Jim and Marilyn Anderson had actually begun preparing themselves for a move from their home of 37 years in Centennial—when an emergency sped up the timeline faster than either could have possibly imagined.
Last winter, the day after Christmas, Jim Anderson slipped on the ice outside their place in The Knolls neighborhood and broke a hip. Suddenly, the 2-story house that had been their home for a lifetime became a hostile environment.
“We couldn’t do a stair lift in it,” recalls Marilyn.
“Emergencies are a worst-case scenario for seniors who are approaching an eventual move,” says Realtor Blair Bryant with The Steller Group, real estate agents with a Senior Solutions Division devoted entirely to senior moves.
“When you have to do a move in a hurry, you lose control over where you’re going to end up, as well as the time you need to ready your house for market,” Bryant adds.
But the Andersons made a happy landing, thanks to Steller’s team—who coached them on decluttering the home for sale, and used an in-house contractor for some low-budget fix-ups to ready it for showings. (Steller’s sale drew a contract in a single day, with multiple offers.)
All of that looked highly unlikely after the accident happened. The Andersons had previously attended two of the free seminars that Steller offers about senior moves (seminars on various aspects downsizing are set for locations in Southeast Aurora, Centennial, and Denver in October and November).
Marilyn (she had a 30-year career teaching high school history in Littleton and at University of Denver High School) had discussed senior downsizing with her neighbors—and knew that the big problem would be finding a single-level, low-maintenance place to move.
But although the couple had talked about timing, Jim Anderson (he wrote the long-running Oil Roundup column in The Denver Post) hadn’t felt ready to go yet.
“It ended in a crisis,” recalls Marilyn. In January, as options to stay in place were running out, she placed a call to Bryant at Steller.
“The first thing we tackled was locating a place to go with no waiting list,” recalls Bryant. Those are never easy to find, he adds.
The Andersons were set on getting a patio home with a yard and outdoor-living spaces, not an apartment. “No corridor-living!” Marilyn said.
After some looking, Steller’s agents turned up a perfect landing spot—a rental “campus” in South Denver, run by a non-profit, with some homes available.
Eastern Star Masonic Retirement Campus, off S. Quebec St. north of E. Yale, had a long waiting list coming into the 2020 pandemic, but now had a 2,200-foot plan with a patio opening onto the High Line Canal, for quick move-in.
With help from Steller’s move contractor, the Andersons settled in—each getting an office in a day-lit garden level basement. Neighbors have been quick to say hello, and Marilyn has been attending campus seminars. “It’s a social place with very interesting people,” she says.
Meanwhile, Steller agents prepped the Centennial house to sell. “They were painting the day after we moved out,” Marilyn recalls.
Steller’s Bryant says that even without a crisis, planning ahead for a move gives much more freedom of choice when the time arrives. “If you’re on a faster timeframe, this fall market is looking good,” he adds. The Fed’s most recent cut of interest rates has had a positive effect on the real estate market.
With Jim on the mend, Marilyn says Steller’s seminars are revitalizing. “When I went to our first, it was a load off me.”
Steller’s free seminars include ones on downsizing, decluttering and on taxes/timing. See the box above or visit DenverSeniorSeminars.com
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this post’s preparation.