Tag: Avenida Lakewood

Aging in Place vs. Moving to a 55+ Community: Here Are Some Considerations  

It has been almost four months since Rita and I moved into our 2-bedroom rental in an “active adult” 55+ community. As such,  not all our fellow residents are retired, much less in need of assistance in their day-to-day living. Meals are not provided other than a daily continental breakfast, the primary purpose of which is to facilitate socializing.

Why would seniors want to sell their beloved single-family home with a vegetable garden and fenced yard for their dog? Good question! We loved our home backing to Lookout Mountain, where we lived for 10 years before selling it in March. Our motivation was purely financial at the time, believing that we were at the top of the sellers market. We thought that “cashing out” and renting for a year or two might make sense financially, and we liked what we saw at Avenida Lakewood.

In our minds, it turned out to be a good decision, but would it be a good decision for you? Rita and I have had some time now to weigh the pros and cons (mostly pros) of that decision, and I thought it would make a good topic for this column.

The most compelling positive about our move is that we gained a community which we lacked in the isolation of our single-family home. Yes, we knew and liked many of our neighbors, but Avenida takes community to a whole new level.

As I mentioned in a prior column, we had made more friends in our first month than we made in 10 years as owners of our single-family home. That’s precisely because it’s a 55+ community, and not because it’s an apartment building. In a regular apartment building, one might occasionally see a neighbor in the hallway, elevator or lobby, but the level of activity in a 55+ community is such that it’s rare for us not to see neighbors every time we leave our apartment, not to mention when we engage in one of the group activities.

When we would leave our Golden home, we usually left by car from our garage, and the most “connection” we’d have with our neighbors might be waving to them from the moving car. I might see my next-door neighbor when I walked to the mailbox, and I did meet fellow dog walkers when I took our dog out once a day. But that was about it.

In any given month there are over 300 group activities for our 275+ fellow residents. (See below for the various groups and activities for the month of July.) I myself will attend three fitness classes this week — one on strength building, another on balance and flexibility, and a third on cardio conditioning. Rita likes her Mahjong group and a couple card game groups, and she is joining me on one of those workouts. I also joined the group that writes the monthly newsletter.

That’s just 2% of the available activities, however, and over half our fellow residents engage in 10 or more activities each month. That’s what creates the community. Rita and I are new, so we don’t know everyone’s name, but it seems that many fellow residents do, and social director Sadie definitely knows everyone by name.

Being in our 70s, it’s inevitable that one day in the next 20 or so years, one of us will pre-decease the other, and I can already see that many arms will embrace the one of us who lives on. One well-loved resident died in March (none since, by the way), and he was mourned in the newsletter — which also features a paragraph about each resident who moves in or leaves.

So, community is the number one “pro” of our new lifestyle. In our prior homes, Rita and I never experienced such a sense of community.

While one might miss the lawns and gardens of his/her single-family home, it’s hard to miss the weeding, lawn mowing and snow shoveling — although I did enjoy using my new electric snow blower! (I have it in storage, if you’d like to buy it.)

Rita wasn’t keen about our move initially but has come to love our new home. The few “cons” that we came up with, such as having to dispose of so many possessions or having to walk the dog instead of letting it out the back door, have proved in the end to be positives.

Getting rid of decades of accumulated possessions was a challenge, but a good one. Our heirs will have far less to deal with, and several charities benefited from our donations. And having to walk the dog helps me complete the exercise rings on my Apple Watch each day!

We no longer have a garage, just a carport in the parking lot. With less need of two cars, we have downsized to just one. There are four ChargePoint charging stations in the parking lot, and there’s a bike room for my electric bike.

We have no pantry and a smaller refrigerator, and there’s no place to put a second refrigerator or freezer, so we are spending less money at Costco these days. We were able to rent storage cages on the same floor as our apartment, which helps.

We had to drive to everything before, but now we are within walking distance of a King Soopers, a liquor store, and three favorite restaurants (Mexican, Chinese and Japanese) plus a light rail station.

Several food trucks come to our building each month, and a mini farmer’s market sets up in one of the many common spaces each month. A carpool to a weekly farmer’s market is one of the summer activities.

We don’t have a guest bedroom as we did in our home, but the building has two nicely furnished guest apartments that residents can reserve for a reasonable fee.

Our kitchen is much smaller than the fabulous kitchen in our home, especially regarding counterspace, but Rita bought a rolling island and recently volunteered to me that she loves our kitchen now.

Our stacked washer and dryer aren’t as nice or as big as our high-efficiency units were, but there are jumbo units in the basement that we can use for free if the need arises (for comforters, etc.). There’s also a dog wash room, but our mobile groomer comes to Avenida just as she did to our prior home. Rita and I like to patronize the salon, too!

Security is another advantage of our particular community, with a private security company patrolling our parking lot and sidewalks from dusk until dawn every day. Residents are issued a credit card-sized RFID card which opens all the doors and gates to the building.

I welcome readers’ feedback on this perspective on the 55+ rental option. It should be pointed out that there are many different types of 55+ communities including ones with owned single-family homes.

Reflections 7 Weeks After Selling Our Home and Moving into a 55+ Rental Community  

In my March 10 column (read it at www.JimSmithColumns.com), I announced that Rita and I had decided to sell our Golden home and become renters for the first time in 50 or so years for both of us. A year ago, I could not have predicted such a decision so early in our youthful 70s. I thought you’d like to know how that has worked out for us, in case I got you thinking about a similar move yourself.

Our reasoning was simple. We felt that our home, which we could (and did) sell for 2½ times what we paid for it ten years ago, was unlikely to keep appreciating, and the money we would pocket from selling could more than support us for the rest of our lives. Since I’ll continue making a good income as a Realtor for several more years, we could pay all our living expenses without touching the principal, which we have since invested half in equity stocks and half in a Transamerica annuity with downside protection. (Ask me if you’d like references to our two advisors.)

Zillow and other valuation models show our former home continuing to appreciate, which is good news for our buyer, but it’s hard to predict how much longer that will be true.  I feel we may be at or near the peak of the market. The experience with other listings in the past month suggests that, yes, the market is softening, triggered primarily by the rapid rise in mortgage rates.

So, are Rita and I happy in our new 2-bedroom/2-bath rental? The answer is a qualified “yes.” It definitely was an exercise in “letting go” to move from a 2,639-sq.-ft. home with its 3-car garage and its 2,281-sq.-ft. basement full of “stuff” into our 1,096-sq.-ft. apartment.  I made countless trips to Goodwill, plus targeted donations elsewhere. We gave three unused bicycles plus accessories to the Golden Optimists’ Bicycle Recycle program, gave our gas generator to a Habitat for Humanity group, gave our air compressor to our handyman who uses it to blow out sprinkler systems, and, most helpful of all, included virtually all our furniture in the sale of our home.

It was, in short, quite a process of letting go, not just of miscellaneous possessions accumulated over the years, but also of family heirlooms which had been passed down over the years from our two families.

We had boxes and boxes of artifacts and papers in our basement which we spent many hours culling, recycling most of it. (I didn’t quite finish and have a few boxes in storage that I will get to “sometime.”)

Yes, we rented storage space — both a long-term unit at Public Storage and two small cages in our apartment building a short distance from our apartment for short-term storage — stuff that might otherwise go in a pantry or closet if we had a larger unit.

Long before we had decided to sell and downsize, Rita and I had purchased a week-long cruise of the Mediterranean, which began three weeks after our move into the apartment. We had barely settled in by that time, and the cruise allowed us to experience living in 200 square feet for long enough to make our 1,096-sq.-ft. apartment feel rather spacious when we returned.

As I write this, another 16 days have passed, and we are finally settled in and enjoying our new digs. We spend a lot of time on our south-facing balcony with its view of Green Mountain and the foothills. We watch less TV, having “cut the cord” and subscribed to YouTube TV. We watch much less news and more Netflix movies and programs.

We are also beginning to take advantage of the many programs at Avenida Lakewood, although the press of business is keeping me from taking the yoga and fitness classes which are offered. Shown here is a picture of the sign in our elevator listing the various facilities in the building, to give you an idea of what’s offered. A recent census reported by our community manager said that 70% of the 266 residents in Avenida’s 207 occupied apartments have participated in 9 or more activities, and that 57% of February’s programs were created and led by a resident. There were 314 programs on the March calendar.  Talk about “active living”!

Continental breakfast is served daily except Sunday on the main floor and is one of many opportunities to meet fellow residents. Being on the 4th floor, we also meet people in the elevator, and everyone is super friendly. Residents don’t pass each other, indoors or on the sidewalk, without saying “hello.” This is a contrast from our single-family subdivision, where there were few opportunities to meet our neighbors. I already know more neighbors in this building than I knew in that subdivision.

Rita has made use of the full-service salon, where I have already had a haircut. Rita joined a card game and a Mahjong group, meeting additional neighbors that way. I attended the men’s group where we discussed possible events. I will be driving up Mt. Evans with some of the men after that road opens.

At this time, 95% of the apartments at Avenida Lakewood have been leased. (It was only opened in the summer of 2019.) Soon they will start creating a waiting list. Call me if you’d like to know more or be introduced to the sales staff. Don’t call me if you smoke, however. It’s not permitted anywhere in the building or on the grounds — even within your apartment or on your balcony.

In conclusion, Rita and I feel that we made the right decision. Thanks to the nest egg we created by selling our home, plus Medicare and our long-term care policies, we feel that our future is secure and we can even splurge on more vacations.

I don’t know how many communities there are like Avenida, which charges rent with no “buy-in” that would tie up capital that could otherwise be producing income. Jenn Gomer of CarePatrol told us about Avenida and we didn’t look further. I recommend calling her at 720-788-2364 if you want to know other options.

For Rita and me, we like the flexibility of our one-year lease which gives us the freedom to stay or move a year from now.

With Prices So High, Many Homeowners Are Wondering If It’s Time to Cash Out  

Rita and I are both 74 years old, and, although I have no plans to retire at this time, we have decided for various reasons to sell our home and move into a 55-plus community. Knowing that many of my readers are seniors, I’ve decided to share some of our thinking.

When you’re our age, you can’t predict when you might have to sell, so I have always recommended that seniors do it while they can instead of waiting until they have to. It is also kinder to your heirs to downsize possessions yourself rather than leave that task to them after you die.

The run-up in home prices has been breathtaking, hasn’t it? It’s difficult to predict how much longer it will last, but Rita and I do know that we can be satisfied with the proceeds we will get from selling our home now. The income from those proceeds in a TransAmerica fund that guarantees a certain return despite market fluctuations would help pay the rent for our new apartment. And, since I’m not retiring yet, I’ll continue to have an income on top of that.

Social Security, Medicare and appropriate long-term care policies for each of us can provide additional peace of mind regarding our medical needs as we age.

Our decision to move into a 55-plus community also relieved us of the biggest dilemma facing homeowners who want to capitalize on selling their current home — how to find a place to buy in a very difficult market for buyers.

While it’s nearly impossible and highly frustrating to buy in this crazed seller’s market, and while the renter’s market is also extremely tight and expensive, there are many 55-plus communities like the one we chose that have units available. In addition, it’s the nature of these places that openings become available as other residents die or move into assisted living facilities.

You’ll want a professional to help you evaluate the different 55-plus communities that exist and that are opening every year. Some, like the one we chose, are straight rentals, but others require a 6-figure “buy-in” which can eat up the proceeds from the sale of your home. I suggest hiring Jenn Gomer, who is in the business of helping seniors find the community which is a right “fit” for their specific needs. You don’t pay Jenn for that service — she receives a fee from the community you select.

The dilemma mentioned above is solved by waiting until you have signed a lease on your rental (ours starts on April 1st), then putting your home on the market with a closing date 15 days after your lease begins. That way you have a reasonable amount of time to move into your rental (using Golden Real Estate’s free moving truck, free moving boxes and affordable laborers, if you listed with us). It also gives you time to dispose of your excess “stuff.”

It has been an interesting if exhausting process to let go of the family heirlooms, mementos, and other possessions that have slowly filled our unfinished basement over the years — stuff that we have lugged from one house to the next.

The Marshall fire had a psychological impact on us, too.  We imagined if our own home were to be consumed by fire unexpectedly and we had to start over, losing everything we enjoy daily as well as all that stuff in our basement that we have been dragging along each time we bought a new home. Would we miss it? Of course, but we could live without it, couldn’t we?

There’s a freedom to be gained by releasing the past and living solely in the present. It felt good giving away things to Goodwill and other charities as well as to friends and relatives.

For example, since acquiring an electric bicycle several years ago, the three conventional bicycles we owned had been sitting unused in our basement and were never likely to see the light of day again. So we donated them, along with bicycle parts and accessories such as paniers and pumps, to the “Bicycle Recycle” program of the Golden Optimists Club, which refurbishes bicycles and donates them to low-income people. Making that donation felt great, on top of the feeling we got from clearing them and other stuff from our basement.

We thought about giving most of our furniture to victims of the Marshall fire, but realized that an estate sale was more practical and then we could donate money instead. Except for a few pieces, we’ve decided to purchase all-new furniture for our 2-bedroom/2-bath apartment at Avenida Lakewood.

It’s amazing how many papers were in boxes in our basement. I found tax returns going back to the 1980s which needed to be shredded. We also had the closed transactions of Golden Real Estate going back well beyond the number of years we’re required to retain them, and we were able to move the more recent transactions to the company’s new office in downtown Golden.

We had carpet remnants for carpeting that no longer existed at home and office. Bye-bye! We took multiple carloads of nice things that we didn’t need to Goodwill, which thankfully accepted all of it.

The wheelbarrows and gas generator that we never used but lent to Habitat for Humanity for its pumpkin patch each October are now in that organization’s own storage facility, not in our basement. 

Anyone want to buy our really sweet upright piano?

55+ Communities Get More Attractive With Age  

Rita and I recently decided to sell our home and move into Avenida Lakewood, a two-year-old community near Colfax and Quail which boasts “Resort Inspired Living” for people 55 or older. (Actually, a spouse can be under 55.)

We were also looking at Vita Littleton, but Avenida is closer to Golden Real Estate’s office, and I’m not retiring.

But that’s the point. You don’t have to retire for living in a 55+ community to make sense. The rent for our two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment with 4th floor mountain views is competitive with a comparable apartment with none of Avenida’s many amenities and activities which drew us to sign a one-year lease.  And there’s no 6-figure buy-in or “entry fee” as there is with many 55+ communities.

Jenn Gomer of CarePatrol specializes in helping seniors like us find the community which best fits our needs, and she recommended Avenida to us. (We hadn’t heard of it.)  If you’re in our demographic, I suggest you call her office at 720-675-8308 and discuss what might be best for you. Such communities vary greatly, with some, unlike Avenida, providing “continuity of care,” meaning that you don’t have to move if your health deteriorates and you require assisted living, nursing home or hospice care.