Mature Market Experts

Heritage Pointe of Teaneck, a full-service rental retirement community.

 

Mature Market Experts: more stats and news you can use on boomers, seniors and the mature market – Tools of the trade for retirement communities – As many of you know, TR Mann Consulting’s stable of mature market clients (our firm specializes in marketing and advertising to boomers and beyond) includes senior living developments (active 55, continuing care retirement communities, assisted living, and skilled care). In the 20+ years that I’ve been involved in the retirement community industry, I can happily report that the industry has evolved leaps and bounds … better product, better management, and better financial reporting. In short, today’s retirement community doesn’t look, feel, smell, or taste anything like the last generations’. That’s the good news. The bad news is that seniors still need to sell their houses to move in to your fantastic community.

Here are some tools our retirement community clients are using to help their prospective clients move forward:

1. Move-in coordinators – Move-in coordinators have been around as long as retirement communities have but their roles are evolving. Once you have a prospective client, the real process begins. I’ve seen way too many retirement communities stop driving the process once the contract is signed. Great move-in coordinators become the “trusted daughter” who makes certain that the move is flawless. They arrange for the real estate partner, the appraisers, the stagers, etc. In short, they do whatever it takes to make the sale go through.

2. Commission for Real estate partners and SRES Designation – Simply put, realtors are motivated by money … if you don’t have enough meat on the bone no one will come to dinner. Motivated realtors can be some of your retirement community’s biggest allies. They know who lives where (as in were your clients are living) and who is getting ready to sell their house. Plus, they can be excellent representatives of your community with some of the hottest prospects.

In addition to offering healthy commissions to all realtors, you want to have a team of realtors that you refer to when a prospect is ready to sell their house. Remember, you want the process to keep MOVING.

Ideally, your realtor should be “Seniors Real Estate Specialists” certified (SRES). SRES realtors are trained to understand and address the wants and needs of seniors. The SRES Council awards the SRES Designation to those realtors who have successfully completed its education program.

SRES realtors have the necessary knowledge and expertise to help your prospective resident through major financial and lifestyle transitions involved in relocating, refinancing, or selling the family home (and as we all know, their home is your retirement community’s biggest competition). These SRES realtors have received special training, get regular updates, and know how to skillfully offer the options and information that your mature market client needs to keep them moving forward.
It is also important that the realtor/s that you choose as your partner have the skill set that allows them to get the house listed at a realistic price. Too often we see realtors get the listing by presenting an unrealistic price … letting the house languish on the market for too long. This can seriously demoralize your customer and risk the sale. In short, interview this partner the same way you would interview a prospective employee. Then arrange for a standing weekly half-hour meeting for updates on how each of your prospect’s houses are fairing. 

3. Stagers – before your prospective resident puts their house on the market, you should arrange for a “House Stager” to visit their home. A good stager can tell them what they need to do to get the house ready for sale … from painting the outside of the house to removing the clutter of too much furniture and keepsakes. The stager should already have existing relationships with experienced, trustworthy service people (painters, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, appraisers, storage facilities, and more). But before you accept your stager’s choice of supporting vendors, make sure you meet each of them in person.

4. Appraisers – a good appraiser is worth their weight in gold. What makes a good appraiser? Obviously it’s important to have someone who is able to accurately evaluate the value of your client’s belongings, but more importantly, you are looking for an ally who will help your client (and you) keep the downsizing process moving. Again, interview this person as you would any of your employees. Look for energy and empathy, they’ll need them both!

5. Bridge Loans – moving at any age is difficult but making this type of lifestyle change can be overwhelming. Remember, anything that can stall momentum is an enemy to the process and to improving your client’s life. Do not let a slow moving real estate market stall the process. Work closely with a bank to provide low interest bridge loans to your clients. This way they can make the move while the house is on the market rather than waiting for a sale. Being out of the house while it is showing will be easier on them and will be better for the realtor. Plus, once they start experiencing your community’s wonderful lifestyle, they’ll be more willing to price their house realistically.

The important thing to remember when creating a partnership with a bank is that the process should be as seamless to your customer as possible. Don’t let the bank scare or confuse your prospective resident with a truck-load of paperwork. Insist on simplicity!

In fact, some of TR Mann Consulting’s clients have simplified the process by acting as the bank themselves. They simply tack on an additional fee to the resident’s monthly community fee to cover the interest on the loan they are floating them (sidebar: in our client’s marketing materials, our residents don’t have “monthly service fees” they have “monthly service packages”).

6. Life Settlements – Many seniors don’t realize that they are sitting on a HUGE untapped asset. Whether term or whole life, they could receive cash for their life insurance policy … found money they could use towards their retirement at your senior community!

Don’t let their hard earned cash value slip away – 85% of all life insurance policies never pay a death benefit and life settlements provide 300% of the cash surrender value on average. How does this happen? Most people don’t understand there are better options than giving up a life insurance policy or getting only the life insurance cash surrender value. In fact, for many seniors the premiums become too much of a burden to pay … and for others, it just doesn’t make sense to continue to pay (if they’ve outlived a spouse or the kids are all grown up) … so they just stop paying the premiums. The bad news is, when they stop paying the premiums the policy often starts to eat itself down (paying the premiums out of their principle). Again, let me repeat, 85% of all life insurance policies never pay a death benefit. And, life settlements provide 300% of the cash surrender value (one of my favorite clients, Live Free Capital, can help you provide this service to your prospective clients) when compared to the life insurance cash value the insurance company will give them.

My retirement community clients are using this tool and getting SALES because of it. Most of their prospective residents have never even thought of their Life Insurance policies as an asset. In fact, many have totally forgotten about their policies until the community sales person mentions it!

I hope you found these tips helpful. There are many, many more tools to discuss but I thought this would be a good beginning. Helping your clients move in to your retirement community is a true service to them. We know they’ll have happier, healthier lives once they’re in their new home. In fact, research statistics from the U.S. Office of Disability, Aging and Long Term Care show that CCRC residents are healthier and live one to two years longer than non-CCRC residents (www.retirement.org/newsletters/trinity/winter2006/care.htm). You owe it to them to be as creative and energetic as possible in your efforts.

Good luck,

Tom

PS On another day we’ll discuss why none of TR Mann Consulting’s clients call themselves a “CCRC or continuing care retirement community.”

Filed under: Mature Market Experts, TR Mann, Tom Mann, assisted living, marketing, mature, mature market, real estate