in our next segment we obviously are going to spend a little bit of time on you know, I want to talked about the success stories. I also would love to talk to you a little bit about, you know, how do people get started? How do we you know, how do you begin the process of even talking to mom and dad about, you know, downsizing? I’m sure you have a lot of wisdom about that process and Rebecca will be right back everyone 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, legal, 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