Ep. # 122 Moving Forward: The Art of Senior Relocation

When life forces a change in living situation, whether through choice or necessity, the emotional and physical toll of downsizing can be overwhelming. Cindy Greer, founder of Transition with Care, joins the Good Neighbor Podcast to reveal how her Charlotte-based company has been helping seniors navigate these challenging transitions since 2009.

From creating custom floor plans to determine what treasured possessions can make the move, to acting as "little elves" who unpack and perfectly set up the new home, Transition with Care offers a complete relocation solution. Cindy shares the story of her journey from interior designer to pioneering senior move manager—a path that began with personally helping her mother through multiple downsizing moves after her father passed away.

What sets Transition with Care apart is their deeply compassionate, person-centered approach. As Cindy explains, "We never judge our clients... we just meet them where they're at and we just really want to help them get to where it is that they want to go." This philosophy becomes particularly vital when working with recent widows and widowers or those with dementia diagnoses, where emotional support is as important as logistical expertise.

Drawing from a particularly challenging case study involving a depressed client with an overwhelmingly cluttered home, Cindy demonstrates how proper senior move management transforms seemingly impossible situations into successful transitions. Her team's certifications, including Cindy's credentials as a Certified Dementia Practitioner, ensure clients receive knowledgeable, professional care during these vulnerable life moments.

Have you been considering downsizing or helping a loved one transition to a smaller living space? Visit transitionwithcare.net or call 704-945-7108 to discover how this team of compassionate professionals can make your next move your best move.

Transition with Care

Cindy Greer

704-945-7108

6135 Park South Dr., Suite 510, Charlotte, NC 28210

[e-mail]

transitionwithcare.net

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Regina Lee.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of
the Good Neighbor Podcast.
I'm here in the South Charlottearea and my favorite thing to
do is talk with local businessowners and learn about them and
let them share their story.
Very excited today to talk withCindy Greer.
She is the founder and owner ofTransition with Care, based

(00:30):
here in Charlotte.
Welcome, cindy.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Well, thank you, regina, I'm excited to be
talking with you today.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, anything in that senior care world is very
near and dear to my heart, Idiscovered with my father in
memory care.
You don't even know that thesebusinesses exist until you are,
you know, faced with having todo things.
So you know, this is a cool,cool business.
Let's first talk about what youdo and what took you, what was

(01:01):
your journey and your why forstarting this great company.
What took you, what was yourjourney and your why for
starting this great company?

Speaker 3 (01:05):
Sure, sure.
Well, the name of the companyis Transition with Care and

(01:31):
planning a move to a smallerhome.
So we are focused on helpingour clients decide what to take,
what not to take, and we dothat by doing a custom floor
plan.
And then we are not movers, butover the course of our years in
business, we have establishedrelationships with moving

(01:53):
companies that we know willhandle our clients' belongings
with the care that we do, and sowe oversee that process.
We provide the packing of thehousehold goods and then on
moving day, if it's a local move, we are there to meet the mo

(02:16):
home.
And then we're like littleelves.
We unpack and put everythingaway according to our clients'
wishes.
We'll make their beds, hangtheir pictures, get their TVs

(02:39):
hung, resettled.
Then they will want us to helpwith the home clean out or the
dispersal of the belongings thatdidn't move with them, and so
we make all those plans as well.
So, and and you know, while wedo everything, you know, from

(03:02):
soup to nuts, so to speak we canbe as much help or as little
help for our clients too.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Well, I'm guessing.
Then, if your client, let's say, is elderly or even has
dementia, you're working thenwith their kids oftentimes.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Absolutely so, we are .
We're working with, you know,those proactive empty nesters
that are ready to downsize andmaybe get to a 55 and older
community.
And then we're also gettingquestions and inquiries from the
adult children whose familymember or mom or dad has a

(03:43):
diagnosis of dementia and nowthey're looking at you know
other options.
So we are definitely involvedin moves to assisted living.
I like to say that you know, alot of times that doesn't
involve a lot of stuff becausethose are smaller apartments,

(04:03):
but they're very complex movessometimes and they require a
very high level of care andunderstanding.
So, great question, we are.
We're working with the adultchildren too.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
So what made you get into this, to the point of even
starting this company?

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Wow, well, that's a great question too.
So, honestly, I was a seniormove manager before I even was a
senior move manager.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Okay, here comes the personal part.
I can tell.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, yeah, get ready .
So I started out my career asan interior designer and during
the course of my early career infact, I'll date myself I was
working at Boyle's Furniture onNations Ford Road, probably
about 15, 20 years ago Well, 25years ago actually.

(05:03):
One of my favorite places.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Do you remember that?
Oh gosh, yeah, Many of mythings came from there.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Yeah, yeah.
So anyway I digress.
But so I was working ininterior design and then my own
mother started having someproblems.
My father had passed away andso my mom, you know I helped her

(05:30):
downsize from the house on thelake up at Lake Norman and she
moved into a two bedroom condo.
And then she had a healthdecline and she moved up to a
community in Winston-Salem andthat was to be closer to her
mother, and so then that workedout for a their power of

(05:54):
attorney, so that all kind ofled up to me discovering the

(06:21):
world of senior move management,and I was kind of it was a very
, very newly organized nicheindustry and so I hung out my
shingle in 2009.
And it's been an amazingjourney ever since.

(06:43):
So does that make?

Speaker 2 (06:44):
you kind of a pioneer in this area, in this industry.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
I would say it probably does.
I would say it probably does.
I would say our company doeshave you know, the most
experience, being that westarted in 2009.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, so that sets you apart having that all of
that personal journey and thenthis many years doing this.
So do you have to have anyqualifications, certifications?
You know what do you do.
That qualifies you to be ableto do this or call yourself this
.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah, so we are.
My company is a member of theNational Association of
Specialty and Senior MoveManagers and we have an A-plus
accreditation with theassociation, which means that
you know our business andoperations have been reviewed,

(07:40):
they're sound, we provide theworkers' comp for our employees,
we have operations manual andthat type of thing.
I am also a certified seniormove manager, so with that
certification comes, you know,study, exam and ongoing CEUs,

(08:04):
and most recently I pursued thecertificate of certified
dementia practitioner so I haveadditional coursework and
understanding for individualsthat are, you know, living with
dementia.
So I strongly say to anybodywho you know may be interested

(08:26):
in, you know, working with asenior MOVE manager, to make
sure that you know working witha senior move manager, to make
sure that you know they do havea membership excuse me in this
association and, you know, maybehave a minimum of five years of
experience.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Good point, very good point, because you don't know
what you don't know when you'restarting this journey, and it's
such a big deal.
I'd love for you to describeone of the more complex or moves
or situations that you've had.
That either is funny or youknow.
It was great how it ended.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
And we just completed it, actually in January, and we
had started working with thiswoman in November.
Let's see, probably met withher in late October, but when I
met with her she lived in athree-bedroom townhouse and just

(09:33):
a lovely woman.
But when I walked into her homeit was completely full and it
was full with items on the floor, just, you know, everything on
the wall, lots of bookshelves,and then, you know, walked
upstairs, because we always do afree consultation.

(09:55):
So this was the first meetingwith her.
So I was a little overwhelmedwith what I was seeing.
But that's, you know, thatcomes with the territory.
This was not the first timethat I have been, you know, kind
of overwhelmed with what I'mseeing.
But anyway, the circumstanceswere she was probably in her

(10:17):
actually late 50s, maybe early60s.
She had just become agrandmother for the first time
and her goal was to move fromthe Fort Mill area back to
Pennsylvania where she had herfamily, a lot of family there.
So we, you know, provided herour estimate to help her.

(10:45):
She wanted to move like ASAP.
She was very anxious to getmoved and get closer to her
grandchild, but it took a lot ofrelocation work sessions to
help her, you know, getdownsized, go through her
clutter and to get her packed.

(11:08):
We really had to get things outof her house so we would have
room to pack.
And let me just say that youknow this woman.
Her circumstances were that shehad been divorced, she moved
down to Fort Mill to be closerto her daughter who was in

(11:31):
college, and she just becamepretty depressed with the move
and she also had some medicalissues that developed and so she
was just really struggling withkeeping up with the house and
she had a lot of interests.
So she, you know, had a lot ofyou know kind of crafting things

(11:54):
and that type of thing.
So you know, one thing that wenever do is judge our clients,
because you know, we just meetthem where they're at and we
just really want to help themget to where it is that they
want to go.
But anyway, all of that beingsaid and done, it took almost it

(12:16):
took two moving trucks to gether moved up to, and that was
even after the downsizing, andshe was actually a little bit of
an anomaly because she wasmoving into a little bit larger
square footage so she could keepsome of her things.
But she was really happy.
She was excited to get up toher grandchild for his first

(12:38):
birthday and you know we made ithappen and that's a real feel
good.
So how do you?

Speaker 2 (12:46):
determine pricing for the projects for the projects
Right.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
So, as you can imagine, because we're working
with individual people anddifferent quantities of stuff,
we always provide acomplimentary consultation and
that way we can meet with ourclient and or their families to
in the home and see, you know,what may need to be packed and

(13:16):
moved, what needs to bedownsized, and then we provide a
written estimate, line item byline item, of what we feel, what
we know it will cost.
And our estimates are based onthe number of team members that
you know would be involved, thequantity of supplies and then

(13:40):
the amount of time.
And we're very transparent withyou know our estimates and then
our service agreement becausewe want to make sure there are
no surprises, and then ourservice agreement because we
want to make sure there are nosurprises.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Sure, well, I'm guessing in that even situation
there's a lot of emotion.
That happens.
You know, her having to decideyeah, I'm going to have to let
go of this or that.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, and you know, regina, not only from the
letting go of this or that,which you know, some of us are
much more tied to our things.
You know, they tend to remindus of, you know, different times
in our life that can bepositive or negative.
But also a lot of our clientele, you know, are recent widows or

(14:30):
widowers, and so they're alsosometimes going through grief,
and so, again, we really arevery compassionate in how we
provide our services.
We're very patient.
This is not a one size fits all.

(14:50):
The process is all pretty muchthe same I mean what we have to
do but the way that we work withour clients.
It's very person centered, andI think that's what also sets us
apart too.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, that's such an important key, very important.
So how do most people find youguys?
Yeah, you know, does yourindustry exist?

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Well, that's a great question too.
So we get a lot of ourreferrals from the retirement
communities in our area, theassisted living communities as
well as the memory care.
We also receive referrals fromcare managers, elder law
attorneys, realtors.

(15:40):
You know we try to reallynetwork with a lot of different
industries that you know are,you know, working with people.
Anything that has to do with anolder adult and a home, you
know we could potentially get areferral from, and we all have

(16:02):
families and so, having been inbusiness as long as we have, we
have repeat clients too.
In fact, we just had a callfrom a gentleman who we had
moved his mother, you know,probably about 10, 15 years ago

(16:23):
one of our early clients, andnow he's looking to do some
downsizing and moving.
And because he really, you know,appreciated how we worked with
his mom, you know he'd like towork with us as well.
And you know we're also able tohelp our clients move in and
out of the area, as Iillustrated with, you know, the

(16:45):
woman moving to the state.
Yeah, we can connect clientscoming in or out of the area
with other senior move managersacross the country and in fact,
that's one of that's a greatreferral source for us is other
senior move managers, becauseCharlotte's a hotspot, you know.

(17:08):
So, yeah, so we get referralsfrom all over the place.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Well, with all of us baby boomers in this huge
movement.
I think you're going to be veryfulfilled for many years to
come.
I can tell you're passionateabout what you do and you do a
fantastic job, so tell ourlisteners how to find you guys
oh, thank you, regina.

Speaker 3 (17:32):
Thank you so much.
Um, yeah, we do love what weare doing.
Um, so people can find us bygoing to our website, which is
www.
transitionwithcare.
net.
There's a lot of greatinformation there.
You can contact us through thewebsite.
You're also able to give us acall at 704-945-7108.

(17:58):
And we would be happy to talkto you and, you know, provide
any kind of service and or otherresources too.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, just learn about what you guys do
Transition with Care based herein Charlotte.
Thank you, Cindy.
It's been a pleasure getting toknow you and the journey and
what you guys offer here in theCharlotte Metro area.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
Well.
Thanks, regina, it's been apleasure to be with you, and
thanks so much for bringinggreat resources to the community
.
It's really important.
I appreciate that, thank you.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go toGNPSouthCharlotte.
com.
GNPSouthCharlotte.
com GNPSouthCharlottecom, orcall 980-351-5719.