Real Sage Advice

9 Trends for Senior Housing in 2009

A quick tour of recent headlines around the Internet show a trend with seniors and senior housing:

Seniors can't sell their homes  Denver News

Builders Lament Senior Housing Interest-Reverse Mortgage Guide

Senior Equity Falls, Millions Remain-Reverse Mortgage Guide

More families Move In Together During Housing Crisis-USA Today

Sunrise Assisted Living Suggests Financial Options for Senior Care - Senior Housing News

This tour I took of the headlines today made me dust off my crystal ball. I don't proclaim to be an expert, just a real estate agent who works with seniors, understands senior housing, and is willing to take a few guesses at upcoming trends for the year:

1. Prices for senior housing will follow the trends of the rest of the real estate market.Rising vacancy rates will lower rents, and senior condominium and cooperatives will experience downward pressure of purchase price.

2. There will be more and more small businesses springing up around the Twin Cities offering services to seniors.After all, people are losing their jobs, and with the coming age wave, there's a perception that this is the field to be in if you want to make money. Caveat Emptor!

3. I just recently started offering The Senior Relocation Program to seniors which includes a guaranteed sale of their home. If I can't sell it, my partner will buy it. The Minneapolis Star and Tribune even wrote about it. I suspect I'm going to hear from a lot of seniors who want to move, but can't figure out how to sell their homes. It will still be a good year for business for those of us that identify the need and offer the service to fill it.

4. There is going to be a slowing of building new senior housing developments. For the sake of existing senior housing in the metro area I hope I'm right about this one.

5. There will be a conversion of how existing senior housing communities use their space.We'll see some of the independent senior housing communities transform their space into community rooms, exercise facilities open to the public, and even memory care and assisted living care communities. You just can't have that much empty space when you have a mortgage to pay.

6. Unfortunately, we're going to see an increase in the number of moves for seniors that are crisis driven. I'll be hearing from more adult children who leave a family meeting with a transitional care unit social worker where they hear "Your mom shouldn't go home. By the way, we're discharging her tomorrow."

7. There will be an increase in Reverse Mortgage utilization. As our seniors learn more about options and choose to stay home, they'll utilize the equity in their home to pay for services to age in place.

8. Families are going to come up with creative housing and caring for aging solutions. I really do believe this current economic downturn and housing price correction is going to foster the opportunity for new solutions for seniors. Families will figure out new solutions today that we haven't previously thought of. We'll see more mother in law apartments, more families living together, perhaps even neighborhood associations developing solutions to help neighborhood seniors. The solutions that start to sprout up over the next couple of years will be driven by grass root efforts, and will be perfected by the baby boomers. I do not believe baby boomers will occupy all of these age segregated housing communities as they are today. This is the housing development industry's opportunity to "right-size."

9. The newspaper and media will continue to highlight the gloom and doom of our current predicament. You'll continue to hear how lousy the real estate market is, how seniors can't move even though they want to, and how miserable the human race has become.  

Attitude really is everything. Will you be empowered to figure out how to solve the challenges that face you...or will you believe the gloom and doom of the headlines and believe your powerless?

First step-stop watching the news.

Suburb says 'no' to senior housing development

The Beaufort Gazette out of South Carolina sent a developer back to the drawing board when they decided a proposed senior housing development was too large for the neighborhood.

When city and state budgets are tight, it's much easier to compromise on principles and say "bring in the development and additional tax dollars!" However, compromising on things like: traffic flow, character of the neighborhood, disruption of views from neighboring homes effects home values, and in turn, the community as a whole. In Minneapolis we have fought against our own neighbors tearing down original homes built in the 1920's and 1930's and building McMansions that obstruct views and sunlight from neighboring homes, and are that are way out of character with the neighborhood.

I've gone on record to say that Minnesota does need more ownership opportunities in senior communities. The challenge is for developers to recognize what boomers say they want (which is to remain vital, viable and part of a community, which does NOT translate to being segregated into a senior high rise) and to provide it in an economically viable way.

Possible? I think Yes!

Editorial on Articles about Sunrise Assisted Living

I saw some articles in the Washington Business Journal about Sunrise Assisted Living this morning. One entitled "Sunrise Assisted Living Charges Pile Up."

Fear is what often keeps my elderly clients from moving out of their home, even though they have voiced wanting to make the move. After all, it's human nature to avoid those things that make us uncomfortable. It's more comfortable to be uncomfortable with what you know, than to think about increasing your level of comfort in an unfamiliar place.  I get this, and so does every other professional who works with seniors.

It's my humble opinion that when you work with seniors, you have a higher bar to which you must perform. Doing what is legal, or even what is required isn't enough. You have to do what's right, and only what's right for the client. I consider this to be a fundamental basic truth. (And frankly, I find it's often easier to do the right thing! It takes a lot of energy to be a swindler!)

By doing what's right, you can gain your elderly client's trust to help them take the those first steps to break through the fear that keeps them so paralyzed.

When the media reports on falls in nursing homes that went unreported, and questionable accounting practices at assisted living communities, it only contributes to an already overwhelming lack of consumer confidence. I don't know if Sunrise did anything wrong or not and my soapbox rant is not meant to indict them. The suspicion and alleged wrong doing are enough to increase consumer fear.

It makes my blood boil, and it should yours too. 

No Smoking Condominiums and Cooperatives: Is it really a new idea?

There's been a lot of news recently about condominiums going smoke-free. Proponenets are yelling

"Fire!" "Danger!" "Lethal Toxins!" 

Opponets are yelling

"Big Brother!" "Privacy!" "Liberty!" "Civil Rights!"

What concerns me the most is how quickly we jump on the media bandwagon and leave our own critical thinking behind. As I sit on the sideline watching the chicken-littles running around waving their arms, I sit here scratching my head wondering "what's the big deal?"  There are a number of Minneapolis Senior Condominium buildings that have clauses in the assoication bylaws that prohibit any smoking anywhere in the building.  The've been around for years.  Once you sign a purchase agreement for a senior condominium, you have 10 days to review the association bylaws and to decide if any of the rules are going to pose a problem for you.  If they do, you get to cancel your purchase agreement and, in most cases, retain your earnest money. No harm, no foul. In other words, if you don't like it, simply find another senior condominium to call home.

I'm also left wondering,

How is this no-smoking clause any different than buildings that say "no animals allowed?"   

There's Something Wrong with the Senior Housing Industry

There's something wrong with an industry that hides from its consumers.

For example, if you Google "Minnesota Senior Housing" here's what you'll find:

• Senior Resource.com- I've been on this website a number of times. It has some great resources. But, since they aren't located in Minnesota, the resources aren't complete for our geographic area.
• Retirement Homes.com-There are a few Minnesota senior housing options listed, primarily Sunrise Assisted Living. This is a far cry from a full list of housing options for our elderly.
• The Senior Housing Guide and the Senior Housing Directory (Senior Housing, Inc.) are both listed. The Senior Housing Directory is something I give to consumers for free. It's a fantastic resource. These are paper directories of Twin Cities senior housing that range from independent living to nursing home care. Unfortunately they aren't online.
• Senior Outlook.com is listed-again they aren't based in Minnesota, and they don't have a full listing of housing options. But, to their credit they've got more entries than other websites.
• Then, there's my favorite: The senior-community.net. They have 2, TWO! senior communities listed. They also give you a 1-800 number to call to get help if you're looking for senior housing.

Many of the senior housing communities in the Twin Cities have beautiful websites. However, they face the challenge of being found on the Internet with billions of other websites. They each have their own independent website that might even have 10 pages. But, they are competing against the larger websites chuck full of information for consumers. This would be just like me advertising a home for sale with a one page website, sitting back and just hoping someone will find it.

This is the primary reason I get calls every week from adult children of aging parents who are trying to look for housing on the Internet, but can't find it.

I've put my time, energy and money where my mouth is. I'm working on a website that will allow you to search for Minnesota Senior Housing. It will formally launch with lots of helpful consumer information, but in the mean time, it's a resource for you as you prepare to help your parents move.

Related Blog Posts

• What it's Really Like in Senior Housing
• Moving Your Parents-Where to Start?
• 8 Tips for Finding the Right Assisted Living Community
• Time to Talk about Moving Mom and Dad

What it's really like in senior housing.

So often after my clients are settled in their new diggs I hear "I should have moved years ago!".

Unfortunately, me relaying that third person to my clients who are shaking in their boots at the prospect of moving doesn't help.

Finally, I found two women who are blogging about living in senior housing.  I don't know them, I haven't paid them, and you'll read about real experiences, good bad and ugly.

First there's Nora an eighty-something who has pasted a Victoria Secret Model's body on her blog picture. She's hysterical. Start with her Eyes Wide Shut post where she's in the locker room with her friends.

Second, there's Marlys at Never too Late.  She's a midwest author, writer, award winner, can't-stop-me-now kind of girl who also just moved into senior housing, and plans to write about her daily life there.

They probably started this as an experiment, and have no idea how many people they'll help by doing it.

10 Things your Assisted-Living Facility Won't Tell You

Most days I start out by grabbing a cup of coffee and reading articles posted on the internet about senior housing, and of course, real estate. I found an article by Smart Money entitled "10 things your assisted-living facility won't tell you." (I'm not linking to it here out of principle).  Smart Money often has some good articles I enjoy reading.  However, this slanted bit of reporting was not one of their best pieces of work. After reading it I was so damn mad it took me a couple of hours before I could post this.

The article tells horror stories about assisted living communities: changing fees, unskilled workers, no nurse on duty, no security call systems, and failure of the communities to meet up to promises made by the marketing person. Any consumer would be nuts to even consider an assisted living community after reading that article! In fact, it made me wonder why assisted living communities are allowed to exist at all! These communities are painted as being staffed by uncaring, inept workers, who are only out to make a buck. 

No industry is perfect. If it were I wouldn't need to spend my morning writing an industry consumer awareness blog, but would be writing poetry instead! However, these kinds of scare tactics do nothing more than feed the fire of consumer fear, add one more reason to procrastinate planning senior services, and fail to educate consumers on the smart way to choose an assisted living community. 

I'm a huge advocate of industry transparency, and believe consumers are smart enough to see through sugar-coated polly-anna type reporting. On the flip side-consumers, in general, don't seek out information about senior services until they need to.  The information needs to be simple, direct, and organized. This overly dramatic scare tactic is not helpful at a time when our elderly and their families need more information, not more fear.

Be careful of what you ask for!

I was watching the CBS news this evening with my husband with the intention of catching a special report they were airing titled "Aging in the Shadows".  Because of my health care background and now my experience of working with seniors to transition to senior housing I'm in a position to offer a unique perspective. One, I hope won't go unnoticed.  Tonight NBC was warning viewers of the dangers of unregulated assisted living facilities.  They shared a tragic story of a man who died in an accident at the facility.  Please understand the following comments are not in any way to dismiss the pain due to the loss of a loved one; especially when you believe them to be in a safe place.  My heart goes out to any family in these circumstances.  Unfortunately, these accidents also occur in highly regulated nursing homes. My point?  Regulations will not stop accidental deaths. 

Today assisted living communities in Minnesota enjoy very little regulation.  Let me explain what this means to you as a consumer.  First and foremost it means affordability.  Ask any health care professional what regulations do to the cost of health care. There are entire teams that are responsible for the implementation and ongoing maintenance to ensure facilities are complying with the thousands of regulations they must follow.  Not too long ago a nursing home in Minnesota was given a citation for not properly posting the recipe for toast.  No Kidding.  This is what happens when industries are given broad sweeping regulations.

Secondly, it means you can find a community that has very few services, to communities that offer a full spectrum of medical services. This increases the possibility of finding a community that offers what you require in a price range that meets your budget. If prices are inflated due to increased regulations, I will show you a percentage of the population that will not be able to afford private-pay assisted living, and will instead end up in nursing homes on Medicaid.  This means you and I pay for it.

Third, this flexibility has led to a decrease in nursing home beds.  Ask anyone, this is a good thing.

Fourth, due to the aging baby boomers, health care is on it's toes in a competitive way never before seen.  This increased demand will drive creative solutions in housing and health care options in 10 years that we don't have today.  Over-regulation of this industry will hand-cuff creative solutions and cripple the health care industry.

This flexibility in the industry is the very thing that must give you, as consumers pause.  For this is what makes it dangerous for you to make a decision about what is a proper home for my mother/father/loved-one? Am I equip to assess his/her needs and ask the correct questions of the senior community?  Do I have a good understanding of the point at which a particular community would no longer be safe for my elder? 

I propose a third-party independent assessment of the needs of the patient a pre-requisite to being admitted to a senior assisted living community. These communities are under pressure to lower their vacancy rates. They are a business and they are competitive (which is the very free-market system that keeps the downward pressure on prices) and they cannot be objective about placements. 

I think safety requirements are a good idea, and there's no reason to not look at some broad-safety kinds of requirements (yes, I know. In health care EVERYTHING can be tied to the safety of the patient.  That's what makes regulations by over zealous politicians so dangerous, and expensive to the consumer). Let's put together a consortium of assisted living facilities to build those safety requirements before the politicians do it for us.

My greatest fear is that in two years regulating assisted living communities will become the next big political platform, and no matter which party is elected, it will be our elders who loose.