When explaining to families and seniors what the Concierge Care Advisors are (and what we do), we often use the analogy of realtors. And in fairness, that’s the closest example of what a senior care referral agency is, but the truth is we are so much more than that.
Essentially, if you were working as an education maritime instructor for children by bringing them on aboard an 18th century tall ship for a living history program… you could say that was what you did as your job, but most people would refer to you as a pirate.
So, with this article, we’re going to show where the similarities between senior care advisors and realtors end.
Care Advisors Don’t Always Get Paid
A common question among families is how we’re paid and the truth is we’re paid in a similar way to realtors. In regards to a realtor, they get paid commission after the settlement and their amount is usually subtracted ahead of time from the price of the home. So technically, you don’t pay realtors, but rather, they’re included in the purchase of the home.
This is similar to our advisors because if you choose one of the senior housing communities we tour with you, then our advisors get commission from that senior living facility.
Additionally, both realtors and care advisors provide pro bono work where, unless you’re working with a different real estate firm that requires a contract or bills you by the hour, neither the realtors nor the care advisors make money if you do not buy a home.
However, the core difference is our senior care advisors do not always get paid for the families placed in senior housing. Whereas a realtor will always receive some form of payment from a successful settlement, the care advisors do NOT. Often times, the families we place in senior living facilities are on limited income (or Medicaid) and therefore we actually leverage our relationship with the senior housing communities to make exceptions for these families.
The reason we can do this is because of our longstanding relationships with the communities. If we have had successful placements at the designated facility, then we can squeeze in additional residents because we are in good standing with the community.
We do not make money on these transitions and the senior living communities do not make a profit either. This is why we work with only a select group of senior housing facilities – we specifically reach out to those that have the same hearts as we do and want to help seniors live respectfully, regardless of income.
This outreach is part of our whole, Concierge Care Samaritans program, where we willingly volunteer our services and hours to elders that would otherwise be shown the door (or worse, forced into a senior housing facility that provides sub-standards.).
