Your Next Chapter in Idaho: Choosing the Right Community for the Future

From 55+ communities to independent living, assisted living, and memory care, Garrett and Shelby explain today's senior housing options and how families can confidently plan for the next chapter together. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We are at the final segment of the Idaho Life Show, Real Estate and Community. This always makes me sad when we're at the final segment.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

I know. It's the end.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Shelby Matson here with Garrett Zill. Before we close out the hour, we want to walk through the third path we named at the top of the show. Moving into housing specifically designed around this chapter of life. And then we want to lay out exactly what our next chapter consultation looks like for any family in the Treasure Valley thinking through these decisions.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

And I'm excited to talk about that because a next chapter consultation is much different than an initial home buyer consultation where you're coming in, you're in your 20s or 30s or early 40s, talking about what does this look like for our family? We're growing our family. But now we're doing what's called the next chapter consultation, which is it's uh it's actually a really neat thing to discuss those with families and see what options they have. So when people hear the phrase senior living or a senior community, a lot of the times the mind goes straight to nursing home, and that's that's understandable, sounds scary because that's really the image that people grow up with. But the actual landscape of housing for this stage of life, life is a continuum with a lot of different points on it. And most people listening, they have several years and several stops along that continuum before anything looks anything close to a nursing home. And that would we're not gonna enter that picture. So let's walk through that, Shelby, and kind of in plain English.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

You got it. So the first point on the continuum is what we already talked about the 55 plus active adult community, independent homes or townhomes, age restricted with amenities and a built-in social calendar. I want to live there. That sounds fantastic. You buy or rent your home like any other home. Nobody is providing medical care or daily living assistance. You're just living your people in roughly your stage of life with some shared amenities and a clubhouse. The Treasure Valley has several of these, and the inventory has grown noticeably in the last few years.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yeah, and so this is something that you want to explore. We have agents that are really knowledgeable on these active lifestyle communities and sometimes just doing a tour going through, I'd recommend Shelby, rather than going in maybe the evening after work, it's a great time to see what's happening on a Tuesday afternoon. What's it look like on a Saturday morning, a Sunday afternoon? Uh, because this active lifestyle is fantastic. Again, we talked about pickleball, we talked about there's pools, there's uh fitness areas. So making sure you just don't go into a community and just be the retired life with nothing. So keeping busy is very, very important. And the the next step along the continuum that you're mentioning is the independent living. And this often looks kind of like an apartment building or almost like a small campus, if you will. You have your own apartment, but the community provides like a meal plan and a shared dining room, housekeeping, transportation to appointments to the grocery store. They've got some organized outings and activities and uh a basically a built-in community of neighbors. So there's there's no medical care included in these. It's the really the pitch on these is you get to keep your independence, which is really what people want, right? They don't want the nursing care. They get to keep the independence, but the burdens of running a household are really mostly taken care of off your shoulders. It's it's that's done for you. And the Treasure Valley does have a number of independent living communities in our areas. So touring these are really important to see if this is an option for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Absolutely. And one step further along is assisted living. Assisted living adds help with what's called the activities of daily living, bathing, dressing, medication management, mobility support. Sometimes meals brought to the apartment, right? The independent living model. You still have your own apartment, your own front door, your own life. You just have caregivers on staff who help with the parts of the day where help is genuinely needed. For most folks, the move from independent living to assisted living happens gradually. And it happens when the right amount of support becomes a meaningful improvement in the quality of life.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Right. And memory care is a specialized form of assisted living. That one's specifically designed for folks that maybe have some kind of a form of dementia or Alzheimer's. So different environment, right? Different staffing ratios. They have it basically programmed built around that specific need. So they're not going to be in a in one of these other assisted living cares. It's specifically designed for those folks. So several of the larger communities in the Valley, they do have what they call a wing to it. So it's a memory care wing that basically can share a campus with those other levels of care.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

And then the last category to name is what's called a continuing care retirement community, or CCRC. One campus that offers independent living, assisted living, and memory care or skilled nursing all on the same property. You move into the independent living side, and if your needs change down the road, you can move within the same community to the appropriate level of care without leaving the campus or losing your relationships. And I think that's important to highlight, right? That you build this community with your neighbors that you've been interacting with in the shared dining space. Sure. And you don't want to leave them. And this provides an opportunity to stay connected. There are CCRCs here in the Treasure Valley. And for folks who want predictability about the long arc of care, it's model worth, it's a model worth understanding. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_00 5:59

100% worth looking. And honestly, out of all this, Shelby, the most important thing that we tell every family do the homework while you have time, the energy and choice, not when it's too late or when you're too tired, just earlier on the better. So tour multiple communities, get the actual financial information, talk to residents who live there. You want to get a feel for the place at lunch on a Tuesday, not on the marketing event on a Saturday, which is good to have that as well. But anyways, bottom line is the families who do this thoughtfully, sometimes years before they actually move, end up with dramatically better outcomes than the families who do this in a real hurry after maybe some health event like a fall or a hospital stay, you know, some kind of a discharge with the recommendations that the patients, those patients can't go home alone, which is, you know, what you don't want to hear last second. And suddenly you got an adult child that is making a multi-hundred thousand dollar housing decision under emotional pressure with a clock ticking. And we never want that to be how this gets decided for families. And so this is gonna bring us, Shelby, now to the part that we like, which is that consultation that we offer here at Idaho Life Real Estate. And specifically for families in this chapter, and we call this what's called the next chapter consultation. And we built it after years of having these conversations a hundred different ways. Yeah. Right. The sit down is free. Of course, there's never any obligation to sit down with any of our agents. And we encourage the homeowner to bring an adult child or two if they're comfortable with having them there. And the goal just at that first meeting is to put real numbers and real options on the table together so the family can think clearly with the same information in front of them.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Yes. And to further that, we walk through three things in order. First, your current home, what it's likely worth right now in this market, what it would sell for if it were prepared properly, and what the timing of a sell would look like in the neighborhood. We pull real comps, we give an honest range, not a number to win business, a number you can plan around.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

And that's the key part to you, Shelby, is the a real number that you can plan around. There's no reason for false hopes. I think part of our plan at How Life Real Estate is that we want to underpromise and over-deliver when it comes to value. It's really important in your planning process. So going back to our list here, second, your real options for the next chapter. So patio homes, townhouses, a smaller traditional home, 55 plus communities, independent living communities, real listings, real price points, real HOA fees, real monthly costs. And if the family is leaning towards aging in place, we walk them through what reasonable renovations might cost and what they would extend. So if an EDU or a multi-generational arrangement is on the table, we walk through that too. You know, we don't push anyone in one path. There's not one clear direction.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Absolutely not. Third, we look at the gap. What's likely to come out of the sale, what's going into the next place, what's left over, and what that means for the rest of the picture. Sometimes there's a substantial chunk of equity left over, and we talk about what it could do, right? Fund the next chapter, help an adult child into their first home, stay liquid as a retirement buffer. Sometimes the math is tighter than the family expected, and we revise the plan together. No matter what, we are going to work together. Either way, you walk out with a real picture.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

That's right. I think having that clear picture is very important where at least you can walk out of this next chapter consultation and say, at least we have options, at least we have choices now. And the coordination piece matters. Same brokerage here at Her Life Real Estate, same team coordinating the current home sale, the search of the next home or community, you know, the conversation with the family, that's what makes this manageable instead of overwhelming because it can become overwhelming really, really quickly. But we help it all out in-house. So 40 plus full-time agents, an internal database of over, we now have over 27,000 active buyer profiles ready to match the morning your home hits the market. You know, staging consultations, staging that's included at no cost, professional home photography, syndication to roughly, we're over like 30 websites now when your home gets listed with us, paid uh Instagram, Facebook marketing, Google ad campaigns that we run every month. I mean, when the home gets listed, it shows up the way it should. And then, you know, if you're listening and you have an adult child or maybe a parent that's listening right now, and you've been quietly circling this conversation with, share this conversation with them. You know, sometimes the hardest part is just starting it. And we made it as easy as a phone call or just a quick website visit to make it your first step with no commitment to anything that follows.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

We encourage you to visit idaholife.com. That's idaholife.com to start a conversation. Search single-level homes and patio homes across the valley and learn more about our team and the next chapter consultation.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

I'm excited to have that with people. And we've got a crew that's really, really excited to have that conversation. And for those of you that have Instagram, you can follow us there. You can message us there as well. Our Instagram handle is at Idaho Life Real Estate. All one word again, at Idaho Life Real Estate. There you can check out new listings. You can get some coming soon, some sometimes some little market exclusives that haven't hit the market yet, but that will be coming. Neighborhood updates, market data, and everything else that's happening with our team and community.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Thank you, Garrett. And Treasure Valley, thank you for being with us. Have a great rest of your Saturday, and we'll see you next week.