Blog
Moving to Senior Living: Getting My Home Ready for Sale
Selling your home is a big deal at any stage of life. When it’s a home full of memories (and accumulated belongings) it can feel even more overwhelming. For many older adults, their house is their biggest asset and the proceeds can be used to move to a senior living community. So how can you make selling your house more profitable and less stressful? Here are our top tips:
Refresh Your Living Space
A cluttered home can be off-putting for potential buyers and can make rooms look smaller, a big disappointment for growing families or those looking to invest in a starter home. Luckily, there is a wealth of resources to help remove the burden of clearing out the clutter on your own.
If the thought of organizing a lifetime of memories feels a bit overwhelming, hiring a Move Manager may be a solution to make the process of moving to a new senior living community as seamless as possible. Senior Move Managers will coordinate the entire affair, from decluttering to sending off donations, and once you’re ready to move into your apartment, they’ll handle that process as well. Once they’re done removing the clutter and unwanted furniture, your house is sure to look much more spacious, making it significantly more saleable.
You could also save some cash by calling the Salvation Army or Habitat for Humanity. These charity organizations will pick up your heavy, unwanted furniture at no cost to you and donate it to a family in need. Be sure to get your receipt in case your donation can be tax deductible.
Keep It Clean
A sparkling interior shows your house has been well cared for, so call in the professionals to scrub the bathrooms and kitchens, wash the windows, clean your carpets, and sweep away any cobwebs. Be aware that potential buyers may want to look inside the oven and open up your cupboards as well.
Think About Lighting
A brightly lit interior makes your home feel warm and inviting. Before every viewing, open up blinds and drapes to let the sunlight in. If there’s an area of the house that doesn’t get much natural light, use floor lights and lamps to brighten it up or switch to more powerful bulbs.
Curb Appeal Counts
How your house looks from the outside will influence the number of viewings and determines how buyers feel as they step through the front door. Hire a landscaper or a friendly neighbor to remove debris, prune bushes, and mow the lawn to make the house look more attractive. Consider buying a new front door mat and planting some colorful annuals to create a positive first impression.
Pack Away Personal Items
Homebuyers like to see a blank canvas so they can imagine themselves moving in. Go ahead and pack away personal possessions, such as photographs and ornaments, as you stage your home for showings. Not only does this minimize decor but it can start the process of detachment. Without your belongings, the house starts to feel less like your home and more like a ‘product’ for sale.
Moving to Senior Living at Pennswood Village
Like many people, you probably have a deep emotional connection to your home and some wonderful memories to cherish. Visiting your new apartment will help you feel excited about the future. Get in touch with us to arrange a viewing and find out more about independent living at Pennswood Village.
Keeping the Pennswood Community Safe During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Keeping our residents and staff safe is always a top priority here at Pennswood Village. COVID-19 presents a huge challenge for independent living communities, and we’re proud of how our community has stepped up to deal with the crisis.
One of the benefits of living in a continuing care retirement community like Pennswood is that rigorous health and safety standards are already in place. While we primarily offer services for independent living residents, we also have a skilled nursing staff available 24/7 so that we can be both proactive and responsive. Thanks to heightened precautionary measures, we’ve had no cases of COVID-19 among our independent living residents, and we’re working urgently to keep it this way. Here are some of the protocols we’ve put in place to ensure everyone’s safety.
Restrictions on Visitors
Before the government issued the “Stay at Home” order, we took steps to secure our campus and implemented a safe environment. Woolman House, our skilled nursing area, was built to contain a virus of this nature and keep it from spreading into our community. This allowed us to keep our most at-risk residents safe while ensuring peace of mind for our independent living residents.
As our community begins to open up in the coming weeks, we’ll be following the Red, Yellow, and Green phases recommended by the PA Governor’s Office. We will constantly monitor and assess the situation as we move forward.
Protective Equipment
All staff and residents are required to wear masks in public spaces, which is made easy thanks to our many “Maskateers.” Community members skilled in sewing put their expertise to good use by crafting protective masks. As a community, we’ve issued guidelines for how and when the masks are to be used, including how they should be stored, washed, or disposed of. Protective measures such as hand washing and maintaining a distance of at least six feet are also meticulously applied.
Medical Care
With our own on-site physicians, we were able to continue to provide excellent care to our residents. As another option we offered Telehealth services. Some of our residents do need care, which requires physical contact. Our procedures ensure that any necessary contact is carried out on a professional level following best practices.
Socially Distanced Services
Grocery shopping is made easy with our farmer’s market stand on campus, where residents shop for local produce and other goods. To help our residents, our team has also been offering complimentary shopping services with pickups from the grocery store, pharmacy, and nursery. We’ve been able to deliver meals directly to residents’ homes, as well as collecting mail and helping with bank deposits and other financial needs.
Community Spaces
Our public spaces are an important part of our senior living community. With the cooperation of staff and residents, wearing masks and social distancing we have been able to keep them open. While we are closed to the public, our residents still enjoy opportunities to walk our beautiful grounds, take a dip in the pool, and get their regular workouts in with our exercise programs like Tai Chi, Zumba, and yoga. For those staying indoors, Pennswood is broadcasting everything from exercise classes and movies to community “fireside chats” directly to the homes of our residents so they can stay informed and connected. Zoom meetings have been an integral part of keeping resident groups connected, allowing them to play games and hold socially distanced book club meetings.
Communication
To ensure our community works together to combat COVID-19, we believe good communication is vital. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve kept our staff and residents well informed with regular newsletters and updates. The CEO meets weekly by Zoom with the resident association leadership. The shared collaboration allowed us to make Pennswood a safe place for our staff to work and our residents to live without fear. Although the future remains uncertain, we believe every individual has an important role to play in adhering to the guidelines. We thank everyone for their cooperation and commitment to making Pennswood Village a safe, caring, and supportive environment in which to live and work.
Life at Pennswood Village
To find out more about independent living at Pennswood Village, contact us to arrange a guided virtual tour, where a counselor will be on hand to answer any questions.
The Pennswood Village Cognitive Well-Being Team: Combating Fear with Education
Pennswood Village residents are known for their caring, welcoming and inclusive culture. Recently, residents became more interested in learning more about how to support those dealing with a dementia-based diagnosis. Although all new residents move to an independent living apartment when they first come to Pennswood Village, most already know of someone who is dealing with dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 5.8 million American are currently living with dementia and that number is expected to rise to 14 million by 2050. As a proactive senior living community, Pennswood Village’s leadership has supported the foundation of the Cognitive Well-Being Team, a group comprising of both staff and residents that focuses on cognitive health and support for those with cognitive difficulties. Their efforts will better serve existing residents, as well as those who will become a part of our community and may face this diagnosis in the future.
Are 55+ Communities in Bucks County, PA, the Right Choice for Me?
Picture the board game, The Game of Life, where players travel in tiny plastic cars along life’s road of many milestones. Like the board game, you have various options to consider when plotting your course for retirement. For husband and wife, George and Anaruth Hynson, and for Sara Pollock, their first stop in retirement was a 55+ community.
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Looking for Independent Options? Check Out Pennswood Village
When asked what tops the list of American values, most people would respond “independence.” You might agree with this, as many of us enjoy the spirit of individualism and the sense of control of our own lives. This sense of self-reliance does not diminish with age. After all, you’ve spent your life carving your own path and building a career, perhaps raising a family and making decisions. Why stop now? If you’re looking for independent options as you research retirement living, look no further than Pennswood Village.
Why We Joined the Waitlist at Pennswood Village
Some people are planners and do their best to anticipate the road ahead. While you can’t plan for everything in life, a good plan, especially in retirement, can help you achieve peace of mind.
If planning for as much as you can is important to you, then getting on a waitlist for a retirement community is a good place to start. After all, it lowers the risk that you will not be able to get in to your favorite community when you want to do so.
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The Nielsens: Enjoying a Turnkey, Traveling Lifestyle
When Fred and Maiken Nielsen decided to retire and leave their farm to their son, they knew they wanted to embrace a simple way of life. Knowing they wanted to remain in the Bucks County area, they visited Pennswood Village and immediately chose a one-bedroom-with-den apartment home.
Moving from 3,000 square feet to a little over 1,000 square feet, Fred and Maiken liked the idea of finding a home that reflected the lifestyle they wanted to lead: a smaller home with plenty of amenities, security and freedom from home maintenance. “It’s turnkey,” Fred said. “We shut the door and come back and the place looks the same.”
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The Pennswood Resident Art Gallery
Works from Rodin, Renoir and Whistler line the halls of famous galleries like the Guggenheim, National Gallery of Art and Musée d’Orsay in Paris, but Pennswood Village claims its own collection of fine arts ranging from sculptures, pottery and collages, to oils, watercolors and photography. It’s a source of great pride in our community when visitors admire the art on our campus for us to say the artist calls Pennswood home.
The community has a designated art gallery to showcase Pennswood talent – The Resident Art Gallery. “Located just inside our main entrance, The Gallery showcases five exhibitions each year featuring solo as well as group shows around various themes. The Gallery is open to the public and each exhibition is celebrated with a reception,” said Elaine Daniels, a porcelain sculpture artist, and member of the Resident Art Gallery Committee.
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Pennswood’s 2019 Musical Revue Brings “Big City Fun” to Bucks County
There’s a good chance that “Big City Fun,” a musical revue performed by Pennswood Village residents, still has its audience humming a tune and tapping their feet. The annual resident-run musical event, which debuted on May 6 and May 7 in Penn Hall, featured 25 musical numbers from the Great American Songbook.
Earth Day with Newtown Friends School
It’s just another day at Pennswood Village when a nationally recognized playwright, librettist, screenwriter and stage director writes and directs a play for local schoolchildren. First, she wants to bring awareness to the serious issue of climate change and second, she wants to foster the love of theater in students.
Pennswood Village resident Joan Vail Thorne continues to write professionally for the theater, but she recently wrote and directed “Listen to the World,” an Earth Day skit for Newtown Friends School’s second graders. The show debuted on May 7th to an audience of Pennswood Village residents and parents of the performing students.
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