The first of the 400,000 babies born each year since 1946 turned 65 in 2011. Bottom line, seniors have become a niche market in the real estate industry.
Many real estate sales reps and brokerages are structuring their businesses to specialize in the needs of seniors, offering integrated real estate, transition and estate services for these demographics. Most seniors are in control of making decisions of when and where to move, but there are others who need a more comprehensive approach due to declining health, mobility issues or because they live too far away to get help from other family members.
Those choosing to specialize in working with seniors need to keep in mind the challenges, fears and emotions seniors might experience at this stage. Special training is helpful to understand how their real estate needs are different. Realtors need to connect with like-minded professionals such as discharge hospital personnel, retirement home directors and financial planners (and even funeral home directors) to meet aging clients’ needs.
An important characteristic of a Realtor who enjoys working with seniors is patience and the ability to handle conflict that can arise within the family. Most importantly, make sure to ask the pertinent question, who actually is the client and who has signing authority?
Building trust with the client is a must. At the discretion of your client, inclusion of family is also important. Respect your elders – when in sound mind and body, they are quite capable of making a smart lifestyle choice.
They’ll need you to offer referrals, resources, advice, patience and guidance throughout the buying and selling process. Specially trained Realtors have learned how to analyze and assist in the many scenarios that can arise in living these later years.
There are a variety of courses available to Realtors such as Accredited Senior Agent (ASA), Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES) and Certified Relocation and Transition Specialist (CRTS), to name a few. I have taken them all and I have learned something valuable for my business growth from each one.
Manson Slik, real estate broker/partner of Gordon’s Estate Services and CRTS course instructor, says, “Dealing almost exclusively with senior clients like we do in our firm is both fulfilling and challenging. Many of the clients we deal with are first-time home sellers who purchased their home in the 1960s when things were pretty uncomplicated. Today you have to walk them through agency, MLS, disclosure forms, FINTRAC, staging, insurance issues, home inspections and WETT inspections.”
Silk says the key is confronting all of these things on the front end of the listing so their expectations are fully set for what is to come and so you have the best chance of building a firm sale for them. “If you are an 87-year-old widow and accept an offer on your home, only to have the offer renegotiated or fall apart due to a home inspection or some other event that could have been prevented by taking care of it in advance, it makes for a confusing and upsetting first-time/last-time home selling experience,” he says.
In my experience, I find the biggest hurdles for most of my clients are the fear that they are making the right move, what to do with all their stuff and where to go next. Asking questions, investigating and planning are where it all starts. I feel there is a need for education to help seniors through the mounds of paperwork, housing choices and legalities of real estate.
I wrote a book called Beyond the Sold Sign. A Canadian real estate planning guide for seniors. This workbook/planning guide offers everyone including other professionals, family members and caregivers a tool to use when helping their clients with the planning and selling process. Various chapters discuss the importance of financial and estate planning, tax implications, downsizing, letting go of many years of personal attachment, as well as the home preparation and the selling process.
It includes a personal and financial record-keeping diary to keep private information in one place.
Julie Wilson, ASA, SRES, is a sales rep, author and Brighton branch manager at Gordon’s Estate Services in Brighton, Ont. She began her real estate career in 1985. Phone 613-475-4464. For more information about her book, visit www.beyondthesoldsign.ca. For multiple copies call 1-855-803-2220.
By Julie Wilson for REMonline.com
