May 18, 2025 • 45 mins
Listen in as host Steve Kuker, President of Senior Care Consulting, visits with Ben Souchek, owner of Home Downsizing Solutions. Ben discusses the importance of finding real estate professionals that can provide multiple options/solutions for someone needing to sell their house when downsizing or moving to a senior care community and the challenges of finding contractors that will show up and complete home improvement projects on time. Steve discusses a personal story of a health scare and how recovery is going. #SeniorCare #SeniorCareLive #SeniorCareConsulting #SeniorLiving #KansasCitySeniorCare #SeniorCarePlacement #SeniorCareAdvisor #Franchise #SeniorCareFranchise(800) 331-6445
www.SeniorCareLive.com
www.facebook.com/SeniorCareLive
www.linkedin.com/in/stevekuker
www.twitter.com/SeniorCareLive
www.SeniorCareConsulting.com
www.SeniorCareLive.com
www.facebook.com/SeniorCareLive
www.linkedin.com/in/stevekuker
www.twitter.com/SeniorCareLive
www.SeniorCareConsulting.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you
a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live,
a program dedicated to you, providing information, education and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And now America senior care consultant.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Steve Keecker, Hello and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm
Steve Keeker. You're a senior care consultant and I really
appreciate you tuning in today. We have a wonderful program
on tap with my friend and special special guest in studio,
mister Ben Socheck. He's the owner of Home down Sizing
(00:41):
Solutions and Ben welcome back to Senior Care Life.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Thank you, Steve. Great to be back again and as always,
hopefully can provide some great information for the listeners today.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I know you will, and if you are listening, be
sure to take this phone number down if you need
his services now or in the near future, or you've
been down the road, you're going to want to reach
out to Ben Sochek with Home Downsizing Solutions a toll
free number. It's good, you know, obviously nationwide eight five
five two nine one five zero zero five. That's eight
(01:11):
five five two nine one five zero zero five could
also visit online. He has a phenomenal website at home
downsizing dot com, just like it sounds, home downsizing dot com.
And then we were visiting off Mike here just a
little while just before the program today, and we were
talking about the issue of trying to find a real
(01:35):
estate professional that can provide multiple options and solutions, because
it seems like, maybe not all of them, but it
seems like the majority of them are just wanting to
list the house retail and that may or may not
be the best solution for someone depending on their situation.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
That's correct, Steve. Actually, I just got a educational enhancement
I guess or refresher course last week on this subject,
and so that's why I wanted to talk about it today.
I went to I'm of course, I am a licensed
real estate agent in Nebraska and Missouri and Nebraska. We
(02:12):
had are twice annual real estate real estate agent convention,
and so I went as many people do, for continuing education,
and during one of the classes, one of the agents
made a statement about they were representing a buyer that
(02:35):
had bought numerous houses in the past through this agent,
and the buyer wanted this agent to present an offer
to a seller of a certain amount, and the agent
basically said, no, I'm not going to present that to
the seller because I think that's too low of an
offer that might be insulting to them. Sure, and I
(02:56):
had other agents say, you know, you present any offer
to a seller that your buyer wants you to, but
in the past.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Because they're frankly, they're just trying to make a sale
and move on. Correct.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Well, correct, But there certainly are those agents that feel
that they're going to insult someone and so they don't
want to present that offer, which isn't doing their client
a whole lot of good. And so in twenty eight
years of doing this, I've heard that argument numerous times. Okay,
(03:26):
and I wanted to say something, but by the time
I raised my hand, the moderator had moved on and
done other things, so I didn't get a chance to
bring my point up. But I really got to thinking
about that. It's something that I've mentioned and talked about
and my YouTube channel. I've mentioned this before. I don't
think that it's doing the seller a very good service
(03:51):
if that buyer's agent does not bring them every offer
that they can one thing that benefits what I do,
I think is is most every house that I've bought
in twenty eight years, I've dealt directly with a seller
and the seller has called me because of the marketing.
They've seen or heard an ad that I've put out there,
(04:12):
and so they call me direct And the great thing
about that is I can actually sit down with a
seller and get to know them and learn why they
want to sell the house, and learn what benefits that
I can offer are value or not to them. Whereas
in this circumstance when an agent is representing a buyer,
(04:34):
they don't They're insulated from the seller and what may
be the motivational factors for them to sell in the house.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay, that makes sense, So they.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Can't solve the problem, Whereas when I sit down with
the seller, I can figure out what is the problem,
how best can I help you? And as we've talked
about many times, if me mind the house directly from
them isn't the best solution, then I can offer them
others soloes. So hopefully that wasn't too much of a
run on no statement there.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I think it makes perfect sense.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
But that's really I got to thinking that's a very
important aspect. I think that I serve my clients and
customers better because most agents they can't get to know
how to best serve that seller, whereas I can sit
down with the seller and do that.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Now, why can't they can They Are they prohibited from
talking to the seller or do they have to go
through their real estate representative or how does that work?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
If they're a buyer or a buyer's agent, then the
buyer's agent of course can ask the seller's agent if
there are any motivating factors or why the seller is selling,
to see if they will divulge anything. But really, when
a seller contracts a seller's real estate agent, they're their
(05:55):
agent to represent them. It's usually because that's seller doesn't
want anybody to know why they're selling, okay, And so
that can be a good or bad thing, because certainly,
depending on the motivational factors, some buyers might throw a
lower offer out there. But at the same time that's
(06:16):
maybe what isn't The best interest for the seller is
getting something done quickly, selling the house as is without
any repairs or anything else. And so there are certainly
some sometimes when I don't think the when multiple agents
are involved that that's doing that seller particularly the best service.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well, and you said a couple of things. So you said,
number one, the buyer's agent does not know the motivation
of the seller typically and they're going through the seller's agent,
and there's there could be a little bit of a disconnect.
I mean, the more people you have in the communication chain,
the more opportunities from misunderstanding or just maybe lack of information.
(07:04):
So I love the fact that you can sit down
directly with the person who needs to sell their house,
understand their motivations, understand the entire situation, and then present
multiple different options, even if it's it could be retail,
but it could be, you know, to sell the house
(07:25):
as is. You may leave a lot of stuff behind
that you can take care of, you may take everything
with you. But the point is they're dealing directly with you.
We've cut out all of these agents and you are
able to buy their house directly. I know because you've
worked with some of my clients that the money appears
(07:46):
in their bank account in fairly short order and it's
just such a smooth, seamless transaction.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Correct Again, it's providing the service that the seller finds
value in those benefits and again, for twenty eight years.
I've been doing this, so for twenty eight years. It's
amazed me that there are still real estate agents that
think that the only thing that's important to a seller
(08:18):
is the highest price for their house. They're the highest
sale price for the house yep, within the next six
months or whatever it is when they list in sell
a house, and they just don't seem some agents just
don't seem to understand that there are other benefits or
(08:39):
features that someone like myself offers that are of value
or sometimes a great deal of value to sellers.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, here's a huge value for me. Is and I
swore to againness, I'll never do this again. We'll see
how that works out, but I'm going to try it.
I don't want to get a phone call ten minutes
before someone is in my house and I have to
kind of pick up a little bit. I have to
leave my house for an hour and then come back,
and I have strangers walking all around my house. And
(09:09):
I hated that. And we had little kids, and now
they're not so little anymore, so it would just be
mainly my wife and I. But I don't I don't
ever want to do that again. And so that is
so there's there's a benefit and you and if they
if you sell your house with with working with Ben
so checking Home Downsizing Solutions, that will take care of that.
(09:30):
You're not going to have strangers showing up in your
house and a five minute phone call and you got
to get out for an hour.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Correct and even more. I don't know if extreme is
a is a good word, but uh, you know, that's
kind of an inconvenience for a typical seller. But we've
certainly worked with people in the past where they there
was a member of the family that couldn't leave the
house oh okay, yep, for medical different medical issues, where
(09:58):
it was that wasn't an option. Yeah, And so they
knew that I could discreetly come in just myself, inspect
the house, see what's there, and see enough that I
was able to make an offer and tell them what
else I could do for them. And I solved their problem.
I solved what needed to be solved so that they
could make the move from where they were to where
(10:20):
they needed to get to.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
If this is resonating with you, reach out to Ben
Socheck with Home Downsizing Solutions eight five five two nine
one five zero zero five or online at home downsizing
dot com. Now the Senior Care Live Question of the week.
All real estate agents offer multiple ways to sell your house.
Is that statement true or false? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit Seniorcare Live dot com.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
We'll have more with Steve coming up next.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
A recent Internet search for nursing homes in Kansas City
provided thirty two million results. It's daunting to think that
there are over three hundred and fifty senior care communities
to choose from in the Kansas City metro and on average,
you'll spend fifty to one hundred hours trying to find
a place for your loved one. If this sounds overwhelming,
that's because it is. I invite you to reach out
(11:24):
to Senior Care Consulting. We've been serving family since two
thousand and two. With our premium service, we do most
of the work for you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You'll spend just a.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Few hours of your time finding the best place available,
and you can trust us to be objective because we
don't receive reimbursement from any provider. We work for you
to learn more, call Senior Care Consulting at nine three
nine four five twenty eight hundred nine nine four five
twenty eight hundred, a placement service with integrity at Seniorcare
(11:57):
Consulting dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Welcome back you listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, go to Seniorcare
Live dot com. All right, back to our Senior Care
Live Question of the week. All real estate agents offer
multiple ways to sell your house? Is that statement true
or false? And the answer is false. The answer is false,
(12:34):
And Ben, why is that statement false?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Well, it seems Steve, even though I think it should
be true. I think agents should offer multiple solutions to
their clients when they want to sell a house, because
that's what I do, and not everybody wants the same solution.
Not everybody's needs is for the same solution, and so
(12:57):
that's why I offer. Even if my solution isn't the
best one, then I refer them to a good traditional
agent to take care of them that way. But my
main goal is taking care of the client and the
best way that we can. And so, again, expounding from
what we were talking about earlier, it does surprise me,
especially after this many years, and the way the real
(13:20):
estate market is and has been that agents won't explain
the other options that a seller has out there and
really trying to figure out what the best solution is
for them and offering that to them.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Okay, and that makes sense. That makes sense. So again
for our listeners, if this is resonating with you, reach
out to Ben so check. Here's the toll free number
eight five five two nine one five zero zero five.
That's eight five five two nine one five zero zero five.
Or you could go online excellent website, Home downsizing dot com,
(13:58):
Home downsizing dot com and Ben. What are some of
the challenges that our listeners may face when if they're
trying to find a contractor to to complete some projects
around the house.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Sure, and this is really another subject just like the
real estate agent and solutions that we talked about here.
Another thing that has hit me close to home, especially
after this many years, that it never seems to get easier,
is finding contractors that will show up and do what
(14:34):
they say they're going to do. Even for me, it's
it's been a challenge. A couple of projects, one last
fall that was started last winter that should have taken
maybe two two and a half months took six oh wow,
and and one currently now that started in middle of January.
(14:59):
That should have take in thirty to forty five days
at the most. Basically just a cosmetic updating of a house. Yeah,
I think we're finished today.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Oh boy. Yeah, So it's that's about three months worth
of thirty to forty five days.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Correct, And especially when apparently the first contractor just left
the job.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And so so my agent that I work with that
has been in real estate a long time, has a
lot of contacts, supposedly was going to get another person
in middle middle of March or end of March, and
all I kept hearing was it'll be done next week.
It'll be done next week. Oh boy, next week comes,
it'll be done next week, It'll be done. Okay, it'll
(15:41):
be done. It really will be done next week. And
it's very frustrating to say the work to say the least. Yeah, yeah,
when that happens, that something that you think you can
count on a person to tell you, then okay, just
perform what you're what you're selling and what you're telling you.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Just do what you say you're going to do.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Correct. And so from a consumer standpoint, I guess for
a person that maybe has owned the house for twenty
thirty or forty years, it really can be a challenge
to find contractors. If you want to sell a house
and maximize the value, that's always an option. But then
it's finding the contractors, getting bids and hopefully they're going
(16:24):
to show up and complete the job the way that
they say they're going to be done. If a seller
has family members or people that they know firsthand that
can do these projects, that's a great option too. I'm
not going to dissuade anybody from that. Sure, if they
can make improvements to the house and build value in
the house to sell it at a very economical price.
(16:47):
So if you're going to spend two dollars and get
five back, that's a pretty easy answer if that can
be done well on the seller's timeframe. But if you're
going to go through the whole process of finding someone,
getting bids and monitoring them being the.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
General contractor essentially at that point.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Correct, yeah, and even find that a general that will
manage those things. You know, all these things is it's
defined good people, like in anything, Sure, define good people,
though seems to be a challenge, and that's never changed.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
All right, So you you said a lot, so here
I could. One of the one of the challenges I
see with this is if someone says, well, you know,
we may get X dollars out of the house, but
we're going to have to put about fifty or sixty
thousand in. We're going to need a new roof, We're
gonna need some concrete work, we're gonna need paint, you know,
maybe some some flooring or hard countertops, whatever it is,
(17:41):
and so you have this long laundry list. One of
the challenges is especially and I know you work with
a lot of seniors who are preparing to at least downsize,
maybe move to a senior apartment or maybe even move
to a care community. A lot of times that is
a little bit more of a time sensitive situation. If
the spots open, are you going to take you to
wait to the next time? And who knows when the
(18:01):
next department might be available, and so it's a time
sensitive situation. Do you have time to wait on all
of these contractors to get all of this work done?
Is it really worth it? And sometimes the answer is no,
it's not worth it. We don't have that much time.
It makes more sense to sell the house as is
net for what the net value is and not mess
(18:23):
with all of that. There's that there's a huge convenience
and that's an excellent service for not everyone, but for
a lot of folks.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
That that is correct, and you hit on one thing, the
timing issue. I've talked to worked with a few different
individuals where they had been kind of on the fence
for months, and one time I can remember a couple
of years that this person was considering selling from the
time that they first contacted us, and then I got
kind of a frantic phone call that says, this community
(18:54):
has a ground four unit that can take pets, take
my dog, and I'm not going to go anywhere without
my dog, right and so I need to sell. We
need to do some of them in the next two
weeks or by that apartment's going to be gone.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Oh boy, and a ground floor well take pets, And
the openings on that particular apartment are few and far between.
So yeah, he or she would have to jump on
that one pretty fast.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
That's correct. So timing and being able to work with
a person's time constraints is another benefit that we offer
that can be of some or a lot or no
value depending on the person.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Well, and the other thing that I've always appreciated about
your firm Home Downsizing Solutions is the opposite of that
I need to sell my house, have the cash in hand,
and then wait for that opening to occur. And you'll
allow a person to stay in that house even after opening,
for a period of time, waiting for that apartment or
that space to become available.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
That's correct. That's the other side of the catch twenty
two is a person not wanting to leave the house
until they have something open, but they don't want to
worry about if the house is sold at the last
matter either. So yes, that's another benefit of value.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
All right. Again, If this is resonating with you, reach
out to Ben Socheck with Home down Sizing Solutions eight
five five two nine one five zero zero five or
online at home doownsizing dot com. Be sure to ask
Ben about a free workbook and how that you can
get your own, your very own copy of this free workbook.
(20:24):
It is super super handy and it's just an excellent tool.
And Ben your veteran, this is a veteran owned company.
Thank you for your service. You can't go wrong. Reach
out to Ben so check with Home down Sizing Solutions
and Ben thanks so much for being here today. I
really appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Steve. All right, we'll have more coming up next.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit seniorcare Live dot com.
Stick around.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
We'll have more with Steve coming up next.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Hello, this is Steve Keeker, President of Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so excited to announce that we are expanding nationwide
by awarding Senior care Consulting franchises. We help our clients
find the right senior care community, including assistant living, memory care,
long term care, and continuing care retirement communities. We are
(21:22):
not another run of the mill, free referral service. We're
very different. We offer replacement service with integrity. Owning a
senior care consulting franchise offers many benefits. Our market is
not affected by the economy. Operate from your home office
and enjoy work life balance. Pour your passion into a
business you can be proud of. For more information about
(21:45):
owning a senior care consulting franchise, call eight three three
seven two two three seven two six eight three three
seven two two three seven two six or visit Seniorcareconsulting
dot com. Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live
(22:09):
on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcasts of the program,
visit Seniorcare Live dot com or wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, so, I'm really excited to announce that Senior
Care Live, the Senior Care Live the Senior Care Broadcasting Network.
We have added a new partner, News Radio nine twenty
(22:36):
three is with three different stations, so it's WNRP sixteen
twenty AM, ninety two point three FM, and ninety five
point three FM in Pensacola, Florida. And so, and I
also wanted to say thank you to program manager Bobby
(22:58):
Rossi for adding Senior Care Live to your lineup every
Saturday morning effective today May seventeenth. So again we're in Pensacola, Florida,
and welcome to the program. I always like to say,
if you're new to the program, give us, you know,
three or four or five listens. You will be hooked.
(23:18):
I think you might be even hooked after the first time.
But again, if you're new to the show, the mission
of this program is to provide information, education, and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And as it happens to
work out, a large number of people working in the
(23:38):
business of senior care also listen to this program. I
get calls, emails, texts from folks all the time saying, hey,
I heard your show. It's fantastic, keep up the great job.
And so that would be the three large groups or
distinctive groups listening to this program. So again, Pensacola, Florida,
(24:00):
thank you, Welcome to the family, and again I appreciate
the opportunity. I think it's a privilege. It's my honor
to be there, and I hope you do enjoy the show. Okay,
so this is bear my soul time. I had a
major health scare very recently. So I'll give you the
(24:23):
Reader's Digest version, the cliffs Notes version, or as Darren
our producer, extraordinary he said, Steve, get that updated, the
TikTok version. So all right, so I'm going to give
you the short version of what happened. So it was
a Monday evening, about six pm. I'm sitting in my
home office at my desk, just wrapping up the day
(24:45):
and all of a sudden, I felt dizzy and not
spinning spinning room dizzy. I felt lightheaded, like I was
going to faint or pass out. And I'm like, what
in the world is that? And I knew it wasn't right.
It was persistent and it was not going away. So
my wife is on our way home. She's a registered nurse,
(25:05):
works really long hours. She's awesome, but she was on
her way home and I said, honey, when you get home,
can you take me to the emergency room. You know,
I told her what was going on. I said, just
it's not right. So she took me up there. They
did all the quick testing and they said, you didn't
have a heart attack. We don't think you're having a
heart attack. We don't believe you had a stroke. We
(25:26):
don't think you're having a stroke. That's great news, they said,
but we don't know what's going on. We're going to
have to do a lot more testing. So the physician
on staff at that time said, why don't we admit
you so that we can run a ton of tests
for you, you know, very quickly. Obviously something's causing this.
It wasn't not going away. So I stayed overnight. They
(25:49):
did cat scans, echo cardiograms, all kinds of stuff. I mean,
tons and tons of testing. Tuesday morning, my wife and
I are sitting there in the hospital room and I'm
kind of suspecting that you maybe I'm a new diabetic
or something, you know, irritating like that, and so but
I'm not sure, you know. And so this hospitalist walks
(26:12):
in and he sits down next to me. He goes, well, well, Steve,
it looks like we found a mass on your brain.
And he just kept on talking, just like it was
kind of a normal thing. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa whoa what? Whoa? Stop? What did you just say
to me? Well, we found a mass on your brain,
(26:33):
and I just couldn't believe it. So he said, we
need to do some more testing. We need an extensive
MRI blah blah blah blah blah. We're going to do
that this afternoon for you because we need to know
what we're dealing with. So I don't know if if you,
any of you have ever had some bomb just dropped
(26:53):
on you like that. And he I'm like, buddy, you
couldn't have eased me into that just a little bit.
I mean, come on, oh well, Steve, hey, we found
a mass on your brain. And he's just talking like
it's some normal, like you're working on a car. And
I'm like, dude, this is me. I can't believe you
just said that to me. So you immediately go to
(27:14):
all the dark places. I knew for sure I was
a walking dead man. Just tell me how much how
long I have I knew? I knew I was so
upset about so many things. And this is the TikTok
short version of all this stuff. But so they took
me in. They got me an MRI Tuesday afternoon, and
(27:39):
this is a long MRI. This thing was over fifty
minutes long, with and without contrast. And they, I mean
they worked over my brain and they looked into every
single corner in nook and cranny and everything else. So
that was Tuesday afternoon. We didn't get any information, and
(28:03):
then something incredible happened Wednesday morning. If you know me,
you know that I'm I believe in God, and I
am very faithful in my beliefs and my faith. And
I know that doesn't mean a lot to some people,
but it means everything to me. And So I woke
(28:26):
up Wednesday morning knowing that I was going to die.
That's what I thought. I woke up perfectly calm, I
mean completely calm and under control. And then I had
the strangest thought enter my mind, and that was, I'm
(28:49):
not afraid of brain surgery. I'm just not afraid of it.
And of course neither one of those things make any
sense whatsoever, and makes no sense whatsoever. But through all
the prayer, I know that God was just keeping me
calm and under control, fully under control. So I was
(29:10):
I completely I completely melted down and lost it the
day before, as far down as you could possibly melt.
But that morning I woke up calm, peaceful, under control.
Then the same hospitalist comes in about the same time
Wednesday morning, Steve, well, we looked at the MRI and
(29:33):
we have some better news. It is not a malignant tumor.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It is not
a malignant tumor. He said, look, if you have one
of those, they grow fast, they grow these little tentacles.
And he said, there's not hardly there's not a lot
we can do about that. He said, you have a
cyst a benign a rachnoid cyst and Steve, we can
(29:59):
deal with that. And at that second I thought, thank
you Jesus, I have a chance. And then he said, look,
this whole thing is so bizarre. And then he said, Steve,
we're going to schedule you an appointment with your brain surgeon.
I'm like, oh, my gosh. What. So I talked to
(30:21):
the brain surgeon and he assures me this is a
relatively simple procedure. He shows me pictures of this thing. Look,
so my sist I named him Frank, and I'm like,
Frank's gotta go. And Frank is about an inch long,
and he's in the shape of a kind of a
peanut or kind of a bean. He's got little indentations
in the middle of him. And part of the problem
(30:44):
with Frank, well, so it's full of cerebral fluid. It's
supposed to be there, but it's not able to escape.
So it's like this balloon blowing up and its crowding
things out. It moved my pituitary gland off to the
side in the back, not where it's supposed to be.
It's self functioning fine, but Frank needs to go on
a diet or Frank needs to. He said, well, I
can't remove it, so I'm just going to burst it.
(31:05):
I'm going to I'm going to cut some holes in
it and just release the fluid that's the problem. And
then fluid can kind of come and go through the
holes that I make and there we go. So I
had brain surgery, which is not who says that. I mean,
it's not anything that I thought I would ever say
in my entire lifetime. I did get a new lease.
(31:28):
I did get a chance. I have successfully made my
way through brain surgery. And I'll tell you what. I
had it on a Tuesday morning, and it was a
four hour long surgery with two surgeons to go through
my nose and my sinus into the brain, deal with Frank,
back out, patch up that, you know, the whole thing.
And by Friday morning, I woke up at home and
(31:51):
I felt normal seventy two hours after a four hour
long brain surgery. Praise God. That's all I have to
say about it. Thank you so much, and thank you
for everyone. My family, my closest friends all knew about it.
Dar knew everyone. A lot of folks knew about it.
(32:11):
And now I just wanted to share with you that
I had a scare, I made it through it. I
was spared. My work in this world is not finished yet,
is not finished yet, And I'll tell you what's happened.
You get a new perspective when you feel like you
stared death in the face and you came out victorious.
(32:33):
Everything has changed.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest on his show,
this is Seniorcare Live dot Com.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
We'll have more coming up. So you've been living independently
at home, but now it's not working out. It's time
to begin searching for a senior care community. But with
hundreds of independent living, assisted living, long term care, and
(33:09):
memory care options, how are you supposed to determine the
best place for you. Hello, I'm Steve Keeker, and this
is exactly why I created my firm, Senior Care Consulting.
I help my own grandparents through this difficult process, so
I know how overwhelming this can be. Our business model
ensures credibility and objectivity. We work directly for you and
(33:32):
we never receive reimbursement from any provider. We've helped hundreds
of families since two thousand and two, and we can
help you and your family as well. Call today for
a free consultation at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred. Nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred a placement service with integrity at Seniorcareconsulting dot com.
(34:04):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit Seniorcare Live
dot com. All right, So, just to put just to
put a cap on that kind of shocking story with
a good ending. I had so many people praying for
(34:25):
me in my my church and my family, and and uh,
I'll tell you what's really comforting is you get to
see how many people just really care about you, really
love you. It's it's humbling, It's I never want to
go through that crap again, though, let me just say that,
all right. So, but but I do, I do, I do.
(34:49):
I have a new perspective, and uh, and I was
sharing with with Darren here that there's some things that
have just kind of made me kind of teary. One
of them was seeing the pope introduced for the first time,
and it was a big surprise. And I'm not even Catholic,
but I was just moved by the magnitude and the
drama of it all. I was moved to tears. And
(35:12):
several things here recently have been just moving me to tears.
And I texted my friend down in Atlanta, Georgia, and
I told him something that moved me to tears. And
I'm like, what the hell's wrong with me? You know?
And he texted right back and he said, maybe you
appreciate See how did he say that? Maybe you appreciate
(35:35):
everything more because of Frank And you're just seeing everything differently.
And I'm like, you know what, And that's what I
mean by everything has changed my perspective. Everything has changed,
my sense of urgency, Everything is sharpened, I mean, the
whole thing, even my eyesight. And Darren, you had asked
(35:57):
me about, you know, my eyesight. One thing I didn't
share was that I'm over here, I'm looking over here.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
No, But Frank had grown up so high that he
was stretching my optic nerve way out of bounds. And
that thing had to be just as thin as as anything.
And so by collapsing that that cyst, it took all
this stretching, you know, pressure off of my optic nerve.
(36:26):
I swear I can see just a little bit better now,
just a just a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
How many fingers am I holding up?
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Fifty? No? No, no, three? I was just saying, Frank
made you frank? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, It's just it's crazy.
But yeah, I appreciate everything more. I don't take anything.
You know what, We're all supposed to take every day
as a blessing. And guess what we just we don't.
(36:53):
We don't do that. We take every single day for granted.
Oh I'll get to it in the next day or two,
or oh no, maybe next month. Well, well, guess what.
We know this too. We're not promised tomorrow. We're not
promised next month. There's no guarantee we're gonna make it
next year. And we waste how much time we waste,
(37:15):
how many days We're not supposed to take anyone for
granted because they may not be here tomorrow either. We
take everything. I'm feeling preachy, Darren, But we take everything
and everyone for granted, and we take every day. We
(37:36):
don't treat it as a gift. We just treat it
as oh ho hum, well guess what I did that?
But I'm not doing that anymore. And you know, when
you feel like telling someone that you care about it,
or you feel like telling someone you know I love you,
but you hold back for some reason, why do we
(37:56):
do that? Why don't we just tell them? I stop
holding back. People probably think I've lost my mind, but
I'm just telling you I came out of this a
different person, in in a in a real positive way.
I don't take anything for granted. I don't take any
one for granted, and I don't take time for granted.
(38:17):
I don't take the day for granted. I do believe
every day is a blessing and now I'm acting like it.
So anyway, now I'm done with my preaching, So I uh,
I don't have a lot of time to talk about this,
but you know, last week I I did a consumer
alert about you know, some of these uh some of
(38:37):
these free referral services as you can uh if you
if you want to hear about a lot of uh
like phenomenal, stunning, jaw dropping information about these free referral
services promising to help you find a place for your
mother or father, your elderly loved one. Just check out
last week's podcast of Senior Care, go to Senior Care
(38:58):
live dot com, go to podcasts, or any of the
major platforms, and it was the one from last week,
May the tenth, and there's some stunning information there. Better
Business Bureau complaints publicly available. I read them on some
of them online or just on not online, but I
got them off. I got them from the online complaint
part of the Better Business Bureau, but I read them
(39:21):
on air. And then I talked about like a new
flavor of these free referral services. And then I had
some calls, had some some emails and everything, asking again
about you know, how to determine if the service you're
considering using is like what I described in my overview
of the free and I always say free in quotes
(39:42):
free referral services from last week. Look for one word,
and it's a powerful word. Look for the word free.
And if it's free to you, there's your clue. And
when I when I wrote that, kind of preparing for
the program today, I thought of Jeff Foxworthy. You know,
here's your there's your sign, here's your sign. That's bill Ing.
(40:06):
Oh oh it's bill ingvall. Okay, Jeff Foxworthy's you might
be a redneck. Oh okay, you might be a redneck
yef Okay, well I'm going to have to work that
one in somehow bill ingvall Okay, all right, all right,
so uh but yeah, here, here's here's your sign. Well,
this one's you know, here's if it's free to you,
I'm gonna, Darren, I'm gonna have to like trademark this
one or do something. If it's free to you, there's
(40:28):
your clue. And that's it. Because these folks are not
working for free, trust me and I and I talked
about that last week too. So how to ask him?
Ask him the questions. These are good fair questions. How
are you able to offer me your services in your
time for free? How are you able to do that?
(40:49):
And you know, if they dance around these questions again,
there's your clue. There's your clue. Ask him this question. Okay,
and I'm just doing a super quick review here because
I had some good positive feedback on this. Ask them
this question. If I choose the place that you're recommending,
how much money will they pay you? That's a really
(41:11):
good question. If they're dancing around the question, there's your clue.
If the business model was just aoka. Why aren't they
transparent about their revenue model and how they make money?
And then I had a spoiler alert last week I
was mistakenly offered seven and fifty dollars from one of
these places willing to pay these free referral services that
(41:33):
happened to be one hundred percent of the first month's costs.
By the way, Okay, it's a built in conflict of interest.
They have a vested interest in you choosing one of
their contracted business partners. So here's a question for the
regulators out there. If a realtor has to disclose how
much money or commissions they earn on each real estate transaction,
then why don't these free referral services have to do
(41:57):
the same. I mean, they're finding a place for someone
to live and they get a huge commission from the
place they recommend. Why shouldn't they be regulated and require
to have full transparency, just like the real estate business?
Something to think about, all right, I'm Steve Keeker and
(42:20):
Frank went on a diet. I'm Steve Keeeker with a
diet dietary Frank here. Frank's much much smaller now, causing
me very few issues at this point. So I wish
you grays in peace today and always. May God bless
you and your family on this day and every day.
Join me next week right here on Senior Care Live.
Speaker 6 (42:47):
Does your business serve the elderly and their caregivers in
our area? There are hundreds of thousands of people either
receiving or providing senior care, and they need to know
about you. A unique and successful radio program called Senior
Care Live is the perfect opportunity to let your target
audience know about your amazing products and services. Senior Care
(43:07):
Live is currently adding a limited number of partner sponsors,
and if you're aligned with their mission, they want to
talk to you. They're interested in partnering with hospital organizations,
physician groups, home care providers, estate planning and older law practices,
financial advisors, insurance companies, real estate brokers, home health agencies,
and other providers serving the elderly and their caregivers. Senior
(43:32):
Care Live has a limited number of partner sponsor opportunities,
so call now at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred or visit seniorcare live dot com, seniorcare live
dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Quid Pro quo a Latin phrase that means an exchange
of goods or services where one transfer is contingent upon
the other. Here's an example. I'll recommend your senior care
community if you'll pay me a huge kickback from my referral.
The free referral services have a vested interest in you
choosing one of their business partners. That's how they make
(44:09):
their money. Does this paid recommendation sound objective or credible?
Of course not. I'm Steve Keeker with Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so proud to say we have never received a
single penny from any provider ever. We offer a placement
service with integrity for help finding the right senior care community,
without conflict of interest, and without the quid pro quo
(44:33):
called nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred
nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred a
placement service with integrity at Seniorcare Consulting dot com.
Speaker 5 (44:46):
Hi, this is Carrie Hole with an important message about
Medicare benefits. You may be eligible forore but don't know about.
They're called Medicare Special Needs programs. If you're a Medicare
recipient or a caregiver, here's what you need to know.
There are three programs you may qualify for. The first
is Medicare C SNIP for people with chronic conditions like asthma,
heart disease, diabetes, and more. The second is Medicare D SNIP.
(45:09):
If you are currently on a Medicaid plan, you may
qualify for this dual eligible plan while keeping your full
Medicaid benefits. The third plan is Medicare I SNIP. If
you're in an institution like a nursing home or at home,
but require an equivalent level of care, you may qualify
for this plan and RPS benefits. By design, they're certified
Medicare specialists that can walk you through these programs and
(45:31):
help you qualify. Joyce Thompson and Carol Lee Steele call
Today eight seven seven three eight five twenty two twenty four.
That's eight seven seven three eight five twenty two twenty four.
Once again eight seven seven three eight five twenty two
twenty four
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you
a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live,
a program dedicated to you, providing information, education and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And now America senior care consultant.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Steve Keecker, Hello and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm
Steve Keeker. You're a senior care consultant and I really
appreciate you tuning in today. We have a wonderful program
on tap with my friend and special special guest in studio,
mister Ben Socheck. He's the owner of Home down Sizing
(00:41):
Solutions and Ben welcome back to Senior Care Life.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Thank you, Steve. Great to be back again and as always,
hopefully can provide some great information for the listeners today.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I know you will, and if you are listening, be
sure to take this phone number down if you need
his services now or in the near future, or you've
been down the road, you're going to want to reach
out to Ben Sochek with Home Downsizing Solutions a toll
free number. It's good, you know, obviously nationwide eight five
five two nine one five zero zero five. That's eight
(01:11):
five five two nine one five zero zero five could
also visit online. He has a phenomenal website at home
downsizing dot com, just like it sounds, home downsizing dot com.
And then we were visiting off Mike here just a
little while just before the program today, and we were
talking about the issue of trying to find a real
(01:35):
estate professional that can provide multiple options and solutions, because
it seems like, maybe not all of them, but it
seems like the majority of them are just wanting to
list the house retail and that may or may not
be the best solution for someone depending on their situation.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
That's correct, Steve. Actually, I just got a educational enhancement
I guess or refresher course last week on this subject,
and so that's why I wanted to talk about it today.
I went to I'm of course, I am a licensed
real estate agent in Nebraska and Missouri and Nebraska. We
(02:12):
had are twice annual real estate real estate agent convention,
and so I went as many people do, for continuing education,
and during one of the classes, one of the agents
made a statement about they were representing a buyer that
(02:35):
had bought numerous houses in the past through this agent,
and the buyer wanted this agent to present an offer
to a seller of a certain amount, and the agent
basically said, no, I'm not going to present that to
the seller because I think that's too low of an
offer that might be insulting to them. Sure, and I
(02:56):
had other agents say, you know, you present any offer
to a seller that your buyer wants you to, but
in the past.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Because they're frankly, they're just trying to make a sale
and move on. Correct.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Well, correct, But there certainly are those agents that feel
that they're going to insult someone and so they don't
want to present that offer, which isn't doing their client
a whole lot of good. And so in twenty eight
years of doing this, I've heard that argument numerous times. Okay,
(03:26):
and I wanted to say something, but by the time
I raised my hand, the moderator had moved on and
done other things, so I didn't get a chance to
bring my point up. But I really got to thinking
about that. It's something that I've mentioned and talked about
and my YouTube channel. I've mentioned this before. I don't
think that it's doing the seller a very good service
(03:51):
if that buyer's agent does not bring them every offer
that they can one thing that benefits what I do,
I think is is most every house that I've bought
in twenty eight years, I've dealt directly with a seller
and the seller has called me because of the marketing.
They've seen or heard an ad that I've put out there,
(04:12):
and so they call me direct And the great thing
about that is I can actually sit down with a
seller and get to know them and learn why they
want to sell the house, and learn what benefits that
I can offer are value or not to them. Whereas
in this circumstance when an agent is representing a buyer,
(04:34):
they don't They're insulated from the seller and what may
be the motivational factors for them to sell in the house.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay, that makes sense, So they.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Can't solve the problem, Whereas when I sit down with
the seller, I can figure out what is the problem,
how best can I help you? And as we've talked
about many times, if me mind the house directly from
them isn't the best solution, then I can offer them
others soloes. So hopefully that wasn't too much of a
run on no statement there.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I think it makes perfect sense.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
But that's really I got to thinking that's a very
important aspect. I think that I serve my clients and
customers better because most agents they can't get to know
how to best serve that seller, whereas I can sit
down with the seller and do that.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Now, why can't they can They Are they prohibited from
talking to the seller or do they have to go
through their real estate representative or how does that work?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
If they're a buyer or a buyer's agent, then the
buyer's agent of course can ask the seller's agent if
there are any motivating factors or why the seller is selling,
to see if they will divulge anything. But really, when
a seller contracts a seller's real estate agent, they're their
(05:55):
agent to represent them. It's usually because that's seller doesn't
want anybody to know why they're selling, okay, And so
that can be a good or bad thing, because certainly,
depending on the motivational factors, some buyers might throw a
lower offer out there. But at the same time that's
(06:16):
maybe what isn't The best interest for the seller is
getting something done quickly, selling the house as is without
any repairs or anything else. And so there are certainly
some sometimes when I don't think the when multiple agents
are involved that that's doing that seller particularly the best service.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Well, and you said a couple of things. So you said,
number one, the buyer's agent does not know the motivation
of the seller typically and they're going through the seller's agent,
and there's there could be a little bit of a disconnect.
I mean, the more people you have in the communication chain,
the more opportunities from misunderstanding or just maybe lack of information.
(07:04):
So I love the fact that you can sit down
directly with the person who needs to sell their house,
understand their motivations, understand the entire situation, and then present
multiple different options, even if it's it could be retail,
but it could be, you know, to sell the house
(07:25):
as is. You may leave a lot of stuff behind
that you can take care of, you may take everything
with you. But the point is they're dealing directly with you.
We've cut out all of these agents and you are
able to buy their house directly. I know because you've
worked with some of my clients that the money appears
(07:46):
in their bank account in fairly short order and it's
just such a smooth, seamless transaction.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Correct Again, it's providing the service that the seller finds
value in those benefits and again, for twenty eight years.
I've been doing this, so for twenty eight years. It's
amazed me that there are still real estate agents that
think that the only thing that's important to a seller
(08:18):
is the highest price for their house. They're the highest
sale price for the house yep, within the next six
months or whatever it is when they list in sell
a house, and they just don't seem some agents just
don't seem to understand that there are other benefits or
(08:39):
features that someone like myself offers that are of value
or sometimes a great deal of value to sellers.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Well, here's a huge value for me. Is and I
swore to againness, I'll never do this again. We'll see
how that works out, but I'm going to try it.
I don't want to get a phone call ten minutes
before someone is in my house and I have to
kind of pick up a little bit. I have to
leave my house for an hour and then come back,
and I have strangers walking all around my house. And
(09:09):
I hated that. And we had little kids, and now
they're not so little anymore, so it would just be
mainly my wife and I. But I don't I don't
ever want to do that again. And so that is
so there's there's a benefit and you and if they
if you sell your house with with working with Ben
so checking Home Downsizing Solutions, that will take care of that.
(09:30):
You're not going to have strangers showing up in your
house and a five minute phone call and you got
to get out for an hour.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Correct and even more. I don't know if extreme is
a is a good word, but uh, you know, that's
kind of an inconvenience for a typical seller. But we've
certainly worked with people in the past where they there
was a member of the family that couldn't leave the
house oh okay, yep, for medical different medical issues, where
(09:58):
it was that wasn't an option. Yeah, And so they
knew that I could discreetly come in just myself, inspect
the house, see what's there, and see enough that I
was able to make an offer and tell them what
else I could do for them. And I solved their problem.
I solved what needed to be solved so that they
could make the move from where they were to where
(10:20):
they needed to get to.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
If this is resonating with you, reach out to Ben
Socheck with Home Downsizing Solutions eight five five two nine
one five zero zero five or online at home downsizing
dot com. Now the Senior Care Live Question of the week.
All real estate agents offer multiple ways to sell your house.
Is that statement true or false? What do you think?
Speaker 1 (10:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit Seniorcare Live dot com.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
We'll have more with Steve coming up next.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
A recent Internet search for nursing homes in Kansas City
provided thirty two million results. It's daunting to think that
there are over three hundred and fifty senior care communities
to choose from in the Kansas City metro and on average,
you'll spend fifty to one hundred hours trying to find
a place for your loved one. If this sounds overwhelming,
that's because it is. I invite you to reach out
(11:24):
to Senior Care Consulting. We've been serving family since two
thousand and two. With our premium service, we do most
of the work for you.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You'll spend just a.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Few hours of your time finding the best place available,
and you can trust us to be objective because we
don't receive reimbursement from any provider. We work for you
to learn more, call Senior Care Consulting at nine three
nine four five twenty eight hundred nine nine four five
twenty eight hundred, a placement service with integrity at Seniorcare
(11:57):
Consulting dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Welcome back you listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, go to Seniorcare
Live dot com. All right, back to our Senior Care
Live Question of the week. All real estate agents offer
multiple ways to sell your house? Is that statement true
or false? And the answer is false. The answer is false,
(12:34):
And Ben, why is that statement false?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Well, it seems Steve, even though I think it should
be true. I think agents should offer multiple solutions to
their clients when they want to sell a house, because
that's what I do, and not everybody wants the same solution.
Not everybody's needs is for the same solution, and so
(12:57):
that's why I offer. Even if my solution isn't the
best one, then I refer them to a good traditional
agent to take care of them that way. But my
main goal is taking care of the client and the
best way that we can. And so, again, expounding from
what we were talking about earlier, it does surprise me,
especially after this many years, and the way the real
(13:20):
estate market is and has been that agents won't explain
the other options that a seller has out there and
really trying to figure out what the best solution is
for them and offering that to them.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Okay, and that makes sense. That makes sense. So again
for our listeners, if this is resonating with you, reach
out to Ben so check. Here's the toll free number
eight five five two nine one five zero zero five.
That's eight five five two nine one five zero zero five.
Or you could go online excellent website, Home downsizing dot com,
(13:58):
Home downsizing dot com and Ben. What are some of
the challenges that our listeners may face when if they're
trying to find a contractor to to complete some projects
around the house.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Sure, and this is really another subject just like the
real estate agent and solutions that we talked about here.
Another thing that has hit me close to home, especially
after this many years, that it never seems to get easier,
is finding contractors that will show up and do what
(14:34):
they say they're going to do. Even for me, it's
it's been a challenge. A couple of projects, one last
fall that was started last winter that should have taken
maybe two two and a half months took six oh wow,
and and one currently now that started in middle of January.
(14:59):
That should have take in thirty to forty five days
at the most. Basically just a cosmetic updating of a house. Yeah,
I think we're finished today.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Oh boy. Yeah, So it's that's about three months worth
of thirty to forty five days.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Correct, And especially when apparently the first contractor just left
the job.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And so so my agent that I work with that
has been in real estate a long time, has a
lot of contacts, supposedly was going to get another person
in middle middle of March or end of March, and
all I kept hearing was it'll be done next week.
It'll be done next week. Oh boy, next week comes,
it'll be done next week, It'll be done. Okay, it'll
(15:41):
be done. It really will be done next week. And
it's very frustrating to say the work to say the least. Yeah, yeah,
when that happens, that something that you think you can
count on a person to tell you, then okay, just
perform what you're what you're selling and what you're telling you.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Just do what you say you're going to do.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Correct. And so from a consumer standpoint, I guess for
a person that maybe has owned the house for twenty
thirty or forty years, it really can be a challenge
to find contractors. If you want to sell a house
and maximize the value, that's always an option. But then
it's finding the contractors, getting bids and hopefully they're going
(16:24):
to show up and complete the job the way that
they say they're going to be done. If a seller
has family members or people that they know firsthand that
can do these projects, that's a great option too. I'm
not going to dissuade anybody from that. Sure, if they
can make improvements to the house and build value in
the house to sell it at a very economical price.
(16:47):
So if you're going to spend two dollars and get
five back, that's a pretty easy answer if that can
be done well on the seller's timeframe. But if you're
going to go through the whole process of finding someone,
getting bids and monitoring them being the.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
General contractor essentially at that point.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Correct, yeah, and even find that a general that will
manage those things. You know, all these things is it's
defined good people, like in anything, Sure, define good people,
though seems to be a challenge, and that's never changed.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
All right, So you you said a lot, so here
I could. One of the one of the challenges I
see with this is if someone says, well, you know,
we may get X dollars out of the house, but
we're going to have to put about fifty or sixty
thousand in. We're going to need a new roof, We're
gonna need some concrete work, we're gonna need paint, you know,
maybe some some flooring or hard countertops, whatever it is,
(17:41):
and so you have this long laundry list. One of
the challenges is especially and I know you work with
a lot of seniors who are preparing to at least downsize,
maybe move to a senior apartment or maybe even move
to a care community. A lot of times that is
a little bit more of a time sensitive situation. If
the spots open, are you going to take you to
wait to the next time? And who knows when the
(18:01):
next department might be available, and so it's a time
sensitive situation. Do you have time to wait on all
of these contractors to get all of this work done?
Is it really worth it? And sometimes the answer is no,
it's not worth it. We don't have that much time.
It makes more sense to sell the house as is
net for what the net value is and not mess
(18:23):
with all of that. There's that there's a huge convenience
and that's an excellent service for not everyone, but for
a lot of folks.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
That that is correct, and you hit on one thing, the
timing issue. I've talked to worked with a few different
individuals where they had been kind of on the fence
for months, and one time I can remember a couple
of years that this person was considering selling from the
time that they first contacted us, and then I got
kind of a frantic phone call that says, this community
(18:54):
has a ground four unit that can take pets, take
my dog, and I'm not going to go anywhere without
my dog, right and so I need to sell. We
need to do some of them in the next two
weeks or by that apartment's going to be gone.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Oh boy, and a ground floor well take pets, And
the openings on that particular apartment are few and far between.
So yeah, he or she would have to jump on
that one pretty fast.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
That's correct. So timing and being able to work with
a person's time constraints is another benefit that we offer
that can be of some or a lot or no
value depending on the person.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Well, and the other thing that I've always appreciated about
your firm Home Downsizing Solutions is the opposite of that
I need to sell my house, have the cash in hand,
and then wait for that opening to occur. And you'll
allow a person to stay in that house even after opening,
for a period of time, waiting for that apartment or
that space to become available.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
That's correct. That's the other side of the catch twenty
two is a person not wanting to leave the house
until they have something open, but they don't want to
worry about if the house is sold at the last
matter either. So yes, that's another benefit of value.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
All right. Again, If this is resonating with you, reach
out to Ben Socheck with Home down Sizing Solutions eight
five five two nine one five zero zero five or
online at home doownsizing dot com. Be sure to ask
Ben about a free workbook and how that you can
get your own, your very own copy of this free workbook.
(20:24):
It is super super handy and it's just an excellent tool.
And Ben your veteran, this is a veteran owned company.
Thank you for your service. You can't go wrong. Reach
out to Ben so check with Home down Sizing Solutions
and Ben thanks so much for being here today. I
really appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Steve. All right, we'll have more coming up next.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit seniorcare Live dot com.
Stick around.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
We'll have more with Steve coming up next.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Hello, this is Steve Keeker, President of Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so excited to announce that we are expanding nationwide
by awarding Senior care Consulting franchises. We help our clients
find the right senior care community, including assistant living, memory care,
long term care, and continuing care retirement communities. We are
(21:22):
not another run of the mill, free referral service. We're
very different. We offer replacement service with integrity. Owning a
senior care consulting franchise offers many benefits. Our market is
not affected by the economy. Operate from your home office
and enjoy work life balance. Pour your passion into a
business you can be proud of. For more information about
(21:45):
owning a senior care consulting franchise, call eight three three
seven two two three seven two six eight three three
seven two two three seven two six or visit Seniorcareconsulting
dot com. Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live
(22:09):
on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcasts of the program,
visit Seniorcare Live dot com or wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, so, I'm really excited to announce that Senior
Care Live, the Senior Care Live the Senior Care Broadcasting Network.
We have added a new partner, News Radio nine twenty
(22:36):
three is with three different stations, so it's WNRP sixteen
twenty AM, ninety two point three FM, and ninety five
point three FM in Pensacola, Florida. And so, and I
also wanted to say thank you to program manager Bobby
(22:58):
Rossi for adding Senior Care Live to your lineup every
Saturday morning effective today May seventeenth. So again we're in Pensacola, Florida,
and welcome to the program. I always like to say,
if you're new to the program, give us, you know,
three or four or five listens. You will be hooked.
(23:18):
I think you might be even hooked after the first time.
But again, if you're new to the show, the mission
of this program is to provide information, education, and resources
for seniors and their caregivers. And as it happens to
work out, a large number of people working in the
(23:38):
business of senior care also listen to this program. I
get calls, emails, texts from folks all the time saying, hey,
I heard your show. It's fantastic, keep up the great job.
And so that would be the three large groups or
distinctive groups listening to this program. So again, Pensacola, Florida,
(24:00):
thank you, Welcome to the family, and again I appreciate
the opportunity. I think it's a privilege. It's my honor
to be there, and I hope you do enjoy the show. Okay,
so this is bear my soul time. I had a
major health scare very recently. So I'll give you the
(24:23):
Reader's Digest version, the cliffs Notes version, or as Darren
our producer, extraordinary he said, Steve, get that updated, the
TikTok version. So all right, so I'm going to give
you the short version of what happened. So it was
a Monday evening, about six pm. I'm sitting in my
home office at my desk, just wrapping up the day
(24:45):
and all of a sudden, I felt dizzy and not
spinning spinning room dizzy. I felt lightheaded, like I was
going to faint or pass out. And I'm like, what
in the world is that? And I knew it wasn't right.
It was persistent and it was not going away. So
my wife is on our way home. She's a registered nurse,
(25:05):
works really long hours. She's awesome, but she was on
her way home and I said, honey, when you get home,
can you take me to the emergency room. You know,
I told her what was going on. I said, just
it's not right. So she took me up there. They
did all the quick testing and they said, you didn't
have a heart attack. We don't think you're having a
heart attack. We don't believe you had a stroke. We
(25:26):
don't think you're having a stroke. That's great news, they said,
but we don't know what's going on. We're going to
have to do a lot more testing. So the physician
on staff at that time said, why don't we admit
you so that we can run a ton of tests
for you, you know, very quickly. Obviously something's causing this.
It wasn't not going away. So I stayed overnight. They
(25:49):
did cat scans, echo cardiograms, all kinds of stuff. I mean,
tons and tons of testing. Tuesday morning, my wife and
I are sitting there in the hospital room and I'm
kind of suspecting that you maybe I'm a new diabetic
or something, you know, irritating like that, and so but
I'm not sure, you know. And so this hospitalist walks
(26:12):
in and he sits down next to me. He goes, well, well, Steve,
it looks like we found a mass on your brain.
And he just kept on talking, just like it was
kind of a normal thing. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa whoa what? Whoa? Stop? What did you just say
to me? Well, we found a mass on your brain,
(26:33):
and I just couldn't believe it. So he said, we
need to do some more testing. We need an extensive
MRI blah blah blah blah blah. We're going to do
that this afternoon for you because we need to know
what we're dealing with. So I don't know if if you,
any of you have ever had some bomb just dropped
(26:53):
on you like that. And he I'm like, buddy, you
couldn't have eased me into that just a little bit.
I mean, come on, oh well, Steve, hey, we found
a mass on your brain. And he's just talking like
it's some normal, like you're working on a car. And
I'm like, dude, this is me. I can't believe you
just said that to me. So you immediately go to
(27:14):
all the dark places. I knew for sure I was
a walking dead man. Just tell me how much how
long I have I knew? I knew I was so
upset about so many things. And this is the TikTok
short version of all this stuff. But so they took
me in. They got me an MRI Tuesday afternoon, and
(27:39):
this is a long MRI. This thing was over fifty
minutes long, with and without contrast. And they, I mean
they worked over my brain and they looked into every
single corner in nook and cranny and everything else. So
that was Tuesday afternoon. We didn't get any information, and
(28:03):
then something incredible happened Wednesday morning. If you know me,
you know that I'm I believe in God, and I
am very faithful in my beliefs and my faith. And
I know that doesn't mean a lot to some people,
but it means everything to me. And So I woke
(28:26):
up Wednesday morning knowing that I was going to die.
That's what I thought. I woke up perfectly calm, I
mean completely calm and under control. And then I had
the strangest thought enter my mind, and that was, I'm
(28:49):
not afraid of brain surgery. I'm just not afraid of it.
And of course neither one of those things make any
sense whatsoever, and makes no sense whatsoever. But through all
the prayer, I know that God was just keeping me
calm and under control, fully under control. So I was
(29:10):
I completely I completely melted down and lost it the
day before, as far down as you could possibly melt.
But that morning I woke up calm, peaceful, under control.
Then the same hospitalist comes in about the same time
Wednesday morning, Steve, well, we looked at the MRI and
(29:33):
we have some better news. It is not a malignant tumor.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It is not
a malignant tumor. He said, look, if you have one
of those, they grow fast, they grow these little tentacles.
And he said, there's not hardly there's not a lot
we can do about that. He said, you have a
cyst a benign a rachnoid cyst and Steve, we can
(29:59):
deal with that. And at that second I thought, thank
you Jesus, I have a chance. And then he said, look,
this whole thing is so bizarre. And then he said, Steve,
we're going to schedule you an appointment with your brain surgeon.
I'm like, oh, my gosh. What. So I talked to
(30:21):
the brain surgeon and he assures me this is a
relatively simple procedure. He shows me pictures of this thing. Look,
so my sist I named him Frank, and I'm like,
Frank's gotta go. And Frank is about an inch long,
and he's in the shape of a kind of a
peanut or kind of a bean. He's got little indentations
in the middle of him. And part of the problem
(30:44):
with Frank, well, so it's full of cerebral fluid. It's
supposed to be there, but it's not able to escape.
So it's like this balloon blowing up and its crowding
things out. It moved my pituitary gland off to the
side in the back, not where it's supposed to be.
It's self functioning fine, but Frank needs to go on
a diet or Frank needs to. He said, well, I
can't remove it, so I'm just going to burst it.
(31:05):
I'm going to I'm going to cut some holes in
it and just release the fluid that's the problem. And
then fluid can kind of come and go through the
holes that I make and there we go. So I
had brain surgery, which is not who says that. I mean,
it's not anything that I thought I would ever say
in my entire lifetime. I did get a new lease.
(31:28):
I did get a chance. I have successfully made my
way through brain surgery. And I'll tell you what. I
had it on a Tuesday morning, and it was a
four hour long surgery with two surgeons to go through
my nose and my sinus into the brain, deal with Frank,
back out, patch up that, you know, the whole thing.
And by Friday morning, I woke up at home and
(31:51):
I felt normal seventy two hours after a four hour
long brain surgery. Praise God. That's all I have to
say about it. Thank you so much, and thank you
for everyone. My family, my closest friends all knew about it.
Dar knew everyone. A lot of folks knew about it.
(32:11):
And now I just wanted to share with you that
I had a scare, I made it through it. I
was spared. My work in this world is not finished yet,
is not finished yet, And I'll tell you what's happened.
You get a new perspective when you feel like you
stared death in the face and you came out victorious.
(32:33):
Everything has changed.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest on his show,
this is Seniorcare Live dot Com.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
We'll have more coming up. So you've been living independently
at home, but now it's not working out. It's time
to begin searching for a senior care community. But with
hundreds of independent living, assisted living, long term care, and
(33:09):
memory care options, how are you supposed to determine the
best place for you. Hello, I'm Steve Keeker, and this
is exactly why I created my firm, Senior Care Consulting.
I help my own grandparents through this difficult process, so
I know how overwhelming this can be. Our business model
ensures credibility and objectivity. We work directly for you and
(33:32):
we never receive reimbursement from any provider. We've helped hundreds
of families since two thousand and two, and we can
help you and your family as well. Call today for
a free consultation at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred. Nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred a placement service with integrity at Seniorcareconsulting dot com.
(34:04):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question, visit Seniorcare Live
dot com. All right, So, just to put just to
put a cap on that kind of shocking story with
a good ending. I had so many people praying for
(34:25):
me in my my church and my family, and and uh,
I'll tell you what's really comforting is you get to
see how many people just really care about you, really
love you. It's it's humbling, It's I never want to
go through that crap again, though, let me just say that,
all right. So, but but I do, I do, I do.
(34:49):
I have a new perspective, and uh, and I was
sharing with with Darren here that there's some things that
have just kind of made me kind of teary. One
of them was seeing the pope introduced for the first time,
and it was a big surprise. And I'm not even Catholic,
but I was just moved by the magnitude and the
drama of it all. I was moved to tears. And
(35:12):
several things here recently have been just moving me to tears.
And I texted my friend down in Atlanta, Georgia, and
I told him something that moved me to tears. And
I'm like, what the hell's wrong with me? You know?
And he texted right back and he said, maybe you
appreciate See how did he say that? Maybe you appreciate
(35:35):
everything more because of Frank And you're just seeing everything differently.
And I'm like, you know what, And that's what I
mean by everything has changed my perspective. Everything has changed,
my sense of urgency, Everything is sharpened, I mean, the
whole thing, even my eyesight. And Darren, you had asked
(35:57):
me about, you know, my eyesight. One thing I didn't
share was that I'm over here, I'm looking over here.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
No, But Frank had grown up so high that he
was stretching my optic nerve way out of bounds. And
that thing had to be just as thin as as anything.
And so by collapsing that that cyst, it took all
this stretching, you know, pressure off of my optic nerve.
(36:26):
I swear I can see just a little bit better now,
just a just a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
How many fingers am I holding up?
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Fifty? No? No, no, three? I was just saying, Frank
made you frank? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, It's just it's crazy.
But yeah, I appreciate everything more. I don't take anything.
You know what, We're all supposed to take every day
as a blessing. And guess what we just we don't.
(36:53):
We don't do that. We take every single day for granted.
Oh I'll get to it in the next day or two,
or oh no, maybe next month. Well, well, guess what.
We know this too. We're not promised tomorrow. We're not
promised next month. There's no guarantee we're gonna make it
next year. And we waste how much time we waste,
(37:15):
how many days We're not supposed to take anyone for
granted because they may not be here tomorrow either. We
take everything. I'm feeling preachy, Darren, But we take everything
and everyone for granted, and we take every day. We
(37:36):
don't treat it as a gift. We just treat it
as oh ho hum, well guess what I did that?
But I'm not doing that anymore. And you know, when
you feel like telling someone that you care about it,
or you feel like telling someone you know I love you,
but you hold back for some reason, why do we
(37:56):
do that? Why don't we just tell them? I stop
holding back. People probably think I've lost my mind, but
I'm just telling you I came out of this a
different person, in in a in a real positive way.
I don't take anything for granted. I don't take any
one for granted, and I don't take time for granted.
(38:17):
I don't take the day for granted. I do believe
every day is a blessing and now I'm acting like it.
So anyway, now I'm done with my preaching, So I uh,
I don't have a lot of time to talk about this,
but you know, last week I I did a consumer
alert about you know, some of these uh some of
(38:37):
these free referral services as you can uh if you
if you want to hear about a lot of uh
like phenomenal, stunning, jaw dropping information about these free referral
services promising to help you find a place for your
mother or father, your elderly loved one. Just check out
last week's podcast of Senior Care, go to Senior Care
(38:58):
live dot com, go to podcasts, or any of the
major platforms, and it was the one from last week,
May the tenth, and there's some stunning information there. Better
Business Bureau complaints publicly available. I read them on some
of them online or just on not online, but I
got them off. I got them from the online complaint
part of the Better Business Bureau, but I read them
(39:21):
on air. And then I talked about like a new
flavor of these free referral services. And then I had
some calls, had some some emails and everything, asking again
about you know, how to determine if the service you're
considering using is like what I described in my overview
of the free and I always say free in quotes
(39:42):
free referral services from last week. Look for one word,
and it's a powerful word. Look for the word free.
And if it's free to you, there's your clue. And
when I when I wrote that, kind of preparing for
the program today, I thought of Jeff Foxworthy. You know,
here's your there's your sign, here's your sign. That's bill Ing.
(40:06):
Oh oh it's bill ingvall. Okay, Jeff Foxworthy's you might
be a redneck. Oh okay, you might be a redneck
yef Okay, well I'm going to have to work that
one in somehow bill ingvall Okay, all right, all right,
so uh but yeah, here, here's here's your sign. Well,
this one's you know, here's if it's free to you,
I'm gonna, Darren, I'm gonna have to like trademark this
one or do something. If it's free to you, there's
(40:28):
your clue. And that's it. Because these folks are not
working for free, trust me and I and I talked
about that last week too. So how to ask him?
Ask him the questions. These are good fair questions. How
are you able to offer me your services in your
time for free? How are you able to do that?
(40:49):
And you know, if they dance around these questions again,
there's your clue. There's your clue. Ask him this question. Okay,
and I'm just doing a super quick review here because
I had some good positive feedback on this. Ask them
this question. If I choose the place that you're recommending,
how much money will they pay you? That's a really
(41:11):
good question. If they're dancing around the question, there's your clue.
If the business model was just aoka. Why aren't they
transparent about their revenue model and how they make money?
And then I had a spoiler alert last week I
was mistakenly offered seven and fifty dollars from one of
these places willing to pay these free referral services that
(41:33):
happened to be one hundred percent of the first month's costs.
By the way, Okay, it's a built in conflict of interest.
They have a vested interest in you choosing one of
their contracted business partners. So here's a question for the
regulators out there. If a realtor has to disclose how
much money or commissions they earn on each real estate transaction,
then why don't these free referral services have to do
(41:57):
the same. I mean, they're finding a place for someone
to live and they get a huge commission from the
place they recommend. Why shouldn't they be regulated and require
to have full transparency, just like the real estate business?
Something to think about, all right, I'm Steve Keeker and
(42:20):
Frank went on a diet. I'm Steve Keeeker with a
diet dietary Frank here. Frank's much much smaller now, causing
me very few issues at this point. So I wish
you grays in peace today and always. May God bless
you and your family on this day and every day.
Join me next week right here on Senior Care Live.
Speaker 6 (42:47):
Does your business serve the elderly and their caregivers in
our area? There are hundreds of thousands of people either
receiving or providing senior care, and they need to know
about you. A unique and successful radio program called Senior
Care Live is the perfect opportunity to let your target
audience know about your amazing products and services. Senior Care
(43:07):
Live is currently adding a limited number of partner sponsors,
and if you're aligned with their mission, they want to
talk to you. They're interested in partnering with hospital organizations,
physician groups, home care providers, estate planning and older law practices,
financial advisors, insurance companies, real estate brokers, home health agencies,
and other providers serving the elderly and their caregivers. Senior
(43:32):
Care Live has a limited number of partner sponsor opportunities,
so call now at nine one three nine four five
twenty eight hundred nine one three nine four five twenty
eight hundred or visit seniorcare live dot com, seniorcare live
dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Quid Pro quo a Latin phrase that means an exchange
of goods or services where one transfer is contingent upon
the other. Here's an example. I'll recommend your senior care
community if you'll pay me a huge kickback from my referral.
The free referral services have a vested interest in you
choosing one of their business partners. That's how they make
(44:09):
their money. Does this paid recommendation sound objective or credible?
Of course not. I'm Steve Keeker with Senior Care Consulting.
I'm so proud to say we have never received a
single penny from any provider ever. We offer a placement
service with integrity for help finding the right senior care community,
without conflict of interest, and without the quid pro quo
(44:33):
called nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred
nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred a
placement service with integrity at Seniorcare Consulting dot com.
Speaker 5 (44:46):
Hi, this is Carrie Hole with an important message about
Medicare benefits. You may be eligible forore but don't know about.
They're called Medicare Special Needs programs. If you're a Medicare
recipient or a caregiver, here's what you need to know.
There are three programs you may qualify for. The first
is Medicare C SNIP for people with chronic conditions like asthma,
heart disease, diabetes, and more. The second is Medicare D SNIP.
(45:09):
If you are currently on a Medicaid plan, you may
qualify for this dual eligible plan while keeping your full
Medicaid benefits. The third plan is Medicare I SNIP. If
you're in an institution like a nursing home or at home,
but require an equivalent level of care, you may qualify
for this plan and RPS benefits. By design, they're certified
Medicare specialists that can walk you through these programs and
(45:31):
help you qualify. Joyce Thompson and Carol Lee Steele call
Today eight seven seven three eight five twenty two twenty four.
That's eight seven seven three eight five twenty two twenty four.
Once again eight seven seven three eight five twenty two
twenty four
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.