Seniors & downsizing
Selling a long-held home is rarely a straight financial decision. It involves adult children, care planning, tax basis, timing, and a lot of belongings. I’ve been doing seniors work since 2004 and I don’t rush it.
The first thing is pace. A senior sale that gets pushed produces a bad decision and a family that resents whoever pushed. I’m happy to have the first conversation two years before anything happens, and I’ve done exactly that many times.
The second is coordination. There is usually an elder law attorney, an accountant, sometimes a financial planner, often adult children in different states, and occasionally a care facility with a deposit deadline. Somebody has to make sure the real estate decision fits the plan rather than fighting it. That’s a role I’m comfortable in.
The third is honesty about the house. Homes held thirty or forty years have deferred maintenance, dated systems, and layouts today’s buyers price against. I’ll tell you what that actually costs in dollars and what, if anything, is worth fixing. Usually less than people expect.
Homeowners over sixty-five in Nassau and Queens get a lot of mail. Some of it is from people who want to buy the house below market, and some is from agents who found your name on a list. If you’re getting that mail, get a real written valuation before you respond to any of it. I’ll do one on a flat fee, or tell you where to get one, and you’ll be in a far better position either way.
Staying costs something and moving costs something. Carrying costs, taxes, maintenance, the capital sitting in the house, and against that the cost and disruption of the move. I’ll lay both out honestly, including when the answer is to stay put.
Not a range designed to make you feel good. A number, with reasoning, and what it would change to if specific things were done.
Rent, buy smaller, move in with family, a continuing care community. Each has different real estate implications and I’ll talk through all of them — though the financial and tax advice has to come from your accountant and attorney, not from me.
Forty years of things, and adult children who all want the same three of them. Senior move managers do this professionally and well. I’ll introduce you to ones I trust and take nothing for it.
If there’s an elder law attorney or an accountant in the picture, I want to be talking with them, not around them. Medicaid planning, basis, and trust ownership all change what the right move is.
Most of them called a year or more before they did anything.
Very considerate during a difficult time, prompt, courteous; the consummate professional… service is exemplary.
I had great respect for Diallo’s abilities from consulting work he had done for my agency in his earlier career as a network engineer. When my wife and I needed a realtor to sell our home, I thought of Diallo immediately, and the choice was completely validated by his performance, which was superb in every respect.
He assisted me in preparation for each step in the transaction very professionally, courteously, and in an informative and helpful manner. In the end, he went beyond his normal function to help me.
You don’t have to be ready to sell to call me. Most of my best senior clients called a year or two before they did anything, and were glad they had.
