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How to Serve Senior Real Estate Clients the Right Way: Felicia Saraceno’s Full Playbook
Most agents know the senior market is growing. Far fewer know how to actually serve it well.
Americans 55 and older own about 55% of homes in this country. Baby boomers make up 42% of all buyers and 55% of all sellers. More than half of homeowners over 55 own their homes outright. If you are not actively building a practice around this demographic, you are leaving a significant portion of the market to someone else.
Felicia Saraceno, known nationally as The Senior Lady, spent years as an executive director and sales director in senior living before she ever sold a home. She has moved more than 400 seniors into communities, and today she trains agents across the country through the Senior Real Estate Blueprint and the Certified Senior Transition Specialist Designation. I sat down with her on X-Factor Marketing to get her full playbook.
Why do most agents miss the senior market?
Felicia says it comes down to two things: wrong relationships and wrong words. Most agents who want to break into the senior space go straight to the executive director of a senior living community. That is the wrong move. The executive director is overloaded. The sales director is the person who meets with families, manages leads, and needs what you have to offer. Start there, show up with a referral, and the reciprocal relationship builds itself.
What words should real estate agents never use with senior clients?
Do not use the word “facility.” As in assisted living facility. Felicia calls it the F word, and she means it. A facility sounds cold and institutional. It is a community, and using that word signals to everyone in the room that you understand the culture and respect the people living there. She also says never use the word “diapers.” The correct term is adult briefs. These are dignity issues, and the agents who get them right stand out immediately.
How do you segment the 55-plus market?
Felicia separates it into two distinct groups. The 55-to-80 crowd is largely empty nesters looking to right-size. They have a four or five bedroom home they no longer need, and they are thinking about their next chapter, sometimes including buying an investment property near where a child is heading to college. The 80-plus client has different goals entirely, often centered on how to make their money last to 100 and avoid burdening their family. Each group needs a different conversation.
Who should be on your senior real estate team?
Felicia’s referral network includes a financial advisor, an elder law attorney, a senior move manager who packs and unpacks everything, a senior placement specialist, and the senior living community itself. Each of those partners moves between five and eight people a month who may need to sell a home. Build those relationships right and you have multiple referral streams running every single month.
What is the most unexpected referral partner in the senior market?
A funeral home. Felicia recently built a partnership with a local funeral director who now sends her families who need to sell a home after a loss. Since January, that one relationship has generated ten listing referrals. The least expected place can become your strongest source.
This episode is one of the most practical I have recorded. Listen to the full conversation with Felicia Saraceno on X-Factor Marketing now. Follow her on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/theseniorlady/
Let's grow,
Wendy