Cerretha Rose and Heather Kight had never met each other when they intersected at an Austin, Texas, senior networking group. They learned they were from the same Keller Williams office and had the same designation – Seniors Real Estate Specialist, SRES. They soon discovered they had a similar interest in helping Baby Boomers and their aging parents with housing, downsizing and other issues. They teamed up in early 2011 to form the
Austin 55 Realty Team.
They counsel senior clients through major financial and lifestyle transitions involving relocating, refinancing, or selling the family home, including subjects such as home equity conversion and reverse mortgages. They also have an extensive network of referrals for just about anything dealing with senior citizens and their needs.
Rose began her real estate career in 2001, joining Keller Williams after 30+ years with the State of Texas, Texas Tech University and Fort Stockton Independent School District and being active with several chamber of commerce groups. She also holds the GRI, e-Pro and Certified Negotiation Expert designations.
Kight grew up in Austin, taught high school, worked in corporate marketing, and then worked in marketing at Keller Williams University before earning her real estate license. She is also an EcoBroker and Certified Relocation Specialist.
Tell me how the two of you found this niche market.
Kight: I turned 50 and the AARP sent me my membership card. It was a wake up call! Seriously, I knew of many parents moving to our area to be closer to their children. I saw the need to help the parents and children with life-changing transitions. I know that approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers are turning 62 daily beginning in 2011 and continuing for the next 19 years and it will have a major impact on our future housing and health care needs. I wanted to be proactive in dealing with the Boomers and their parents.
Rose: In early 2000, my family suffered devastating health care issues. I suddenly became the primary care giver for my aging parents. I quickly needed to know about financial resources, legal documents that needed to be in place and legal questions affecting their care. How were we going to pay for the care, who were the caregivers going to be when I lived several hundred miles away. Did we need to sell the family home or not. Who could I trust? We had no plan in place. It was a painful and time consuming journey. It definitely changed my life and how I look at every family now.
Out of this I saw the opportunity to combine my real estate experience with my personal experiences in dealing with aging family members and the need to sell the family home and determining their next move.
Kight: The Austin Seniors Network has a First Wednesday networking group where we met. The group is very active and includes a number of home health care professionals and people with independent living, assisted living, and skilled nursing communities – basically anything dealing with being 55+.
Kight: We really focus our lead generation on networking groups. We find that there are a lot of real estate agents that are good at selling real estate but lack plans that have good solid business practices. So we realized that we needed to take a proactive approach to lead generation. Keller Williams is the perfect platform for us in our branding and business approach. To lead generate, we will talk with a group of some 40-50 people and then schedule one-on-one conversations with individuals before we do any referrals – to home health professionals, for instance. We now have a group of experts that we trust implicitly and in turn they trust us.
So who does what between the two of you?
Kight: Cerretha and I really divide our tasks; for instance, she schedules all our networking appointments, does all the driving, and sets up our presentations. She is constantly on the lookout for new content we can add to our Website and our blog.
Rose: Heather handles the actual technical stuff, posting on our Website,
http://www.austin55realty.com/. She writes the blogs and keeps up with our contact management system and marketing.
Kight: Yes, that recent Diane Sawyer video really highlights the fact that Austin is a popular spot for Baby Boomers to retire. Today’s retiree is not the same as a couple decades ago. They are seeking a very active lifestyle! We have a lot of resources for these people as well, such as gated communities with one-story plans, downtown high rise condos, maintenance free communities – Austin has a lot of options.
Who else is on your team to help aging parents?
Rose: Our resource team includes a placement specialist, who works a bit like an apartment locator, helping people find independent, assisted or skilled living facilities. We also have a professional organizer specializing in seniors, who does charge for her services. You see, downsizing and moving an aging parent is very, very emotional. You’re dealing many times with people who have been in their homes for 30 years. We also have an estate sale specialist who can help auction off the big items that can’t be moved. We try to make it a turnkey operation.
Of course there’s the listing and selling aspect.
Kight: Yes, our ultimate goal is to sell the home! We tell families it’s not the same as it was 10-20 years ago. We utilize Keller Williams’ technology to market our listings. They syndicate our listings to 40 websites that reach out to an additional 340 websites.
But our real estate responsibilities as an SRES really are different. It’s more time-consuming, and you need an extra dose of patience and empathy. We are very service-oriented and we have a real family attitude. It just breaks my heart when I see seniors taken advantage of when they are making these tough decisions.
A lot of times, we also have to help Baby Boomers figure out what to do when their parents are out of town. They sometimes don’t know what their parents’ real condition is. That’s something we can also help other real estate agents with, getting a referral to sell a home here in Austin when the agent is working with children elsewhere.
