Many assisted living residences outsource a highly skilled retirement concierge to help older couples with real estate needs:
- Personal moving consulting
- Lists of preferred real estate agents
- Cash loans
Cedar Crest Village, a 130-acre continuing care retirement community in Pompton Plains, NJ, employed the concierge approach with 79-year-old couple, Bob and Marilyn Macrae, who had lived in the same home for 38 years. Cedar Crest Village employed Margaret Semezko, a personal moving consultant to assist the Macraes.
Ray Guarino, director of sales at Cedar Crest, spoke to NJ.com about Semezko: "She meets with everyone. She acts as a quarterback and helps them through this process." The Macraes have high praise for Semezko, the assisted living concierge. In six weeks, they had put their home on the market, sold it, signed the paperwork and moved into their new Cedar Crest Village apartment. And they cleared more than $50,000 more on their home than they had asked.
With the 55+ demographic growing, the real estate market has breathed new life into the assisted living industry. More home sales, more move-ins.
The overall approach in many New Jersey residences is to help seniors overcome moving obstacles and to create more positive attitudes towards change.