EP #28 From Dining Room Tables to Digital Auctions: Navigating the Downsizing Journey

Downsizing a lifetime of memories isn't just about moving furniture—it's an emotional journey filled with tough decisions. Alan Sack, owner of Caring Transitions of Fredericksburg, brings clarity and compassion to this process, sharing how his personal experience helping his distant parents downsize sparked his entrepreneurial journey.

Alan pulls back the curtain on one of the biggest misconceptions families face: the true value of cherished possessions. Those dining room tables and china cabinets that were once forbidden territory for small children? They rarely command the prices families expect in today's market. With refreshing honesty, Alan explains how the cost of labor often exceeds the selling price of these items, setting realistic expectations for listeners who might soon navigate this transition with their own parents.

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Alan reveals how Caring Transitions creates a complete circle through their CTBids online auction platform—essentially a "local eBay" that connects unwanted possessions with new owners. While large furniture pieces stay within the community, collectibles and smaller treasures find homes across the country, creating a sustainable approach to downsizing. For those unexpected challenges that inevitably arise during transitions, Alan emphasizes the importance of building a reliable team that can tackle even the heaviest, most difficult items.

Whether you're facing your parents' transition or planning ahead for your own future, this episode delivers practical wisdom mixed with entrepreneurial insights. Alan's parting advice about marketing visibility resonates beyond the senior transition industry: "If they don't know about you, they can't choose you." Take the first step in preparing for life's transitions by exploring Fredericksburg.CTBids.com or CaringTransitionsFredericksburg.com, where weekly auctions connect communities and give cherished possessions new life.

Alan Sack

Caring Transitions of Fredericksburg

caringtransitionsfredericksburg.com

[phone]

[e-mail]

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
, the place where localbusinesses and neighbors come
together.
Here's your host, Dori Stewart.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome back to another episode of the
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of
our favorite local brands.
Today, I'm excited to introduceyou to Alan Sack, owner of
Caring Transitions ofFredericksburg.
Alan, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Thank you, dori.
Good morning, glad to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, thank you for being my guest.
I'm excited to learn all aboutyour business, so let's start
there.
Can you please share with ourlisteners a little bit about
your business?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Certainly, Caring Transitions is in business to
help seniors downsize.
So when it's time to move fromtheir long-term home and perhaps
go to assisted living or othertypes of accommodations, we can
help them pack, move, unpack attheir new location so they don't
have to do that.

(01:03):
And then we can go back to thehouse and sort and organize
everything and find a way, finda new home for all their
possessions they no longer need.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
That is very interesting and such a needed
service, so I love that so much.
I have parents that are goingto need that service very soon,
so I'm very interested inlearning about this.
So tell me about your journeyand how you got into this.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
Well, I got into this business.
Obviously, the way many peopledo is that they were doing it
themselves for their family, andat the present time, I was
living here in Virginia and mymy parents were in Colorado and
since I was the farthest kidaway, I had to go do all the
work and then find somebody to,you know, haul it all the way.

(01:53):
So, um, when I got done withthat process and I realized, you
know, I have some skill in thisarea, let me look into this and
and I researched CaringTransitions, which is we operate
as franchises and I'm thefranchise owner of
Fredericksburg, and so Iresearched it and found out that
this is what works for me.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Interesting, interesting.
So tell me, do you, whentalking to potential customers,
do you find that there's any,you know, myths or
misconceptions that you have todispel?

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Well, frequently probably the most thing is
people you know say, hey, we'vegot to sell these things in the
house and they're so valuable.
How do we get the money out ofall these things in the house?
And typically anymore the itemsaren't worth nearly what the
family thinks they are.
So the misconception is that,oh okay, well, if you sell the

(02:53):
things it's going to pay for allthe move and all the clean out
and everything like that.
And realistically it's a lot ofwork.
It takes a lot of man hours todo it.
So families can either do itthemselves, which they find they
usually don't like to do, orthey're out of town and they
really can't do it, and so wehelp to do that.

(03:13):
But the cost of labor thesedays is more than what the
furniture will bring sometimes.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Right, right, I could see that.
I could see my parents thinkingthat some of the stuff in their
home is probably worth a lot.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
It's their dining room table and the china cabinet
are so valuable because theywere and they were the things
you were not allowed to touchwhen you were little, and so
forth.
But nobody really wants themanymore because everybody wants
to be mobile and have smalltables and so forth.
So yeah yeah, so it's a verycommon issue.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah, thank you for clearing that up for us.
So I imagine that that you'revery busy with your business.
There's a lot of moving parts,and so when you're not working
on your business, tell us whatare you doing for fun.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Well, surprisingly, during COVID and everything,
I've developed a habit of doingjigsaw puzzles, so kind of to
relieve stress, which is kind ofwhat this business is.
In a way, it's like okay,you've got all these things, how
do we find a new home for allthese things?
Which is kind of a jigsawpuzzle.

(04:21):
And then I have liked to playgolf also.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Nice, nice, nice.
I do also love jigsaw puzzles.
It's something that you kind ofhave to completely unplug from
and you're completely focused onthe puzzle, and it really is
great for getting your mind offof other things.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
So I'm with you on that.
I think that's what I, that'swhat I use it for.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah, yeah.
So tell me, um, if you were tostart over and um, you could
give yourself some advice, or ifyou could give some advice to
if someone you know came up toyou and said, hey, I'm
interested in starting my ownbusiness, what advice would you
give a new entrepreneur?

Speaker 3 (05:12):
I would say that the the most important thing when
you're starting a new businessis you've you have to know
before you start how are yougoing to market that business?
Because, everybody has a greatidea for how they're going to do
it and they may like doing thejob or they, you know, maybe you
like making jewelry or you likebuilding houses or you whatever

(05:34):
that thing is, and that's welland good.
And everybody says, okay, I'mgoing to be so great at it,
people are just going to flockto me.
But that's not how it works.
You really have to go out andcontinually market the business
and find a way to keep yourmessage in front of people so
they know about you when theyneed the service.
So many people you know say, oh, I wish I would have known

(05:57):
about you two years ago.
I get that.
I probably heard that about 50times in the last eight years.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, if they don't know about you, they can't
choose you.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
True, Because I didn't know a business like this
existed.
It's like well.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, visibility is everything You've got to keep
your business out there so thatpeople know who you are.
So great advice.
I love that Awesome.
So when you started yourbusiness, or maybe along the way
, have you found that there'sany, have been any?

(06:33):
You know hardships orchallenges that you feel like
you overcame and now you'reyou're a better business owner
for it.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Well it's.
You know, in this business ofdownsizing, you know there's
always the biggest, heaviest,most difficult thing to find a
new home for, or get out of ahouse or things like that.
And it comes up every timeright.
And so eventually I realizedlike, okay, the team knows how
to do this.
Okay, if I can't do it myself,at least the team can chip in

(07:06):
and we'll get it done.
And you know, that's why it'sso important to have, you know,
good team members.
I have a great, great staff.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, yeah, that's huge.
A staff that you can count onis huge.
So what is something that youwish the listeners knew about?

Speaker 3 (07:24):
caring transitions that you wish the listeners knew
about Caring Transitions.
I wish that they knew moreabout us.
And the other side of theCaring Transitions business
which the general public can use, even if they don't have senior

(07:45):
or they need to downsizethemselves, is have an online
auction site called ct bids,which you can see it up in the
logo there, and the ct bids ishow we find new owners for all
the furniture and all thoselittle knickknacks in the house
that we can auction it off andpeople come and pick it up, and
it's a very seamless, veryseamless process.

(08:05):
And you know, in everyone'shouse there's, there's always
the things they think arevaluable, like the dining room
table and the China cabinet.
But when that ends up beingvaluable, is the sterling silver
into the China cabinet or justall these little knickknacks
that they bought in the sixtiesthat aren't being made anymore,
right?
So those become valuable justbecause of scarcity.

(08:27):
So, but that's how people canreally help the Caring
Transition brand is byparticipating in the CT bids
auctions.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
So that's very cool.
I didn't, I wasn't aware ofthat, so I love that you shared
that.
So it's almost like a localkind of like a local eBay.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
It's almost like a local, kind of like a local ebay
it's very much a local ebay,and I mean people know ebay
carrying transition owners areall over the country so if
something is shippable you canshop anywhere in the country for
it.
Now you're probably not goingto buy a bookcase from seattle
and have it shipped here becausethat you know it's not going to
work.

(09:06):
But, we have both a localpresence, you know, for people
picking up those big items.
But anything you knowcollectible, shippable and so
forth you can buy it anywhere.
That's very cool so it reallyhas a nice complete circle.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, yeah, that's very cool.
I just love, I just love whatyou're doing and such a great
service and I, I just love it somuch.
So tell me, how long have youbeen in the Fredericksburg area?

Speaker 3 (09:41):
We.
I started the business inAlexandria in 17 and we were
doing a little bit of businessdown at Fredericksburg because
there wasn't a caring transitionowner down here.
So, they might have been usingsomebody from Richmond, somebody
from Charlottesville, somebodyfrom Alexandria type of service,

(10:08):
because all the realtors andthe senior communities that we
get a lot of referrals from are,all you know, clustered here in
Fredericksburg and so we thisis a very much a referral
business from realtors,attorneys, senior living
communities and so my wife and Ihad made the decision to move
here and expand the businesshere, and it's going very well.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Very cool, very cool.
I love that.
I love that.
Well, the Fredericksburgcommunity is lucky to have you
Great, so can you share with ourlisteners how people can
connect with you, find out moreabout you?
Or visit CTBids.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Certainly out more about you or visit CTBids,
certainly.
So we have a website which isCaringTransitionsFredericksburg.
com.
You can also find it atCaringTransitionscom and search
the locations and then for theonline auctions, the URL is
Fredericksburg.
CTBids.
com and if we have an auctiongoing currently it will show up

(11:08):
there.
If not, it'll say, hey, we'repreparing one, because we
typically have about an auctiongoing each week.
It's not every week, but wehave one ending today and we'll
have another one start tomorrow.
And then we're working.
You started started cleaningout the house of one that's
going to be a pretty nice one.
We have some really good highticket items.

(11:30):
So fredericksburg.
ctbids.
com.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Excellent, Alan.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the podcast today and
sharing Caring Transitions withus.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
Great.
Thank you so much, dori, weappreciate it.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Thank you for listening to Dori.
We appreciate it.
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to theFredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go tofxbgneighborspodcastcom.
That's fxbgneighborspodcastcom,or call 540-534-4618.