About 2 months ago I received a phone call from my website to list an elderly gentleman's home. This gentleman was scheduled to have surgery, spend some time recovering in rehabilitation, then move to an assisted living community.
Today, he's been in his new home for about 1 1/2 weeks. He called me this week and told me he was very unhappy with where he was living, and wanted to move home. We spent some time talking and I was trying to get a sense if this was a case of buyers remorse (something that would wear off) or if we were really going to move him back to his home.
- Prior to the move he had gone to visit his new community a number of times, even ate lunch and participated in some activities.
- His family was very involved and supportive of the move
- He has the financial means to stay where he is for a very long time.
- He told me all the reasons he wanted to move and sell his home.
So what went wrong?
1. The family encouraged this senior to to a senior community that was just too far away from where he was comfortable. The family's intentions were in the right place, they wanted him to be close to them so they could visit. His home was in the NE metro, and his family moved him to a suburb on the west side of the Twin Cities. He still drives, and he feels lost.
2. We know the average age of seniors in independent housing is about 80 years old. My client would have done very well in an independent living community where he could add-on home health care services as he needed them. Unfortunately, he was brought to an assisted living community where most of the residents used wheel chairs and needed health care assistance. My client was probably the healthiest one in the building. He had been thrust into a community where his neighbors were "older" and not as healthy. Talk about being thrust into a situation where you are faced with your own mortality!
Unfortunately, because of this experience my client isn't willing to look at other senior housing options, and is moving back home, where he will once again, be put into a situation where he is lonely, and receives poor nutrition.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll be safe and happy back in his home, if for no other reason than he got to enforce his own will on his own life decisions. This isn't about my losing a listing, it's about him choosing his own destiny. When we work with seniors and their real estate needs, we become the guardian of their free will, which holds much more responsibility than "listing agent."
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