Reverse Mortgages Offer Financial Options for Seniors Who Wish To Continue Living At Home

If you've been wondering what exactly a reverse mortgage is, how it differs from a home equity loan, and whether or not it could be a good fit for you or your loved ones, read on for some great information from our friend Ray Antonelli, a local expert who has been helping to educate people on the subject of reverse mortgages since 2005.

What Is a Reverse Mortgage?

Many have heard the term "reverse mortgage," but most don't really understand how it works or how it is different from the more commonly used home equity loan option. "It is different from a home equity loan," Ray Antonelli shared. "That's a common misconception. A home equity loan basically is a loan that you typically qualify for just like any other loan. So, that means you have to have good credit and you have to make payments on that loan, and you have to have good income as well to support those payments... and you have to prove all of this to the lender before a home equity loan can be originated."

"A reverse mortgage is a completely different animal," he went on, "because there are never any payments on a reverse mortgage on the part of the senior, and only seniors can qualify for a reverse mortgage. So, they have to be 62 years old or older, they have to be on title on the home--they have to own it in other words, they just can't be renting it--and in addition to that, they have to have paid their mortgage balance down to at least 50% or less of what the appraised value of the property is. So, that's the primary difference between a reverse mortgage and any other type of mortgage that you have on a property, whether its a first mortgage, a second mortgage, or a home equity line of credit or what have you. There [aren't] any payments. The credit on behalf of the borrower doesn't have to be anything special because there's no credit qualifying[.]"

No Payments? How Does That Work?

Sounds almost too good to be true, right? The beauty of it is, though, according to Antonelli, that it is genuinely as simple as it sounds. "Think of a reverse mortgage as a CD, a certificate of deposit," said Ray. "When someone goes to a bank or an insurance company and takes out a certificate of deposit, typically they give the bank or insurance company a sum of money and then the interest on that CD accrues until maturity. Then, the client goes to the bank and can withdraw all the funds, including all of the interest that has been accrued. Basically, the bank is doing the same thing with a reverse mortgage. It's lending money on the equity in the home and it waiting for the payments. There is never any payment due on a reverse mortgage until the home is sold[.]"

Does the Bank Then Own the Home? No.

One of the biggest misconceptions about reverse mortgages that Antonelli hears from seniors is that they fear it means that the bank owns their home in the process. Not so, he assured us: "[Seniors] think that the bank takes over their home, [that] the bank wants their home. The bank doesn't want their home; they just want to be paid back for the loan at some point. The senior is still on title on the home, they're still required to pay the taxes and the insurance and maintain the home. And when it comes time to pay off the mortgage, for whatever reason, it's just a mortgage. Just like any [regular] mortgage that gets paid off when the house gets sold, [a reverse] mortgage gets paid off when the house gets sold, as well, and the heirs [or seniors, if still living] get whatever is left over."

When Is It Time to Consider a Reverse Mortgage?

Who can benefit from a reverse mortgage, and what is the most typical situation that mortgage lenders see? "About 85% of the reverse mortgages I originate," Ray said, "are for seniors who are literally going backwards every month. They're running out of money before the month ends, and they're either attacking their retirement savings or they're going out on their credit cards to meet normal monthly expenses. If they have paid their home off, or at least have paid it down to less than 50% of the appraised value, I can originate a reverse mortgage for them and it basically fixes that problem more or less instantly because it provides them tax-free cash--because this is a loan, it's not income. It's a loan that they can use to pay their monthly living expenses."

What About Social Security? Medicare? Medicaid?

Understanding how financial options such as a reverse mortgage affect other benefits such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is an ongoing concern for seniors who are exploring their options. "Social Security and Medicare payments are not affected at all by the reverse mortgage proceeds" Antonelli said. "The reverse mortgage proceeds are treated as a loan, so there's no tax implication. [Seniors] don't have to pay taxes on the proceeds of the reverse mortgage because it's loan money. It just doesn't have to be paid back right away, which is what makes it so attractive. Medicaid is a different story. Medicaid is asset based. Even though the funds are a loan, that is an asset of the estate and that would affect Medicaid benefits. So, the senior does need to consult with a CPA or an attorney that specializes in senior financial situations to advise how best to handle that." Typically, however, Medicaid comes more into play when transitioning into an eldercare community or assisted living situation, so that may not apply to many seniors who are interested in a reverse mortgage.

---

Here at HandyPro, we make your well-being our priority. Our interview series goes hand-in-hand with that effort, and we hope you find it helpful! For more information on how we can help you make your home a home for life, visit us at www.StayAtHomeModificationsInc.com or call me (Brian Pritchard) at 216-212-7531.

To consult with Ray Antonelli about a reverse mortgage, you can email him at Ray100@gmail.com or call 216-337-7520.

To listen to the full conversation between Ray and I, please use the player below...


 

Home Care Company Partners with Harvard to Make a Difference

International home care company Right At Home is making a huge difference for elders and adults with disabilities all over the country and the world. The local branch, which serves the Greater Cleveland area, is managed by Shalom Plotkin and Elise Braverman-Plotkin. We had the chance to sit down with Shalom and get a snapshot of the great work he and Right At Home are doing for the community.

"Our goal is to help maximize the quality of life for those we care for. We do that by helping our clients to stay right at home, which is typically where they want to be," Plotkin said. "We provide non-medical, private-duty, private-pay home care. We [offer] companion care, which might be keeping someone safe at night, [or] making sure someone doesn't fall out of bed or wander. We do personal care, which could be anything from helping somebody to have a bath or a shower, or even to look after toileting ... grooming, hygiene. We also do some light housekeeping. It could be turning the laundry over [to us] ... to washing the dishes if people can't stand on their feet too long, or other things to help them stay independent in their homes."

Cutting Re-Hospitalization In Half

Right At Home has statistically reduced the re-hospitalization rate for their clients by 57%. That is a number that deserves our attention! They are currently partnering with the Harvard Medical School to track 20,000 of their clients across the country in an effort to make home care even better and more reliable for everyone. "Were working, for example, to reduce falls," Plotkin said, "which tend to be more frequent in colder weather when there's ice on the ground. We're tracking regional and national trends seasonally. It's a far-reaching study, and [Harvard Medical School is] partnering with us and with the software that we use as a franchise, called ClearCare, so we're able to collect all the data. We know that we're able to reduce hospital readmission rates by 57% because we have it quantified. ... Primarily, we're doing that by talking to people so that they're less lonely and they're more engaged, and that tends to lead to less anxiety, which means less emergency room visits, which means less tests. ... So, just being there, having somebody to be with you, makes a significant difference in reducing the hospitalizations."

Customized Care

Not all clients, Shalom shared, need regular care. Others need around-the-clock support. Right At Home will meet a client's needs exactly where they're at and come up with a customized plan to do so. "What we do is we make a custom care plan and it starts from there. So, I'll go and I'll meet our client in their home, wherever they call home, and it'll be a detailed assessment. After that initial meeting, we put the plan together. We have some of our staff back at the office--some of our nurses--look it over, and then we match up a caregiver. So, we're looking at their interests, at their personalities, at the services that they need, and we can pretty promptly put somebody in place. ... Then we go back and we see, how is that match working? ... We have supervisory visits. We come by periodically to make sure things are going well, make sure the providers are following the specifics of the custom care plan. We talk to our clients frequently, as well as our caregivers."

Shalom went on to describe the process by which caregivers get to know their clients, gauging their interest in things like going out or staying at home, and recognizing that, in some cases, it is just the ability to choose to go out that feels most important to people, whether or not they actually want to go. Often times, people are just looking to connect, from a nice conversation to sharing stories while looking through a photo album. "The caregivers do become almost like family to our clients," Shalom said. "Sometimes those bonds can develop fairly quickly. What our clients like to know, though, is that they don't have a contract. There's no maximum or minimum number of visits or hours. They can choose the schedule that works best for them." From a single hour appointment to help out with bathing, to full-time, day and night companionship, Right At Home tailors their service to the client's needs and wishes.

"It's humble work, but it's very rewarding. We're keeping a lot of people safe at home, wherever they call home. Some of [our clients do], in fact, live in assisted living facilities and we'll look after them there as well if they need a little bit more one-on-one attention to just stay in place. ... Our caregivers love doing this job. They love it. If they [didn't] love it, it would show right away, for example, in our interviews or in our supervisory visits. They have passion to help improve the quality of life for our clients, for those we serve. What that means is that that family has some peace of mind, and that is ... invaluable."

Affordable Service

While the services offered by Right At Home are non-medical and, therefore, non-reimbursable by medical insurance, their rates are extremely competitive and doable for many families at $19.50 per hour for a single caregiver on as an-needed basis and around $10 per hour for a live-in caregiver. Their services are covered by longterm care insurance and some veterans benefits, as well, and they are committed to doing what they can to help people find a way to afford the care they need.

---

Here at HandyPro, we make your well-being our priority. Our interview series goes hand-in-hand with that effort, and we hope you find it helpful! For more information on how we can help you make your home a home for life, visit us at www.StayAtHomeModificationsINC.com, or call me (Brian Pritchard) at 216-212-7531.

If you’d like to learn more about Right At Home, visit www.RightAtHome.net/Cleveland or call Shalom Plotkin at (216) 752-2222.

To enjoy the full audio of our conversation, please use the player below...
 

Aging In Place Professionals - Education & Connection Make Us All Stronger

More and more people are choosing to remain living at home as they age. For the adult children and caregivers, it can be incredibly challenging to take on the hours and hours of research to track down professionals who can support aging seniors in their own homes. Luckily, one local man saw this need through the eyes of his own experience helping his aging parents to remain in their home and set about to create an organization of professionals that could serve others in doing the same. That man is Patrick Manning, and the organization is called Aging In Place Professionals, or AIPP.

"My folks were approaching 90 years old," Patrick shared. "They were living at their own home. My dad was an old sailor during the war, and the captain of the ship, as he reminded us growing up. And he said, 'The only way I'm leaving this house is feet first on a gurney,' and by golly, he got his wish. ... We respected his wishes, as my family had done for generations, in helping our parents live out their lives in their home. And that's basically what aging in place means. It's those that opt to live in their homes for the rest of their life."

Supporting his parents through this time, Patrick found himself doing a lot of research and legwork to find local companies who could help his mom and dad remain safe and comfortable at their home. "I had to access a lot of resources to help my folks age in place," he said. "Anything from companies that do accessibility work to help modify my mom and dad's bathroom ... [to making] sure there was an accessible shower in there so they would have daily hygiene. ... So, I researched the different companies that made accessibility modifications. ... At the end, we also had companion care come in. That's non-medical care. Eventually, we had a nurse come in, so that was medical care, and then we had hospice come in ... as somebody who understood end of life. ... As the need came up to take care of my parents, I realized that there were a lot of resources in the greater Cleveland area, and I knew the demographic so I knew there was a lot of folks out there that needed all this help. That's why I started the Aging In Place Professionals five years ago."

The group exists as a hub for professionals to come together, get to know one another and exchange referrals, get educated on what options are available in the area, and share those options with local seniors. "We bring in an industry expert every month to talk about some aspect of aging in place," Patrick said. "We have speakers come in from the Alzheimer's Association and talk about Alzheimer's and dementia. We had an audiologist come in and talk about hearing. We have people coming in and talking about finances. We had somebody talk about hoarding. All of these [are] different types of situations and issues that seniors are facing. So, we want to, number one, educate our members about that so they can learn more, but also, as they're sitting there with their peers, they can get to know the other professionals that are providing these services. And when they go into their [senior clients'] homes, now they have some information, some education, and are able to identify these other services that the senior may need. ... We're helping them live at home safely and comfortably."

As of this writing, the next scheduled event is Tuesday, April 14th, 2015 at 8:30 A.M. The topic for this event will be Recognizing and Preventing Elder Abuse and the speaker will be Anne Spelic (Director of Community-Based Programs for the Cuyahoga County Division of Senior & Adult Services).

The event will be at Sunrise Senior Living (21600 Detroit Road in Rocky River, OH) and we encourage you to call Patrick at 440-263-6882 with any questions. There are no membership fees, and the group meets monthly.

As always, you can reach me directly at 216-212-7531, by email at Brian.HandyPro@gmail.com or online at www.StayAtHomeModificationsINC.com.

Please enjoy the full audio recording of my conversation with Patrick by clicking the player below...

Alzheimer's & Dementia Specialists Provide Home Care with Heart

Home Instead Senior Care is a national private duty homecare organization with the strength of around 1,000 branch offices behind them. From professionalism to that personal touch, they have a formula that really works when it comes to providing the highest level of compassionate service to their clients. We had the chance to sit down with Community Service Representative Nicole Pearch from the local Northeast Ohio office and learn more about what Home Instead Senior Care is all about.

“Private duty,” Nicole shared, “is just another name for non-medical home care. Non-medical home care is where we come into the home and provide assistance with activities of daily living … [such as] getting up out of bed, getting a shower or a bath, getting dressed, getting something to eat—all those normal activities. … We’re really there to keep that senior safe, happy, and [to help them] live long in their home.”

The company provides a variety of ADL (activities of daily living) support elements, including meal preparation. “We have some clients,” said Nicole, “that want us to just come in once or twice a week and cook a week’s worth of diabetic meals that somebody can get out of the freezer or the fridge and then heat up. So, meal prep, light housekeeping, … transportation to doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, anything along those lines.”

Home Instead Senior Care makes personal care their business. In fact, their motto is, “To us, it’s personal.” From bathing, to grooming, to safety, the company prides themselves on catering their support to their clients’ needs. “Personal care is [a] big need,” Nicole said. “I have clients that still want their own independence in the bathroom, but just want us there to make sure there’s not a fall. We can [also] do the bathing and the showering and grooming. [And something] that people may not think of is assisting with exercise. It’s very easy for seniors to sit all day in their lovely chair recliner and watch TV, but we can also do exercises while we’re sitting. So, it’s having somebody there to do those leg stretches with them. It’s always more fun I think overall, for anyone, to have somebody to work out with than exercising by yourself.”

Physical safety and stability is a main reason that seniors or their family members seek out in-home care. This issue may be particularly front-of-mind for those who have recently had a fall or injury. “Another big piece is mobility assistance,” said Nicole, “and making sure that the senior is safe. If somebody had a recent fall and just came home from a stay at a rehab facility, it’s a [big] transition getting back [into the] home and moving around, [or] learning to use a different walker. We can be there to reduce the risk of falls. … [We also do] medication reminders. While we’re in the home, we’re making sure that they’re not missing those medications because we want to prevent a missed medication that will have a senior end up back in the hospital or the doctor’s office.”

Highly Trained, Compassionate Caregivers

What about quality assurance? We asked Nicole what kind of training and accountability Home Instead Senior Care guarantees with their staff. “At Home Instead Senior Care,” she said, “we only hire about 14% of the people that actually apply to work with us. [We] really go above and beyond to hire the best of the best. … Our caregivers have a lot of training that they’re given before they even go into the home, and then as they’re with us, there [are] still monthly education [sessions].”

Home Instead Senior Care is one of the few private duty homecare companies in Northeast Ohio to employ nurses in addition to their regular caregivers. “[We] have nurses on staff who go in and do quality checks [for] all of our clients,” said Nicole, “and that’s one way that we’re able to monitor what’s going on in the home. There [are] daily logs [where] our caregivers have to document what was done that day, so when the nurses come in to do their quality check, we’re making sure that what we’ve committed to the family is actually being done in the home. … We are one of the only non-medical homecare companies in Northeast Ohio that actually employs nurses. … The families can have access to call the office and actually talk to the nurse if mom and dad are not feeling well. That’s something extra; we go above and beyond.”

Affording In-Home Care

Ah, the age old question: What does it cost? Sadly, non-medical home care is currently not covered by Medicaid. However, Home Instead Senior Care works with their clients to fund solutions. “There [are] a couple different options of how we help families pay for this service. [One] avenue they can use is VA benefits. If a senior himself or herself [is] a veteran or the spouse of a veteran, they can get a benefit called Aid and Attendance to help supplement for homecare assistance. … Another way is if they have long-term care insurance. We can submit a claim and work with their long-term care insurance company and then handle it all from there. And then lastly, one thing that people don’t realize [is that families can] apply for a grant from the Alzheimer’s Association. They do have funds available for certain circumstances, and we’ve helped two families recently get some funds. … So we really look at the families overall situation and then find the best avenue for them.”

Going the Distance

We wondered how Home Instead Senior Care differentiates themselves from other private duty care options. “Number one,” Nicole said, “we specialize in Alzheimer’s and dementia, and we actually offer a lot of free family workshops … around [these two diseases], being that resource for the family. Our caregivers are trained and certified as Alzheimer’s and dementia specialists. They know ways and techniques to best work with that client. … [W]e put [our caregivers] through so much training, offer them so much education, to really give them the resources and tools that they need to be so successful. And when we hire our caregivers—one of the biggest questions we get asked by the families is do we do the background checks, and we do. We actually fingerprint our caregivers, and they are drug tested frequently; it’s not just once. … We pull their car insurance records and their driving records to make sure that it’s safe. … There’s a lot of extra attention to detail. And one of the best things is that we’re available 24/7. So, you can call on a Saturday afternoon and start services, or at 9 o’clock on a Friday night if Mom has fallen and needs help. We’re there for the families.”

While Home Instead Senior Care offers many helpful services, no one company does it all, but they aim to do all they can to help clients find the services they need. “We like to be a resource for families and the community,” said Nicole, “where they can call and ask if [there] is something we can help with. If we can’t, we definitely pride ourselves on giving resources for the families, other avenues that might benefit their needs. Call our office and we can come out and do a free assessment, or [we can] help somebody out over the phone.”

----------------------------------------

Here at HandyPro, we make your well-being our priority. Our interview series goes hand-in-hand with that effort, and we hope you find it helpful! For more information on how we can help you make your home a home for life, visit us at www.StayAtHomeModificationsInc.com or call me (Brian Pritchard) at 216-212-7531.

If you’d like to learn more about Home Instead Senior Care or schedule a free assessment, you can reach them at 440-287-7658 or find them on the web at www.HomeInstead.com/116.

To listen to the full audio of this interview, please click on the player below...

Long Term Care Detective Work : Care Patrol Digs Deeper

Securing a long-term care option that is best for you or your loved one can seem like an overwhelming process. Where do you begin? What are your options? How do you know which facility is the right choice? Thankfully, there is a free local service that helps people answer these questions and sort out the details with patience and compassion. We sat down with Cilla Buck of the Northeast Ohio branch of Care Patrol to find out how they help seniors and their families find the right fit.

Care Patrol was started about 21 years ago in Phoenix, AZ by a social worker named Chuck Giovanni. There are now more than 100 locations across the country, including the local branch run by Cilla and her husband Kevin. “We help families of seniors find assisted living, independent living, memory care, or in home care,” said Cilla. “We try to match them by location, by their care needs, and how much they can afford. [W]e actually look at the care violations of the communities … to find the safest care options. We don’t just shotgun names out there; we actually tour with the families. We take them to about three or four different communities that would match what they’re looking for, much like a realtor shows families new homes. And best of all, we are a free service to the families, so they don’t have to pay us anything.”

People have a variety of needs and preferences, from wanting to bring a pet with them into assisted living, to dealing with limited private pay funds. Care Patrol works to match facilities with the needs of the their clients. “Maybe they have a pet,” said Cilla. “To seniors, their pets are like their children because their children are … grown up and moved out. If they have a pet, we only look at places that allow pets. Or maybe they only have three or four years of private pay. We will only take them to places that accept the Medicaid waiver after spend down. Those are some of the categories we look at.”

Memory issues are also, sadly, a common challenge that families face when looking at long-term care options. “If their mom or dad has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s,” Cilla shared, “or they have dementia and they’re not remembering, they need a secure memory care community. A secure memory care community is one where you have to press a number to get in and out. It’s locked down so, if they’re wanderers—and I’ve had calls from families where their mom or dad has wandered off out of the house and they found them down the street. … It’s very scary for the family members. Sometimes we say it’s like drinking from a fire hose, and we put it down into a drinking fountain. We walk them through the process, and we’re a free service.”

Levels of Care Options

Some people want to stay in their homes. Others want the community and ease of living found in an independent or assisted care situation. Care Patrol works to help their clients find a safe and happy living situation that will best suit them. “We help them find in-home care providers if they’d like to stay in their home,” said Cilla. “Or, if they’re just not safe in their home, maybe they’re looking for independent living; they’re just tired of taking care of all the responsibilities of the home, getting the lawn mowed, getting your driveway plowed, shoveling, all those responsibilities. … We have a lot of seniors that are still driving, but they’re just tired of taking care of all the responsibilities of the home. [With independent living,] they have an apartment—sometimes it’s one bedroom, sometimes it’s two bedrooms, it might be even three bedrooms. It’s their apartment, but they’re still in a community where they get one or two meals provided. … But they’re still driving, they still have their independence, they can come and go as they please.”

Cilla went on to describe how assisted living offers a higher tier of personal support while still providing independence. “Then you have assisted living,” she said, “where maybe they need some help with those ADLs [activities of daily living]. They still have their apartment in a community, but there are now nurses [and] caregivers available. They can come into your apartment, they can help you get dressed, they can help you shower … and even get you down to the meals. And usually with assisted living, three meals are provided.”

An Ongoing Relationship

One of the best things about Care Patrol besides the fact that they are a free service is that they stay in touch with their clients. “Even after they pick a community and they [move in],” Cilla said, “we stay in touch with the family … to make sure they’re happy with where they chose [and to see that] things are working out the way they had planned. … You might go into a community with a beautiful chandelier, but we want to know how they treat their residents.”

---

Here at HandyPro, we make your well-being our priority. Our interview series goes hand-in-hand with that effort, and we hope you find it helpful! For more information on how we can help you make your home a home for life, visit us at

www.StayAtHomeModificationsInc.com or call me (Brian Pritchard) at 216-212-7531.

If you’d like to learn more about Care Patrol or schedule a consultation with Cilla or Kevin Buck, you can reach them at 330-315-2895 or find them on the web at www.CarePatrol.com or Like them on Facebook at CarePatrol of Northeast Ohio.

To listen to the full audio interview, please click on the player below...

Moves Made Easier - Taking the Hassle & Stress Out of Residential Relocation

Don’t Dread That Move!

As we age, it’s natural to consider downsizing, often for ease of movement around a smaller square footage, sometimes for the purposes of cost saving, and sometimes it is with the intention of moving into an assisted living situation. Whatever your reasons for looking to move, one thing you can now take off your stress list is the move itself thanks to local innovative moving firm, Moves Made Easier. They’ll not only organize the heavy lifting, they’ll also help you plan the move from start to finish so that you’re walking into your new home with everything in its place, ready to be lived in. We sat down with company owners Ted and Debbie Forthofer to find out exactly how it all works.

Moves Made Easier, shared the Forthofers, is what is known as a senior move management company. “Senior move management,” said Ted, “is a relatively new part of the industry. It’s a lot less like a traditional moving company—like a Mayflower Van Lines, or someone like that—and it’s closer to what a family member would probably do to help their parents when they’re in a time of residential transition.” Moves Made Easier is with their customers every step of the way, from planning a move through to when they step through the door into their new home.

“What we basically are,” Ted went on, “is a project manager that can do, really, anything that needs to be done before and after the heavy lifting of the move. What that means is [that we] plan a step-by-step process helping determine what folks should be moving, and then get all those things packed up. We hire and supervise the furniture movers, and then we unpack everything and get it set up, all the way to the point of hanging pictures on walls and connecting electronics and making sure they work. … We actually go the extent of taking photographs of china cabinets and book shelves and large-volume pieces of furniture so that we can set them up and put the things back in them exactly where they were before they were packed in the first place, which is really helpful. You’re in a new home and you want to know where things are located, and they’re right probably where they were in the old home.”

The Challenge of Downsizing

You’ve been collecting knickknacks and clothing and kitchenware and more for years and years, and now it’s time to move to a smaller place. But what to do with all that stuff? Moves Made Easier helps you determine what you’re going to keep and what you’re ready to let go of. “It’s usually easy to tell when you meet someone for the first time,” said Ted, “and just by taking a tour of their home, what their interests are, what brings them joy, what things contribute to their daily activities, [versus] the things that collect the most dust that are maybe even left behind from when they were raising children, or things that maybe they don’t really have as much use for anymore. Once you talk to them, it’s easy to tell what things really mean the most to them and what things don’t.”

Moves Made Easier supports their clients in identifying the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, and then they take care of what needs to find a new home. “We ship things—either boxes or furniture pieces—out of town to family members or friends,” Ted said. “We arrange for temporary storage, we handle the donations to charities, and we also sell excess household items.”                                          

So, Can I Afford This Service?

Sounds like a premium service, right? It certainly is that, but the good news is that the cost is more reasonable than you might think. The company’s services are billed hourly, so you are in control of how many hours of their time you call in for support. “There are several things we can do to keep costs down for our clients. … More planning up front—[to avoid moving too much and having to pay to move some things back out to a temporary storage unit, then possibly again to their final destination]—saves them that possible cost in the long run. … Another thing we can do is sell their excess goods for them. If they have things they don’t need anymore and no family member wants them and it looks like there’s value in those excess items, we can certainly arrange for them to be sold.” The money that comes back from such a sale helps to defray the cost of the move.

---

Here at HandyPro, we make your well-being our priority. Our interview series goes hand-in-hand with that effort, and we hope you find it helpful! For more information on how we can help you make your home a home for life, visit us at www.StayAtHomeModificationsINC.com or call me (Brian Pritchard) at 216-212-7531.

If you’d like to learn more about Moves Made Easier or schedule an initial consultation with their team, you can contact them at 440-724-8965 or visit them on the web at www.MovesMadeEasier.com.

To Listen to our full interview audio, please click on the player below...

Motorcars Mobility - Local Dealership Creates New Mobility Options for Drivers

Historically when it comes to those facing mobility challenges, driving a car has often been one of the first freedoms to go, but one local dealership is doing all they can to change that. Motorcars Mobility, part of the Motorcars family of dealerships, is dedicated specifically to helping those with mobility challenges stay safely behind the wheel.

“The community has supported us for a number of years,” said Jennifer Ross of Motorcars Mobility, “and as we are all aging, we’re realizing that there are special needs for individuals who are aging or who may have some mobility challenges. [So, we] decided to support the community [with] a service that would be inclusive to all, and that’s Motorcars Mobility. … Our philosophy is ‘customers for life,’ and as individuals age or may have different challenges, we want to be able to still support them. With Motorcars Mobility, we’re offering wheelchair-accessible vehicles, and also adaptive driving assistance to those who traditionally have not had a lot of choice in the marketplace.”

The focus is on personal attention and individualized action plans, Ross outlined. “The best thing someone can do,” she said, “is either call or come in and just engage us and we’ll have a conversation talking about, well, what type of needs to you have? What challenges do you have? And then we look for solutions specific to that individual. There may be a medical condition—maybe someone has Cerebral Palsy, or maybe someone has ALS or maybe multiple sclerosis—and they may be able to drive, they just may need some adaptive equipment, or they may need a vehicle to allow them the access they need with the adaptive equipment that they’re using. That’s what we focus on: finding the exact right solution for each individual.”

When it comes to investing in a customized adaptive vehicle, many people may not know exactly where to start. Then again, some people have dealt with mobility challenges long term and know exactly what they need. Motorcars Mobility serves people across the gamut, Ross said. “There are some people who have had

 a need for years and come in and know exactly what they want. They have a specific prescription from their driving rehabilitation specialist. They know exactly what type of vehicle, [and] how many seats they’re going to need. They are basically just looking to fill their need. Then there are others who may be recently diagnosed or have some new mobility adaptive equipment and don’t know where to start. We can walk them through the entire process step by
step.”

Some of you may be wondering if any vehicle can be adapted to suit. Many can, but not all. “Someone can come to us with an existing vehicle and they might be able to pursue having that vehicle converted, but not every vehicle has that availability,” said Ross. “Generally, people are coming to us looking for a new or used vehicle that has already been converted. And what makes Motorcars really great is that we are the exclusive MV-1 dealer in Northeastern Ohio. That is a 100% American made, already converted, out of the factory mobility vehicle that has been specifically designed for a specific purpose.”

Temporary disability may also require adaptive driving needs, and Motorcars Mobility is about to launch a rental service to fill those needs. “Starting April 1st,” Ross shared, “we are going to have a rental fleet of mobility vehicles available to the general public fir short-term use.” To go a step further, the dealership also offers 24/7 roadside assistance to all of their customers. “We have an emergency line for any of our customers. If they become stranded, all they need to do is call us—24 hours a day, 7 days a week—and we’ll send help within a half an hour. … We make sure that when a family becomes a part of the Motor Cars family, we really take care of them.”

Motorcars Mobility will be at the Cleveland Auto Show through March 15, 2015 showcasing a selection of their MV-1 vehicles. You can also visit them online at www.MotorCarsMobility.com, or call 216-932-2400.

--------------------------------------------

Here at HandyPro, we make your well-being our priority. Our interview series goes hand-in-hand with that effort, and we hope you find it helpful! For more information on how we can help you make your home a home for life, visit us at

www.StayAtHomeModificationsInc.com or call me (Brian Pritchard) at 216-212-7531.

Please click the player below to listen to the full conversation!