Here are three areas to focus on to truly master senior real estate.
What should you be studying if you’re going to master senior real estate? We’re all about learning, educating, empowering, and equipping here at the Seniors Real Estate Institute, so today we’ll share three areas of focus for being at your best when serving your clients.
1. Environmental gerontology. This is the study of environments as we age. The textbook “Environmental Gerontology: Making Meaningful Places in Old Age” edited by Graham D. Rowles and Miriam Bernard is good resource (though academic) for those who are looking to increase their knowledge beyond the marketing side of the industry. Learn about place attachment, environmental meaning, and community later in life.
“These three books will help you better understand and assist your senior clients.”
2. Psychology. Learning more about how people think and process information about where they will live as they get older is a critical aspect of what we do in senior-centered real estate. “Aging in the Right Place” by Dr. Stephen M. Golant is a great text which includes both academic research and personal experience. Dr. Golant is a gerontologist, but his book is very much about the psychology of how people view their environments as they age.
3. Communication. To enhance your perspective in this area, check out “How to Say It to Seniors: Closing the Communication Gap with Our Elders” by David Solie. This book takes what gerontologists learn through research and makes it applicable to us in everyday life, allowing us to help seniors make informed decisions with their lives.
The Success in Seniors Real Estate curriculum includes key elements from all of these texts.
I plan to continue this topic in my next video, where I’ll discuss another key area: marketing. In the meantime, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send an email. We’d love to hear from you.