Real Estate Transitions and Challenges

*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.

This is a special presentation of Answers for Elders with Real Estate Fifty Five Plus. It’s life changes and transition Saturday. It’s all about how we transitions when from one stage to the next with our senior parent and I am so privileged today to have the CEO and founder of real estate fifty five plus, Julianne Gibson. Julianne is a amazing realtor. She’s been in the industry for a very long time and I’ve had the privilege of knowing her for quite some time and she’s taken care of a lot of people that I know that have been through these transition periods here in the greater Seattle-Tacoma area. Real Estate Fifty Five Plus is a specialized real estate service for seniors in their family and primarily handles real estate transactions pretty much throughout Puget Sound. Welcome so much to the program, Julianne. Great thanks, Susanne. I really appreciate that. You know this has to be such an a very, very busy time, especially for families at this time of year as they’re starting to make transitions through the springtime. It seems like well with real estate and especially with seniors and when we’re working with adult children of parents who are in crisis, it’s year around. It’s a little bit busier seasonally with traditional real estate, but for us with our clients at our seniors if there is a parent that’s in crisis, it can happen in December, it can happen in February. So we’re really not it’s not a seasonal portion of our real estate. Well. So tell us a little bit about how you differ from a traditional realtor. Good question. How we differ from our traditional real estate agent? I have to go back a little bit and give you some history and just statistics about real estate itself and the current industry and agents. About a third of all agents get out of the business every year and ten percent of the business. Excuse me, ten percent of the agents do ninety percent of the business. So the average agent Washington State sells two homes a year. Wow. So asking a question of how long someone’s been in the industry isn’t the most important question because someone could be in for fifteen years but they’ve only sold two houses a year, which equals thirty. Are you going to have an agent that’s been in five years? That sold fifty a year, so really asking the right questions. What real estate fifty five plus does is we look for and vet seasoned real estate agents that know a market, an area, because real estates hyperlocal. And then they have a background and passion working with Seniors and we provide the coaching, coaching and consulting with them. Wow, wow, so we can guide seniors and their adult children from the transition of the cell of the home but then all the other components that may come into play. Wow. And so as you work with this, you know you do special train meaning I I know that also you do training to the market as well. You put on actually workshops, don’t we? Do? We do? What? Why don’t you tell me a little bit about those? Great so my background prior to real estate and I’ve been an agent for fifteen years, a realtor in the state of Washington, and my hang my license actually at Keller Williams, which is a national company. I worked for eight years in the senior housing industry. I was an associate Executive Director at a large nonprofit continuing care retirement community. So I had that background before I even started. That’s amazing. Yeah, it gives me a different perspective very different. What I found when I obtained my license was the majority of agents that work in our industry don’t have a niche working with seniors, and so if they happen to work with the client that’s a senior, they’re treating them just like any other residential listing. More often than not, a senior transition and transaction looks very different than somebody who is upsizing or has a family. If we’re working with the senior WHO’s been in their home fifty years and they’re downsizing mood to assist a living a retirement community, we’re not only looking at the emotional, we’re looking at the physical, the financial and the spiritual aspect of that. Clients to absolutely I know for my family we actually had I had a service like you and known about you at the time then I was going through it. It took us well over three months to to get my mom’s house even remotely ready to go on the market and it was hugely emotional for all of us. You know, mom was the matriarch of the family. We had all kinds of possessions of hers and everybody was fighting over you know, I want this or I want that, and and I’m sure you know people now, what we’re starting to see, which I love about your classes, if we’re starting to see seniors in that sixty five seventy five year old age grap bracket that have got has gone through, you know, care for their own parent and saying, you know what, I’m not going to do this to my kids. Right, and that’s why we created aging Ma Choice. I love that. So when I first became an agent and we start working with seniors, what I found, when I started working with retirement communities or geriatric care practitioners was at the majority of seniors were either waiting way too long until there was a crisis and their options were very limited or they had no idea what options were available. Right. And though, aging with choice workshops focus on housing and aging, and there are three steps in the first one is what’s the right size home for my life? Wow, and for some people it is aging in place in their own home. Sure, but for the majority of people that’s not going to be an option after a certain age. Right. So let’s be proactive and let’s look at your financial, your spiritual, emotional and physical and let’s say what’s the best fit for you, right, well, the real estate portion is huge because a majority of seniors rely on the net proceeds of the cell of their home for their next housing transition. The second the second workshop really addresses what you were talking about families really kind of being an argument and not in agreement with some of the items that are in the home. So what’s called? What do I do with my stuff? Yeah, and what you have in your home, if you’re an eighty year old person, defines who you are. Absolutely it does. I can walk into somebody’s home, they don’t even have to be there, and by viewing their house I can tell if they were a reader or a garden or they like to cook, if they were Catholic. Can tell a lot about the person without actually having to meet them. Sure, for a lot of family members they are. Do they are? Like what you’re saying is they may be arguing about items that are in the home. oftentimes we find that family members have already acquired the all of what they need in their houses and they don’t want anything. And that’s another trend I’ve heard often. been reading that a lot. You know, where does the China go? Nobody wants it. But there are people I mean, I am somebody who has loved seniors since as long as I can remember. I personally love China and there are a lot of people that do love antiques and Chinese photographs. But it’s making sure you have those conversations with your family members when you feel good as a senior and being proactive about the item that are in your home right. And then the third step is how do you embrace the change? And that’s really more about a mindset and often times if you’re proactive and choosing where you’re going to live when you’re aging, that makes a big difference. So if you and I were sitting here talking today and we’re talking about our future, you and I are both doing well physically, we’re both doing a well, you know, cognitively, and we could make some really great decisions. If we wait until we have a crisis, I’m not going to be able to do that exactly, and I think too, you know, being mindful of you know, I know I’ve heard somewhere that you buy a house and usually there for a minimum of fifteen years, somewhere like that. It’s about seven and a half years. So it is okays it’s sooner, but even seven and a half years. I’m sixty years old, so to think of where could I be seven years from now? Where could my husband be seven years for now, a lot of people my age right now are sitting there in the family home going I don’t need all this, absolutely and it’s overwhelming to make, you know, to have to take care of this. But then in the other side you’re right there there’s a lot of options out there that people don’t know about. Absolutely and when we hear while who when I teach the classes on what’s the right size home, we look at from staying in your own home to the very far end of the spectrum, which is a continuing care, retirement annuity, which is very independent living, up up to skilled nursing, which is twenty four hour which is the old traditional word for nursing home. Correct and often times people have a negative connotation of a nursing home. They have changed dramatically this day and now we have assisted living, adult family home. There’s just a lot of options that are available to families. Absolutely and I’ve also know I’m you know, talking about trends that are happening right now. You know, obviously there’s so many more options today than even there were five years ago. Absolutely, adult family homes. I think we’re going to see a major change in that industry. Number One, the word doesn’t sound or the script and adult family home doesn’t sound very exciting. It’s really like an a boarding home. So I like the word, you know, senior lifestyle dwelling and then choosing a dwelling based on what your passion is. So like get we’re working with some clients right now. They’re starting to get into that industry and we’ve been talking about people that liked the garden and cook what they have produced in their own gardens. That’s a lifestyle. So living amongst other people that want to garden and Cook fresh foods, you might be able to gather a good with people together and say let’s cohabitate together and let’s join our resources together and let’s age in place together, and it surrounds that whole food you know, type of cont absolutely, absolutely so. As far as the valuation market, now now is a great time, isn’t it? It’s a hot seller’s market right now and when you have to keep in mind what you hear in the media and on radio and you read in print are the extremes. So it check out the top five percent in the five percent. The top five percent would be the people that are getting you a hundred thousand dollars over their ass price, cash off or close in two days, wave inspection to appraisal. On the other side is a flipper who’s getting a house under hundred thousand dollars. So you have everything in between. So really real estate is hyperlocal and it’s also based on the price point. Right, so it’s not always a seller’s market for everybody. Right, it depends on your home. Yep, it depends on your home, your location, the style of home you have, the condition of your home and the cosmetic but it looks like cosmetically because it trends are changing. We’re going to more of a people are looking for a modern mid century style homes or back in. So it opens up a whole different niche within the market. So people come to your workshops, obviously, and they find you. Yes, let’s say somebody right now today says I got to sell mom or Dad’s house. What kind of client do you really specialize in? Would you kind of give me a little bit of an overview of what that looks like? Great, well, we seniors that’s such a broad range. You know, it’s from fifty two a hundred and something. So we’re looking for someone that we really excel at and come in as when it’s an adult child whose parents and crisis and needs to move to a community yesterday. Yeah, and the best thing is for a mom or dad to get into assist living or skill nursing today, we can bring that transition. have it happened very, very quickly. Probates also another area that we specialize and working where if somebody has a need right now, we can get in assistive situation and bring them from point a to point Z right very quickly and provide all of the resources they need to get the most one other how. So that means contractors. That means Yep, you know, the appraisal. I mean refers, landscapers, wow, there. And since all we do staging, you know, we come in and give you recommendations for painting and carpeting, not just recommendations. Will actually work with those people to come in and provide bids to you. Great. And how do people reach you? They’re going to reach us either on our website, which is realestatefiftyfiveplus.net. Or they can also reach us on our one eight hundred number, which is one eight hundred, nine hundred and sixty four, one hundred and five, five, three, and we’ll have all that information as well. As you are a trusted provider and answers for elders, and you can always reach Julianne through our website as well. Thank you so much for being on the program, Julianne. Thanks, Susanne. This was exciting great. Thank you. This has been a special presentation of Answers for Elders with Real Estate Fifty Five Plus. For more information for Real Estate Fifty Five Plus, go to AgewithChoice.com. That’s AgewithChoice.com.