55+ Community Living with Khadeejah Johnson

In this episode, Michelle Passoff discusses the growing trend of 55+ communities with expert Khadeejah Johnson. They explore the evolution of these communities, the lifestyle they offer, and how to find the right one for individual needs. The conversation covers the importance of social relationships, the process of transitioning to a new living situation, cost considerations, and potential downsides of living in a 55+ community. The episode emphasizes the need for careful planning and research when considering a move to a 55+ community.

Takeaways

-55+ communities have evolved significantly since the 1950s.
-These communities offer a lifestyle rich in amenities and social opportunities.
-Finding the right community involves understanding personal preferences and needs.
-Not all 55+ communities are the same; they vary widely in offerings.
-Many people are choosing to stay in their original locations rather than moving south.
-Researching communities can take time; it's a long-term decision.
-Costs can vary greatly depending on the community and type of home.
-Renting in a 55+ community can be a good way to test the waters.
-HOA rules can impact living arrangements and costs.
-Planning ahead is essential for a smooth transition to a new lifestyle.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to 55 Plus Communities
01:26 The Evolution of 55 Plus Communities
03:37 Understanding the 55 Plus Lifestyle
05:20 Finding the Right Community
07:32 Exploring Locations for 55 Plus Living
09:25 The Process of Transitioning to a 55 Plus Community
11:25 Cost Considerations for 55 Plus Living
13:20 Testing the Waters: Renting vs. Buying
15:17 Potential Downsides of 55 Plus Communities
17:13 Planning for the Future

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Transcript

Michelle 0:34

Hi, good morning. This is Michelle Passoff, and I'm here for another episode of Decluttering 55 Plus with Michelle Passoff. This is the place to come for authors, authorities, experts, geeks, and everyday people to talk about areas of life that can be confounding or confronting as we age. Instead of sweeping them under the carpet and putting them off another day, we bring them into the light so that we can find new information, new resources, get in action and get things done so that we invigorate our lives and leave a legacy, not a mess. Some of those areas, which I call next level clutter, include eating, exercise, and um health. It includes digital decluttering. Where are you gonna what are you gonna do in retirement? Social relationships, memoir writing, getting your financial house and legal papers in order, and even your funeral arrangements. One area that was also included in this is where are you going to live? That's not always an easy answer. Are you gonna stay in place? You're gonna go somewhere else, and if you're gonna go somewhere else, where is that? So we've brought on an expert, and that is the vice president of 55places.com, and that is Khateja Johnson. Thank you, Kateja, for being with us and helping us sort ourselves out. How are you today?

Khadeejah 1:59

I'm wonderful, and thank you. Thank you for having me on uh your podcast. I'm so excited to see, you know, how we can educate people more on um what it's like to live in a 55 and older community and the 55 and older lifestyle.

Michelle 2:12

Well, it's not always been around. When did 55 plus communities uh get on the scene and are they growing?

Khadeejah 2:21

Uh 55 and older communities became on the scene um in the mid to late 1950s. Um, and that's actually started with Sun City in Arizona, and I'm actually from Arizona, so I'm very um well-versed and very knowledgeable about that community because it's and it's also very large. Um and then in the 60s, it started to gain a little bit more traction. And then when you get to today, I mean it is uh just exploding out there. You have tons of developers um that are currently um trying to um develop more of these communities, and then obviously, like as you know, it starts to evolve, you have more and more amenities that are being offered to those uh that are looking for 55 and older communities. So honestly, it is just exploded and it is here to stay. It's not stopping. So um I think it's something very important to discuss and talk about.

Michelle 3:14

Well, what is a 55 plus community? Explain that for those of us who may be starting from scratch.

Khadeejah 3:21

So a 55 plus community or an active adult community is for um people who are 55 and older that want to downsize out of their large homes. Their kids have graduated from college or graduated from high school, and they want to live and potentially move to an area where there are more people around that are like them, of the same age, of the same type of ideologies. Um they want the amenities, they want maybe a restaurant to be there within the community. Maybe they wanted to be on a golf course cart, uh golf course where they can ride around in their golf cart. Um, it's just kind of like that amenity-rich lifestyle, and it's all about lifestyle living and making things easier for you as you age and go into those next um stages in your life.

Michelle 4:10

Well, they say that one of the most important things as you age, even more than health, and if you exercise, is social relationships. So I imagine if you're in a 55 plus community, it's one of the reasons to be in a 55 plus community is because you have a built-in community of people with whom to relate.

Khadeejah 4:29

Um, absolutely. You have, you know, built-in social opportunities, you know, you have you typically a clubhouse. Um many communities have a restaurant, you may have the community that has the golf course. Um, and then also you have all these events. You typically have an activities director um that is hosting events, you know, like for, you know, say Valentine's Day, which is up and coming. Um, you have like a Valentine's Day party, or for Halloween, you have a costume party, or you have something simple as like book clubs and so forth, just a way for you to kind of again sit around people who are of like mind, who have who are of like ages, and that you share a lot of common interests. Um, and that's what a 55 and older community is. It's basically having amenities that are tailored to the adult lifestyle.

Michelle 5:15

Um change from one community to another when you're out to say, oh, okay, 55 plus community may be an option. How do I even begin to consider which is the right one for me, or are they all the same?

Khadeejah 5:28

Well, uh, they're they're definitely not all the same. And I would say one of the first places to start would be 55places.com. Um, we have obviously uh blogs as well as what's unique about our site is that you're not searching by home like you do typically like on a Zillow or a homes.com. You are searching by community. Um, so you can actually go and search and look at the different communities to see um if they offer the amenities or offer the lifestyle that you're looking for. For example, um you have communities that are on a lake or um on a river. Maybe you're interested in fishing, and that's where you see um yourself in your uh later years in the later stages of your life as you age that you see yourself out on a boat fishing. Or, you know, sometimes they offer a boat slip and a place where you can dock your boat. So that's uh something that's interesting to you as well. So um really they do differ. You also we can even go into there's communities that are mixed use. You have some commercial components to it, where you know, there's like maybe a doctor's office that's located um in one of the commercial spaces and so forth. You have anywhere from apartments to uh large uh homes that are over 4,000 square feet. It's just really all about what the um buyer is looking for or the renter is looking for. So you really have to kind of dig in as a 55 and older person who's looking to transition into this life and find out what's really important to you and what's important to the lifestyle that you want to live in the later stages of your life.

Michelle 7:00

Well, it used to be that you'd go to a 55 plus community, you'd head toward the sun and the light of, you know, places further south. Is that true anymore? Or are people going all over the country with 55 plus communities?

Khadeejah 7:15

I do feel like um that does remain true, um, but not always. Um, I think we're seeing a lot of people who are um staying in places like the Northeast or the Midwest. Uh, what we're seeing a lot is that their children end up going away to college, they end up establishing themselves in a uh new location that may not be down south. Again, you typically in the Midwest or the Northeast, and uh then their child ends up getting a job in that area, they end up getting married, they end up having children. And so uh the 55 and older person wants a 55 and older community, but they still want to be next to their grandchildren and their children. So sometimes it's very shocking to people, but there's people who definitely want to uh relocate or uh are staying put in places like, you know, New York. I mean, New Jersey. We see tons of traffic coming to um our site or tons of people coming to our site interested in a 55 and older New Jersey. Uh, we see a lot coming to places like Ohio. So it's not necessarily everybody is wanting to be a sunbird. Again, it's all about figuring out what you want the later stages of your life to look like when you're 55 and older.

Michelle 8:28

Like what kind of cat would you so if somebody says, okay, I I want to experiment with 55 plus, they go to your site and how do they begin the well, how do they begin once they get there at 55places.com. If I go there, then what?

Khadeejah 8:43

Well, typically you could go to what state that you're looking to relocate to. Um, and then within that state, there's the cities, and then within the cities is the different communities that are located there. Um, also a great place to go is our blogs or just simply signing up for um our um to get receive our newsletters. Um we have um an area on our website called My55, which is actually tailored to the actual um individual who signs up for it and kind of tailors itself to what you're looking for in the areas that you're looking in. And with that, we have newsletters that go out. Um, if you say you're looking in a specific area where we highlight different communities. Um and it's just great to just kind of like go into those communities, go in and click on them because sometimes, again, you don't know particularly where you want to relocate to. You think, you know, oh, I need to relocate or head towards the sun and so forth. But sometimes you just may find a community that maybe isn't in one of those sunbelt states. However, like I mentioned before, it has something like, you know, a boat with boat slips. You have a boat. That's you know what you've envisioned yourself doing in the future. Um maybe you uh want pickleball courts. Um, that's something that's important to you that you wouldn't move to a place without a pickleball court. Oh no, everybody's pickleballing these days. Absolutely, everyone is. Um, or you want to move to a place, you know, that has a golf course, or you want to move to a place that um is scenic and you want to ride your bikes, or um, you enjoy, you know, motorcycling and cruising on a motorcycle. You want a place that's scenics that has a lot of, you know, uh twisties or curves in the road and so forth. So it's just really um going onto the site and doing the research. Um, I I want to caution people to not, when it comes to buying in a 55 and older community, I want to caution them to not think that it's something that has to be a fast process, like when you buy, you know, like when you were a first-time home buyer or you bought the home that you're currently living in. It's really not a fast, as fast of a process, I should say. Um, it can take anywhere in upwards of five to seven years to find the ideal place that you're looking for. Absolutely. It's a much longer um cycle for you to find the home that's perfect for you, just because there's A, so many considerations um in regards to the home that and the lifestyle that you want to live. But additionally, there's so many considerations in that come into when you're selling your home, when you're downsizing, when you're decluttering, you have all these things that you need to get rid of. And uh typically that is not a quick process.

Michelle 11:17

Um, how much would I need to spend in order to move in? Do you spend more, the same, less than if you were buying a house in a neighborhood, you know, where there's more sun or it's closer to your kids?

Khadeejah 11:29

Well, there is definitely a wide range, uh, anywhere from the low um hundred thousand hundreds of thousands to, you know, over a million dollars. It just really kind of depends. Again, it's the community that you want to live in, it's the type of home that you want to live in. I mean, in Florida, you can get condos, you know, that are in 55 and older communities that, you know, start at, you know, 85,000 to $100,000. Um, so it just really depends. Um you can all search on your site for price range as well as the other amenities. Yeah. You can search per price range as well. And you can actually set up again a search to where it's sending you actual homes located in the price range and the area that you're looking for. So um you would get, you can set up where you can get uh on the frequency that you want, whether it be daily or weekly or monthly, kind of to get the type of homes that you have uh indicated that you're interested in sent directly to your inbox through email.

Michelle 12:29

Do you recommend um can you go to these places and try them on? How do you know if you move to a place like this and yeah, they have all these amenities, but you don't like the people? Or um you end up not to like the area, and here you've invested, you know, tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in a property and then you don't like it. How can you prevent against that?

Khadeejah 12:53

So there's not as many communities anymore that kind of offer the stay in play. Um there are still some, especially down in Florida, um, places like Texas as well as uh Arizona, there are it's called a stay in play. So um if that's something that interests you and you definitely feel like you want to go there and get a feel of what it's like um to actually live there in a day in the life, I would recommend definitely trying one of the stay in plays. But again, not all communities offer that. Um, but another great option is to fly down, plan a vacation, um, move um, you know, rent in uh not rent, sorry, uh get a hotel uh in an area uh that you want to look in or that's very close to that 55 and older community, and kind of walk around in the community, kind of um walk around in uh the neighborhood, uh kind of see what kind of people live there, go to the grocery store, see what type of people are frequenting the grocery store, and so forth. So you can kind of get a feel of the type of people that are living in that area.

Michelle 13:55

Can you can you rent at a 55 plus if it maybe not uh stay as if it's a hotel, but can you rent in a 55 plus and try it on for a year before you buy?

Khadeejah 14:07

You can. There are some communities um that uh say the owner is maybe going to stay away for a while. So um there may be an option, but uh, you know, you have to be careful of the HOA that they may offer um some Airbnbs there um that are you can rent on a short-term basis. Um, but also sometimes homeowners um that they live they uh decide to just rent it out for a year, or there are also 55 and older rentals, uh, which is a great option. And that's kind of where the market is also heading. That there are 55 I'm sorry? What is that? So a 55 and older rental is a community that is 55 and older and it's specifically for uh rentals and they're not for sale. So again, you're living amongst people who are like-minded, who have the same interest potentially as you do, that is still amenity-rich and has all those amenities, but instead you're renting it as opposed to purchasing it. And this is honestly a great option as well, um, just because you want to get a lay, a kind of a lay of the land, I feel like, when you're going down to um some of these areas that you're not familiar with, where again, you can be in the community, you can see where the nearest grocery store is, you can see where the nearest doctor's office is, you can see, you know, where the nearest golf course is, and especially if the community doesn't have one. But you just kind of can really get a lay of the land um to figure out if it's something that you feel like will work for you in the future.

Michelle 15:38

I think that try it before you buy it, kind of uh do they have the same community where there might be a rentals division of that community and a buyer division of that community so you know whether or not you're staying with the same pool of people or not? Yes.

Khadeejah 15:52

There are communities, there are master plan communities that do have um a commute a component in them that is rentals as well as a commodity component in it to where you can buy. Um, the rental ones are typically apartments or um condo style or garden style apartments, as opposed to usually the buy community is more um homes. Um, but yes, it that is also a great option for someone. Again, if you're predominantly looking to figure out what type of people live there, you know, um if it's a place that you want to live, that is a great option as well.

Michelle 16:28

What is the downsize of living in a 55 plus community?

Khadeejah 16:33

Um I would say the downside is, and this isn't for all communities, but sometimes, you know, it can be that, you know, maybe you want your grandchildren to stay with you for an extended period of time. And the HOA rules um are against that. Um also some people may thinking think that living living in a community that has an HOA is a downside just because there can be a lot of rules and regulations that um you that that don't uh work for uh what you envision for yourself um in the future. Um I would say also sometimes again the HOA fees can be exorbitant when there's a ton of amenities and so forth. You know, you can be paying in upwards of a thousand dollars per month, you know, because there's a restaurant on site, and then you have to uh become a member of like the pool and uh the fitness center and the clubhouse and so forth. So there's additional costs. Yes, there's additional costs.

Michelle 17:30

So you need to check on that.

Khadeejah 17:32

Yeah, so it's really again, it's all about educating yourself and really doing the research, which is again, and as I aforementioned, that um sometimes it's anywhere from five to seven years before actually.

Michelle 17:45

Is that why it takes why does it take so long?

Khadeejah 17:48

Uh it takes so long just because, especially if you don't have an idea of exactly where you want to move, exactly where you want to go. It's gonna take so long because of research, and then it's also gonna take long because of your downsizing your life. You have to first make the decision that you're going to downsize your life, and there's the nervousness that comes along with that. But then additionally, you have to declutter, you have to, you know, get rid of things, you have to figure out what you're taking, what you're not taking. And, you know, for some people, especially um when you're a little older, um, you're, you know, there's a level of nervousness and anxiety that comes with that. So, you know, there's no rush. The most important thing is to take your time and then make sure that um the process is going to be comfortable um and suitable for you.

Michelle 18:38

Yeah. So um the point is is that um you need to have one of the pillars of next level clutter cleaning is to uh plan ahead and be flexible. So planning ahead, if you're saying five or ten years, you it's not like, oh, you're gonna pick up tomorrow and go, okay, you know, I'm moving across the country and I'm moving to another region. So um, you know, there's a plan ahead. So if you poke around on fiftyflaces.com and you start thinking ahead, maybe you'll uh find yourself playing uh golf and pickleball and riding around in a golf cart before you know it.

Khadeejah 19:17

Yes. And I just wanted to circle back really quickly to um uh when you mentioned about the down different downsides. Um I just wanted to add a couple add a couple more things. Um, there's less generational diversity, which some again could consider an upside, but then again, some could consider a downside. Um, and then also some communities may feel kind of too quiet for certain personalities, just really depending. And then obviously, some communities don't allow long-term rentals or younger residents. Um it's just again about doing that research.

Michelle 19:49

Well, you have to start somewhere, and hopefully, this conversation got you started on getting your wheels going in the direction of uh a 55 plus community as an option as you age. So I I'm gonna have to wrap it up for today, but please uh tell us if you've been in a 55 plus community how life is for you. Go to www.decluttering55plus.com. Go to the Let's Connect button and write and tell us how it is for you or how your experience has been in researching a 55 Plus community. We'd love to hear from you. Please be sure to subscribe, follow, and like us on all the platforms, um, including YouTube and uh Facebook and Instagram. Uh subscribe so that you can hear our episodes coming up. I want to thank you, Kachija, for being with us and uh getting us prepared for what's ahead. I appreciate that very much. And uh that's it for today. So be sure to have a clutter free day, and we'll see you at the next episode. Thank you.