Senior Care Live: April 18, 2025

Listen in as host Steve Kuker, President of Senior Care Consulting, visits with Ben Souchek, owner of Home Downsizing Solutions. Ben discusses how his company buys houses “as is” from individuals who value the convenience of this service, shares a story of helping a recent client, and compares and contrasts the HDS model to that of the wholesaler’s model. Don’t miss the Consumer Alert!  Then, Steve reviews how his firm Senior Care Consulting offers A Placement Service With Integrity® helping families determine the right fit then find the best place available when searching for Assisted Living, Memory Care, Long Term Care, or a Continuing Care Retirement Community.  #SeniorCare #SeniorCareLive #SeniorCareConsulting #SeniorLiving #KansasCitySeniorCare #SeniorCarePlacement #SeniorCareAdvisor #Franchise #SeniorCareFranchise

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Transcript

Speaker 6 0:01

Are you caring for an aging loved one? Are you a senior searching for answers? Welcome to Senior Care Live, a program dedicated to you providing information, education, and resources for seniors and their caregivers. And now, America's Senior Care Consultant, Steve Kuker.

Speaker 2 0:23

Hello, and welcome to Senior Care Live. I'm Steve Kuker, your senior care consultant, and I really appreciate you tuning in today. We have a wonderful program on tap with my friend and special guest in studio, Mr. Ben Souchek. He's the owner of Home Downsizing Solutions. If you want to reach out to Ben, write this information down. You may need his help immediately. You may need his help in six weeks or even six months. It's 855-291-5005. You can also go online. An excellent website loaded with resources, homedownsizing.com. And with that, Ben, welcome back to Senior Care Live.

Speaker 1:03

Hi, Steve. Thank you for having me again this week. And as always, hopefully I can share some information with the listeners to be of value to them.

Speaker 2 1:12

And, let's talk about home downsizing solutions. We have new listeners all the time. But let's review home downsizing solutions and how you're able, what services do you offer?

Speaker 1:29

Sure. The primary service that we offer is to actually buy a property, a house from individuals, especially if they're downsizing to a smaller home, apartment, or senior community. That is the primary service. surrounding that, we try and do everything that we can to make that transition the new home as easy and stress-free as possible. whether assisting in contacting a moving company, assisting in contacting an organizing and packing company, or any of the services that a homeowner that's been in a house a long time or short term, short can find of value. the other thing I guess I would say that I tell everybody that we talk to, the reason that people would choose to do business with a company like mine is if they find value or enough value in the benefits that we provide. namely being able to buy a house in its as-is condition so that the homeowner doesn't have to do anything to the house to sell it. they can take what they want, leave what they don't want, and whatever's left in the house, whatever stuff is left in the house, we take care of it. we are cash buyers, we have cash available to buy houses, so we can close as quickly as a title company can check title and prepare closing paperwork. So whether that has been in as little as 24 hours before that we've had a contract, we close the next day. But or of course, whenever a person wants us to close. And of course, one of the biggest benefits is to be able to buy the house right away so that the seller knows the house is sold, so that they have that issue off their plate, but then they can choose to typically anyway stay in the house until they're ready to move. So if they don't know exactly when an apartment's going to be ready for them, or they want to be ready when an apartment opens up, then we can allow them to stay in the house until they can make that move. So that's probably one of the biggest things. But those are the primary reasons why a person would choose to business with us.

Speaker 2 3:51

Well, I'm working a lady who has legal responsibility for an individual. And it's interesting because I got the call this last week, and I think I'm going to be working with her to help her kind of figure out this puzzle. But she's the legal power of attorney and all that. But her client needs to move into assisted living, but she needs the money from the house to help pay for that. They had an assisted living community lined up, but that assisted living community would have to put a lien on the house. So a promissory note, basically, that you know, if it takes two or three months to sell it or six months, whatever the number is, that you'll pay us back, and we'll just work with you on that. And then she called them back and they said, you know what, well, after we thought about it, no thanks. So if you are able to help a person out in that situation, you could buy the house, close on it fairly quickly, as quickly as the title work can be done with through the title company, 24 hours to maybe a few days to a week, as fast as they can get it done. And then they have cash in the bank, cash on hand. And then if you're moving to one of these places, they wouldn't have to deal with liens or no thanks, we're not going to do that anymore. Is that right? That really saves that's that solves that problem.

Speaker 5:09

That solves that problem. there are companies out there that do bridge loans for circumstances like that, actually. But with what we provide, we can eliminate that cost or that that issue as well. So instead of having to go out and get a bridge on their house it increase costs in that manner anyway, we can go ahead, step in, buy the house. As you mentioned, they're going to have their funds in their bank account right away that that way in that manner, and then be able to have the funds to buy into a community or to make the move or whatever they need to do. That's correct.

Speaker 2 5:45

Okay. If this is catching your attention, you're like, wait a minute, wait a minute. Why didn't we know about this? This would help us out in our situation, reach out to Ben Souchek with Home Downsizing Solutions, 855-291-5005. That's 855-291-5005 or online at homedownsizing.com. And I worked with another family, and I sent them your information. I sent them a free copy of your book and all that, and we'll see what they want to do moving forward. But you are custom tailored for their exact situation. her dad lives in a house, he's lived there too long, according to her, and it's a typical situation, very common, and he's a smoker. So they're going to have to buy all new furniture for his assisted living apartment because you drag that stuff in there and it'll smoke the whole thing out, right? And she's like, she's completely overwhelmed with what am I going to do with this house? What am I going to do with all the furniture? There are some things that I want out of it, and he is divorced, so he's single living in this house. And she said, there's a few things, but everything else, I don't know what to do with it.

Speaker 6:59

And could you help someone like that? So that's a perfect situation of what we can certainly help with that. where especially if they're items that you're not going to be able to if they're smoke saturated at this point in in that environment. Yeah. They really can't donate anything. so the items that he wants to move with him, he could certainly do that. If she has items that she wanted to take, that's great. If they actually could sell or monetize any of those things, that's fine. But anything that they leave, then we buy the house and whatever is in it.

Speaker 2 7:34

That is correct. Okay. And then you can have the stuff that you can't deal with do with anything with, you just have that hauled off and hauled out.

Speaker 7:41

Correct. We take care of it in whatever manner that that we can or that needs to happen.

Speaker 2 7:45

Okay. All right. And we were earlier before the program, and you had mentioned a client story, and I think this individual needed to move to a senior care community.

Speaker 7:57

Correct. They this situation they had signed up for community and they already had a place, but they didn't know exactly when it was going to be ready within the next thirty days, give or take, a week. that their house was in good condition, but it was dated. So floor coverings, paint, the kitchen was dated. And that that's a lot of work right there. And a lot of money for to get the contractors lined up and all those things. Oh Lord. Yeah. And so they had my company's information and decided, well, let's at least talk to them to see what we can do. And in this situation, I think they seen some of our videos, some of our other information to actually kind of educate themselves about what I did and how I went about the process buying a house. And so I met with them and looked through the house, visited with them, went over the numbers as far as what I could do for them, and they were ready to move forward immediately in that in that situation.

Speaker 1 9:02

Yeah.

Speaker 9:03

because for them they had been there a long time, and they just knew that they did not want to deal with the hassles or potential hassles of selling a house in a traditional manner. And they liked the idea of just being able to basically turn over the keys to me and say, it's all yours. Here you do it. And here you do it. we have movers coming, we just want to make the move and be done. And so again, convenience I get I guess is a key word of how people find value in what we do. And so if it's if it's if the convenience and those benefits are of value, then we can be a great solution.

Speaker 2 9:42

And it could be a house that's in good shape, but you just you literally you don't want to deal with it. You want to walk away. You don't want to deal with contractors and having hardwoods put in or the carpet or the painting to redo a kitchen, first of all, is super expensive, and good luck getting anyone out in a timely manner to get that done. I mean, you could be, you know, if you started on that today, you might have your house ready to go by next spring or summer at this rate. So and there's nothing wrong with that. You can do that, but if you don't want to do that, even if your house is in great shape or okay shape, this might be the answer. Reach out to Ben Souchek with Home Downsizing Solutions 855-291-5005 or online at homedownsizing.com. And we'll have more with Ben coming up. But first, the Senior Care Live question of the week. Home downsizing solutions is the same thing as wholesalers that will buy your house as is. Is that statement true or false? What do you think?

Speaker 6 10:43

You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For more information, visit SeniorCareLive.com. We'll have more with Steve coming up next.

Speaker 2 11:00

All right, back to the Senior Care Live question of the week. Home downsizing solutions is the same thing as a wholesaler that will buy your house as is. Is that statement true or false? And the answer is false. The answer is false. And Ben, let's talk about that. let's talk about the differences between home downsizing solutions and these wholesalers.

Speaker 12:49

Sure, Steve. a good question and something I certainly like to expound about. Yeah. And one of the things that I try my best to individuals that are wanting to sell a house, no matter how they want to sell a house, um I do want to educate people about the process and about the different ways that they can do that. But coming back to the question, the I consider myself my company quote unquote real homebuying company, i.e., we can actually buy houses. We have the funds to buy houses. And we actually do buy houses. That's what we do. And you buy the house directly. We buy the house directly and we actually close on the house. And understandably, if a person only sells one or two houses in their lifetime, they have probably have no idea what we're talking about right now, or they probably don't care either, as long as they can get the job done. Yeah. But what we what wholesalers are in the real estate world are individuals that will they advertise that they buy houses. When they're on the phone with you, they will tell you they're going to buy your house. And even if they send somebody to your house to look at it, they're going to tell you that they buy the house. And so typically anyway, if unless you are unless you ask the right questions and really look at their paperwork, you don't realize that they're basically only getting the right to buy your house. They typically have no intention of closing on your property and m I at least some part of the time, they have no ability to financially. So their mode of operation is that they will get a contract to buy a house and then they will typically ask a home seller to give them 21 to 30 days to close, but they want their contractors to come through and look at the house to get them quotes before they close. These quote unquote contractors are actually their potential buyers. So if they can't flip that contract, sell the contract to somebody else and make a profit, they're not going to do that. They will either just walk away from the transaction or they're going to try and renegotiate with you for a lower price. And either way, when you, the homeowner, think the house is sold, it's not. And it can leave you in a very bad situation when you're doing that. So that's really the biggest that's a big difference, is we're actually a company that buys houses. A wholesaler is someone that buys and sells paper contracts. Yeah, they're flipping it on paper.

Speaker 2 15:30

Correct. Is exactly what they're doing. And they may or may not have the funds or the means to actually buy that house. So they contract it from you, they list it, and then they very quickly try to flip it to someone else who's going to buy it, and then that person actually buys the house. Is that correct?

Speaker 15:51

That's accurate, yes. they the wholesaler themselves, they're again just flipping paper. And that also since that gives them since they incur no risk essentially in doing that, because if the deal doesn't work out, they just walk away. since there's no risk to them, they will often overpromise what they can pay for a house, which makes maybe a real cash buyer's offer look a little bit lower or can be lower because we're actually buying the house.

Speaker 2 16:25

you're actually giving a legitimate offer, not an inflated offer, hoping that's something happens.

Speaker 16:32

That's correct. So that's really the big thing there. And a number of them too will like to try and get a contract over the phone without even looking at a house. Oh, no. And so once they get a contract, then they will tell the homeowner, then they will come out and take a look at the house and confirm that that's a number. Well, often that number's going to change because it's very common for them to say, Oh, I didn't realize that this was needing to be done with your house, or that this was in disrepair. And so typically that number is always going to change and not for the better for the homeowner.

Speaker 2 17:06

So, Ben, so if I'm out here and I'm in the market, this is really catching my attention, and I want I'm interested in doing this. How would I know I'm talking to a wholesaler and not a legitimate home buyer?

Speaker 17:22

Sometimes that's very difficult to know. you can certainly ask for a copy of their agreement to make sure that there's not the verbiage in that agreement that allows a person to resell it automatically on paper or that gives the wholesaler control, certain control of that of that selling process. And some of the paperwork will even say that they have the right then to market the property and put it on a multiple listing service and do all that just like an agent would. And so all this, unless a person is knowledgeable about that, you can overlook that. So a person does need to be very careful. What I would say is to get references, get references from a title company. So, like in specifically Omaha, Kansas City, I can give potential people that want to work with contact information for the local title companies so that a homeowner can call them and say, Hey, does this guy Ben with home downsizing solutions is he real? Does he actually buy houses? Does he close on it? And hear yes, he does. Yeah. you can certainly trust him. And so that's a biggest thing there too, is to look for that. typically I would say look for a proof of funds, so that usually a letter from a bank that or lending institution that shows that they have the funds available. the problem is the wholesalers, or at least some of them, will create documents of proof of funds. Oh boy.

Speaker 2 19:03

So they're not real. So it's kind of like pre-qualifying a home buyer, but you're this is in reverse. You're pre-qualifying the home buyer, you're someone who would buy your house, not like the couple wanting to buy it. You're qualifying a company. Yeah, yeah. That's correct.

Speaker 19:24

So there are some things that you can kind of protect yourself with that. And so anyway, and also look for references, look for reviews, look to see how long the company's been in business. And I don't think there are many companies like mine that have been around for 28 years at this point. and with the Better Business Bureau and all that. due diligence is certainly a good thing for that.

Speaker 2 19:52

Home Downsizing Solutions veteran-owned company and the Better Business Bureau. What's the rating on that?

Speaker 19:59

A plus for years and years.

Speaker 2 20:01

A plus. There you go. It doesn't get any better than that. Don't do business with some flyby night company that's just looking to flip your house on paper. Reach out to Ben Souchek with Home Downsizing Solutions 855-291-5005 or online with homedownsizing.com.

Speaker 20:23

And Ben, thanks for being here today. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Steve, and thanks to everybody for listening. If we can be of value and a benefit to you, contact us at homedownsizing.com or 855-291-5005, and would love to be of service to you. Excellent. Excellent.

Speaker 2 20:41

Thank you, Ben. And we'll have more coming up next.

Speaker 2 22:06

Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. For podcast of the program, visit SeniorCareLive.com. All right. So I'm getting a lot of calls on this here lately. I just had one just a couple of two, three days ago. Very nice lady called me up. Hi, Steve. I hear you on the radio all the time. And I've always been intrigued by that. And I have to say, I have to admit, and she I she seemed a little almost a little embarrassed. No, and no need for that, of course. And I told her that. But I have to say I went with, you know, blah, blah, blah, free referral service, and I am not impressed at all. Not at all. They just sent me this long list of places, and it's just all over the place. And can you help me do a much more of a focused search so that I don't have to try to sort through a list of you know 20 places. Some of these places are 50 miles away from where I live. It's not even close to the location parameters that we discussed. And I'm like, of course. So what that demonstrates is that this very nice lady reached out to this, and I'm putting my air quotes up, "free" referral service. And the "free" referral service gathered up her information, and then just arbitrarily, seemingly arbitrarily, sent her this long list of places, regardless of if it was the right level of care, regardless of whether it was in her location, her preferred location parameters or not. That's what they're saying. And that and she was like, you know, I'm just not comfortable with that. This is not helpful to me in any way. And how does your service work? Right? of course I went through all of that and just touch on that a little bit later. And then and I've had a couple of calls like that here lately, actually, from the same or involving again, air quotes, "free" referral service, the same one. So they're just they're not impressing some people out there. And then I run into this.

Speaker 5 24:48

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. This is a consumer alert. Consumer alert.

Speaker 2 24:55

All right. So I wanted to put this in a consumer alert because the vast majority of people listening to this radio program right now or listening to the podcast after the fact, they are not going to be aware of this. And I think it's very much worthwhile sharing stories like this because some of these "free" referral services are becoming, they're just so emboldened that they just don't even care if people find out about some of these things. So I'm just going to help them with that. So I belong to all kinds of groups and connected to all kinds of folks groups on social media through some of the social media outlets. I'm seeing all the time people from some of these "free" referral services asking extremely basic questions. And I'm like, really? So if you if you had any knowledge at all, you would not be asking some of these very elementary questions, which leads me to wonder how knowledgeable they really are. Seriously. It's alarming. I'm like, and people are trusting some of these folks to help them make one of the biggest decisions in their entire lifetime. That's kind of scary. So I recently see this request out into the social media world. And it goes something like this I have this client, money is no option. They've got tons of money, and I want to know who of you out there would like to speak with me about maybe bringing them in for a tour. And okay, so that's first of all, wouldn't this person already know the options that fit their needs if they were knowledgeable? Again, kind of demonstrating a lack of knowledge. But then here's the kicker. This one I just shook my head. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. And then this person said, by the way, any communities responding to this request must be willing to sign a contract. I'm like, oh, okay. What that means is let me decode that for you. If you want me to bring my clients in to see your place, my clients, you know, money is no option, right? So these are great folks as far as like a financial fit. If you want me to bring them in to see you, you're going to have to pay me. So pay up. Show me the money, just like in Jerry Maguire. Show me the money. That's what this person was saying. What this person was also saying is if you're not willing to pay to play, don't bother responding to this because I'm not coming.

unknown 28:31

You had me at hell no. Yeah.

Speaker 2 28:33

Yeah, absolutely. So just unbelievable. So what this is also saying to this person's clients, who are obviously think they've got to be completely unaware of this. What it's saying to their this person's client, or clients, it was a couple, is I'm going to help you. My services are free. And oh, by the way, I'm only taking you to a limited number of options willing to pay me a huge several thousand dollar kickback. That's what it says. They're only going to see the places who are willing to pay. Well, so then that begs the question what about maybe some places that may be the perfect fit? The absolutely the perfect fit, but they're like, hey, no, we can't pay you your 90 to 100% commission. We can't pay you six or seven or eight thousand dollars or whatever the number is, but we sure would love to have you and your clients over for a tour. Oh, no, thanks. So, what if that place is the perfect fit for this unsuspecting couple? Do you think they are ever going to hear anything about that place that is unwilling to pay to play? Well, this person basically answered that question, didn't they? It said, please note. This is only for communities willing to sign a contract, meaning willing to pay to play. So I've said this so many times, and anytime I get the opportunity to make some kind of an exposure here to educate the general public on how these air quote free referral services go, anytime I have the opportunity to do that, I feel very much obligated to do that because most people just they just don't realize what they're signing up for because "free" is such a powerful word, but as I've always said, maybe a thousand times, you get what you pay for.

Speaker 4 31:09

Proceed with caution. This has been a consumer alert, brought to you by Senior Care Live.

Speaker 2 31:16

So, how about that for a consumer alert? Free is such a powerful word, isn't it? And especially, I mean, if money is tight or if you just don't believe in bringing in someone with specific knowledge to help you through a process, like an elder law attorney or another professional service, right? Then then maybe you always go for the free. Maybe you go to the internet in this case to do a search for assisted living in Kansas City or Lee Summit or Overland Park, whatever it is, what you're going to have literally millions of results fill in to your Google search good luck with that one. There's so much information, there's just there's too much information. It's an information overload, and it's literally it's not helpful at all. Actually, it causes more questions and problems than anything else. So if that does not sound good to you, and if you're interested in a placement service with integrity, I invite you to reach out to my firm, Senior Care Consulting. We will help you objectively in an unbiased manner because guess what? We work for you. And I'll have more on this really important subject coming right up.

Speaker 6 32:43

You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. To contact Steve or a guest on his show, visit SeniorCareLive.com. We'll have more coming up.

Speaker 2 33:01

Welcome back. You're listening to Senior Care Live on the Senior Care Broadcasting Network. Have a question? Visit SeniorCareLive.com. Back to this free referral service stuff. The polar opposite of that, in my humble opinion, a very flawed model, is senior care consulting. You know, I guess I'm just old school and I am I just don't apologize for it. If you're being paid several thousand dollars to recommend a place, in my opinion, there's nothing objective about that. And frankly, in my opinion, you just lost all your credibility. All of it. All of it. So it never even crossed my mind to hit up the community for a six thousand or eight thousand dollar kickback. And literally, the thought did not exist in my anywhere in my DNA, right? It just does, it's not there. I thought when I started senior care consulting so many years ago, it made sense to me to have a business model that was a flat fee for service. Meaning I work directly for my clients. I represent them and their family. We're all in this together. We're trying to do our best on behalf of the person requiring placement, requiring care. We're all in the boat, we're all rowing together in the same direction. There is no conflict of interest whatsoever, none, because senior care consulting works directly for our clients for a reasonable flat fee for service. We haven't touched our rate, by the way, for 15 years. It has stayed the same. Everything else has gone up all around us 50%, 100% plus over that time frame. Haven't touched our rates. It just feels like the right amount. And so I'm pretty proud of that. There is no conflict of interest. When the free referral service has a vested interest in you choosing one of their business partners, and by the way, the list of options, it's a short list, it's incomplete. We have over 350 options in the Kansas City metro area. And these places, trust me, their number of contracted facilities that they recommend is nowhere close to that. Guaranteed. Nowhere close to it. When senior care consulting researches the market, we research the entire market. We work with every single community in the area. Every single one of them. Not just some of them. We don't have our favorites. We don't leave these folks out. We research the entire marketplace. Again, I have a registered trademark, federally registered trademark, on the phrase "a placement service with integrity", because that's exactly what this is. So when we meet with you, first and foremost, we need to understand your needs. So we conduct a very thorough proprietary geriatric care assessment. We have a six-page worksheet that we go through and we ask everything that you would probably expect it to be asked to help us determine the level of care, the type of care, the payment method. we spend some time on the payment method because this stuff is so expensive. It's just super expensive. And then we're going to look at location parameters. We all want to be close. I think the better question is how far out can we look in an effort to find the best fit for your loved one? Or, how far am I willing to drive, Steve? Oh, I'd be willing to drive. And this is this is defined by you. It can be a shorter range or a longer range, but we talk about this. And then you define that because senior care consulting works for you. But we're going to guide you along the way and we're going to help you get this thing right the first time. Okay? And then any personal preferences or needs. And this one, usually we don't have something that is just that specific, but sometimes we do. So I received a call from a very nice lady this past week, her loved one has an insulin pump. Can you find a place that will work with an insulin pump? Because I've called a few places and they shut me down. They don't want to have anything to do with that. And I said, sure, absolutely. I've worked with clients before who have had insulin pumps, and that's just not a problem. But guess what? That is something very specific and very important for this particular lady. Is we need to find a place that can help her manage her provide diabetic management, not with insulin injections, but to work with her insulin and pump. She has a CGM and it monitors the glucose on the phone and just makes this all really, really pretty simple. And then to help prompt her for the bolus of the insulin. So it's actually an enhancement. It should make the whole process easier. Some places see it as something that makes it more difficult, and they just don't want anything to do with it. Well, so that's important. So that is part of our criteria. So the level of care, the type of care, the payment method, location parameters, and any personal preferences and needs. And then what we do is we now we have a care profile, a detailed description of exactly what we're looking for. And then we research the entire marketplace. Again, not some short, incomplete list of our business partners. It's not how this works with senior care consulting. We research the entire marketplace and narrow it to our top communities. And then we'll go out together and take a tour of all of our top communities with you. And while we're there, we ask really good questions. And frankly, a lot of these questions are questions that our clients may not know to ask or may feel uncomfortable asking. So I am a former nursing home administrator and former assisted living executive director. So I think I look at this a little bit differently than a lot of folks do. So we'll go in, we'll gather a lot of information, we're going to take a walk around the community, we're going to see everything that there is to see, and then we're out. We're going to go to the second place and do that. We're going to, et cetera, et cetera. So it's a huge time saver. Our clients are finished with this. In four to five hours, they're done. The average family spends 50 to 100 hours running around trying to do this on their own. So it's a huge time saver. We save our clients dozens and dozens of hours of time. And then we'll produce a report that has all of the questions asked, all the information discovered, staffing ratios, what the state found in its most recent surprise health care inspection. So now you have a wealth of information on the top communities meeting your exact needs. You can make an informed decision and move forward with confidence. We help our clients make one of the most difficult decisions they could ever possibly make. And we help them get it right the first time. If that resonates with you, I would invite you to give us a call at this is Senior Care Consulting at 913-945-2800, 913-945-2800, or online at SeniorCareConsulting.com. We would be honored to serve you and your family. All right, I'm Steve Kuker, and I wish you grace and peace. May God bless you and your family on this day and always. Join me next week, right here on Senior Care Live.