What is a senior living counselor?
A senior living counselor specializes in finding you a community that fits your needs, budget, and location at no direct cost to you. They have visited all the communities in your area and have current and insider information.
A senior living counselor will do an in person or over the phone needs analysis with you and provide guidance for your unique situation. They even tour communities with you, and ensure you find a community that fits your needs. Often our counselors have taken rigorous tests and are certified senior advisors. So, you know you’re working with a certified expert who has detailed information of all the communities in your area, and most issues you’re facing. The best part is their services are no direct cost to you.
How much does it cost?
Are services are FREE with no direct cost to you.
How are we paid?
All the communities we work with are screened for violations and personally visited and inspected by us. The senior living communities we work with pay us a finder’s fee when we successfully match a resident with their community. Much like a real estate agent gets paid for the sale of a new home.
Why can’t I find a community on my own?
Finding a senior living community is the hardest decision of your adult life. Harder than finding a new house which you would do with the assistance of a real estate agent.
There’s several drawbacks to finding a community on your own.
- Not knowing what to look for or where to start – Many people in a desperate situation when starting their search for senior living. This is not an ideal emotional state to make an informed decision. Couple this with not knowing enough about the industry and the search suddenly feels helpless.
- Pushy sales staff at communities – Senior community’s sales staff main motive is to fill the community. With this in mind, you’re getting biased information no matter how nice the sales representative is.
- Unaware of culture issues, violations or worse – By being an outsider looking in, a choreographed sales presentation is all you see. You miss insider information. Information like violations, cultural issues, what daily life is actually like, any unresponsive staff, or worse.
- Have to tour by yourself – It’s hard touring a community if you don’t know what to look for. You only see a choreographed sales presentation of the community. You need to know what to look for in order to make an educated decision.
- Have to fill out all the paperwork yourself – This is time consuming and often times can be downright confusing. You need to watch for hidden fees and any expensive up sells.
What makes your counselors different than these internet sites that let me do my own research?
Our counselors are local people with an intimate knowledge of the senior living communities in the area. For them to recommend a community, the community has been personally visited and screened for violations.
When you use an internet directory or referral service, you face several challenges:
- Many, many calls from pushy sales staff – Your information is given to 5 or more communities as soon as you contact these companies. Then you are bombarded with phone calls and emails from both pushy senior living sales staff and pushy phone representatives from the internet company. Be prepared to be wakened from sleep, interrupted from your lunch, or getting calls from communities that don’t provide services you need or in the location you want.
- Only hear from communities in their database – You may miss communities that fall within your budget, location, and needs, just because they only recommend communities in their database.
- Non-local Phone representatives – You’re working with phone representatives who are often across the country who may be “punching the clock”. They know nothing about your unique situation, local area, and the communities in question.
- Unscreened communities – These companies will take any community that wants to be in their database. You may get recommendations from communities that have violations or worse.
- Outdated information – Some internet directories can have the wrong pricing information, outdated features and amenities, and more wrong information.
- Don’t know if rooms are available – You will not know if the community you’re considering has rooms available. It’s frustrating when a phone representative gives a recommendation and the community has no rooms available.
- Have to tour by yourself – It’s hard to tour a community if you don’t know what to look for. You see a choreographed sales presentation of the community. You need to know what to look or in order to make an educated decision.
- Have to fill out all the paperwork yourself – This is time consuming and often times can be downright confusing. You need to watch for hidden fees and any expensive up sells.
How do I know how much the community costs and how much I can afford?
The first thing our counselors do, is an in-person or over the phone needs, budget, and location analysis. Through our analysis, we will narrow our large network of communities in your area (with a wide range of services) down to three or four that really fit your needs, budget, and location. We will walk you through a process to see if what fits your budget and for how long.
How do I know whether I need independent living, assisted living, memory care, home care, or anything else?
The first thing our counselor will do, is a needs analysis to determine your unique situation. This involves going through an analysis of care and ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLS).
Do you offer any guarantee?
Yes we do. if for any reason, we don’t find a community that fits your needs, we’ll pay all your moving costs to move you or your loved one into another community of your choosing.
Do I have to reveal anything personal?
Your privacy is important to us, and at no time will we require you to provide us with any information that you’re not comfortable with sharing. Initially we do not require anything personal from you. Depending on how much you want us to handle in your search, we may require more information from you.
Do I need to call communities and tour on my own?
If this is something you prefer, we can give you the names, numbers and addresses of the communities we find to be a good fit for your needs. However, a big part of what our counselors do, is call the communities for you and even tour with you, so you can see what’s really important to see while on a tour and not just a choreographed sales presentation.
How long does the process take to find a senior living community?
We can find a fit for you in 24 hours, or three years from now. Everyone’s situation is unique, and our counselors will move at your pace.
How do I get started?
You can either call this number right now (855) 971-3112 to see if you qualify, or you can contact us here to begin the process.