Helping Your Parents Find Their Way Home: A Conversation with Jennifer Drohan

Dan Drews: Hello everyone and welcome to Aging In Place, the Greater Naperville Areas Family Guide.

Dan Drews: Our goal is to help the sandwich generation. This is middle-aged adults, kind of in your forties and fifties who are squeezed by the responsibility of simultaneously. Supporting aging parents as well as their own children. We want to help their parents age as gracefully as possible and reduce the stress through education and community connection.

Dan Drews: It takes a village folks, and there are a lot of great resources and ideas that we try to uncover through expert guests that know the local area very, very well. I’m your host Dan Drews. And this is my co-host and sponsor, Mr. Brennan Roberts, the owner of Seniors, helping Seniors, uh, for the Greater Naperville area.

Dan Drews: Brennan, tell us a little [00:01:00] bit about seniors, helping seniors. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah, thanks Dan. So, seniors, helping seniors, our mission is really to help seniors in our community kinda live independently for as long as possible with sort of the dignity and grace that they deserve. Uh, so we provide non-medical in-home care services such as.

Brennen Roberts: Companionship support with daily living and personal care, and we do it through this very, what we feel is a very unique intergenerational model. So our caregivers are sort of active, loving, mature seniors themselves, and they’re able to provide more of a peer-to-peer support for our clients that really we think benefits our caregivers just as much as our clients.

Brennen Roberts: And we recognize, you know, we’re just kind of a sliver of the, the care and issues and our, our, our vision is really to help alleviate stress on families as well as kind of make connections within the community for our families. So we’re excited to be a sponsor of the podcast and be part of the conversation, and I’m excited [00:02:00] about learning more and, uh, how we can help our families with issues like today.

Dan Drews: Well, thank you Brennan, and a very important sliver nonetheless too, right? Yes, it 

IMG_7728: is. 

Dan Drews: Folks, our show today is gonna focus on the home and real estate and how that plays into plans for seniors at different stages of their retirement process. And to help with that, I am so excited that we are joined today by a Naperville real estate icon, Jennifer Drohan.

Dan Drews: Jennifer grew up in uh, Naperville, and she has happily been serving the western suburbs since. 2003 with more than 22 years of experience as a realtor. She is an expert in her field. Jennifer is a relocation specialist and an accredited, certified staging consultant. In 2019, folks, she was the. Number one individual agent enlisting volume at Keller Williams Infinity.

Dan Drews: Jennifer, welcome to the uh, show. Thank you. And thank you so much for joining us today. 

Jennifer Drohan: Thank you both. I’m honored to be here. 

Dan Drews: Great. [00:03:00] Well, listen, did I miss anything in that flowery introduction for you? 

Jennifer Drohan: No, no. You did great. 

Dan Drews: Okay. Sounds good. Brendan, listen, we’ve got a big topic to cover today with Jennifer.

Dan Drews: Where do you wanna start with this big mammoth topic? 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah, well, I would, I thought we’d start kind of big picture like this is interesting. I think. I think like intuitively, people kind of know the shift. There’s some shift in demographics going on, and when you look at the numbers, sometimes it’s a little.

Brennen Roberts: Staggering, I guess, you know, we’ve seen this, you know, massive increase in sort of the number of the size of the population. That’s 65 plus. I mean, you can see this little chart shooting way up to the right, and even if you projected this out even further, the number of people that are 65 and over. Uh, in the country is gonna expect it to double in the next 40 years.

Brennen Roberts: And the number of people 85 and over is supposed to triple even. So, um, and it really, it really hits home. Like this is interesting. Like we’ve seen, uh, sort of in the, like just the [00:04:00] Western DuPage County, like the population, uh, has really remained flat. If you look at sort of the census data, uh, overall.

Brennen Roberts: But you’ve seen that the. 65 plus population is really going up significantly. So you can see, uh, these numbers just in 20 2010, it was like 10% of the population. And by just in 20 years, it’s expected to be almost 18% of the population in the area. So, uh, so I’m just kind of curious like. Big shift in demographics, like how is that impacting the real estate market overall?

Jennifer Drohan: Mm-hmm. So, e especially in our area, focusing mainly DuPage County, et cetera, uh, we’re seeing a tremendous lack of inventory of available homes. There are a big chunk of degeneration now that want to age in place. So we’re seeing less and less inventory for our new buyers to purchase, uh, because a lot of, uh, our residents here are wanting to stay in their homes.

Brennen Roberts: Yeah, I think like our, the things that we’ve seen, and obviously, you [00:05:00] know, seniors, helping seniors likes to help people live in their homes. And we, we’ve seen like, uh, our studies show like 90% of people, if you ask ’em, like, I wanna age in my home as long as I possibly can. 

Jennifer Drohan: Exactly. 

Brennen Roberts: But you know, particularly when you’re getting up to the 85 plus mm-hmm.

Brennen Roberts: There’s a huge percentage of that need help and they do stuff. Right. So I imagine you’re, you’re in homes, homes all the time. Like what, what kind of things are you seeing with. People making modifications or changes to their house to help kind of enable that aging process? 

Jennifer Drohan: Sure. So if a resident has been in their home for years and years, or decades and decades and they really wanna stay, there’s modifications that can be done to the home to make it easier for them.

Jennifer Drohan: We always would recommend pulling up any sort of carpeting, um, laying down either hardwood tile or even luxury vinyl plate. Flooring now is a preferred, um, material to be used. Ease of using wheelchairs, walkers, et cetera. Um, things that can be installed such as grab bars and bathrooms. Um, we’re also seeing a lot of chair [00:06:00] lifts in two story property.

Jennifer Drohan: Um, we’re also seeing as much as putting on an addition onto the existing home to accommodate a first floor primary suite. 

Brennen Roberts: Interesting. And does it, does that have any impact on like. If you’re looking down the road at resale values mm-hmm. Do you see that like having a negative, is it a positive? 

Jennifer Drohan: Not necessarily a negative.

Jennifer Drohan: Uh, some of those items may need to be removed. Um, a chair lift, for example, is a lot of nuts and bolts going up, uh, up the stairwell. Mm-hmm. And for a buyer who may be a different age demographic, that might be a little intimidating for them, so that might wanna be removed. Before that comes on the market for sale.

Jennifer Drohan: Yeah. For example, 

Dan Drews: Brennen, I was just, uh, thinking about this too. So my parents are in their early eighties and they’re going to do a bathroom conversion right now, but those are the types of things that they’re gonna be adding in, in grab bars and things like that. In, in your experience, are there companies that kind of.

Dan Drews: Focus on those, uh, those type of, uh, revisions [00:07:00] or, uh, alter alterations. 

Jennifer Drohan: Most, most handyman builders can take care of something like that. Actually, it’s probably a lack of corporation that we have that would do adjustments like that. So it’s a pretty good business idea to, to come in and do something like that for people.

Jennifer Drohan: Yeah. 

Brennen Roberts: There’s, there’s a few in the area mm-hmm. That specialize in that. Mm-hmm. You know, obviously. Um, you know, part of our role sometimes is coming in and like helping make advising and like mm-hmm. Things that we’d point out. But, you know, we’re really thinking about how does the senior stay in place Sure.

Brennen Roberts: For bigger things. There’s certainly companies like a one-on-one mobility in the area that are, people can call and they’ll come in and do a more broader assessment and help with things like wheelchair ramps and figure out they’ve got some services. But yeah, I think a lot of people depend on like handyman.

Brennen Roberts: And thinking about they gotta do it this house, but there are, there are some resources in the community for them to do that. 

Dan Drews: Jennifer, when you find that, uh, families are kind of in this transition period, is it. Typically you see it initiated by the older [00:08:00] homeowner or sometimes the other family members kind of having the light bulb moment, like, I think we better do this for mom and dad.

Jennifer Drohan: The majority is the older homeowner. Yeah. You know, is not wanting to leave. Yeah. And the, the middle or sandwich generation, which I’m a part of as well. Um. It oftentimes does want them to downsize, get a little more simple with their living. Um, get a little more maintenance free in their housing. However, if the resident wants to stay, um, it probably would be the.

Jennifer Drohan: Children, the, the, the sandwich generation helping to make these modifications, helping connect them with the companies and suggesting what would be helpful, you know, what they need. Sometimes they can do even an ADA compliant vanity or a kitchen, if they are wheelchair bound, um, doorways may need to be widened, et cetera.

Jennifer Drohan: So that’s a little bit bigger process. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. I wonder. I, I have found it difficult sometimes engaging with my parents on mm-hmm. These steps that, that [00:09:00] they need to take the modifications that need to happen in the home. And I’m wondering if, uh, any family members ever tapped you on the shoulder and say, Jennifer, can you please talk to mom?

Dan Drews: And of course, you know, of course. ’cause sometimes that third party 

Jennifer Drohan: coming from the middle man, yeah. It sometimes it’s just a little smoother, a little easier to digest for the people who wanna stay in the home. Yeah. So, absolutely. Yep. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. I imagine there’s some times when you’re walking in, you’re like, okay, the amount of.

Brennen Roberts: Modification we have to make right. This home livable for you is kind of beyond the benefit. Is it gonna outweigh looking at downsides? Correct. And, and, uh, you know, so, so, yeah. So speaking of that, there’s always gonna be a time like, you know, a lot of people. They raise their kids in their home. You know, they think about like, I wanna have extra bedrooms when people come home for the holidays and all that stuff.

Brennen Roberts: But really their house is way too big. Or they wanna downsize, but they also love the community. They love the neighborhood. Like what? Like. Talk us through, like family’s kind of decided or talked to you about it, like, Hey, we wanna downsize, and what does that mean for somebody [00:10:00] today? 

Jennifer Drohan: Yeah. Oftentimes it might be a family decision, especially if it were down to one parent.

Jennifer Drohan: If one is a widow, um, the children may be really heavily advising. So number one, really we’re looking at. How maintenance free do we need to be? Um, there’s two different sort of downsizing that they could do. Are we needing a maintenance free living that is a downsized, smaller square footage property where the lawns, the snow, everything is taken care of for them on the exterior?

Jennifer Drohan: Or are we really needing some sort of intervention with. Some care. Are we needing something more along the lines of like a Tabor Hills or like a Monarch Landing Assist? Uh, at some point, which, um, weighing the options, it, it, the first step is generally a downsizing of a 55 and over community is generally the first step of a downsize.

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. And, and, um, I mean we’re, I’ve seen a lot, a lot more of those, it feels like. Popping up in the area coming ‘

Jennifer Drohan: cause we need them. 

Brennen Roberts: They’re 

Jennifer Drohan: coming. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. So [00:11:00] what about like, uh, when I think about downsizing, a lot of times like. When my mother went through it, you know, it was going from a, you know, larger home to like a condo kind of in town.

Brennen Roberts: Is there, is there even like, availability is, is the, is there any inventory for that kind of thing? 

Jennifer Drohan: Like 55 and over sort of community? 

Brennen Roberts: Well, I guess there’s like the, like the 55 and over. Maybe you can talk a little bit about those, but also like, like, hey, like what are my options, I guess. 55 and over community or maybe like a small condo or a small ranch style house.

Brennen Roberts: Like is there inventory in the area? A 

Jennifer Drohan: little, a small, a small amount of inventory, yes. Um, there’s gonna be a bit more inventory available in the true 55 and over communities such as the Caron or the Dell Webbs. Uh, they’re starting to expand outside of DuPage County, of course, sort of heading. Toward Oswego, Yorkville, et cetera.

Jennifer Drohan: There’s gonna be more coming in. Um, there is truly a need for these communities and generally they sell out pretty quickly. Uh, there’s one new one in Aurora down south on Ola. It’s Dell Web. It’s absolutely beautiful. And I think they [00:12:00] might be in their final phase now, right? I think there’s simply Ranch Think 

Brennen Roberts: phase.

Brennen Roberts: They’re starting phases four on five. Yep. But yeah, it’s been very, 

Jennifer Drohan: very popular. They’ve been with building, they’ve been, they’ve been pre-selling out before. They’re, they’re constructed. There’s no spec models to purchase, so it’s only built to suits. Mm-hmm. Um, and beautiful clubhouse, they really are coming in with the luxuries that make it, um, a resident wanna stay here versus almost.

Jennifer Drohan: Moving to Florida or moving to a warmer climate, if they still have family in the area, they really are gonna wanna stay local. And that’s this market, that’s, that’s what we’re seeing is they don’t wanna leave the neighborhoods and an area and friends and doctors that they grew up with. So they’re comfortable downsizing into something maintenance free.

Jennifer Drohan: Um, inventory wise is, you know, it’s a little tight. Um, our areas we’re building huge subdivisions, huge monster homes. You know, 3000 square foot, not generally Two story, 

Dan Drews: not too many new ranches. I, 

Jennifer Drohan: not too many new ranches at all. Yeah. Unless it is 55 and over. 

Dan Drews: [00:13:00] Yeah. 

Jennifer Drohan: So yeah. We’re, we’re, we’re seeing a lot of that.

Dan Drews: I’m curious on the, when these new developments come up, like the, the Carolon and the Dell web, I imagine you guys get the first heads up that these developments are coming in sometimes. Do they have like a. Open house. Like do they, do they cater to the realtor market to say, Hey, listen, when you’ve got these clients, let’s kind of, it’s tell your clients, let let you know.

Dan Drews: Kind of a show and tell, if you will. 

Jennifer Drohan: Sometimes. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Jennifer Drohan: Yep. Sometimes we’re invited. Yeah. Yep. And, and always it’s of. Course, if you’re looking, we need to accompany that very first visit to get you registered because mm-hmm. As a realtor, we do wanna represent you mm-hmm. Through the full transaction. If you need assistance with anything, even reviewing the contracts.

Jennifer Drohan: Um, the builders we work with are great there. Mm-hmm. But we have. The best interest at heart for our clients. So we’re kinda looking out for making sure they see, you know, anything that they might question that they, they don’t think of. So we’re kinda looking things over for them and guiding them through the whole transaction as well.

Dan Drews: Gotcha. So clients start with [00:14:00] you? They 

Jennifer Drohan: do. And 

Dan Drews: then you can open up the catalog, right. There’s, 

Jennifer Drohan: right, when it comes to designing the new property, there’ll be one-on-one with the design centers. Mm-hmm. Unless they want us to accompany work. Absolutely happy, happy to do so. 

Dan Drews: Mm-hmm. 

Jennifer Drohan: Uh, but reviewing the contracts, looking at timelines, helping with financing, and most people don’t think that they need a, an inspection on new construction.

Jennifer Drohan: We highly recommend it. So we can recommend our Oh, interesting. Our instructors to come through and, and really do a final, um, final check on that property before they take possession. 

Brennen Roberts: I think getting that perspective on the contracts, because they can be, if you’re building to spac, especially like in a place like Dell Web where they’re.

Brennen Roberts: Promising different services and amenities, which is one of the reasons you’re buying, but Right. There might be things about the timeline, so. Sure. So I, I know like some of the residents that got in early at Dell Web, uh, are a little frustrated because a lot of the amenities they expected mm-hmm. In the contract.

Brennen Roberts: It’s not until like phase buy [00:15:00] is done and here they are. I’ve been living in this area for sure two years now, and I’m still waiting on. The gate to be down and I want security, but 

Jennifer Drohan: Right. 

Brennen Roberts: It’s very clearly written in the contract that we’ll write it there. Right. But I, it’s not something I think most people are gonna 

Jennifer Drohan: catch 

Brennen Roberts: on their own.

Jennifer Drohan: Right. We just like to be devil’s advocate and look out for our clients. So, um, most builders do require them to be registered on the first visit with us anyways. Mm. And it is helpful. It’s helpful. We’re just, we’re just looking out for their best needs. 

Dan Drews: I would imagine too, some of your older clients, it may have been.

Dan Drews: 30 years since they built, bought their last home. Yeah. 

Jennifer Drohan: Complete. Everything’s changed. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Jennifer Drohan: And especially if they’re needing financing. Mm-hmm. Uh, we can absolutely help guide them, keep them within their timelines for appraisals and applications, et cetera. So yeah, just to have that guidance, um, that’s what we do.

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. You, you’d mentioned before in our previous conversations there, there’s potentially like. When financing or discounts available for seniors that mm-hmm. Are out there? Like what? What is that? [00:16:00] What are those? 

Jennifer Drohan: Right. There’s different sort of exemptions depending on their qualifications. So senior exemptions, depending on the county, there’s an age stipulation, but that will reduce their taxes.

Jennifer Drohan: We are all obtaining homestead exemptions on our homes, on our primary residence. That’s a given. When you close the property, the attorney will file that for you, and we’re all getting that. However, seniors are able to apply for more if they have income restrictions. They can also get something called the senior freeze on their taxes.

Jennifer Drohan: However, this is most likely needing to be applied for year over year. So if they let it. It’s going to go back to the full tax amount. Hmm. So, uh, senior freeze is income dependent. It’s a lower income, um, tax freeze literally will freeze the taxes on a certain amount for them. Um, senior, uh, exemption is an age restriction.

Jennifer Drohan: And per your county, you would apply there. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. Okay. So what I’m, I, so again, the idea of getting a professional to kind of help you out mm-hmm. And do that transition, particularly government move for 30 years. [00:17:00] So 

Jennifer Drohan: Sure. 

Brennen Roberts: I’m also hearing like a lot of these. 55 plus communities, which are great in many ways.

Brennen Roberts: It sounds like you really gotta be thinking ahead. Mm-hmm. Because it, I, I imagine there’s like a waiting list, or they are selling very quickly. They do in the area. So 

Jennifer Drohan: they do, there’s, there’s a couple of carons right within the Naperville kind of window. Uh, there’s one in Aurora, there’s one in Naperville.

Jennifer Drohan: Naperville is the. Only one that I’m aware of that actually has a freestanding condo style building as well. Um, with one and two bedroom condos, underground parking, et cetera. Um, for truly turnkey living. Um. They have all the amenities of Caron, the pool, the golf, et cetera. Um, however, it’s, it’s in a, I think there’s maybe six, six level to that building that’s a gated community in Naperville.

Jennifer Drohan: The Caron there. And that’s, that’s quite rare to see an actual condo 55 and over in one of those communities. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. And I imagine, just ’cause you’ve mentioned inventory is so low, if somebody’s like, yep, [00:18:00] hey, I don’t wanna move there. I wanna stay somewhere near my own neighborhood. Mm-hmm. And I need a smaller home.

Brennen Roberts: Mm-hmm. Or something like that. Like, don’t expect to have a bunch of choices available. Sure. So you’re right off the bat and. Like, do you find that some of your clients you’re working with on downsizing, like the process can take, you know, a year or longer? I don’t know what, what’s, 

Jennifer Drohan: hopefully not, but it depends on what their needs are.

Jennifer Drohan: So it, it, it, you know, if they’re in a position where they can purchase their new home. Without selling the existing, which many people are not in that position. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. 

Jennifer Drohan: Mm-hmm. But if they are, we highly recommend that we get their new home settled up first. 

Brennen Roberts: Mm. 

Jennifer Drohan: They transfer over the furnishings, the personal property that they want from the larger home first, and then they can go through the sell process with us, with their existing larger home being.

Jennifer Drohan: Vacant, empty. They don’t have to go through the hassle of the showings and making sure beds are made and dishes are done every day. That’s a lot. Having through people, through your home constantly, through open homes, et cetera. So ideally, [00:19:00] if we can do that, that’s great. There are finance options where they may be able to pull equity out of that existing home to go and purchase the new.

Jennifer Drohan: And we have lenders, of course, that can assist with things like that. Um, if they’re not in a position, we’re just gonna make it as simple as. Possible, um, make it as easy as possible, such as showing time restrictions, no showings until after maybe 10 or 11:00 AM If it’s a little harder to move around in the morning to get the house ready, no showings after perhaps dinner time so that they have the evenings free.

Jennifer Drohan: Um, we’re gonna work with them to make it as comfortable as possible. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. Wow. And then I imagine, so you’ve got a big house with a lot of stuff. You mo you downsize to a smaller place. 

Jennifer Drohan: Right? 

Dan Drews: I imagine you would probably have contacts or work with some estate sale folks. We do too, to help liquidate whatever it is that.

Dan Drews: Doesnt want to be had. I know my parents always ask me, well, what do you want? I go, correct. I have all these things. I don’t 

Jennifer Drohan: need them. I don’t need 10 

Brennen Roberts: Christmas 

Jennifer Drohan: trees. 

Brennen Roberts: Here’s 

Dan Drews: our, I don’t 

Brennen Roberts: need 

Dan Drews: another couch. Grandmas 

Brennen Roberts: China. 

Dan Drews: Yeah, 

Jennifer Drohan: it’s [00:20:00] true. It’s really sad. The amount of China scent and crystal, we see it like a goodwell now because.

Jennifer Drohan: There just isn’t a market for it. But absolutely, if they’re really wanting to sell, we really need to de stuff. I hate to call it clutter because it’s their personal, you know, they love these items. They’re very precious to them. However, today’s buyer don’t want to see that when they’re walking through the property.

Jennifer Drohan: They wanna see it as minimal as possible. Yeah. So step one is always have any relatives family come through and exactly what you’re. Parents did. Mm-hmm. Please take the items that you’d like, or, you know, we don’t, you don’t want us to sell a estate sale, would really be next. Leaving any minimal items for comfort of living.

Jennifer Drohan: And then if they’re not able to take all those items with to their new property, um, there are companies, donation companies, and Downers Grove, Aurora and Neighborville, et cetera, that can pick up, they can do resale and if there’s nothing that can be resold, there’s obviously the companies that will just come and haul out.

Jennifer Drohan: Things that would be considered junk items. Yeah. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. [00:21:00] Well, Brendan, I, I would think in your experience too, this kind of falls in that bucket of let’s have the conversation today. Yes. So we don’t have to get caught behind the eight ball tomorrow. Right. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah. And I think, you know. Things are personal. You know, there was a trip they went on or you know, somebody gave it to ’em and it was very personal.

Brennen Roberts: So, you know, those are the kind of stories I think are helpful to have with your parents as they’re aging and understand why it’s meaningful. Of 

Jennifer Drohan: course, 

Brennen Roberts: therefore, you might look at, you know, if you wait too long and you might look at this vase over here and it might not mean anything to you, but if you That’s right.

Brennen Roberts: If you know the story behind it. 

Jennifer Drohan: Right. 

Brennen Roberts: You know, it might, might take on something totally different you don’t wanna do, it’s true. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I think it’s, uh, part of the conversations you have with your parents ongoing and then as you talked about, like it’s a huge burden on families if like, unfortunately, you know, when people pass and they haven’t done that.

Brennen Roberts: That’s right. And for the kids to have to come in and. Sort of figure out what to do with all this stuff. It is very, it’s [00:22:00] overwhelming. It’s very overwhelming, so, yeah, 

Jennifer Drohan: it is. 

Brennen Roberts: So, and it’s nice to know, there’s obviously professionals like you, you can reach out to and they’ll help, help facilitate the process and connect you with the right people.

Jennifer Drohan: It’s a process. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. 

Dan Drews: Jennifer, I wanted to ask a question if I, if I could B Brendan kind of about. Modifying current homes. Mm-hmm. Like if, uh, I know that we’d have to say, mom’s gonna move out and now she’s gonna move in with me. 

Jennifer Drohan: Mm-hmm. 

Dan Drews: Like, is there a lot, do you see a lot of that modification on current homes of the sandwich generation where they’re trying to have mom live with them now?

Jennifer Drohan: Sure. 

Dan Drews: Yeah. 

Jennifer Drohan: So we have a lot of clients that are faced with this. Issue. So there’s a couple ways they can handle it. If they have a large enough property, they may be able to build on for mom and dad. Mm-hmm. Mom or dad. Mm-hmm. Um, with a extra primary suite, if they have, um, a good amount of land, they may be able to even put something, they call it a granny pod, which is po, which is a freestanding.

Brennen Roberts: Okay. 

Jennifer Drohan: Um, suite, if you will, on the property, that’s gonna be a lot more difficult to get zoning [00:23:00] for. So in our area, that’s not really allowed. However, if you’ve got some acreage out toward us, we go Yorkville, et cetera. Mm-hmm. Playing field, you may be able to do something like that. Do a whole separate, freestanding, almost building for them.

Jennifer Drohan: Um, also what we’re seeing is some of our sandwich generation folks selling all of the homes. And looking for a property that can accommodate every, everybody 

Brennen Roberts: I was gonna Interesting. Yeah, I was gonna say, I, I feel like that’s probably a shift in what people are looking for in many cases. Like I completely, we saw this stat here about like the number of Gen Xers mm-hmm.

Brennen Roberts: That are buying and that’s like one of their main criteria. So I was, imagine you’re hearing that more often. Like, I need 

Jennifer Drohan: a 

Brennen Roberts: place to accommodate aging care. I need a place where either. 

Jennifer Drohan: We 

Brennen Roberts: are mom’s gonna live with me now, or I wanna be prepared to have mom live with me. So 

Jennifer Drohan: even just having a first floor full bathroom is massive, huh?

Jennifer Drohan: Because most cases people are not using their big living room, especially houses that were built in eighties, nineties, huge living rooms that serve no purpose for us anymore. If there’s a full bathroom in place or [00:24:00] room to extend, they can turn that living room into a suite. Really. They can wall, I mean, builders can do anything these days to wall that up, put some nice doors on it, attach it to a bathroom, or C, create a full bath out of a powder room by borrowing from closets or borrowing space from the living room.

Jennifer Drohan: If it can be modified in that way, that’s gonna be a much less hassle, easier way to do than both of you combining it to a brand new property. Mm-hmm. But. If not a, a new property might be in order and, and chances are they may be able to afford more of a property if mom or dad are contributing to the new home.

Brennen Roberts: That’s a good 

Jennifer Drohan: point. The combining resources. So they may be able to get something with, uh, a larger, two primary suites, three car garage, et cetera, and then they’re, they’re there with mom or dad able to help out every day a little bit more. 

Brennen Roberts: Yeah, that’s a great point. That’s a great point. So, um, yeah, I, what, what, um.

Brennen Roberts: I guess we talked about a couple things, like planning ahead and all that stuff. Mm-hmm. Like any, any kinda like general [00:25:00] words of advice to people either navigating this today or might be planning ahead of time from 

Dan Drews: clients or your own 

Jennifer Drohan: experience. Sure, sure. Yeah. Um, research, you know, research, research, research and contenting company like you to kind of assist, guide them with that.

Jennifer Drohan: Um, I think it, it’s two big components. Are we downsizing into a 55 and over? Are we very mobile? Still, are we still very independent or are we really looking for something where we are needing a lot of extra assistance? It’s two totally different markets, and if they’re still very mobile independent, but need that assistance with some things.

Jennifer Drohan: Mm-hmm. Maybe dishes, laundry, et cetera, you know, they’re still wanting to stay either in their home or they’re downsized 55 and over. Just maintenance free living. To contact your company and really get that assistance in just for those, especially if they don’t have relatives nearby, which may be the case.

Jennifer Drohan: They’re still here and they wanna stay here. All the family has moved down to other states, et cetera, and they don’t have that [00:26:00] support system to lean on. So they need, um. Really someone to help but research really, you need to be comfortable. I think they need to visit multiple 55 and over communities and maybe they don’t want 55 and over.

Jennifer Drohan: Mm-hmm. Maybe they still want a community where there’s a school in the neighborhood where there’s a lot of action. A lot of kids, they still wanna see children and people out walking their dogs, et cetera. We can find ranches. They’re a lot more few and far between, but we can find them. If you have a little time on your side, we can find them.

Jennifer Drohan: Um, but yeah. If you’re doing a assisted, really move in needing some care. Um, it’s all gonna depend on where you’re comfortable with and looking at the reviews and et cetera, and what kind of level care you’re needing. 

Dan Drews: That’s great. That’s great advice. Brendan, dovetailing off of that, in your experience and in your experience with your dad mm-hmm.

Dan Drews: Any other advice you’d, uh, add onto that? 

Brennen Roberts: I mean, I, I’d just say start the conversations early, you know, ’cause I find a lot of our clients of. My personal case, it [00:27:00] unfortunately happened. It’s when you’re in. Crisis mode and you’re having to navigate like medical issues and working through all that. You know, other issues about long-term home and the state and sizing and all that is just, it’s daunting, overwhelming, right?

Brennen Roberts: And it’s really doesn’t become a priority, but it has to be dealt with. So I think like starting the conversations early. Uh, talking through, you know, what their wishes are, you know, and, and again, we wanna say, you know, people let’s, we wanna age as gracefully as possible. Sure. And you know, just ’cause somebody’s been in a home forever and they think that’s the only place there are other.

Brennen Roberts: Places where they can be happy and fulfilled and 

Jennifer Drohan: Right. 

Brennen Roberts: Social and all that. So yeah, 

Dan Drews: I’d probably add onto that too. Make sure you’ve got all the estate planning I dotted and t’s crossed as well. A 

Jennifer Drohan: hundred 

Dan Drews: percent as well. A hundred percent. So that, you know, power of attorneys and all those things mm-hmm.

Dan Drews: Are just in place. So you don’t get caught flatfooted when the time comes. Yeah. 

Jennifer Drohan: Have a trust 

Dan Drews: in 

Jennifer Drohan: place, have at least wills, [00:28:00] but a trust is that next level up where Yeah. Uh, we’re looking at doing that now because we, I just went through it a couple years ago, uh, with my dad passing. We put everything for my mom in a trust.

Jennifer Drohan: Mm-hmm. So it simplified for, for our wellbeing mm-hmm. When that time comes. So yeah, we are the sandwich generation for sure. We’re 

Dan Drews: Yep. Time to parent our 

Jennifer Drohan: parents and times we’re in the middle 

Dan Drews: right. Yeah. Well, Jennifer, thanks so much for your time and expertise today. Welcome. You are fabulous. Thank, thank you.

Dan Drews: Enjoyed having you here too. Thank 

Jennifer Drohan: you. 

Dan Drews: If people need to reach out to you for your services mm-hmm. What’s the best way to get ahold of you? 

Jennifer Drohan: Just my phone. Call me or text me, and the number is 6 3 0 2 9 2 2 6 9 6. You won’t be routed through a whole team, um, of, uh, people. You’ll talk to me directly. So call me or text me anytime.

Jennifer Drohan: I’m happy to talk. Happy to help. 

Dan Drews: Excellent. Excellent, excellent. Uh, Brennan, thank you again too. I appreciate it. Jennifer, thank you again for taking the time with us today and for helping our efforts to find ways to assist seniors to age in place in their golden [00:29:00] years. Brennan, we appreciate you as well and seniors helping seniors sponsor this program and being part of the Naperville Area guide on this topic.

Dan Drews: We look forward to all of you joining us next time for our next guest. And until then, remember. It takes a village. So play your part in the village. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Now we’ll talk here. I’m just gonna Rhythm 

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