Making the decision to move early gave the couple a better destination option

Talk to anyone who knows the high-end housing market; They will attest that it has been very difficult for baby boomer Coloradans to find affordable places to move in recent years—homes and apartments that offer low-maintenance, single-level living. .

But there’s now a better supply of those in the current market—when Jim and Elaine Vanderkamp sold their larger, single-family home this year and moved to a senior living community south of Denver, they took advantage of something maintenance-free and no land. amenities.

Don’t expect this good choice to last long, says real estate agent Blair Bryant of The Steller Group, the realtors whose Senior Solutions Division helped the Vanderkamps make the move.

“The vast majority of boomers still haven’t moved on from the homes they lived in during their child-rearing years,” Bryant says. “If you wait to move until a larger portion of the market catches up, you’ll have a hard time finding what you want from now on.”

That was the case three years ago when the Vanderkamps started getting serious about selling their Southeast Denver home and downsizing.

“We could have stayed where we were,” says Jim Vanderkamp, ​​noting that the couple is in good health and there are no problems with stairs in their farm plans.

But the Vanderkamps, who spent their careers serving disabled children and providing foster care, had both gone through difficult transitions to help their own parents as they grew too old to remain in their home.

This led them to think about how to prevent their own four children from having to deal with a similar situation one day.

“What do we want for our own children? This is a big deal,” said Jim Vanderkamp, ​​who retired a decade ago as executive director of Roundup Fellowship, a church-based nonprofit that works with developmentally disabled children.

The transition to something better suited for them began by attending one of Steller’s free seminars on downsizing. (Three of these are coming this month at various locations in the Denver area.)

The market for nursing homes was still tight when the couple started looking; so the duo put themselves on the waiting list for an apartment community. While waiting for their names to rise on the list, they contacted Steller and began preparing for the sale of their Hutchinson Hills home.

“One of our first jobs is to help a seller decide if they need to make some improvements to get the best value,” Bryant says. In this case, he suggested touching up hardwood floors and opening a wall between the dining and family rooms for the brighter, open look that buyers now prefer.

Meanwhile, the Vanderkamps had doubts about the community they had chosen and how far it was from their church and friends.

“Fortunately, there are more options in the market this year, and they were able to find a location closer to home in the city of Denver that didn’t have a waiting list,” Bryant says.

While their home was being sold (which happened in just two weeks), the Vanderkamps were settling into their new apartment. Steller arranged a one-day move and they are now enjoying the amenities and beautiful scenery.