##VIDEO ID:3WwHrBeeSnw## hello everybody thanks for coming I'm Mark rambacher I'm on the selectboard in the affordable housing trust and I help organize this event um if you recall about a year ago or roughly we did an event with um with the developers of 550 King Street and they talk they brought the seniors in and asked what they would like in the apartments um that they were building there and there was a lot of discussion about whether to do tow houses and things like that um so um I helped organize this event to uh talk about option what what different options for senior housing for whether it's Aging in place or uh downsizing or an Apartments um uh we have Kim albertelli uh realtor here and uh Dave Carpenter who does uh financial planning uh to give you more information and talk answer any questions you might have so thank you scary begin no go so mostly we're here because both of us have clients that ask us many of the same questions all day long so we thought hey let's do this when everybody gets to see the same answers and then we can get more questions from you and go from there we're not here to try to get your business we're actually here to try to be a community and answer questions we know that we have affordable housing coming in we know that we have a lot of rentals being built in town and we know that a lot of you are sitting in places that you no longer want to mow the lawn or do some repairs to so we thought let's figure this out together and ask each other questions and I'm Dave and uh I guess maybe uh start with uh any commonality in the questions you might have I know some people are nervous about leaving the home they have forever um uh do most people still have a mortgage okay and do you guys have a home equity line of credit anyone okay and um is most of your income fixed okay and how about 401ks or IRA you have that okay um and how many uh people have their children asking what they're going to do so that's that's a that's what we see uh in uh uh as people age um you know somebody has a health issue or someone uh Falls or you know they get to be 80 or something and they go mom and dad what are you gonna do um you know we worry about you and so sometimes that's the driver to make a decision and then how many people have never moved before okay so you have a lot of stuff at least the rest of you probably had the dumpster at least once so um no so so I just I just came from my dad's house who passed away at a hundred uh in the spring and uh the house was built in 1912 and my mom's dad passed away in 51 I think so no one threw anything away ever I I found like uh by Year all the bills paid in a in a in a cabinet I was like oh my God so anyway um what's the biggest fears maybe just you know shout out you know what you're worried about um the unknown oh we all worry about that so um the unknown like how long will I live as to where you go as to where you go be there right and all of you own your own home right now no no so some of you rent I live with my daughter you live with your daughter and she wants you to leave yeah um okay good uh yeah oh that roll reversal yeah oh that's good um yeah so um I guess the the big thing is usually these things if you don't really plan ahead are event driven you know something happens and then you don't really have a choice yeah I think talking about fear um I was on a hiking accident two years ago oh and we have a house with stairs and you with a wheelchair and a walker and we can't do anything get the stair or even get into a a stalled shower that only has a lip this big you get into that right so part of it is if we decide to stay in our own home how do we adapt it right to the way we want to live now y or we better off just going to someplace smaller first of all because it's too big um but it's hard to find you find any place to go yeah they don't build smaller homes anymore no I have so many ideas so for 25 years first I was an interior designer so lots and lots of clients that I've had over time have figured out how to live in the home and you're right that lip even though it's 4 in it keeps that water in it also keeps you out so there are wet rooms and so that's what we designed to get you to be able to navigate that all the door frames are not well we're actually uh the trust is now working on a Habitat for Humanity house and we're trying to get one of the units to be able to be completely universally designed for exactly that foresight so that nobody can't use it and if we think ahead in these new places we can make that happen uh it's reach because if you're in a chair then your reach is different but there are cabinets that come down it's so cool there are wet rooms there are the where you might have your living room now we could make that be your bedroom so there's a lot of ways to fix that what is a wet room the ENT entire bathroom is wet so you have a drain it All Slopes into that one drain so that you it's imperceptible in many ways but you have a a section that's your shower but that drains into that water and then when you go to clean your bathroom you literally can hose it if you want to it's kind of clever so and that's been invented a long time ago and not by me but I think it's genius so we're going to use it when we can so why don't they just make new houses like that because they cost too much because the standard doors are standard so they can get them at a better price because it's um more skill to make all of your floors in your house be level and all of us have thresholds because they used the wrong subfloor they used the wrong materials they didn't think nobody cared so it was cheaper than to rip up the subfloor that was there and all of that so I am on a crusade and have been for some time and that's part of why I'm here to find out what it is that flumes you in your houses so that we can build some of the new places better it is possible to build a shower without a we had one it built 40 years ago that's right wow it's not rocket science it is not yeah that's right Janet I was going to say who does this kind of work I mean is there like someone you can call and they are conscious of enough of this to be able to go through your whole house and design it yes and if you research Universal Design that actually can help you a lot um the Ada has its own set of bylaws and rules and and challenges but Universal means it's a little bit of a broader scope it's so that no matter what your it might be site it might be physical it might be simply that you have a small stature it might all of that Universal is different than ADA Compliant so either one of those right and to your point there's lots and lots of contractors but my contractors are all in their 60s now all of my favorites and bless their hearts they would like to retire and so when they go for their reup their licenses they realize that in the room there might be 20% that are in their 20s or 30s and they're in their 50s and 60s so if you know some Young Bucks who are creative I'd like to train them up and turn them into great Builders we we're going to need a lot of them yeah so in terms of to know the commune that they're being that's being built now that's for seniors is it designed to do all of this stuff well it's not quite a commune but yes I know what you mean haer home Homestead yes yes so that it I have not been in the big building but we have some residents so that might help you answer some of those questions I forget your first name Barbara Barbara Barbara might be able to answer questions offline to help with that I have not been through the big the big designed to be accessible it is na right good one level and there's an elevator so you can get to your unit wherever you are and that's what we're trying to think through when the IBM campus is done is to think through we don't have control over everything right we're just a couple of people who really see a lot of people in the world and as part of the affordable housing trust we try to influence the builders to build what our people need but this is why we keep doing these things is to make that list really clear and we're trying to make sure that there is a component of Littleton folks that get chosen first but we don't have control over that either so we're trying to do all things that we can to make sure that we're creating housing that we want and that we can get that make sense Mark just shout at me if I say something that you're thinking oh Lord what is she saying so we've got stay in place as one option and most people need to have a first floor that can be converted and and all those things um the other thing is move um some people uh that's you know I think a lot of people move closer to one of their kids and then very close for you um yeah um and uh and then you know there's kind of a fork in the road do you go into just a rental do you go into assisted living or Independent Living that has the kind of step program as you Age and and Decay so um I won't be decaying yeah um and so sometimes the the resources to you know um change your house you know they become expensive so sometimes um you don't have that cash lying around you'd have to borrow it you know and home equity line are pretty expensive right now the interest rates but um you know a home equity line of credit is basically they look at your house and your income and they say your house is worth 700,000 we'll give you 200 the ability to borrow $200,000 anytime you want you don't have to take 200 out you can just do you know if you if you don't make ends meet on the fixing up your house you know you take $1,000 and and now that's all you borrow um you you know you can borrow all the way up to 200,000 in that example but um that's a way to stay in your house and be able to afford you know and then if you can't even afford the payment next month you can take you know your $300 out and then put it back in and they consider that a payment so um anyway that's that's one way to to stretch you know for a lot of people the house is the most valuable asset they have at this point um um and so and they may not want to leave so that's the question is if you sell and then rent something you know you've got a big pile of money now that um you could probably afford you know 20 years of rent uh out of what you get out of your house and uh so that's a way to supplement your you know Social Security or if you have a pension those kind of things just I mean from our standpoint what I think about is like I don't move now I'm things are working well and and now it's grandma's house and so I it's all great but knowing that these events might happen what should I be doing now so prepared so when that event happens and we think we need to do something else it's not a fire drill that we've done some preparation that's that's me I'm up I say get the dumpster that's always the start that's always the start well I think I think it it mentally says I'm going to do something at some point yeah right and you know everybody's got a bunch of junk I mean some of it probably should be shredded but you know everybody's got stuff yeah shouldn't you get the dumpster now I have a truckload of treasures from my dad's house this morning so so a lot of us can't throw things away because they are valuable but keep in mind that if they were valuable to you once they're probably going to be valuable to somebody else and this is a time to look and if they aren't set them free because you can donate there are so many places to donate our team has a whole list of places to donate we also have yes a dumpster but I can tell you I am a big fan of doing everything else first right think about who can use what you have I'll bet if you start in your office you've got too many office supplies start there give it to the schools right so think about each don't even think room think one shelf in one closet think one drawer in the kitchen and just systematically start purging I'll bet you don't need three sets of sheets for your each bed if you have your guests come every six months two years and you need a set of sheets you might need one spare right but we all have so many things and there are shelters and there are places who need those things that you will feel better and you can donate it and do a tax write off or just donate them if you don't have a tax situation that requires that so that's the very first step is to purge and get rid of all the things because it does do two things it creates an energy shift and this is where the woo woo of Kim albertelli comes in energy matters and so if you are stuck and stagnant your stuff will be stuffed and stagnant as well and and you won't be able to set it free but if you know that somebody can actually use it and feel purposeful with it it does help sometimes um I mean I'll open it up to questions you know anybody want to uh I know some of this stuff is personal I'm going to leave some business cards and we we're going to offer an hour of free time for anybody who want needs to kind of go through things we can either do it on the phone or Zoom or or offices in uh Westford but um go ahead what's the update with the building the that be Mark uh the um the IBM facility has um 800ish Apartments approved for for that um there's supposed to be groundbreaking I believe sometime um in the spring the first building do you know the date of the first building is Mr Harvey so it's probably about a I would guess a year and a half or so out before they have the first set of Apartments um and some of it's going to be affordable housing uh they they have 10% affordable units how about handicap uh I believe they're I believe most of them if not all will be Universal Design I'm not entirely positive on that I know they were very receptive to that um there will be it's like 7 % of the units are one-bedroom apartments and like 20% two bedroom and 10 three that's roughly speaking and they're not tiny okay so you can have a desk you can have your dresser you can you know not tiny and I don't know what affordable housing means because in the past I don't know about this facility I've had friends who've gone into or looked at affordable housing that were not near affordable right well so to be clear and help me with the numbers here but affordable is a is an aggregate of the median income so because our housing prices are high here affordable means 20% lower 40% lower so that may not be affordable to someone however it does give somebody an extra boost to get in if you're on that cusp of home ownership and with Apartments it may change but what happening is the closer that we we are on all the highways so we've become a lovely place to live for people who have to get somewhere obviously it's why we all picked it so what we're finding is the further out you go the more affordable things will be which means that they're affordable may be more affordable as well which is a challenge just be we say 20% of 4% 20% or 40% of the medium cost of the housing in that area or so like the income it's in income Bas inome B right so it's your income so if you if the I don't know what littleton's Medi it's 115,000 or something so but it's right and it's it's the whole area it's I think us we're stuck in Middle sex so they use all of middle sex County Which is higher because we're on The Fringe of that right Wester County starts in Harvard so we're a little bit On The Fringe so yes curious if that percentage is single house you know one bedrooms versus two bedrooms what is what was the thought behind that just seems like a lot of people would prefer even if it's just one or two people that two better Mr leoi wants to have more un more units it's all just he can make more money right and that's what happens of course is that we have somebody who's willing to build something in our town and so can we get him to change maybe if enough of us say hey I would buy a two-bedroom condo we are trying to get that conversation going but I mean it's not my business and I'm not making money from him so I don't know the answers but the more that we push back he's been really responsive is there a waiting list we're so far out far out okay far um Lupi has indicated that he's willing to build a purchase units as well as rental units and I think one of my questions is um how would I distinguish which one would be better for me given that I'm retired fixed income um you know all those all those things and do you have a house now I do own a house now yeah um yeah I mean obviously you'd have to look at the bigger picture to say but in general if you feel like your house is your biggest asset um you'd probably look at selling that and renting you know as the you know you could supplement your Social Security with money out of uh out of the cash you get from the house sale and um you know depending on how much that is and how much rent is I have no idea what rent is in Littleton in terms of too much it's a lot yeah go ahead I have an accessibility question um uh how many stories is this CL building and if it's more than one story who'll there be elevators because some of the challenges for seniors is that sometimes have well if it's only two stories you don't need an elevator right if you're you knowall over 75 two stories can be more than so that was one of the things in the last meeting that was really clear made to Rick who was representing Mr lupoli was that you know if it's going to be a tall building and we're talking six stories I think at this point uh there will be elevators and we asked very clearly not for one in a big building but to have them strategically placed and covered parking and a lot of things so again keep keep feeding that to us but also the select board is is taking that to him constantly planning board the what the planning board sorry planning board planning board run board Mr Harvey is King of the planning P are you so one of the things one of the things that I get asked a lot I own a home I own two acres of land can I break it up and sell a lot because then you can stay in your home and then you can do something we have to work with the planning board and talk about Frontage we have to talk about sewer versus Town sewer versus a septic system so there's a lot of things that go into that and uh it's a long process but sometimes that can be working just in FYI if you own a bog in your back nine no is the answer it's not actually sellable or buildable in today's situation so that's not going to help you very much however the reason that people like to buy a home with a lot of land around it of course is private privacy and you get to do what you want in your backyard right so those are all things that we talk about and how we can help you maintain your house if you have 30 years of deferred maintenance the number that you then give Dave and say this is what I'm going to sell my house [Music] for may not actually be the right number so if you are able to keep taking care of your house and if that roof is 10 years over what would the expected Lifetime and you've got eight grand and you can afford to put a roof on put a roof on that will prevent so much pain and suffering of the window drip of the walls of the ceiling of more repairs later so we talk about that stuff all the time if your branches and your Shrubbery and your trees are overgrown have that taken care of and that will keep your siding cleaner you don't get mold it'll keep your roof cleaner it'll keep your window sills from rotting so we talk about that a lot like what can you do now to prep and not have more damage later right it's deferred maintenance can cost you a lot in the long term so on the financial side I'd like to just point out that everyone doesn't that you own your home you don't think you're paying rent but you effectively are right because because you're paying your property taxes every year with and you have your homeowners insurance so if you add those up that's a fairly large chunk of a rent payment yeah so and if you move into a townhouse you don't have you also add in your condo fees so you're not necessarily saving what you're think you're saving by owning your house and not paying right the rent is will be more most likely than your current taxes and insurance but it's but it's not necessarily like orders of magnitude larger than you're already spending but your rent can go up you no control over that and your taxes to well you have some control over that because you can vote one way or the other but you don't have much but look at what your insurance rates are doing now the home insurance rates are going through the roof another thing to talk about is that when we work with firsttime buyers for example we often will say if you aren't saving what would be equal to a condo fee every month then you're not prepared when your windows need to be done or your hot water tank explodes or your taxes go up or you get a bigger insurance bill or you get a dog or you have a big all those things so having that condo fee mentality we're used to not doing it but what I find is as we're aging we're paying more people to do more things for us that's the condo fee right that's your landscaping that's your trash removal you know I have a son at home who takes my trash to the dump if he leaves I am not I used to I just am not interested in it anymore right I will pay a service to come and pick the stuff up from my curb so keep that in mind when you're looking at your structure of where that money is coming in and where that money is going out and that's part of the equation that you know we're looking at for you to help figure out which is worse and also if it's a little bit worse is it worse long term or is it worse and it will be better long term so if it's a few dollars more sometimes it's better sometimes it isn't and to your point Betsy of what do I do to get ready you are so good about maintenance your house is fantastic so you're doing all of that stuff well it's the it's the challenge when somebody is not painting and then it becomes rotted right and then you get mold in behind the wall and then something else happened so it is the care and keeping of your property that keeps your money be well invested I I literally this is a very quick story had a client she owned her home for three years she had been in the real estate industry and someone had said to her when she was 21 whatever you put into your house you'll get back so she had been tabulating every penny that she had put into her house and she thought that when we sold her house she was going to get $550,000 because that's what she had put in she walked away with about $185 which was a lot because she just bought it three years ago so the fact that I made her $185,000 in three years is astonishing and not at all what her mindset was so that's why we're here is to try to make these puzzles be less puzzling and less of a shocker don't be the unexpected you didn't expect your septic to overflow correct that's right you didn't expect your windows to leap and so on it's um yeah so who feels like there are decisions in the next five years like the pressing yeah so I think I think that take a step need some lunch on Friday I'm serious I does any of them have a nice room for you and I actually asked the question what is the agenda are they going to have a long talk with you or is this going to be just to say hi I did not get an answer I know is an agenda I think I think you're on to something there yeah your antenna is probably getting the right sign I mean that is for from my side I'm I'm usually dealing with elderly cents cents who come in and you know they like our kids are worried about us and then like I think the answer is always I want to stay in my house as long as I can and then um so that's good but I think anybody who's kind of in that fiveyear window or less you probably should make the list start making the list and Crossing things off like buy a shredder or go to a shredding event um you know something like that with everything that's more than you know five years old um you know get rid of it Go paperless going forward if you can you know yeah yeah no one's going to check those yeah so the paperless isn't it's not really related to the property but that since you're here those things I mean I worry about that a little bit everything's paperless what used to be if somebody died the statements come to the mail l so you know what's going on but now just leave that sticky note with your password kids can see it you know what I just discovered actually there are several versions of this but I just died you get to know everything now oh yeah there are books all over the place with exactly that and so you can speak to what your accounts are and and don't make it so that your kids are not on your account or that you're you don't have a trust or you don't like there are steps to take so that this is less of a mystery and I'm not an attorney I'm I'm sure you have all worked with an attorney it's important to get that part figured out and see if you can avoid probate I don't know how to do that it changes per person so some some trusts do some trusts don't I have been caught in that so that's not my area of expertise however those are the things that will mean that your family can actually act right away and not wait six months or longer while that's all happening in the courts so that's one more thing to to do is yeah yeah probate is only involves what you own individually at your death if you have any account that you put your one of your kids on then they can write checks the same way as you did before so um yeah my name is spelled Kym yeah so yeah well there's a lot to it um I think uh go ahead yeah there's um frequently algorithms in the paper about the advantages of either buying or renting and it seems to shift from you know depending on the year how the econom is going depends on where you live right depends on where uh where you are in your lifespan and a lot of that is very important for you to work through right um another thing to really think about is if something were to happen how long could you be serviced somewhere right other a hospital or some facility and maintain that house or would you call somebody and say we have to sell in 3 months and so that's a conversation I have with lots of people is I have a 91 year-old who's been talking to me for 11 years when she turned 80 she called me she owns one of the five uh seven seven Level tow houses in Cambridge and she's about this big and she scampers up and down those stairs like a skipper She Lovely however it occurred to her her children who are in their 7 60s right that one day scampering is going to be a problem and then she will never come home so they started that conversation of what would you take with you what would you donate now and she had four rooms filled with bookcases so finding a place to take those was a very big step and that was a way for her to realize she could donate her her Collections and it would be reveled somewhere not all of your collections will be I'm so sorry Stamps no we found out stamps your Treasures m coins are worth what they're worth anyway yeah are not necessarily someone else's Treasures so my dad had all these first day of issue things in books and the guy said peel them off and use them on your envelopes so there some recent changes in state law of like 3A hous uh regarding the changes about uh commuter Housing close to Railways towns have an obligation to support that in some way uh there's also adus uh that are a state of law change so um I'm mostly although those are more or less pass in stone still beinged by town by town but what what's more interesting to me um is maybe uh about aging in place and how can that benefit a homeowner who needs to modify so are there any subsidy programs that will pay for a stairlift or remodel of bathroom um is there anything like that right now so I would check in with a Council on Aging because those keep changing yeah okay and Littleton its own Municipal Water and Electric so we can't participate in the National Grid furnace no interest for 10 years 65 you get three Windows uh to lean on your house for 10 years but we can't participate because the littleton's on their own Municipal system because we say it's a third of the price so the affordable housing trust applied for a grant for the state um and if you're meet the in and if we get the Grant and you meet the income requirements there will be assistance for homeowners um to do retrofits to their house um um or window you know roofs or things like so youan AG in place we haven't heard on the grant yet um when we do there'll be more information coming but um we're trying we're trying but again it's it's income qualified and things like that too so one thing we also talk about a lot is could you have a separate space in your home for someone to come and live with you so if you want stay could you then get a caretaker to be in your house and so the Adu unit is is one option for that so that you can build something on but also you can reconstruct most Colonials very cleverly it's not rocket science accessory dwelling unit couldn't remember accessory accessory accessory so your daughter could build you a nice little something something a little seashed a little something in the back right and the issue is in our town that's going to be tricky because we don't have Town sewer so that means all of the laws and the rules and the space and the room number and all of that count for the septic system is applying so we'll have to work on that Mr planning board member that's a board of heals for the love a be they all give it to another person let me just get a dollar right now but you can also do an Adu within the structure of your own home have to add on and there may be people do a walk out basement you could do uh the attic a lot of people have walk up attics that have been you know useful that's great for a caretaker and now we have you know you could use a baby monitor you can use your phones you can use your watches to hear what's happening a floor or two floors below you which before that never happened Colonials have been sliced in half and you know maybe the kitchen is the shared thing so we can be pretty clever what are the town's restrictions one time I know adus are the law just changed so they they have to be available for everyone but the town I guess can still well yeah the town can still say you can have someone but a relative I don't know if that's changed it a while ago yeah so you don't need a relative okay yeah it used to be caraker or care provider right and you know one of the other now would you could be caring for them or they could be caring for you and now it's anyway yeah but again you can't build it unless your septic system is big enough to handle that because that is a mess I just want to comment on the comment about the the town utilities if you have gas however you do qualify for a lot of those things you can go through National National Grid good good reminder yeah yeah do you have gas no I didn't I don't either oil I good gas and it's amazing it is amazing program good gasr gas natural gas natural gas a lot of the programs are they set the bar so low for I know I know there are some State programs you can have your house you know get rid of the thresholds and things but the um requ for the income is so low I mean just even if Social Security is probably higher than some of those requirements so you have a real career right I know I know right um since I brought it up little electric does offer programs this is kind of funny CU I moved in eight years ago and we we got at our house and I only just found out last year Littleton electric does offer if you get a energy efficient refrigerator dishwasher you have to tell them you only have a year I I don't know I know why I wasn't notified when I moved in 8 years ago as a new customer I didn't get something from Littleton electri saying once you replace your old appliances you can get a credit towards your bill up to like 500 a year depending but nobody a lot of people don't know about that no um I wish Littleton had published that I'll be taking that with me Littleton El have what's the guy's name there's one guy there that you talked to him I don't think his name he handles it in the electric department they can transfer you to him it's it's on their web page you have to go look for it so many things right so many things that we go and look for what else bothers you about the house that you live in that you would change if you if you got into a new space my laundry room is downstairs I'm in a split entry and try to find room upstairs to change it is difficult because it's a small house we got to give away the stuff in that closet I know the one I know the one no no my kid already just to just to bring up a point those of us that live in small caves and ranches when we want to become more energy efficient and get new appliances the new ones are bigger than our houses so you have to redo your kitchen to get the new applian I want I want new very energy efficient oh yeah my kitchen cabinets I I will have to take my cabinets out to get the newer appliances in because they're so big they're made for the monster house you can get one but it won't be cheaper it'll cost you triple to get the refrigerator so either you remodel your kitchen or you spend a lot on the SL profile easy as it sounds because are much bigger when I during Co I my fridge died so I went down to Hunter and said so I just want the cheapest $800 refrigerator and he goes how many years has it been I don't know 30 it's like yeah no there's no $800 refrigerators anymore I was a gas when I moved in with my daughter she remodeled a portion of the house to fit for me so I said I think I low in nsha and I said I want the smallest fridge that you have and it fit in that space so you can get them you can get them like 600 maybe oh not was for this by the way Realtors can give you a code for Lowe's for GE appliances for for that I think I can do that without soliciting something I G slash ha ha is the brand yeah it was good it's still good yeah Jan and I were talking this morning how part of the thing of just being older is in our head what things cost and what they really cost they're just not even close anymore and we think that's ridiculous but it just is what it is and that the other part is just getting over some of that and internalizing it our neighbor just had his roof done and you said spend 8,000 to get your roof done his was 16,000 and that's a bigger roof right but still agree agree and I have these conversations often and and they change for me I've only been doing real estate for 13 years and interior design for many years before then so since I started I used to be able to say oh yeah you know you can get your your room painted for $250 to $300 now it's not that first of all the gallon of paint is now $75 which is Gob smacking to me but it won't kill you that's the very good news it's not lad and it's going to not poison your lungs for 3 months so you know we're making progress with other things so but that is a giant thing everything does cost more and we again this conversation happens a lot with can we save this and not do that can we do this and not do that in the house don't do your kitchen before you move nobody want wants your kitchen on your way out cuz you're going to cheap it you're going to do everything that you can do at the cheapest possible way to make it look pretty on the way out that is not what your buyers want Let It Be vintage we will call it a time capsule and we will show you that people have loved and tended to this and taken care of it all this time that's what they'll pay more money for so be very careful not to just do something because it's old if it's in bad repair it's what no splash cards so many lists you know it's the little things it's can they see themselves living there and so we'll price it right but anyway yeah what's the climate like for buying land not Serv little area maybe West and building something how much money do you have depends um if I sell my house that's my answer too it depends yeah so just you know getting land but building some I don't know are there people out who are willing to build one story 1500 foot yes it will cost you double what you think it will and the reason is because it's more expensive to go across than it is to go up one box going up yeah Mr Harvey is also an architect and he can share with you some of those insights as well but it's you know that's a lot of found Foundation that's a lot of other things and of course that's the better way to do it for most of us but you may consider if you do that to do an embankment Ranch which then allows you to have space below that someone could then that's what I liveing now there you go right somebody can then make that be more valuable in the next life so that you have you sell potential as well yeah I moved to Littleton with my husband in 196 a small small house on an acre of land my acre of land cost more now in taxes than my home right and we only had to pay $16,200 for the house at 5% interest we we our mortgage cost $99 a month and when the bank wanted to us to pay off the 30-year mortgage early my husband said they've got to be kidding look at the deal I've got you're going to get99 something a month until it's done good for you that's your bank account yeah unfortunately my house costs significantly more than that I'm sorry yeah but that's okay right it's okay we all we are where we are and it costs what it costs we all have to find a place to live so that's what we're trying to do is to make it so that you can get as much as you can on your way out and then be as clever as possible on the way in to the next place one of the things you mentioned that I really don't agree with is um regarding part of take care of your property you know your trees and bushes and stuff you know you got to pay attention to your roof and surroundings um we moved to Littleton because of the trees I didn't say cut them all down they didn't oh no they didn't no I love trees but my son wanted us to cut all the trees down because they are very big very big maybe up front maybe a half a dozen and I'm not ready to do that let the new owner do it if they want don't want that I like the Oban I like the beauty I like the pain in the ass it is to you know take care of during fall with the leaves and stuff but no um there are things that should be done in the house but from a design point of view or an opinion point of view when I ready to sell the house let the new owner do that for correct yeah you just want to clean yes I just I want to tell you that cleanliness is Next to Godliness whatever your God is however you think if your house is clean and impeccably kept that's it speaks volumes what are you thinking question we live in a small ranch we don't have a I'd love to have a absolutely then you have to talk to the planning board to make sure that you can put it on your property and it's not too close or is at the building department or the board of he wait probably all yeah that's right for the CBA right so but I mean it's a value especially because people come here from all over the world and they don't know yet that they won't actually Park in their garage that's where your lawnmower and your kids bikes go and when your teenage daughter goes to college and leaves all the stuff you are so good drive in in the winter time and you're still inside no way I have a really nice car sitting right out front I actually painted my garage do the same color as my car so it doesn't bother me as much I kid you not so this is kind of a silly maybe it's not so like carpets like our carpets are old they need to be replaced it's a real bother there's a lot of furniture there and I just wait until we sell and I'm like if I do it now I get to enjoy it in the meantime so would you recarpet or would you do hardwood that's that's well that's another issue because old school I like hard it doesn't it doesn't you don't see all the dust it's soft on your feet it's warmer in the winter all those things but the young people want that's another thing like you bother because somebody else wants something different anyway right they all want hardwood yeah I know so but not in every room so we can we can talk through that yeah by the way so I have to make this clear I am on the affordable housing trust I cannot work for any of you so um I either have to resign my spot over there and Mark's here so I can't do it just this moment but um or I can help you I I can however offer to give you an hour of consultation to just help you guide you and do some answer some of these questions more personally so that you don't feel like you have to shout it out in front of all your not quite friends or some friends so yeah I live in Westford so what is Westford with the housing there do you robust robust do you go there I mean can you we see you sure it's really nice to get a few agents to come to your house because we're not the same we don't service you the same way everything is different there are people who will help you in many different kinds of ways and if you know somebody and you like them as a person they may be a great agent for you they may not be it's okay to interview more than one not 75 it'll be confusing what's the percentage for agents in Massachusetts is it a there are 400 million of us um property when you sell you property it will sell I can't I actually can't discuss that I was wonder if was a state rule it is no everything is negotiable and every brokerage has a theory about what that should look like our property says 10% right which is what I and then uh what does that mean when you get a a buyer that wants % is that additionally to the 10% or that's a very good question I would read that contract very carefully oh I didn't sign it with the over there at the Littleton Motor Court she's the queen of MOT homes and no one should use anybody else she's horrible 10% 10% is a lot all you had to do is that face that I knew that was not a right amount most people but also here's the thing about that particular thing is that it's not real estate and so because of that she's not playing by the same rules and it's a it's such a different price point and such a different thing so I'm not going to speak ill but it is a different product and a different mindset yeah here's the best we bought the house her eight years ago I had her in a couple months ago cuz I didn't know what I was going to do in my situation you know what she said to me when she walked in I had all my paperwork from the eight years ago sale I keep stuff I like paper I said we have to talk about that point out where my deed is you know CU everybody tells me you got a bill a sale and we don't have property tax over there that's our secret um so how do you know well we we rent the land so we have a lease from the owner of the land do you know what she said to me when she walked in the house I she said oh well um that that's the one you need but it doesn't matter I have a copy of that on my computer that means that my name's not even on that she could just print that off and say she owns My Little M home she won't yeah she's she is a license not okay that's that's thank you for that comment cuz when she said it to me I was like what cuz because they are different they're not houses it's not real estate and that's why she can say 10% to me it's like selling a car right that's what I can told I mean literally yeah some of the cars cost as much except a k you have a title right we don't have a title correct right isn't it fun right nothing okay right so we can talk about that is that we have this opportunity in Littleton right with a mobile home park so that's another way to own something and then rent your space so there are there are ways to do diff there's a lot of there are a lot of options and that's kind of why we're here is to help you figure out what's the best one for you because we don't know and that's why we both come from this with lots of anecdotes lots of stories lots of people and we just know that most people get to us befuddled and confused and really nervous so we don't want that we just let's have an hour and figure out a plan what say you I think yeah I think uh the sooner you're thinking about this you should make the list and you know just take a step and sometimes that's freeing you know once you get the snowball headed down the hill you know can go pretty fast when you say make a list exactly what are you speaking well in other words um what what sometimes it's the fears I am worried about this I'm worried about that and then you know get answers to those things so that you free yourself up to you know microphone yeah she can't hear you it doesn't work um yeah so I think you know just start for whatever your situation is like I have a basement full of stuff I have a garage full of stuff I have a lot of paper um you know if you're going to stay in your house you know make a take pictures of the things that you think need to be changed doorways what's that you might have repairs that make yeah you might have repairs so just start start a list with things that you know may be your worries maybe things you know you have to do but a lot of times if you own a house as we were saying with carpeting or anything have a realtor walk through your idea of what needs to be done may have nothing to do with the resale of it you know I was like oh I have a roof 20 years don't worry about it a comprehensive list of I don't think you need any yeah yeah we don't want to give you a big list yeah no I'd say what's bothering you know what are you concerned with is probably the most important thing I mean I'm sure there's list online but um I think the big thing is just if you check off that first thing sometimes that's like oh I'm getting ready to move or I'm getting ready to fix my house even if it's 10 years even if it's 15 years we work with people for DEC decades ahead of time having the plan just means you have a plan right you know you're going to go to Ireland someday so you start to get the book it doesn't mean you're going next week or you're booking your flight it just means this is something that you have on your agenda and you're excited about it then it means that when you go to get it you know that this is the right season this is the right outfit band this is the right walking shoes because what's his name on PBS is going to tell you all the things right you know which Pub you're going to have lunch on day two if you have a plan it feels less daunting and it's and and also we work with lots of people together we're going to talk to your estate planner for example or your real estate attorney we have teams of people and that we all play a role in it which can be a little confusing when you don't know know that so getting that known and understood and build those relationships ahead of time takes out that I don't I don't think I can do this and most of us to the point is we're going to help you decide who the right person is you know we know more than one attorney we know more than one adviser we know more than one estate plan or the people who come in and help you process things by the way they're get becoming elusive it's harder and harder to get them anyway that's the point is planning ahead makes all of this let you sleep better at night and for you who going to meet your kids you know if you pull out your list they go oh you have a list very impressive you know you're going to be surprised yeah I think you can hold your own I'm not worried about you yeah I did have my roof replaced about um 3 years ago and I'm thinking about my windows because they're very very very old I say old so um I don't know if I should wait because I don't I know I'm not leaving now am I leaving tomorrow probably not in 5 years probably yeah would they make your house be more comfortable and would they and would it also prevent you from having mushy Sil and other issues then that's the that's the time if you can afford it to do those even if you don't do the entire house at once maybe you get to save one of the walls because it doesn't have it's all fine but it would make your life better to your point right it sometimes we fix houses to get them to the next person enjoy it if you can afford to make your house nicer than it is now and it doesn't have to be fluffy it having nice Windows is going to save your heat it's going to make it be nicer it's going to be a quieter it's going to all those things that new windows you'll be shocked by the way don't necessarily make sure that you compare replacement windows and new construction Windows replacement windows fit inside the hole they just take out the window and plunk in the new one it's going to have a lot of insulation all the way around so the light that you were used to having is going to shrink by about 20% if you do new construction windows it's going to be more expensive because they're going to take back the trim and they're going to take off the siding and all the things and then they'll put it in one of those is the right answer for you but you should know what those two things mean wait will they be impressed when I get right thank right yes I experienced that and I wish I had known ahead of time M what about refinishing floors when are you supposed to do that or not at all how bad are they not too bad couple spots here and there I have a solution for that [Laughter] carpet no so because of the whole trajectory of this if truly if you need anybody to do anything I probably have at least three guys on a list somewhere so feel free to reach out I'm I don't get any money from any of them right it just is these are people that I trusted and other agents in my office have trusted over time so Phil fam floring he's fantastic fam p h m he's fantastic okay yeah great and there's a lot of them around but yeah thank yeah we we talk a little bit about the IB site as a longterm thing in Littleton there're also um other projects in the pipeline that are very indefinite we at the last town meeting we passed a zoning change which allows 150 units um down just across the tracks from the train station and there's a very vague proposal that's going to come in front of the planning board for some kind of senior housing on the lot just above the station par that 30 Acres um I know no details about what that's going to be but it's it's a big reputable developer and so we're trying it's it's um what kind of housing is he we know nothing no we know nothing we know nothing okay but we are trying he has said that he's going to be in front of the planning board at some point with a proposal that's all we know but the stuff by this a station that was going to be more not high-rise Apartments but more housing things like that right small mostly town houses and and that's low low rise low density is it is it I think what was it six units per acre that I don't was but calling that people wanted something that felt more like a house if that would work more and that's just the zoning thing so there's no proposal about that and so when I get involved I ask them to please put a bedroom on the on the floor on the first floor right so there's a lot of situations where there's a place in air there's a there's many of these have been figured out there's a mayard marble Farm is fantastic so there's several of them that you can have a master suite a primary Suite on the first floor with all your living space your laundry all the things you'll still likely have a basement and you'll still likely have guest room and a bathroom upstairs so depending on what we get from them that's one of our requests because that's it's what we keep hearing over and over and over again is we want one level living and and and the this kind of meeting helps the planning board these developers or or and try to influence them right from a financial stand point is there one thing you hear you say if I had to advise people do this or don't do that or the you know things you hear from mean in terms of improvements I no just in terms of General planning ahead what do you mean you sunk all your money into or what no crypto no U I don't even know what it is really not real I'm not sure anybody does um but um well I think anytime you're going to spend a lot of money you to really think especially if you're going to move soon like am I going to to the point of am I going to get back like the $500,000 I put into my house that I got1 185 whatever that is but that's that's been the one thing I see is uh people fixing their house up spending a lot of money and then the person comes in and they oh I used to live here and they come in and the brand new kitchen is not there anymore and the bathroom is ripped out and brand new my God 1984 you know they just you know so I think it's really uh I mean I I remember somebody said oh I got a big list of things that I need to fix in my condo before I move and um the realtor came in and said change your faucet in the bathroom and that was it and she's like well what about all this stuff she goes people don't care don't presume yeah don't worry about it yeah so of course the Market's very good right now yeah and by the way think about this if we're going to suddenly have 1,500 new houses in town in 5 years in 10 years it's not going to stick to be a seller's market I I'm just saying that from an observer point of view we may not have that same carrot yeah right when there are that many other options both in Littleton and Beyond then you may not have that same opportunity I don't know that my crystal ball is cloudy I say that all day long but we are riding a high that you haven't seen in a long time high to sell right all we should have all lived long enough that we've seen it do this too times you just don't know right this is definitely still a seller's market as a buyer agent I put a an offer in $50,000 over on a TW bedroom time capsule in Hudson and we didn't get it I had a 20% down buyer he could close in 3 weeks it was really fast he was really well prepared no inspection and I didn't get it so that's the competition right now great neighborhood great lot great it was one mile from the downtown so location matters and it was immaculately kept and unbelievably outdated you know what I'm seeing right now people buy your house dig the hole in the ground knock it out a million dollar house that's what my son tells me that all the time don't spend tons of money mom when the day comes the house is going to be gone and they're going to rebuild they're going to buy I've never your houses but it could happen there are very Deep Pockets my son conly what so here's what concerns me about that actually is that there are some friends of mine truly who are builders in town and they will go and introduce themselves and say you know we can do this for you and they will give you a price that is not market value it might seem like a really good idea and maybe that's a good way to get out quickly they'll just take you just take your suitcase and go it is not your best money to do that go ahead and put it on the market and we will help clean it out and do all those things right Realtors do that so it's up to you as to what your best choice is but their goal is to look at the math we have to get rid of all that stuff we're going to have 15 dumpsters we're going to dig a New Foundation it's got to be higher because of the water table it's got blah blah blah it's a different Market but it may seem like it's so much higher than you thought because you spent $111,000 what did you say $14,000 on your house 12 $112,000 so if somebody offers you $300 that may seem like I'm going to take it but what if somebody else could get you 450 yeah right so you should you should investigate well my son yeah he's aware of real estate class but anyway but that's yeah just when I said 12 it was for the room no how much did you buy your house if you sell your house you sell your money your house you want to make sure you have enough money that you'll get to a new place you can get the new place or like you said rent for the rest of your life if you don't do that you screwed yourself up that's right yeah so you have use common sense here I think common sense is the big word common sense is not so common I'm fine a lot of people you had you had your house you had kids and now you're need for you know a smaller place you know and then be careful my mother for her 70s something years said to my grandfather when you sell this when you sell this when you sell this and my grandfather said no Sue you're going to have this house and he passed away my grandmother lived there for 9 years she started to have a bit of dementia so my mother gave up her job she sold her house she did all the things she moved in my grandmother passed four months later she was mad at my grandfather for two years who had been deceased by that point sometime my point is you don't know who's going to end up in your house and you don't know how it's going to plan out right so the more we can take off your what if list the better it is that's what we try to help with and there's a lot of us who can figure out how to make it so that you can get your laundry upstairs or you can there's solutions for everything it costs time and money right so we just have to figure out which benefit is going to be the right one for you it's never the same answer what do you call to get help for staying in place I understand calling a real estate agent when you're moving and have that conversation about what to do surprisingly I have that conversation with people once a week I stay in place mhm I have I I I don't convince anybody to do anything but often the right choice for them is to stay in place for the time being and we might make a 10 year or 15E plan um also you really have to look at your finances very carefully to think about if you needed care if you needed this if you you know all of those things have to come into the puzzle yeah it's all it's so many things we get it but if you choose to stay in place and need things done also look around and see which friend you might live with just [Laughter] saying Mar is there any room bety has a lot of room bety has a lovely home pretty backyard on talk little what do you think ellar I'm not saying a word my husband and I learned an interesting lesson about changes uh when his parents started aging had' been in their house you know raised their kids and but he and his sister and brother waited a bit to make the one floor type changes so they were pushing towards 90 and what happened which we didn't think about was their long-term memory right was of the original home right so they're buled no no the downstairs lovely bathroom bedroom sunro at night when they go to Bath they would go back upstairs because they remembered the and so what we did and we it's not perfect but we made our change to our house when we were in our early 60s perfect good thinking but you know it's not perfect but now I'm moving downstairs because I didn't expect some things to happen all I'm saying is it's an interesting conversation this is our age group but younger folks need to think about that cuz we never thought that oh yeah well no that's really really important the old one but they may not remember the new one and they were close to the 90 when they made the changes so you know what if that's any use well and we we meet a lot of people who then also when you're confused it's hard to think about the contracts it's hard to think about having people in your house it's and if you lose a partner it's hard to have somebody in your house you might feel like you know what I don't want them to know that I live here alone so we talk a lot about that with people and you know we set up buddy systems teenagers senior citizens all the same we'll keep you safe diapers to diapers I've never heard that so what do you think do you feel a little bit more at ease or does it feel more daunting feels like we have people who can give us answers there you go it's a St possible I feel on the right TR SM don't be Saturday okay that's right after the event expensive so I am perfectly willing to come to the COA and have these conversations regularly I think you know I I like having these conversations talk to L okay so you know I I think this is what I do this is where I live I've been here since 93 I know that I don't compare to some of these young whipper snappers who have been here since 1961 which is five years before I was born [Laughter] excuse I would suggest if you do this sort of thing is um to have a discussion with people who live in the trailer because you gave out information today that would be helpful oh yeah we can't find um you can invite us over it's not that you can't find honest people you can find honest people I had a plumber pretty recommended in Gren a big name over in gron and he just did not do what I needed and and I didn't know what to do and when I told my guy neighbor he said you call him right now and tell him he didn't do it I called the morning and they sent another guy out to do the job that I had already paid for yesterday and he is it's a big name Plumbing in Gren um and I I was shocked and human beings human being I don't want to say that there aren't reasonable people or trustworthy people out there they're just really hard to find you don't know when I go online and try to get an appliance fixed there's like a website go online or'll come to your house four or five times they scheduled me and even had a guy d by the time I got to the end like you know was like $80 for the first come out they were giving it away for free because they kept scheduling me and not having anyone out finally one of my neighbors said oh yeah one you know you're Littleton yeah they want to come to your house but then when they see your address they say oh we're not going in that house cuz it's not a Littleton house it's a little that needs some work that's our problem trying to find people and it's not just me I mean my neighbors have said the same thing if you've got a list I have a great plumber yeah and if you call the um COA office and the Outreach workers they have like handyman they will recommend I mean I know cuz I I have would love to have somebody come I have a lot of old stuff at my house and I know a lot of it's not valuable but some of it might be but I am hesitant just to pick out somebody and call correct you know because you don't know you can't TR anybody nowadays I've already been a victim once of fraud you know so you don't want that to happen but there's a person we don't have there's a person in Sterling that we used when my parents house um sold my parents house his name is John poers and he runs an auction house and he came to my parents house and took everything I mean I'm surprised if he didn't take the trash I it was such a relief because you know because I have stuff and I just don't want to see it my and my kids say to me now what do you want us what what do you want us to do with stuff when we have to do something with it well this he just this guy comes trying to and he's an Auctioneer so he takes everything and then pays you you get something right and you don't get what you think you're going to get ever however it's no longer in your home and that energy back to woo woo that energy of all that stuff stuck is daunting to try to deal with manag to I have a 12 piece Place sterling silver Flatwood I kept it in silver in a chest you know with tarnish proof and all that under my bed cuz it was too big to keep anything you a solution for that I got my grandson one time he was there pull it out for me cuz I can't get pull something out from under the bed anymore and now I got it out it's on the couch fur and there it sits right and I'm like okay I have one granddaughter you know my daughter-in-law my daughter nobody wants it you have to polish it what do I do it's in it's in a Polish free chest I $25 a piece is what it's worth 25 a piece yep every spoon every knife I got oh 12 piece with all kinds of serving pieces just did that we just had the auctioner at my dad's house really and she's like all right y Sil I have other things you know that were and so it's like but I don't know where to even start yeah and I would like to make sure they're gone and not just thrown away thank you so either estate sales yeah there's there's several companies that do it and as I said earlier they they come and they go because it's a lot of work and they don't make much and you don't make much and it's a lot of work so yeah and also as I said I for anybody in Litton just called I mean I know this is embarrassing but it's the truth a couple of weeks ago I realized I was getting clumps of in my little you know thing was with the dryer and I thought oh Mar I don't think you've ever paid anybody come and clean dry and I'm the only owner of the house since 1965 and then I got nervous so I called as soon as you know then it's you just know it's going to be a fire that very night that's exactly right so I I thought okay I got to get this clean because I'm not going to use my TR until I do I'm afraid now and so I just called the office and they gave me list of handymen and and somebody you can trust take what office you call one thing that you all might consider doing is to hire an in a home inspector at your house what they'll do is come in and look as if there was a buyer right they're they're now working for you then it's not a surprise that something that you didn't even notice it wasn't on your radar but you can get that fixed ahead of time time so that a it doesn't cost you more money long term but secondly when you go to sell you can you can show that if you want to not if it's 15 years old again won't matter but if it's three or five years from now you can say hey five years ago we kind of started planning this and here's what we found and here's what we did about it so sometimes that helps again I don't work for the inspectors but I have a bunch of them sure you know it's funny because one of my resources in town is the Littleton mom's Facebook page we need a senior page that people are comfortable saying that's a good idea right that that someone can say hey I just used this plumber and we loved him and this is why and then you feel better about having him in your house or because go Google comments you don't really believe you have no idea whether it's real or not the one person that complains is usually just yeah the gentleman that came and clean my dryer was one wonderful gentleman right cost me you know under $50 his visit perfect you know and saved you from 1965 right sleep to your house $50 you know what he was no spring chicken I hope you gave him a cookie he was wonderful you know I felt comfortable having him there because I felt like he wasn't going to take advantage of me and so it was just so nice so would that help you do you want to make a page we can make a Facebook page right can I do that can I make a Facebook page is it against my rules I don't know anything anymore well we can we'll talk to our our boss I me Liz Liz can make a Facebook page right and that way you can you can all Su and I representing the Council on Aging here Su knows all the things yeah and we yeah she's on the counil on all my so we'll we'll discuss it truly this is about being part of your your village you need to connect with each other and right you know if there's this many of us we were just talking there's how many over 50 were there's I don't know it's quite a large percentage little oh yeah we're up there the numbers are pretty high now so I think it's important for us to make sure that we're communicating with each other ahead of time again before there's an emergency before somebody Falls before somebody has a a tumble or this or that or a loss so let's take care of each other this is the whole point of living in a small town most of us do that but let's keep doing that with more people email Facebook Facebook sure to or maybe it's a different thing right there's WhatsApp there's a million things I don't use any of that either but also Littleton has their own town yeah I mean um website maybe they could get us a page off of that oh I don't know how that works yeah they can just create pages right right so next month okay I need all of your help next month I in charge Sue promised to help me doing the affordable housing Trust Newsletter so and we'll put something in and our newsletter is just a page right it's not a big thing and she's promised to help but anyway obviously I don't have trouble communicating or chatting up so I don't think I'll have trouble but the point is we're trying to get more people knowing that there is an affordable housing trust and that we do want to help people and we want to hear from all of you U that's a Littleton group and what is the The Motto what's the point of that your trust what do you do what's the affordable housing trust yeah what what you know get housing that's affordable and then we have money to spend on helping people do that yeah it's a trust okay yeah you're now nominated right we need new members put your name and phone number in here and I'll send them link to you so anyway anybody else got anything that they would like to ask Dave or I before we let you around for a little while you all have cars yeah yeah you're the elevator lady right I know elevat lady I forgot I'm the elevator lady find your village we we sponsored sponsored I didn't buy the elevator in the elevator you bought I bought the on the elevator L we're going to have to put you in the senior sure bu the elevator I'll byy the elevator thank you thank you thank you