13 WAYS BOOMERS are TREATED DIFFERENTLY in REAL ESTATE

Here are some situations where you might enjoy special opportunities, suffer extra restrictions or face tough decisions as a Baby Boomer buying or selling your home.

Because Boomers are different, the rules of real estate can affect Boomers very differently.

Government agencies, lenders, insurors, and other real estate service professionals abide by numerous laws and regulations regarding discrimination and equal opportunity. In some cases they may, or are required to, offer special opportunities for selected groups of people. That is not necessarily because of Boomers’ ages. It is because we are different when we are older (see accompanying article titled “What’s Different about Baby Boomers?”).

This is not to imply Boomers are treated differently due to illegal discrimination. The Fair Housing Act does protect home buyers, sellers, and borrowers from discrimination based on gender, color, national origin, familial status, color and religion. But, to most people’s surprise, the Fair Housing Act does not, in general, protect Boomers from age discrimination. However, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act clearly prohibits age discrimination in the mortgage lending industry. There are even some Federal regulations that offer special options only to Boomers over a certain age, simply because of our age.

These situations are not necessarily unique to Boomers, but they can tend to be more common for Boomers (or their parents).

1. Investing in Real Estate for Retirement
2. Buying a Second Home or Vacation Retreat
3. Downsizing, Simplifying
4. Extended Stays Near Grandchildren
5. Selling After Living Abroad
6. Passing Your Home to Family Members as Inheritance
7. Taking a Cash-out Reverse Mortgage
8. Lost Your Nest Egg and Need to Live on Equity in Your Home?
9. Physician Has Advised You to Limit Climbing Stairs
10. You Now Qualify for Medicare-covered Equipment and Services
11. Timing the Transition from Aging in Place at Home to an Assisted Living Center:
    You Have Invested in Pre-arrangements at a Retirement Center, Where the Initial Payment Provides for Some Future Assisted Living and Health Care. Therefore You Don’t Know How Much to Invest Now in Universal Design Remodeling of Your Current Home to Support Aging in Place until it’s time to move to the assisted living center.
12. You Need to Move to an Assisted Living Center for a Few Months and Prefer Not to Sell Your Home (So That You Can Move Back in to It Later)
13. You Want to Leave Your Nest Egg in CD’s and Apply for a New-purchase Mortgage Instead. But You Have Insufficient Income to Qualify for a Mortgage Loan

If you are a Baby Boomer and contemplating sale or purchase of a home, it would be a good idea to seek assistance from a seasoned real estate specialist. Even if you have bought and sold homes many times over past decades, that did not adequately prepare you for the way the old rules now affect you differently. Besides, you also have new opportunities as a Boomer that you may not have been qualified to enjoy in the past.

Don't know how to find one of these specialists? Lee Alley, founder and principal of this blog the only Northern Plains realtor who is nationally recognized for serving Boomers and cost-conscious green-building home buyers. Dr. Alley's many years as a Ph.D. engineering professor researching solar design offers substantial basis for advising clients about green-building and green washing. Got questions? Give him a call at 605.863.0806.