Senior Villages - Capitol Hill Village

Have you heard of senior villages?  They are usually organized around neighborhoods.  Their purpose is to help seniors who want to age in place.  For a yearly membership fee—which is typically a few hundred dollars—the village coordinates volunteers that can help seniors.  The senior can have a volunteer drive them places, go to the doctor with them, or even help around the house.

Villages also typically have social and education components to them.  They organize talks, book clubs, and other get-togethers to keep seniors socially connected and intellectually stimulated.  There are currently 190 villages across the country, and 48 of those are in the Washington, DC region.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting with Molly Singer, the Executive Director of Capitol Hill Village, which is the second-oldest village in the country (the oldest village is in Beacon Hill, in Massachusetts).  Capitol Hill Village has over 400 members, and is located, of course, in Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC.  There are two full-time social workers at Capitol Hill Village.  They visit seniors at home or in the hospital, and help make sure that their needs are met.   Molly told me that there are even four members of Capitol Hill Village that are over 100!  They are still living at home, and are able to age in place.

Various village members head up different social and educational options within the village—there is a group that goes out to dinner, a walking group, several book clubs, a travel club, a group that goes to see plays together, etc.  The list is only limited by what groups members want to organize.  Here’s a photo of the July calendar, just to give you an idea of what is offered.

In Montgomery County, I know of senior villages in Bradley Hills, Burning Tree, Cabin John, Chevy Chase, Potomac, Silver Spring, Kensington, and Takoma Park, among others.  If you’re interested in learning if where you live has a village, you can look here: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/HHS-Program/ADS/Villages/villageslist.html, http://dcgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=cd1880a5e3d44b128116622f25676df1, or just google your county or city and the phrase senior villages and see what comes up.  If your area doesn't have a village, maybe it's time you started one!

Why Use a Senior Real Estate Specialist, Part 2

Part of the reason I chose this specialty is based on my own experience, and learning of the experiences of others.  There is a real need for senior real estate specialists.   I gave one example here.  This is another example from my own family.

My husband’s grandparents lived into their nineties, and when they were in their mid-eighties, his family realized they needed the help that only an assisted-living senior community could provide.  My mother-in-law was their only child, and she lived a distance away.  Her parents were insistent that they didn’t want to move at all, but if they had to move, they wanted to stay in their town. They wanted to stay near their friends, and what they had always known.

But what ultimately happened is that they outlived their friends, and they were almost two hours away from their daughter.  This left them very isolated.  Their daughter did her best, driving to see them at least once a week, but it was a tough situation.  If they had used a senior real estate specialist when selling their home, they might have been able to hear about similar things happening to other people, and been able to make a more informed choice about where to live.  The senior real estate specialist might have been able to add a neutral third perspective to the situation, and been able to talk to my husband’s grandparents and help them see why it might be important to live near their daughter.

This is not a situation where the home sellers or their children would usually think to call in someone for advice.  If you’ve never been through the situation before, how would you even know to think through common pitfalls?  So it’s very helpful if the real estate agent selling the family home knows and has experience with common problems that might crop up when downsizing.

If you live in Maryland, DC, or Virginia, I’d be happy to work with you.   If you don’t live in my area, I’d be happy to refer you to a senior real estate specialist in your area.  Please give me a call or e-mail me if you’d like more information.

Forest Hills of DC

The courtyard at Forest Hills of DC

A few weeks ago I was able to tour Forest Hills of DC, a not-for-profit assisted living,  rehabilitation, and long-term care community located in NW, off Connecticut Ave.  Jennifer Brown, the Director of Admission and Marketing, was my tour guide.   Forest Hills also has another community called Forest Side, which specializes in Memory Care.  It is located nearby on Military Rd.  Forest Hills of DC was founded in 1926 as the Methodist Home of DC, though it is no longer affiliated with the Methodist Church.

Forest Hills is a leasing community, meaning residents pay by the month to live there, rather than buying into the community.  There are 57 studio, one-bedroom, and three-room assisted living apartments in the community, as well as 50 long-term care beds.    On-site services and amenities include a library, a full-service beauty salon and barber shop, a gift and convenience store, a professional clinic, including a furnished dental suite— and a well-equipped fitness and rehabilitation center.

Its location is ideal for residents who want to enjoy city living, as it’s an easy walk to restaurants, a pharmacy, and a bookstore.  There are also regularly scheduled trips to see and do things in the city.  As with the other assisted living and long-term care communities I’ve visited, there’s a dining hall that serves three meals a day, and a calendar full of activities to keep residents as busy as they’d like to be. 

A unique feature of Forest Hills of DC is that the Northwest Neighbors Village is located there.  You may have heard of the village concept—they are basically organizations that cater to seniors who want to age in place.  So the Northwest Neighbors Village holds activities, classes, and talks inside the Forest Hills community, which means the seniors in the neighborhood get to mingle with the residents of Forest Hills and attend one another’s activities.

The long-term care section of the community is in the same building as the assisted living section, which makes it easy for residents to visit friends in one section or another.  It also means if an assisted living resident has to make a temporary or permanent move to the long-term care part of the building, they don’t have to go far or get used to a new place.

I enjoyed touring Forest Hills of DC very much, and I appreciate all of the knowledge and time Jennifer Brown shared with me. 

A living room in an assisted-living apartment at Forest Hills of DC

3 Questions to Ask When Touring a Senior Living Community

I’ve had enough experience touring senior living communities, and speaking with people who’ve had experience living in them, that I thought it would be helpful to share a few questions I think are important to ask when touring a community.  These might be less obvious than the questions that naturally come to mind.

1.    Do you have a way of making sure your residents are okay?

I have a sad personal story that motivates my asking this one.  My Grammie was living in an independent senior living community well into her nineties.  My parents lived very nearby and usually saw her several times a week, but they had been travelling.  When they returned, they called her for a couple of days but didn’t get an answer.  My Dad finally went over there and had the management key in, and they found her collapsed and unconscious.  Her neighbors and friends there felt terrible.  They had noticed her missing at meals for a couple of days but assumed she was just busy.  She had suffered a stroke.  She was able to partially recover but she was not the same.

Different places I’ve toured have different methods of checking to make sure residents are okay.  Riderwood has a lever outside of each door that security goes around and pushes down each night.  By mid-day the next day, a staff member walks past and checks to make sure the levers have moved (the doors have been opened).  If one hasn’t, they knock on the door and check on the person.  Kensington Park, Brightview Fallsgrove, and Brooke Grove each request that residents wear a pendant, and they can push a call button on it if they need help.  Forest Hills of DC watches to make sure everyone who is supposed to attend lunch or dinner is there.  If someone doesn’t come a staff member goes to check on the person.  Personally, I think it's important that even independent living communities have a way to regularly check on their residents to make sure they're okay.  Otherwise, it's not that much different than living on your own.

2.    What happens if a resident runs out of money?

If someone runs out of money and they’re elderly, Medicaid usually will kick in and pay for a bed in a nursing home.  But not every senior living community accepts Medicaid or has Medicaid beds.  And often, you need to already be living in a community in order to be given one of their few Medicaid beds.  So if you or a loved one might run out of funds sometime in the future, be sure to think through what your plan would be.  And don’t move into a senior living community until you understand how they deal with this issue.

3.    What if a resident want to move out?

Sometimes a senior moves to a senior living community and decides it’s just not a good fit. Other times a senior moves to a senior living community to be close to a relative, and then the relative moves away.  What happens then?

Some senior living communities are leasing communities, and some are buy-in communities.  Most leasing communities are fairly easy to move out of, but buy-in communities are sometimes not.  Understand what their policy is if you want to move out.  How much of your money would you get back?  How much notice do you need to give? 

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If you sell your home using a senior real estate specialist, he or she should be able to help you think through these kind of questions when planning your next move.  If you live in the Washington, DC area, and you're thinking of selling your home, please don't hesitate to contact me.  If you live outside the DC area and are thinking of selling your home, I'd be happy to help you find a senior real estate specialist in your area.

Brightview Fallsgrove

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to tour Brightview Fallsgrove, an assisted living and memory care community in Rockville.  Wendy Papuchis, the Community Sales Director, was my tour guide.  She was extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about Brighview Fallsgrove, and I enjoyed my time with her very much.

There are 70 Assisted Living apartments at Fallsgrove, and 24 specialized dementia care apartments (this specialized dementia care part of the neighborhood is called Wellspring Village).  Brightview Fallsgrove is a lease community, meaning other than a one-time only community fee (right now it’s around $5000), you pay by the month for your apartment, rather than having to buy in to the community.  You are required to sign a one-year lease when moving into Brightview Fallsgrove, but you can easily get out of the lease with 30 days notice.

Brightview Fallsgrove’s public spaces had a warm and cozy feel to them.  Above and below are a couple of pictures of their bistro area, where residents can come and grab coffee and a snack and socialize whenever they’d like.

There are several apartment choices for residents in different sizes—studios, one bedroom, and two bedroom units are all available.  The care residents receive is more bundled than in other assisted living places I’ve visited.  Everyone receives 5 hours of care as part of their monthly rent.  If a resident needs more than that, they can pay extra for different care plans.

Brightview Fallsgrove focuses on resident choice and resident independence.  Everyone has a personalized care plan there.  Not every resident needs, for instance, a night check, or a lot of care.  There’s no nurses station, which helps give Brightview Fallsgrove more of a community feeling.  There are aides around, however, to help residents whenever they need it.  They can wear a call pendant and just press a button if they need help.  Every resident has a primary aide, so that the aide and resident have a chance to get to know one another.  There are also wellness nurses on staff to provide care to the residents, along with a number of specialists and therapists under contract that provide in-house services.

Residents are allowed to come and go when they please, and to attend (or not) whatever events and classes they choose.  There are also no visiting hours—visitors are welcome whenever they’d like to come.  The dining room has specific meal times, but it’s also open all day, if someone wants to just drop by at a non-meal time for something light like soup or a sandwich.

Brightview Fallsgrove seems like a pleasant and flexible place to live.  But it provides the care residents expect from an assisted living or memory care community.

Why Use a Senior Real Estate Specialist - Part One

There are lots of real estate agents in our area, and most of them do a great job.  They are nice people, they work hard, and they want to do the best they can do for each of their clients.  But most real estate agents are generalists—they don’t specialize in any area of real estate, because they don’t want to limit themselves.

But by specializing in nothing, they are left with a knowledge base that is very broad and very shallow.

I believe that there are enough circumstances that are unique to older adults moving that they deserve to have a real estate agent who specializes in their needs and circumstances.  Let me give you an example from my own family’s history.

My grandmother was 90 and living alone in Florida when she decided it was time to move closer to her children.  Her children were all at least 10 hours away by car.  She was an extremely capable and smart lady (not to mention fun and the best grandmother ever), so she basically moved herself.  She found her own realtor, sold her car, packed up, sold, or gave away all of her things, and moved up to North Carolina.  But, it turns out she was more overwhelmed by the move than she was willing to let on.  We discovered later that she had just thrown all of her family history in the trash—including all of her photo albums and photos, of relatives through generations.   She felt very bad about it later, and certainly her children, my father and aunt, very much wish she had given them those pictures and albums.  If she had hired a senior real estate specialist, the person could have talked her through what she needed to do in order to move, and suggested bringing in an organizer or senior move specialist to help her.  That person would’ve made sure that my grandmother kept the things that were most important to her.

Most people only make a big downsizing move once in their lives, so they don’t have the benefit of experience and learning from their mistakes to make sure they do it right.  But if they use a senior real estate specialist, they can benefit from that person’s wisdom and experience.

If you live in the Washington, DC area (DC, MD or VA), I can help.  If you live outside of the DC area, I would be happy to refer you to a senior real estate specialist inyour area. 

Organizers - Just That Simple

There are quite a few professions you may not realize even exist, especially in the realm of helping people ready a home for sale.  As part of my commitment to seniors, who may need extra help with a move, I have been meeting with organizations that offer different kinds of help to people who need or want to move.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Judy Tiger a few weeks ago.  She’s the owner of Just That Simple, a home and office organizing business based in the DC Metro Area.  Judy grew up in a Foreign Service family, and has a lot of experience with moving.  Her goal is to come into a home and help people sort through all of their belongings and decide what to do with them.  This isn’t necessarily a service just aimed at people who are getting ready to move—sometimes someone is so overwhelmed by all the stuff in their home that it helps to bring someone in just to reclaim and enjoy their space again.

Judy typically comes into someone’s home for at least 4 hours at time, though she reduces that time down to two hours if someone is elderly or seems easily fatigued.  She goes through their belongings, with their feedback and involvement, and sorts things into piles (typically the piles might be trash, donate, keep, and sell).   She then arranges for the things to be trashed, donated, kept, etc.). She said she often helps people designate piles for each of their children, if they are moving out of a longtime residence and into something smaller.  If the client is moving, she will sort things into color-coded boxes for them, for easier unpacking.  Sometimes the task can be accomplished in one visit, and sometimes multiple or on-going visits are needed.

If you’re interested in learning more about Judy and Just That Simple, you can go to her website at www.just-that-simple.net.

ManorCare Bethesda and Wheaton

Dining Room of ManorCare Bethesda

Last week I toured HCR ManorCare Bethesda with Chris Gloth, the Admissions Coordinator there.  The week before I toured HCR ManorCare Wheaton with Yalda Davoodi, the Admissions Director there.  HCR ManorCare has centers throughout the region that are leading providers of short-term, post-acute services, and long-term care.  ManorCare has centers in Adelphi, Chevy Chase, Hyattsville, Largo, Potomac, and Silver Spring, in addition to the ones in Wheaton and Bethesda that I’ve toured.  The centers are all a fairly intimate size, which helps give them a greater sense of community.

For the purposes of what I do (selling seniors’ homes and offering them help in all steps of the process, including guidance about places they could downsize to), the long-term care aspect of HRC Manorcare is most interesting to me.  ManorCare Wheaton really only admits patients to its short-term care facility (people recovering from surgery, etc.).  They also have a long-term care wing, but it is filled with people who enter for short-term care and then are unable to return home on their own.  ManorCare Bethesda has both long-term and short-term areas, and people can arrange to stay there for either one. 

Both ManorCare facilities that I toured have dining rooms where residents take their meals.  Visitors are able to join them for meals for a small extra charge.  Visiting hours are 24 hours a day for the private rooms, and 9am – 9pm for the semi-private rooms.  They also both have rehab centers that offer all kinds of therapy (physical, speech, occupational) for people recovering from surgery or trauma.  They also both have activity calendars, offering residents a variety of things to do.

ManorCare offers private and semi-private rooms, and it does accept Medicaid.  There are on-site beauty salon and barber services.  They also have medical directors, 24-hour nursing care, other medical services such as dental care and optometric care available by appointment.

Many thanks to Chris Gloth and Yalda Davoodi for sharing their time and expertise with me!

Ten Reasons to Downsize

There are probably as many reasons to downsize (or right size) as there are people in the world, but I definitely hear some reasons over and over.  Do any of these resonate with you?

10. Tired of yard work – Many people enjoy working in the yard when they are first-time home buyers, but the thrill gradually wears off for many people.  By the time you’ve been a homeowner for many years, it’s just one more chore on your list, and you’re often paying a landscaping company to do it.

9. Master bedroom on the first floor – Not everyone is ready to actually live in a smaller home, but most people are ready to no longer have to climb stairs multiple times a day, to get to their bedroom or a bathroom.

8. Want to be able to walk places – Many people move to the suburbs for better schools for their children or big yards.  Once the kids are gone, though, they decide to move where they can walk to shops, restaurants, and other fun things.  This is a nationwide trend for all ages, but it seems to be especially big for baby boomers who are empty nesters.

7.  Don’t want so much house to care for – There’s much more cleaning to be done in a larger home.  You’re also paying higher utility bills to heat and cool areas of the home you no longer use.

6.  Be closer to family – In our mobile society, adult children often move far from their parents.  If parents are retired, it is often easier for them to move to where their children are then vice versa.

5. Move somewhere warmer – Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia certainly don’t have the terrible winters that some places in our country do, but it can still be grey and cold for long stretches.  Plus sometimes we even have major snowfalls!  If you’re retired and can live anywhere you choose, you might want to live somewhere warmer.

4. Live in a vacation destination – Beaches, mountains, tropical islands, Europe.  The possibilities are endless.  If you choose to move to a vacation destination, you not only get to enjoy it year round, but you are virtually assured that lots of friends and family will want to come and visit you!

3. Feeling lonely and bored – Staying in the home you’ve lived in forever can be isolating if you don’t have an active social life nearby.  Moving to 55+ housing or a senior living community can really improve your quality of life.  There are lots of activities to choose from everyday and lots of people around who are eager to make friends just like you.

2. Boost your retirement fund – If you’ve owned your home for more than 15 years, chances are it’s gone up in value substantially.  By selling your home and downsizing into something less expensive, you’ve likely freed up a large chunk of money to add to your retirement fund.  And that’s never a bad thing.  Don’t forget that the money you make from selling your home is free from capital gains taxes for up to $250,000 for a single person and up to $500,000 for a married couple.

1. Lower taxes – Many retired people choose to move to places like Delaware and Florida for the lower taxes as much as for the beaches and lifestyle.   Sales tax, property tax, income tax, and even the estate tax are lower or nonexistent.  This is a way that many people are able to stretch their retirement income.

What other reasons did you decide to downsize or right size?  Feel free to share in the comments section below.

If downsizing makes sense to you but you’re not doing it, ask yourself why.  If it’s because the idea of moving just feels overwhelming, get in touch with me.  I can help you come up with a plan for selling your home and moving that will make things more manageable, and I can bring in other service providers to help you handle the details of moving that seem too hard to tackle alone.  If you don’t live in the DC area, I can put you in touch with a realtor that specializes in this in your area.