What do you do when you have a big
dream? What do you do when a large part of that dream includes
building a seniors real estate niche that super-serves older adults?
If you’re Cyndi Cummings of Austin,
Texas, you leverage your contacts in the senior services sector and
forge a unique alliance of local professionals dedicated to growing
their 55+ business.
Focused on the Lake Travis area of
Austin, Cyndi is a seasoned agent and broker associate with Keller
Williams who has seen the senior market in her area grow extensively
over the past several years. Of course, Austin itself is a booming
metropolitan area with a rapidly expanding population base that
includes significant numbers of older adults – especially boomers –
relocating to the area.
Naturally, not only do these boomers
and seniors present a significant, initial opportunity as they
research the area and seek new housing, but many of them will
age-in-place and eventually require a trusted real estate
professional for a final transition from their home to an assisted
living facility or other such community.
To better serve this burgeoning
demographic, Cyndi reached out to several, local, senior-centric
businesses and – with them – formed the Austin Senior Resource
Alliance, a collaboration of Central Texas businesses who specialize
in serving seniors and their special needs.
But Cyndi took this effort a step
further and decided to give the Alliance a constant, storefront
presence in the community by opening the doors of the Austin Senior
Resource Center, an actual, physical office where anyone can stop by
and gather information on local, senior resources.
“We had some extra space at the front
of our real estate office and it just made sense to utilize it as a
spot for boomers, seniors, or family caregivers to visit and gather
brochures and things like that,” she says. “It’s open during
regular business hours and all the members of the Alliance can use it
at any time for meetings with clients or whatever they need it for.
It’s a great way for us to be more accessible to current and
potential customers, while also providing a valuable community
service.”
The Alliance is also focused on
reaching out to area boomers and seniors, with members working
together to provide a regular schedule of seminars on a wide variety
of topics pertinent to older adults.
For example, this past fall Cyndi and
the Alliance presented and marketed educational forums like this with
a local attorney:
Lakeway Realtor Cyndi Cummings, Mark C.
Tarrant, and the Austin Senior Resource Center Present
Free Seminar:
Five Legal Documents Everyone 21 and Over Must Have
The lineup of planned seminars for 2014
is already impressive, with even more to come. See the lineup here.
Website and Blog
Cyndi also does a good job of highlighting her seniors expertise on her website, offering a wide collection of senior-focused pages complete with solid
information.
In addition to achieving the
Certified Senior Housing Professional designation from The Seniors
Real Estate Institute, she has diligently pursued even further
credibility and knowledge within her niche, gaining recognition as a
Certified Senior Advisor from the Society of Certified Senior
Advisors and serving as an Elderlife Financial Services PreferredRealtor.
We offer a big thank you to
Cyndi for the stellar work she is doing in serving senior real estate
clients in Austin!
Learn more about becoming a Certified Senior Housing Professional.