Become a senior placement resource
Every agent you compete against talks about downsizing as a reason to list with them to sell their clients' home. Downsizing typically means a two story home to one story move to eliminate stairs, reduce maintenance costs, reduce unneeded space and/or moving to be closer to kids and grandchildren.
Becoming a senior placement resource enables you to define yourself as a downsizing agent when your senior clients and their families are responding to medical situations where a stay at home vs, assisted living decision is imminent or already in process.
You can get the knowledge and contacts you need to begin to position yourself as a senior placement resource, and brand yourself as a "complete" downsizing expert, by studying podcasts by Elena Merchand and Lorri Thanos and reading aging in place and in home care vs. assisted living. Listen to these podcasts, take notes and internalize what you hear. While the terminology and changing issues seem complicated, if you grasp the following you can confidently position yourself as a knowledgeable resource and come across as completely different from your competition:
- There are professionals that help clients through the senior placement process. Many of your prospects won't know this.
- The four steps that lead to a placement decision due to a stroke, heart attack or other health event are:
1. Hospital admission and stay due to a health event (stroke, heart attack etc.)
2. Transfer to Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) - due to costs the hospital wants an SNF transfer ASAP
3. Discharge from SNF - due to costs the average stay has gone from 100 to 23 days.
4. the family determines to have their loved come home or moved to as assisted living facility based on health status, costs and family situation. If the decision is move to an assisted living facility the family must often sell the senior's home to pay for the care.
- Per Elena Merchand's podcast, for every seven discharges from SNFs there is a real estate transaction because the decision is assisted living and the only way to pay for care is with the equity from the senior's home. Likewise one out of every seven SNF discharges leads to a Reverse Mortgage for aging in place modifications and funds needed to pay for in-home care.
If you are a trusted facilitator and bring in a senior placement professional to help the family when they are in this highly emotional, highly stressful situation, you are setting yourself up as the go-to agent for the listing and a sale. You can hear a real life example of this in the first Bevin Eustace podcast.
Learn about this process and share your knowledge as a valuable resource with your prospects and you will earn listings before your competition has a chance at the deal.
