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Consumer Articles
REALTORS® With Special Training Provide Help to Older Clients
Excerpt from the Los Angeles Times
By SUZANNE STAVINOHA, Special Advertising Sections Writer
Article Link: http://www.latimes.com/extras/newhomes/senior/story_04.html
You’ve lived in your home for 30 years. Now, the kids have grown and moved away, the neighborhood is changing and you’d like to move to a smaller home where you can enjoy an active retirement.
The problem is you’re not sure what your house is worth, you’re concerned about tax planning and you don’t know what your options are in terms of what or where to buy.
You might want to consider hiring a Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES).
In 1998, the California-based Senior Advantage Real Estate Council (SAREC) became a national program designed to focus on the needs of buyers and sellers 50 and older. The council offers a special designation — SRES — to identify real estate agents who have completed its education program.
Basically, an SRES designee is trained to help seniors make wise decisions about selling the family home. He also offers knowledge about financing, buying or selling rental properties and managing capital gains. He also can explain current trends and opportunities for seniors in the housing market.
An SRES Realtor cannot give legal or tax advice. However, according to the council, designees are urged to maintain referral relationships with accountants and real estate attorneys so they can refer their clients to those professionals as needed.
Cynthia Radom, a Realtor in Coldwell Banker’s Beverly Hills South office, said she has found the SRES training valuable. She works with seniors, attorneys who are trustees for estates and children who have inherited family property.
While some of her clients are moving to find camaraderie or to be closer to kids, others need help finding assisted-living arrangements. Radom sees her role as an SRES as part counselor and part confidante, handling the details and informing her clients about all the options.
While the majority of Radom’s clients are the homeowners, she’s had a few cases where the clients were family members and her duties had to extend beyond the norm.
For example, when one 84-year-old man broke both his legs in a traffic accident here in Southern California, the man’s son had to fly in from Virginia to sell his father’s home and arrange for care in an assisted- living facility.
“Through her contacts, Cynthia helped me hire someone who specializes in moving the elderly from their homes into assisted living,” said the son, Brian Pfaffenberger. “She also found professionals to deal with my father’s personal possessions, file insurance claims and help clear out the house and get it ready for sale.”
Pfaffenberger said his concerns were eased when Radom arranged for a bedside advocate, an outside person who checks on his dad to make sure he is being well taken care of at the assisted-living facility.
“ I’m so thankful for the way it worked out,” he said.
While any licensed Realtor can handle a transaction, it is the wise senior who seeks out someone with experience in the 55-plus marketplace, according to Richard “Dick” Gaylord, the National Assn. of Realtors’ nominee for 2006 first vice president.
“It’s just like if you wanted to buy a house in Beverly Hills, you’d find someone who specializes in that neighborhood,” said Gaylord, a Realtor with Re/Max Real Estate Specialists in Long Beach. While he hasn’t taken the SRES course yet, Gaylord considers that type of specialized training to be an asset.
“There are so many factors particular to the seniors’ circumstance that they’ll be better off with a Realtor who is familiar with that terrain, whether or not that person has the SRES designation,” he said.
For Realtors like Jack McSweeney, the extra training has proven helpful. A Realtor with Re/Max Palos Verdes Realty, McSweeney took the SRES course two years ago in order to better understand how to help his older clients.
“If someone is entering into a real estate transaction at an older age, it’s for an important reason — they lost a spouse or they need to downsize,” he said. “This course helped me see all the things I need to be thinking about in order to really help these clients.”
McSweeney has found that oftentimes working with older clients is like working with first-time buyers.
“They haven’t had to buy or sell for 45 years,” he said, “and now, all of a sudden, they have to deal with all the new laws and red tape. When they bought their house, the contract may have been one page long. Now, it’s about 18 pages.”
While help with navigating the paperwork is one of the benefits seniors can realize with a trained SRES Realtor, another is finding out about recent laws and options that apply to seniors that might not apply to other property owners.
The Seniors Advantage Real Estate Council (SAREC) said it now has more than 8,000 SRES designees in all 50 states and Canada and adds hundreds of new members every month.
To find out more about SAREC, or to find an SRES Realtor in your area, call (800) 500-4564, or log onto www.seniorsrealestate.com.
Suzanne Stavinoha is a freelance writer based in Studio City.
Back to 'Moving Forward 50 and Beyond'
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Lucy Brunner
CRS, SRES & MatureMoves Specialist
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CENTURY 21 Preferred
2800 4th SW; Suite 3
Mason City, IA 50401
Business: (641) 424-9400
Cell: (641) 425-9285
Toll free: 1-877-2GET-C21
Fax: (641) 423-1902
E-Mail: Lucy.Brunner@Century21.com
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