September 22, 2025 • 44 mins
Listen in as host Steve Kuker, President of Senior Care Consulting, visits with Ben Souchek, owner of Home Downsizing Solutions. Ben discusses how his company buys houses in “as is” condition from individuals who value of the services he offers, shares a story of helping a recent client, and compares the HDS model to that of the wholesalers. Then, Steve discusses the entrance fee model and rental model of Continuing Care Retirement Communities. Don’t miss the Consumer Alert where Senior Care Consulting helped a client who had an unfortunate experience with a “free” referral service. #SeniorCare #SeniorCareLive #SeniorCareConsulting #SeniorLiving #KansasCitySeniorCare #SeniorCarePlacement #SeniorCareAdvisor #Franchise #SeniorCareFranchise (800) 331-6445
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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's Senior care Consultant,
Steve Keecker.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hello and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm Steve Keeker.
You're Senior Care Consultant, and I really appreciate you tuning
in today. We have a wonderful program on tap with
my friend and special guest in studio, mister Ben Sochek.
He's the owner of Home Downsizing Solutions. If you want
to reach out to Ben write this information down. You
(00:43):
may need his help immediately, you may need his help
in six weeks or even six months. It's eight five
five two nine one five zero zero five. Can also
go online an excellent website loaded with resources Home Doownsizing
dot org. And with that, Ben, welcome back to Senior
Care Live.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Hi, Steve, thank you for having me again this week,
and as always, hopefully I can share some information with
the listeners to be of value to them.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
All right, and you know, let's let's talk about home
downsizing solutions and you know, tell us again, we have
you know, new listeners all the time. I think we're
getting ready to pick up a station in Guam, so
of all the places. So but let's let's talk. Let's
just review home downsizing solutions and how you're able. What
(01:34):
services do you offer?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Sure, the primary service that we offer is to actually
buy a property a house from individuals, especially if they're
downsizing to a smaller home, apartment or senior community. That
is the primary service surrounding that, we try and do
everything that we can to make that transition to the
(01:59):
new home home as easy and stress free as possible,
whether that's assisting in contacting a moving company, assisting in
contacting an organizing and packing company, or any of the
services that a homeowner that's been in the house a
long time or short short time can find a value.
(02:23):
The other thing, I guess I would say that I
tell everybody that we talk to the reason that people
would choose to do business with a company like mine
is if they find value or enough value in the
benefits that we provide, namely being able to buy a
house and it's as is conditioned so that the homeowner
(02:44):
doesn't have to do anything to the house to sell it.
They can take what they want, leave what they don't want,
and whatever's left in the house. Whatever stuff is left
in the house, we take care of it. We are
cash buyers. We have cash available to buy houses, so
we can close as quickly as a title company conject
(03:06):
title and prepare closing vaperwork. So whether that's that has
been in the little twenty four hours, oh, be real
that we've had a contract. We close the next day,
but or of course, whenever a person wants us to close.
And of course one of the biggest benefits is to
be able to buy the house right away so that
(03:27):
the seller knows the house is sold, so that they
have that issue off their plate. But then they can
choose to typically anyway, stay in the house until they're
ready to move. So if they don't know exactly when
an apartment's going to be ready for them, or they
want to be ready when an apartment opens up, then
we can allow them to stay in the house until
(03:47):
they can make that move. So that's probably one of
the biggest thing, but those are the primary reasons why
a person would choose to do business with us.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, so I'm working with a lady who has legal
responsibility for an individual. And it's interesting because I got
the call this last week and I think I'm going
to be working with her to help her kind of
figure out this puzzle. But her client essentially, but she's
the legal power of attorney and all that. But her
(04:20):
client needs to move into assisted living, but she needs
the money from the house to help pay for that.
They had an assisted living community lined up, but that
assisted living community would have to put a lean on
the house. So a promisory note basically that you know,
if it takes two or three months to sell elder,
six months, whatever the number is, that you'll pay us
back and we'll just work with you on that. And
(04:42):
then she called them back and they said, you know,
after we thought about it, no thanks. So if you
are able to help a person out in that situation,
you could buy the house, close on it fairly quickly
as quickly as the title work can be done through
the title company five hours to maybe a few days
to a week, as fast as they can get it done,
(05:03):
and then they have cash in the bank, cash on hand,
and then if you're moving to one of these places,
they wouldn't have to deal with leans or no thanks,
we're not going to do that anymore, Zach, Right, that
really saves That solves that problem.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That solves that problem. There are companies out there that
do bridge loans for circumstances like that actually, but with
what we provide, we can eliminate that cost or that
issue as well. So instead of having to go out
and get a bridge loan on their house to increase
costs in that manner anyway, we can go ahead, step
(05:37):
in buy the house. As you mentioned, they're going to
have their funds in their bank account right away that way,
in that manner, and then be able to have the
funds to buy into a community or to make the
move or whatever they need to do. That's correct.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Okay, if this is catching your attention, you're like, wait
a minute, wait a minute, why didn't we know about this?
This would help us out in our situation. Out to
Ben Soelchek with Home Downsizing Solutions eight five five two
nine one five zero zero five that's eight five five
two nine one five zero zero five or online at
(06:12):
home downsizing dot com. And I worked with another family
and and I sent them your information. I sent them
a free copy of your book and all that, and
we'll see what they want to do moving forward, But
you are custom tailored for their exact situation. So her
dad lives in a house. He's lived there too long,
(06:35):
according to her, and it's a typical situation, not very common.
And he's a smoker, so they're going to have to
buy all new furniture for his assistant living apartment because
you drag that stuff in there and it'll smoke the
whole thing out.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
She's like, she's completely overwhelmed with what am I going
to do with this house? What am I going to
do with all the furniture? There are some things that
I want out of it. And he is divorced, so
he's single living in this house. And she said, there's
just a few things, but everything else, I don't know
what to do with it. And could you help someone
like that?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
So that's a perfect situation of what we can certainly
help with that, where especially if they're items that you're
not going to be able to donate if.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
They there's smoke saturated at this point.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
In that environment, yeah, they really can't donate anything. So
the items that he wants to move with him, he
could certainly do that if she has items that she
wanted to take, that's great. If they actually could sell
or monetize any of those things, that's fine. But anything
that they leave, then we buy the house and whatever
is in.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It that is correct, okay. And then you can have
the stuff that you can't deal with, do with anything
with you just have that hauled off and hold out. Correct.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
We take care of it in whatever manner that we
can or that needs to happen.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay, all right. And then we were visiting earlier before
the program, and you had mentioned a client story and
I think this this individual needed to move to a
senior care community.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Correct. They were this situation. They had already signed up
for community, and they already had a place, but they
didn't know exactly when it was going to be ready
within the next thirty days give or take a week.
That their house was in good condition, but it was dated.
So four coverings, paint, the kitchen was dated.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
And that's a lot of work right there. I've had
a lot of money and to.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Get the contractors lined up and all those things.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Oh lord.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
And so they had seen my company's information and decided, well,
let's at least talk to them to see what we
can do, and in this situation, I think they had
seen some of our videos, some of our other information
to actually kind of educate themselves about what I did
and how I went about the process of buying a house.
(08:56):
And so I met with them and looked through the house,
visited with a went over the numbers as far as
what I could do for them, and they were ready
to move forward immediately in that situation because for them,
they'd been there long time and they just knew that
they did not want to deal with the hassles or
rotential hassles of selling a house in a traditional manner,
(09:18):
and they like the idea of just being able to
basically turn over the keys to me and say it's
all yours. Here you do it, and here you do it.
We have movers coming. We just want to make the
move and be done. And so again, convenience, I get,
I guess is a key word of how people find
value in what we do. And so if it's if
(09:38):
the convenience and those benefits are a value, then we
can be a great solution.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And it could be a house that's in good shape,
but you just literally you don't want to deal with it.
You want to walk away. You don't want to deal
with contractors and having hardwoods put in or the carpet
or the painting, or to redo a kitchen first of
all is super expensive and good luck get anyone out
in a timely manner to get that done. I mean
you could be you know, if you started on that today,
(10:05):
you might have your house ready to go by next
spring or summer at this rate. So and there's nothing
wrong with that. You can do that. But if you
don't want to do that, even if your house is
in great shape or okay shape, this might be the answer.
Reach out to Ben. So check Home Downsizing Solutions eight
five five two nine one five zero zero five or
online at home Downsizing dot com. And we'll have more
(10:28):
with Ben coming up. But first the Senior Care Live
Question of the week, Home downsizing solutions is the same
thing as wholesalers that will buy your house as is?
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):
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(11:24):
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Speaker 2 (11:32):
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Speaker 1 (11:33):
Few hours of your time finding the best place available,
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Speaker 2 (12:06):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare Live
dot com. All right, back to the Senior Care Live
Question of the week. Home downsizing solutions is the same
thing as a wholesaler that will buy your house as is.
(12:27):
Is that statement true or false? And the answer is false.
The answer is false, And Ben, let's talk about that.
Let's talk about the differences between home downsizing solutions and
these wholesalers.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Sure, Steve, that's a good question and something that's I
certainly like to expound about. And one of the things
that I try my best to educate individuals that are
wanting to sell a house, no matter how they want
to sell a house, I do want to educate people
about the process and about the different ways that they
can do that. But coming back to the question, I
(13:11):
consider myself my company quote unquote real home buying company,
I e. We can actually buy houses. We have the
funds to buy houses, and we actually do buy houses.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
That's what we do. If you buy the house directly.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
We buy the house directly, and we actually close on
the house. And understandably, if a person only sells one
or two houses in their lifetime, they have probably have
no idea what we're talking about right now, or they
probably don't care either as long as they can get
the job done. But what we term what wholesalers are
(13:47):
in the real estate world are individuals that will they
advertise that they buy houses. When they're on the phone
with you, they will tell you they're going to buy
your house, and even if they send somebody to your
house to look at it, they're they're going to tell
that they buy the house. And so typically anyway, if
unless you are unless you ask the right questions and
(14:08):
really look at their paperwork, you don't realize that they're
basically only getting the right to buy your house. They
typically have no intention of closing on your property, and
I at least some part of the time, they have
no ability to financially. So their mode of operation is
that they will get a contract to buy a house
(14:30):
and then they will typically ask a home seller to
give them twenty one to thirty days to close, but
they want their contractors to come through and look at
the house to get them quotes before they close. These
quote unquote contractors are actually their potential buyers.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
AH.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
So if they can't flip that contract, sell the contract
to somebody else and make a profit, they're not going
to do that. They will either just walk away from
the transaction or they're going to try and negotiate with
you for a lower price. And either way, when you
the homeowner think the house is sold, it's not, and
(15:09):
it can leave you in a very bad situation when
you're doing that. So that's really the biggest that's a
big difference is we're actually a company that buys houses.
A wholesaler is someone that buys and sells paper contracts.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, they're flipping it on paper. Correct, it's exactly what
they're doing, and they may or may not have the
funds or the means to actually buy that house, so
they contract it from you, they list it, and then
they very quickly try to flip it to someone else
who's going to buy it, and then that person actually
(15:46):
buys a house. Is that correct, that's accurate. Yes, they
the wholesaler themselves. They're again just flipping paper and that
also sense that gives them since the incernal risk essentially
in doing that, because if the deal doesn't work out,
(16:06):
they just walk away. Since there's no risk to them,
they will often over promise what they can pay for
a house, which makes maybe a real cash buyer's offer
look a little bit lower or can be lower. Yeah,
because we're actually buying the house, actually giving a legitimate offer,
not an inflated offer.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Hoping something happen. Yeah, that's correct. So that's really the
big thing there. And a number of them too, will
like to try and get a contract over the phone
without even looking at a house. Oh no, And so
once they get a contract, then they will tell the homeowner.
Then they will come out and take a look at
the house and confirm that that's the number. Well, often
(16:48):
that number is going to change because it's very common
for them to say, oh, I didn't realize that this
was needing to be done with your house, or that
this was in disrepair. And so typically that number is
always going to change and not for the better for
the homeowner.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So Ben, So if I'm out here, I'm in the market,
this is really catching my attention, and I want I'm
interested in doing this. How would I know I'm talking
to a wholesaler and not a legitimate home buyer.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Sometimes that's very difficult to know. You can certainly ask
for a copy of their agreement to make sure that
there's not the verbiage in that agreement that allows a
person to resell it automatically on paper, or that gives
the wholesaler control certain control of that selling process and
(17:45):
some of the paperwork where we've can say that they
have the right then to market the property and put
it on the multiple listing service and do all that
just like an agent would, and so all this unless
a person is knowledgeable about that, you can overlook that.
So a person does need to be very careful. What
I would say is to get references. Get references from
(18:08):
a title company, so like in specifically Omar, Kansas City,
I can give potential people that want to work with
me contact information for the local title companies so that
a homewerker can call them and say, hey, does this
guy Ben with home downsizing solutions? Is he real? Does
(18:29):
he actually buy houses? Does he clothes on it? And
they'll hear yes he does, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can
certainly trust him. And so that's the biggest thing there too,
is to look for that. Typically I would say, look
for a proof of funds, so that usually a letter
from a bank that or lending institution that shows that
(18:51):
they have the funds available. The problem is the wholesalers,
or at least some of them, will create documents proof
of funds. Oh boy, so they're not real.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
So it's kind of like pre qualifying a home buyer.
But you're this is in reverse. You're pre qualifying the
home buyer, excuse me, your home. You're pre qualifying someone
who would buy your house, not like the couple wanting
to buy you qualify a company. Yeah, yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So there are some things to do that you can
kind of protect yourself with that, and so anyway, and
also look look for references, look for reviews, look to
see how long the companies have been in business, and uh,
I don't think there are many companies like mine that
have been around for twenty eight years at this point. Yeah,
(19:44):
and with a better business bureau and all of that.
So due diligence is certainly a good thing.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
For that Home Downsizing Solutions veteran owned company and the
better business bureau. What's the rating on that?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Uh, a plus for years and years plus.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It doesn't get any better than that. Don't do business
with some fly by night company that's just looking to
flip your house on paper. Reach out to Ben Socheck
with Home Downsizing Solutions eight five five two nine one
five zero zero five or online with Home Downsizing dot
(20:21):
com and Ben, thanks for being here today, really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Thank you. Steve and thanks everybody for listening. If we
can be of value and a benefit to you, contact
us at home Doownsizing dot com or eight y five
two nine one five zero zero five and would love
to be of service to you.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Excellent, excellent, Thank you, Ben, and 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 (20:52):
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
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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
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(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
(22:11):
on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcasts to the program,
visit Senior Care Live dot com or wherever you get
your podcasts. I'll tell you what I just I talked
to so many people throughout each and every week, and
there are a lot of people that said, you know,
your program is you know, must like must see TVs,
(22:32):
like like tune in radio. It's appointment radio actually, and
so they're like, you know, we we like to listen
to that every day, or I wish it was every day. Actually,
that's the goal here, to be the Dave Ramsey of
Senior Care. I haven't I don't know if I've shared
that with too many folks, but you need to, you know,
crawl before you walk and walk before you run. But anyway,
so every every single week. But I've had a lot
(22:53):
of people say, you know, we really appreciate the fact
that if we miss one of your programs, we could
just go to the podcast and listen to it after
the fact, and they said, that is just super convenient.
So I like to compare that to my wife and
I have a lot of programs that we enjoy watching
and some series and that sort of thing, and so
(23:14):
we always set the DVR. If we can't watch it
as it's playing, then we'll just watch it later on.
So kind of the same thing. So feel free to
check out the podcast all the major podcast platforms, and
if all else fails, you can just go to Senior
care Live dot com click on the podcast tab and
they're all in chronological order. So there we go. So
(23:34):
this past week I celebrated another birthday and another trip
around the sun, as they say, and I'll tell you
what I shared the story. I'm not going to go
into all that today. But I had a huge, huge
health scare and back in the tail end of April.
(23:56):
It resulted in having brain surgery and I got very
very lucky. The mass on there on the brain. I
you know, when they tell you, well, Steve, we found
a mass on your brain. It's it'll take your breath away.
And I actually at that time I thought I was
a goner. Actually I did, and I wasn't sure I
(24:16):
would see another birthday. Twenty four hours later, the same
doctor comes in. We have better news. It's not a tumor.
Praise God. It's it's a I said that. He didn't
say that, but it's assists and we can deal with that.
Your brain surgeon will be calling to schedule brain surgery.
I'm like, oh wow, so very thankful that's something that
(24:39):
can be dealt with. But now I have to have
brain surgery. So very incredible skilled surgeons at KU Med Center,
doctor Bame and doctor Shamun and then all they had
huge teams with with with with each one of these
two surgeons, and and and then we had the the
(25:00):
anti caesiologist, and we had respiratory therapy and arterial punctures
and oxygen monitoring. It was unbelievable. And I'm pretty sure
we had a whole gallery of students watching this whole
thing too. But anyway, which is cool. That's fine. So
but recovered, well, I feel great. And it just dawned
on me on the morning of my birthday this earlier
(25:20):
this week, how thankful I am that I got to
have another birthday. And let me tell you what we're
not promised another day, We're not promised another day, and
so ever since then, it's too bad that it takes
something just off the charts crazy like that to be
(25:40):
kind of a perspective changer. But I don't take any
day for granted anymore. And I felt what it felt
like to think that I didn't have too many more
of those days left. I did not like that feeling.
And then that was relieved by the fact that it
was something that they could deal with, and so and
(26:02):
I dodged a bullet. I dodged a bullet. So I
just I just want to share that just with you briefly.
And you know, when you when you listen to people
on the radio, it's kind of it's kind of neat
to get to know them a little bit personally. And
you'll talk about my wife once in a while. And
we have these four beautiful, spoiled rotten Wiener dogs. I
think I'm going to put their their picture on my
(26:24):
website one of these days, just because I mean, they're
just they're so incredible, and they run our house, by
the way. But I think it's interesting just to get
to know your host a little bit better. And I'm
just thankful to be here, and I'm thankful for you,
each and every one of you listening to the program,
either live or streaming it or through the podcast. I
just want to say thank you, and I am happy
(26:45):
to be here and celebrate my birthday and blow the
candles out again, because you never know how many more
of those you're going to get, frankly, so I just
want to thanks for letting me share that with you.
All right, So I want to talk a little bit
shift gears here and talk about moving into a continuing
(27:07):
care retirement community. And if you recall I talk about
this stuff off and on, you know, over all the years.
But if you ever hear the abbreviation c c RC,
that's a continuing care retirement community and what that is.
It's in all of the above, all of the above situation.
(27:29):
So you would sell your house and downsize and move
into typically it's a downsize a little bit, maybe a lot,
but you would move into an independent living apartment. It
may be an independent living villa. Most of the inventory,
you're going to have apartments, and these are nice apartments, okay,
and they're spacious and you can have one bedrooms, two bedrooms,
(27:52):
maybe one bedroom and a den two bedroom and a
den three bedroom, et cetera, et cetera. And some of
these things can be huge, but you're moving into independent living.
They make at least your main meal per day, maybe
a couple of meals. You have a fully equipped kitchen.
It's where you can cook anything you want, anytime you want.
But they're gonna do some of the cooking for you.
(28:13):
Kind of take some of that responsibility off your hands,
and you do not have the responsibility of home ownership.
You don't have to worry about the roof leaking, they'll
fix it. The water heater going out, they'll replace it.
You get the idea, Okay, so they take care of
all that stuff. You don't have to pay personal property taxes,
which could be hundreds of dollars a month. Homeowners insurance
(28:36):
could be hundreds of dollars a month. You want to
have a renter's insurance for contents, but other than that,
you're not paying utilities. And it's it's just it's a
it's a it's a great option. And then the whole
concept of doing that is then to age in place,
move to assisted living, that level of care, if and
when you need that down the road, then you could
(28:57):
also transition to long term care if you need more
more help than that, and it's you don't have to
change your address, or if it's if it's a campus
type of a situation, you don't have to leave the organization.
It's all with the same organization. So that's the idea.
But when you come in on the front end of
one of these continuing care retirement communities, you may be
(29:20):
looking at an entrance fee, and what that is is
typically it's going to be on the lower end of it,
around one hundred thousand. Typically I'll see two hundred, two
hundred and fifty thousand all the way up to well
over nine hundred thousand. That's just in the Kansas City area.
Around the country, I think it's pretty common if you
(29:40):
get in some of the larger, higher cost of living cities.
I've seen them well over a million dollars in those areas.
It could be, you know, it could be lower than
that in a lot of other areas. But I think
three hundred, five hundred and six hundred thousand is going
to get you a nice place pretty much anywhere you
want to go. Now, that's tied to a contract, and
(30:01):
the most common contract is a ninety ten so ninety
percent refundable, which means if you choose to move, if
you say, you know what, I've changed my mind. I
want to move to you know x xyz state near
my son. Okay, that's fine, you can do that. They
would give you ninety percent of that or refund you
ninety percent of that upfront fee, that entrance fee, Your
(30:24):
refunds ninety percent. So you're going to lose ten percent
off the top, and you're going to lose the opportunity
to make money on your money over a period of time,
but you get ninety percent back. There's some other types
of contracts that I don't really have time to go
in today. There could be an eighty twenty, seventy, thirty,
fifty to fifty. There could be a zero percent refund,
which is usually tied to more of a life care
(30:47):
or a life plan community and and there are benefits
to that. So say like one, for example, it would
your defund, your refund would decrease by two percent per month,
So in fifty months there's no refund. Well what do
you get for that? Well, you're locked into your independent
living rate for your entire stay. So if independent living
(31:09):
is four thousand, and you need assistant living that's seven
thousand dollars, where you're saving three thousand dollars a month.
If you move to long term care, you're still paying
four thousand dollars, and maybe long term cares twelve thousand
dollars a month, so you're saving eight thousand dollars a month.
So what you're doing on those zero refund or life
care or life planned communities is you're essentially on the
(31:31):
front end. You're pre paying for future discounted healthcare. That's
how that works. And then there are some communities that
are rental only and what that, and they're good places.
You don't have to write a six figure check to
get a good place. It's just a different business model.
They believe in paying for what you need as you go.
(31:53):
They don't think you should tie up a person's money
that great big chunk of money. And so you would
move into independent life, and then you're going to pay
the independent living rate, and then you move to assist
a living, you'll pay that rate. You move to long
term care, you pay that rate, and they've got you covered.
So entrance fee versus rental moving into a continuing care
(32:14):
retirement community. If you need help sorting through all of this.
This is by far and away the most difficult type
of a care community to navigate on your own. We
are experts at this. Give us a call. We can
help you, and this this one has a lot of
moving parts, so give us a call nine one three,
nine five twenty eight hundred or online at Seniorcare Consulting
(32:37):
dot com and I'll have more coming right up.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest of his show,
this is Seniorcare Live dot com.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
We'll have more coming up.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
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 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,
(33:23):
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 we never receive reimbursement from any provider.
We've helped hundreds of family since two thousand and two,
(33:43):
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 Seniorcare Consulting dot com. Welcome back. You're listening to
(34:13):
Senior Care Live on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. If
you have a question, give us a call at Seniorcare
Live dot com. That's eight hundred three three one six
four four five, or go online Seniorcare Live dot com.
Here we go again.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. This is a consumer alert.
Consumer alert.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I keep warning you about these free referral services what
they do. I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep preaching this
until I'm I'm as they say, until I'm blue in
the face or i fall over or whatever. Here's why
it's free to you. They're getting paid, folks. It's free
to you because they don't work for you. You work
for who pays you.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
Right.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I think most normal humans with a brain understands that
you work for who pays you. So the free referral
services go out and they'll cut these sales deals. You know,
they're basically you know, it's one hundred percent sales commission
type of a model. And they say, mister or missus
(35:19):
Senior Care Community, we're really good at marketing, really good
at generating leads, really good at sales. So we're going
to send you a bunch of leads and if our
if there if our lead that we have generated for you,
if they choose you, you owe us up to one
hundred percent of the first month's cost, so and it
(35:41):
could be a little bit less than that. Ninety two
one hundred seems to be pretty common with one hundred
percent real common, okay, And so if you choose one
of the places they recommend, then they're going to generate.
If it's assisted living, there's six thousand, eight thousand dollars kickback.
(36:03):
So the question you have to ask yourself is now,
wait a minute, just wait a minute, use your common sense.
My friends, God gave you common sense for a reason.
And your mom also said, if it sounds too good
to be true, it probably is. Your mom also said
nothing in life is for free, there's got to be
a catch, So use your common sense and ask yourself
(36:26):
the question, Wait a minute, did they recommend that place
because it's the best place for my mom, my dad,
and my spouse my loved one. Did they recommend it
because it's actually the best place for my loved one?
Or did they recommend it because if I choose it,
(36:47):
they're going to get a big fat, seven eight thousand
dollars kickback. Which one is it? You can't have it
both ways, folks, Which one is it? That's why I
say there's a conflict of interest. They have a vested
interest in you choosing one of their business partners because
(37:08):
they're full commission salespeople. That means they don't make money
unless you choose one of their business partners. That's the
conflict of interest. I am constantly, and I mean constantly,
called by people who had a negative experience with one
of these free referral services. So recently I get a
(37:32):
call from a very sweet lady. She is pretty stressed out,
and she said, I worked with one of these free services.
Please forgive me. And I'm like, yep, don't worry about it. Well,
I'll take care of you what happened, Well, they drugged
me around all over town looking at all of these
assisted living communities. And I'm like, really, because I already
(37:55):
knew what she needed through a nice conversation I had
with her, and her husband is not appropriate for the
assisted living level of care. And she's been turned down
multiple times because guess what, we cannot meet your husband's
(38:16):
level of care. And I'm like, well, I know, why
would they? I said, why would they recommend all of
these assisted living communities? And then she looked at me
as she said, to generate a commission, and I'm like,
you said it, I didn't. So my firm is called
(38:42):
Senior Care Consulting because we are professional consultants. We are
not a one hundred percent commission sales representative. We work
directly for our clients. Because you work for who pays you,
(39:04):
there is no conflict of interest that does not exist
in our model. So after conducting a thorough comprehensive geriatric
care assessment, it was blatantly clear that her husband needs
the long term care level of care period, end of discussion.
(39:31):
And because we're not trying to hustle this lady to
our business partners, so that we can generate our six
to eight thousand dollars kickback. We're doing the right thing
for this very nice, very stressed out lady, and the
right thing for her husband. He won't have to move
in somewhere. And then, like I've I've discussed several times
(39:55):
on the on the show before, you know, very shortly thereafter,
get a letter now, sorry, we can no longer meet
your husband's needs. He's exceeded our threshold. You know how
hard that is on an elderly person. He's going to
move one time, and he's going to be set and
he's going to receive the professional care that he deserves.
(40:19):
And just to put put a point on this, and
I'm going a little bit longer than I had planned on,
but the bottom line is I actually worked with a lady.
She chose this place, she moved her husband in. That
was about a year ago, and I received an email
from the sales representative, Hey, Steve, thanks mister and so
(40:40):
and so moved in. He's doing great, Hey, don't forget
to send me the invoice. And I'm like, oh boy,
she forgot, she forgot who she's talking to, So it's
not her fault. So I called her up and I said,
you forgot my business model, didn't you remind me? So
I told her we worked directly for our clients. They
pay us a reasonable flat fee for service. We help
(41:01):
them objectively through the search and selection process. She goes, oh,
that's right, that's right. That's what we don't pay you.
That's right. And she said, by the way, I love
your business model. You're doing business the right way. Well,
just disregard that. In the email it said, don't forget
to send me the invoice for six thousand, seven hundred
and fifty dollars, which of course I did not bill. No, no,
(41:25):
I've never received a penny from any community for twenty
three years. Thank you. But guess what seven hundred and
fifty dollars representative represented. That was exactly one hundred percent
of the first month's cost for my clients. There it
is okay, And of course I didn't send them an invoice,
and of course they didn't pay me a penny. We
(41:47):
get along very well. So here's the bottom line. Proceed
with caution. And here here's the bottom bottom line. You
get what you pay for.
Speaker 5 (41:59):
Proceed with caution. This has been a consumer alert brought
to you buy Senior Care Live.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
All right. If that caught your attention and you're like,
you know what, Senior Care Consulting, that is the way
to go. I don't like the conflict of interests. I
want someone working for me instead of you know, being
you know, working for and with all these communities. And
I don't like the conflict of interest. Reach out, Let's
have a conversation. We can help you objectively in an
(42:28):
unbiased manner nine five twenty eight hundred or online Seniorcare
Consulting dot com. I'm Steve Keeker, and I wish you
grace and peace. May God bless you and your family
on this day and always join me next week right
here on Senior Care Live.
Speaker 6 (42:51):
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
(43:11):
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, as state planning and older
law practices, financial advisors, insurance companies, real estate brokers, home
health agencies, and other providers serving the elderly and their caregivers.
(43:35):
Senior 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 (43:51):
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
(44:13):
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
(44:36):
quo called nine one three, nine four five twenty eight
hundred nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred
replacement service with Integrity at Seniorcare Consulting dot com
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's Senior care Consultant,
Steve Keecker.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hello and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm Steve Keeker.
You're Senior Care Consultant, and I really appreciate you tuning
in today. We have a wonderful program on tap with
my friend and special guest in studio, mister Ben Sochek.
He's the owner of Home Downsizing Solutions. If you want
to reach out to Ben write this information down. You
(00:43):
may need his help immediately, you may need his help
in six weeks or even six months. It's eight five
five two nine one five zero zero five. Can also
go online an excellent website loaded with resources Home Doownsizing
dot org. And with that, Ben, welcome back to Senior
Care Live.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Hi, Steve, thank you for having me again this week,
and as always, hopefully I can share some information with
the listeners to be of value to them.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
All right, and you know, let's let's talk about home
downsizing solutions and you know, tell us again, we have
you know, new listeners all the time. I think we're
getting ready to pick up a station in Guam, so
of all the places. So but let's let's talk. Let's
just review home downsizing solutions and how you're able. What
(01:34):
services do you offer?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Sure, the primary service that we offer is to actually
buy a property a house from individuals, especially if they're
downsizing to a smaller home, apartment or senior community. That
is the primary service surrounding that, we try and do
everything that we can to make that transition to the
(01:59):
new home home as easy and stress free as possible,
whether that's assisting in contacting a moving company, assisting in
contacting an organizing and packing company, or any of the
services that a homeowner that's been in the house a
long time or short short time can find a value.
(02:23):
The other thing, I guess I would say that I
tell everybody that we talk to the reason that people
would choose to do business with a company like mine
is if they find value or enough value in the
benefits that we provide, namely being able to buy a
house and it's as is conditioned so that the homeowner
(02:44):
doesn't have to do anything to the house to sell it.
They can take what they want, leave what they don't want,
and whatever's left in the house. Whatever stuff is left
in the house, we take care of it. We are
cash buyers. We have cash available to buy houses, so
we can close as quickly as a title company conject
(03:06):
title and prepare closing vaperwork. So whether that's that has
been in the little twenty four hours, oh, be real
that we've had a contract. We close the next day,
but or of course, whenever a person wants us to close.
And of course one of the biggest benefits is to
be able to buy the house right away so that
(03:27):
the seller knows the house is sold, so that they
have that issue off their plate. But then they can
choose to typically anyway, stay in the house until they're
ready to move. So if they don't know exactly when
an apartment's going to be ready for them, or they
want to be ready when an apartment opens up, then
we can allow them to stay in the house until
(03:47):
they can make that move. So that's probably one of
the biggest thing, but those are the primary reasons why
a person would choose to do business with us.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Well, so I'm working with a lady who has legal
responsibility for an individual. And it's interesting because I got
the call this last week and I think I'm going
to be working with her to help her kind of
figure out this puzzle. But her client essentially, but she's
the legal power of attorney and all that. But her
(04:20):
client needs to move into assisted living, but she needs
the money from the house to help pay for that.
They had an assisted living community lined up, but that
assisted living community would have to put a lean on
the house. So a promisory note basically that you know,
if it takes two or three months to sell elder,
six months, whatever the number is, that you'll pay us
back and we'll just work with you on that. And
(04:42):
then she called them back and they said, you know,
after we thought about it, no thanks. So if you
are able to help a person out in that situation,
you could buy the house, close on it fairly quickly
as quickly as the title work can be done through
the title company five hours to maybe a few days
to a week, as fast as they can get it done,
(05:03):
and then they have cash in the bank, cash on hand,
and then if you're moving to one of these places,
they wouldn't have to deal with leans or no thanks,
we're not going to do that anymore, Zach, Right, that
really saves That solves that problem.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
That solves that problem. There are companies out there that
do bridge loans for circumstances like that actually, but with
what we provide, we can eliminate that cost or that
issue as well. So instead of having to go out
and get a bridge loan on their house to increase
costs in that manner anyway, we can go ahead, step
(05:37):
in buy the house. As you mentioned, they're going to
have their funds in their bank account right away that way,
in that manner, and then be able to have the
funds to buy into a community or to make the
move or whatever they need to do. That's correct.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Okay, if this is catching your attention, you're like, wait
a minute, wait a minute, why didn't we know about this?
This would help us out in our situation. Out to
Ben Soelchek with Home Downsizing Solutions eight five five two
nine one five zero zero five that's eight five five
two nine one five zero zero five or online at
(06:12):
home downsizing dot com. And I worked with another family
and and I sent them your information. I sent them
a free copy of your book and all that, and
we'll see what they want to do moving forward, But
you are custom tailored for their exact situation. So her
dad lives in a house. He's lived there too long,
(06:35):
according to her, and it's a typical situation, not very common.
And he's a smoker, so they're going to have to
buy all new furniture for his assistant living apartment because
you drag that stuff in there and it'll smoke the
whole thing out.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
She's like, she's completely overwhelmed with what am I going
to do with this house? What am I going to
do with all the furniture? There are some things that
I want out of it. And he is divorced, so
he's single living in this house. And she said, there's
just a few things, but everything else, I don't know
what to do with it. And could you help someone
like that?
Speaker 3 (07:08):
So that's a perfect situation of what we can certainly
help with that, where especially if they're items that you're
not going to be able to donate if.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
They there's smoke saturated at this point.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
In that environment, yeah, they really can't donate anything. So
the items that he wants to move with him, he
could certainly do that if she has items that she
wanted to take, that's great. If they actually could sell
or monetize any of those things, that's fine. But anything
that they leave, then we buy the house and whatever
is in.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
It that is correct, okay. And then you can have
the stuff that you can't deal with, do with anything
with you just have that hauled off and hold out. Correct.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
We take care of it in whatever manner that we
can or that needs to happen.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Okay, all right. And then we were visiting earlier before
the program, and you had mentioned a client story and
I think this this individual needed to move to a
senior care community.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Correct. They were this situation. They had already signed up
for community, and they already had a place, but they
didn't know exactly when it was going to be ready
within the next thirty days give or take a week.
That their house was in good condition, but it was dated.
So four coverings, paint, the kitchen was dated.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
And that's a lot of work right there. I've had
a lot of money and to.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Get the contractors lined up and all those things.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Oh lord.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
And so they had seen my company's information and decided, well,
let's at least talk to them to see what we
can do, and in this situation, I think they had
seen some of our videos, some of our other information
to actually kind of educate themselves about what I did
and how I went about the process of buying a house.
(08:56):
And so I met with them and looked through the house,
visited with a went over the numbers as far as
what I could do for them, and they were ready
to move forward immediately in that situation because for them,
they'd been there long time and they just knew that
they did not want to deal with the hassles or
rotential hassles of selling a house in a traditional manner,
(09:18):
and they like the idea of just being able to
basically turn over the keys to me and say it's
all yours. Here you do it, and here you do it.
We have movers coming. We just want to make the
move and be done. And so again, convenience, I get,
I guess is a key word of how people find
value in what we do. And so if it's if
(09:38):
the convenience and those benefits are a value, then we
can be a great solution.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And it could be a house that's in good shape,
but you just literally you don't want to deal with it.
You want to walk away. You don't want to deal
with contractors and having hardwoods put in or the carpet
or the painting, or to redo a kitchen first of
all is super expensive and good luck get anyone out
in a timely manner to get that done. I mean
you could be you know, if you started on that today,
(10:05):
you might have your house ready to go by next
spring or summer at this rate. So and there's nothing
wrong with that. You can do that. But if you
don't want to do that, even if your house is
in great shape or okay shape, this might be the answer.
Reach out to Ben. So check Home Downsizing Solutions eight
five five two nine one five zero zero five or
online at home Downsizing dot com. And we'll have more
(10:28):
with Ben coming up. But first the Senior Care Live
Question of the week, Home downsizing solutions is the same
thing as wholesalers that will buy your house as is?
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.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
We work for you.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
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 Seniorcareconsulting
dot com.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the
Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit seniorcare Live
dot com. All right, back to the Senior Care Live
Question of the week. Home downsizing solutions is the same
thing as a wholesaler that will buy your house as is.
(12:27):
Is that statement true or false? And the answer is false.
The answer is false, And Ben, let's talk about that.
Let's talk about the differences between home downsizing solutions and
these wholesalers.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Sure, Steve, that's a good question and something that's I
certainly like to expound about. And one of the things
that I try my best to educate individuals that are
wanting to sell a house, no matter how they want
to sell a house, I do want to educate people
about the process and about the different ways that they
can do that. But coming back to the question, I
(13:11):
consider myself my company quote unquote real home buying company,
I e. We can actually buy houses. We have the
funds to buy houses, and we actually do buy houses.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
That's what we do. If you buy the house directly.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
We buy the house directly, and we actually close on
the house. And understandably, if a person only sells one
or two houses in their lifetime, they have probably have
no idea what we're talking about right now, or they
probably don't care either as long as they can get
the job done. But what we term what wholesalers are
(13:47):
in the real estate world are individuals that will they
advertise that they buy houses. When they're on the phone
with you, they will tell you they're going to buy
your house, and even if they send somebody to your
house to look at it, they're they're going to tell
that they buy the house. And so typically anyway, if
unless you are unless you ask the right questions and
(14:08):
really look at their paperwork, you don't realize that they're
basically only getting the right to buy your house. They
typically have no intention of closing on your property, and
I at least some part of the time, they have
no ability to financially. So their mode of operation is
that they will get a contract to buy a house
(14:30):
and then they will typically ask a home seller to
give them twenty one to thirty days to close, but
they want their contractors to come through and look at
the house to get them quotes before they close. These
quote unquote contractors are actually their potential buyers.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
AH.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
So if they can't flip that contract, sell the contract
to somebody else and make a profit, they're not going
to do that. They will either just walk away from
the transaction or they're going to try and negotiate with
you for a lower price. And either way, when you
the homeowner think the house is sold, it's not, and
(15:09):
it can leave you in a very bad situation when
you're doing that. So that's really the biggest that's a
big difference is we're actually a company that buys houses.
A wholesaler is someone that buys and sells paper contracts.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, they're flipping it on paper. Correct, it's exactly what
they're doing, and they may or may not have the
funds or the means to actually buy that house, so
they contract it from you, they list it, and then
they very quickly try to flip it to someone else
who's going to buy it, and then that person actually
(15:46):
buys a house. Is that correct, that's accurate. Yes, they
the wholesaler themselves. They're again just flipping paper and that
also sense that gives them since the incernal risk essentially
in doing that, because if the deal doesn't work out,
(16:06):
they just walk away. Since there's no risk to them,
they will often over promise what they can pay for
a house, which makes maybe a real cash buyer's offer
look a little bit lower or can be lower. Yeah,
because we're actually buying the house, actually giving a legitimate offer,
not an inflated offer.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Hoping something happen. Yeah, that's correct. So that's really the
big thing there. And a number of them too, will
like to try and get a contract over the phone
without even looking at a house. Oh no, And so
once they get a contract, then they will tell the homeowner.
Then they will come out and take a look at
the house and confirm that that's the number. Well, often
(16:48):
that number is going to change because it's very common
for them to say, oh, I didn't realize that this
was needing to be done with your house, or that
this was in disrepair. And so typically that number is
always going to change and not for the better for
the homeowner.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So Ben, So if I'm out here, I'm in the market,
this is really catching my attention, and I want I'm
interested in doing this. How would I know I'm talking
to a wholesaler and not a legitimate home buyer.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Sometimes that's very difficult to know. You can certainly ask
for a copy of their agreement to make sure that
there's not the verbiage in that agreement that allows a
person to resell it automatically on paper, or that gives
the wholesaler control certain control of that selling process and
(17:45):
some of the paperwork where we've can say that they
have the right then to market the property and put
it on the multiple listing service and do all that
just like an agent would, and so all this unless
a person is knowledgeable about that, you can overlook that.
So a person does need to be very careful. What
I would say is to get references. Get references from
(18:08):
a title company, so like in specifically Omar, Kansas City,
I can give potential people that want to work with
me contact information for the local title companies so that
a homewerker can call them and say, hey, does this
guy Ben with home downsizing solutions? Is he real? Does
(18:29):
he actually buy houses? Does he clothes on it? And
they'll hear yes he does, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can
certainly trust him. And so that's the biggest thing there too,
is to look for that. Typically I would say, look
for a proof of funds, so that usually a letter
from a bank that or lending institution that shows that
(18:51):
they have the funds available. The problem is the wholesalers,
or at least some of them, will create documents proof
of funds. Oh boy, so they're not real.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
So it's kind of like pre qualifying a home buyer.
But you're this is in reverse. You're pre qualifying the
home buyer, excuse me, your home. You're pre qualifying someone
who would buy your house, not like the couple wanting
to buy you qualify a company. Yeah, yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So there are some things to do that you can
kind of protect yourself with that, and so anyway, and
also look look for references, look for reviews, look to
see how long the companies have been in business, and uh,
I don't think there are many companies like mine that
have been around for twenty eight years at this point. Yeah,
(19:44):
and with a better business bureau and all of that.
So due diligence is certainly a good thing.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
For that Home Downsizing Solutions veteran owned company and the
better business bureau. What's the rating on that?
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Uh, a plus for years and years plus.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It doesn't get any better than that. Don't do business
with some fly by night company that's just looking to
flip your house on paper. Reach out to Ben Socheck
with Home Downsizing Solutions eight five five two nine one
five zero zero five or online with Home Downsizing dot
(20:21):
com and Ben, thanks for being here today, really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
Thank you. Steve and thanks everybody for listening. If we
can be of value and a benefit to you, contact
us at home Doownsizing dot com or eight y five
two nine one five zero zero five and would love
to be of service to you.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Excellent, excellent, Thank you, Ben, and 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 (20:52):
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
(22:11):
on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcasts to the program,
visit Senior Care Live dot com or wherever you get
your podcasts. I'll tell you what I just I talked
to so many people throughout each and every week, and
there are a lot of people that said, you know,
your program is you know, must like must see TVs,
(22:32):
like like tune in radio. It's appointment radio actually, and
so they're like, you know, we we like to listen
to that every day, or I wish it was every day. Actually,
that's the goal here, to be the Dave Ramsey of
Senior Care. I haven't I don't know if I've shared
that with too many folks, but you need to, you know,
crawl before you walk and walk before you run. But anyway,
so every every single week. But I've had a lot
(22:53):
of people say, you know, we really appreciate the fact
that if we miss one of your programs, we could
just go to the podcast and listen to it after
the fact, and they said, that is just super convenient.
So I like to compare that to my wife and
I have a lot of programs that we enjoy watching
and some series and that sort of thing, and so
(23:14):
we always set the DVR. If we can't watch it
as it's playing, then we'll just watch it later on.
So kind of the same thing. So feel free to
check out the podcast all the major podcast platforms, and
if all else fails, you can just go to Senior
care Live dot com click on the podcast tab and
they're all in chronological order. So there we go. So
(23:34):
this past week I celebrated another birthday and another trip
around the sun, as they say, and I'll tell you
what I shared the story. I'm not going to go
into all that today. But I had a huge, huge
health scare and back in the tail end of April.
(23:56):
It resulted in having brain surgery and I got very
very lucky. The mass on there on the brain. I
you know, when they tell you, well, Steve, we found
a mass on your brain. It's it'll take your breath away.
And I actually at that time I thought I was
a goner. Actually I did, and I wasn't sure I
(24:16):
would see another birthday. Twenty four hours later, the same
doctor comes in. We have better news. It's not a tumor.
Praise God. It's it's a I said that. He didn't
say that, but it's assists and we can deal with that.
Your brain surgeon will be calling to schedule brain surgery.
I'm like, oh wow, so very thankful that's something that
(24:39):
can be dealt with. But now I have to have
brain surgery. So very incredible skilled surgeons at KU Med Center,
doctor Bame and doctor Shamun and then all they had
huge teams with with with with each one of these
two surgeons, and and and then we had the the
(25:00):
anti caesiologist, and we had respiratory therapy and arterial punctures
and oxygen monitoring. It was unbelievable. And I'm pretty sure
we had a whole gallery of students watching this whole
thing too. But anyway, which is cool. That's fine. So
but recovered, well, I feel great. And it just dawned
on me on the morning of my birthday this earlier
(25:20):
this week, how thankful I am that I got to
have another birthday. And let me tell you what we're
not promised another day, We're not promised another day, and
so ever since then, it's too bad that it takes
something just off the charts crazy like that to be
(25:40):
kind of a perspective changer. But I don't take any
day for granted anymore. And I felt what it felt
like to think that I didn't have too many more
of those days left. I did not like that feeling.
And then that was relieved by the fact that it
was something that they could deal with, and so and
(26:02):
I dodged a bullet. I dodged a bullet. So I
just I just want to share that just with you briefly.
And you know, when you when you listen to people
on the radio, it's kind of it's kind of neat
to get to know them a little bit personally. And
you'll talk about my wife once in a while. And
we have these four beautiful, spoiled rotten Wiener dogs. I
think I'm going to put their their picture on my
(26:24):
website one of these days, just because I mean, they're
just they're so incredible, and they run our house, by
the way. But I think it's interesting just to get
to know your host a little bit better. And I'm
just thankful to be here, and I'm thankful for you,
each and every one of you listening to the program,
either live or streaming it or through the podcast. I
just want to say thank you, and I am happy
(26:45):
to be here and celebrate my birthday and blow the
candles out again, because you never know how many more
of those you're going to get, frankly, so I just
want to thanks for letting me share that with you.
All right, So I want to talk a little bit
shift gears here and talk about moving into a continuing
(27:07):
care retirement community. And if you recall I talk about
this stuff off and on, you know, over all the years.
But if you ever hear the abbreviation c c RC,
that's a continuing care retirement community and what that is.
It's in all of the above, all of the above situation.
(27:29):
So you would sell your house and downsize and move
into typically it's a downsize a little bit, maybe a lot,
but you would move into an independent living apartment. It
may be an independent living villa. Most of the inventory,
you're going to have apartments, and these are nice apartments, okay,
and they're spacious and you can have one bedrooms, two bedrooms,
(27:52):
maybe one bedroom and a den two bedroom and a
den three bedroom, et cetera, et cetera. And some of
these things can be huge, but you're moving into independent living.
They make at least your main meal per day, maybe
a couple of meals. You have a fully equipped kitchen.
It's where you can cook anything you want, anytime you want.
But they're gonna do some of the cooking for you.
(28:13):
Kind of take some of that responsibility off your hands,
and you do not have the responsibility of home ownership.
You don't have to worry about the roof leaking, they'll
fix it. The water heater going out, they'll replace it.
You get the idea, Okay, so they take care of
all that stuff. You don't have to pay personal property taxes,
which could be hundreds of dollars a month. Homeowners insurance
(28:36):
could be hundreds of dollars a month. You want to
have a renter's insurance for contents, but other than that,
you're not paying utilities. And it's it's just it's a
it's a it's a great option. And then the whole
concept of doing that is then to age in place,
move to assisted living, that level of care, if and
when you need that down the road, then you could
(28:57):
also transition to long term care if you need more
more help than that, and it's you don't have to
change your address, or if it's if it's a campus
type of a situation, you don't have to leave the organization.
It's all with the same organization. So that's the idea.
But when you come in on the front end of
one of these continuing care retirement communities, you may be
(29:20):
looking at an entrance fee, and what that is is
typically it's going to be on the lower end of it,
around one hundred thousand. Typically I'll see two hundred, two
hundred and fifty thousand all the way up to well
over nine hundred thousand. That's just in the Kansas City area.
Around the country, I think it's pretty common if you
(29:40):
get in some of the larger, higher cost of living cities.
I've seen them well over a million dollars in those areas.
It could be, you know, it could be lower than
that in a lot of other areas. But I think
three hundred, five hundred and six hundred thousand is going
to get you a nice place pretty much anywhere you
want to go. Now, that's tied to a contract, and
(30:01):
the most common contract is a ninety ten so ninety
percent refundable, which means if you choose to move, if
you say, you know what, I've changed my mind. I
want to move to you know x xyz state near
my son. Okay, that's fine, you can do that. They
would give you ninety percent of that or refund you
ninety percent of that upfront fee, that entrance fee, Your
(30:24):
refunds ninety percent. So you're going to lose ten percent
off the top, and you're going to lose the opportunity
to make money on your money over a period of time,
but you get ninety percent back. There's some other types
of contracts that I don't really have time to go
in today. There could be an eighty twenty, seventy, thirty,
fifty to fifty. There could be a zero percent refund,
which is usually tied to more of a life care
(30:47):
or a life plan community and and there are benefits
to that. So say like one, for example, it would
your defund, your refund would decrease by two percent per month,
So in fifty months there's no refund. Well what do
you get for that? Well, you're locked into your independent
living rate for your entire stay. So if independent living
(31:09):
is four thousand, and you need assistant living that's seven
thousand dollars, where you're saving three thousand dollars a month.
If you move to long term care, you're still paying
four thousand dollars, and maybe long term cares twelve thousand
dollars a month, so you're saving eight thousand dollars a month.
So what you're doing on those zero refund or life
care or life planned communities is you're essentially on the
(31:31):
front end. You're pre paying for future discounted healthcare. That's
how that works. And then there are some communities that
are rental only and what that, and they're good places.
You don't have to write a six figure check to
get a good place. It's just a different business model.
They believe in paying for what you need as you go.
(31:53):
They don't think you should tie up a person's money
that great big chunk of money. And so you would
move into independent life, and then you're going to pay
the independent living rate, and then you move to assist
a living, you'll pay that rate. You move to long
term care, you pay that rate, and they've got you covered.
So entrance fee versus rental moving into a continuing care
(32:14):
retirement community. If you need help sorting through all of this.
This is by far and away the most difficult type
of a care community to navigate on your own. We
are experts at this. Give us a call. We can
help you, and this this one has a lot of
moving parts, so give us a call nine one three,
nine five twenty eight hundred or online at Seniorcare Consulting
(32:37):
dot com and I'll have more coming right up.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care
Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest of his show,
this is Seniorcare Live dot com.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
We'll have more coming up.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
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 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,
(33:23):
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 we never receive reimbursement from any provider.
We've helped hundreds of family since two thousand and two,
(33:43):
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 Seniorcare Consulting dot com. Welcome back. You're listening to
(34:13):
Senior Care Live on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. If
you have a question, give us a call at Seniorcare
Live dot com. That's eight hundred three three one six
four four five, or go online Seniorcare Live dot com.
Here we go again.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. This is a consumer alert.
Consumer alert.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
I keep warning you about these free referral services what
they do. I'm gonna keep I'm gonna keep preaching this
until I'm I'm as they say, until I'm blue in
the face or i fall over or whatever. Here's why
it's free to you. They're getting paid, folks. It's free
to you because they don't work for you. You work
for who pays you.
Speaker 5 (34:57):
Right.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I think most normal humans with a brain understands that
you work for who pays you. So the free referral
services go out and they'll cut these sales deals. You know,
they're basically you know, it's one hundred percent sales commission
type of a model. And they say, mister or missus
(35:19):
Senior Care Community, we're really good at marketing, really good
at generating leads, really good at sales. So we're going
to send you a bunch of leads and if our
if there if our lead that we have generated for you,
if they choose you, you owe us up to one
hundred percent of the first month's cost, so and it
(35:41):
could be a little bit less than that. Ninety two
one hundred seems to be pretty common with one hundred
percent real common, okay, And so if you choose one
of the places they recommend, then they're going to generate.
If it's assisted living, there's six thousand, eight thousand dollars kickback.
(36:03):
So the question you have to ask yourself is now,
wait a minute, just wait a minute, use your common sense.
My friends, God gave you common sense for a reason.
And your mom also said, if it sounds too good
to be true, it probably is. Your mom also said
nothing in life is for free, there's got to be
a catch, So use your common sense and ask yourself
(36:26):
the question, Wait a minute, did they recommend that place
because it's the best place for my mom, my dad,
and my spouse my loved one. Did they recommend it
because it's actually the best place for my loved one?
Or did they recommend it because if I choose it,
(36:47):
they're going to get a big fat, seven eight thousand
dollars kickback. Which one is it? You can't have it
both ways, folks, Which one is it? That's why I
say there's a conflict of interest. They have a vested
interest in you choosing one of their business partners because
(37:08):
they're full commission salespeople. That means they don't make money
unless you choose one of their business partners. That's the
conflict of interest. I am constantly, and I mean constantly,
called by people who had a negative experience with one
of these free referral services. So recently I get a
(37:32):
call from a very sweet lady. She is pretty stressed out,
and she said, I worked with one of these free services.
Please forgive me. And I'm like, yep, don't worry about it. Well,
I'll take care of you what happened, Well, they drugged
me around all over town looking at all of these
assisted living communities. And I'm like, really, because I already
(37:55):
knew what she needed through a nice conversation I had
with her, and her husband is not appropriate for the
assisted living level of care. And she's been turned down
multiple times because guess what, we cannot meet your husband's
(38:16):
level of care. And I'm like, well, I know, why
would they? I said, why would they recommend all of
these assisted living communities? And then she looked at me
as she said, to generate a commission, and I'm like,
you said it, I didn't. So my firm is called
(38:42):
Senior Care Consulting because we are professional consultants. We are
not a one hundred percent commission sales representative. We work
directly for our clients. Because you work for who pays you,
(39:04):
there is no conflict of interest that does not exist
in our model. So after conducting a thorough comprehensive geriatric
care assessment, it was blatantly clear that her husband needs
the long term care level of care period, end of discussion.
(39:31):
And because we're not trying to hustle this lady to
our business partners, so that we can generate our six
to eight thousand dollars kickback. We're doing the right thing
for this very nice, very stressed out lady, and the
right thing for her husband. He won't have to move
in somewhere. And then, like I've I've discussed several times
(39:55):
on the on the show before, you know, very shortly thereafter,
get a letter now, sorry, we can no longer meet
your husband's needs. He's exceeded our threshold. You know how
hard that is on an elderly person. He's going to
move one time, and he's going to be set and
he's going to receive the professional care that he deserves.
(40:19):
And just to put put a point on this, and
I'm going a little bit longer than I had planned on,
but the bottom line is I actually worked with a lady.
She chose this place, she moved her husband in. That
was about a year ago, and I received an email
from the sales representative, Hey, Steve, thanks mister and so
(40:40):
and so moved in. He's doing great, Hey, don't forget
to send me the invoice. And I'm like, oh boy,
she forgot, she forgot who she's talking to, So it's
not her fault. So I called her up and I said,
you forgot my business model, didn't you remind me? So
I told her we worked directly for our clients. They
pay us a reasonable flat fee for service. We help
(41:01):
them objectively through the search and selection process. She goes, oh,
that's right, that's right. That's what we don't pay you.
That's right. And she said, by the way, I love
your business model. You're doing business the right way. Well,
just disregard that. In the email it said, don't forget
to send me the invoice for six thousand, seven hundred
and fifty dollars, which of course I did not bill. No, no,
(41:25):
I've never received a penny from any community for twenty
three years. Thank you. But guess what seven hundred and
fifty dollars representative represented. That was exactly one hundred percent
of the first month's cost for my clients. There it
is okay, And of course I didn't send them an invoice,
and of course they didn't pay me a penny. We
(41:47):
get along very well. So here's the bottom line. Proceed
with caution. And here here's the bottom bottom line. You
get what you pay for.
Speaker 5 (41:59):
Proceed with caution. This has been a consumer alert brought
to you buy Senior Care Live.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
All right. If that caught your attention and you're like,
you know what, Senior Care Consulting, that is the way
to go. I don't like the conflict of interests. I
want someone working for me instead of you know, being
you know, working for and with all these communities. And
I don't like the conflict of interest. Reach out, Let's
have a conversation. We can help you objectively in an
(42:28):
unbiased manner nine five twenty eight hundred or online Seniorcare
Consulting dot com. I'm Steve Keeker, and I wish you
grace and peace. May God bless you and your family
on this day and always join me next week right
here on Senior Care Live.
Speaker 6 (42:51):
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
(43:11):
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, as state planning and older
law practices, financial advisors, insurance companies, real estate brokers, home
health agencies, and other providers serving the elderly and their caregivers.
(43:35):
Senior 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 (43:51):
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
(44:13):
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
(44:36):
quo called nine one three, nine four five twenty eight
hundred nine one three nine four five twenty eight hundred
replacement service with Integrity at Seniorcare Consulting dot com
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