What Does a Senior Move Manager Do, and Do We Need One?

Moving a parent out of a longtime home is a big job for your family, physically and emotionally. A senior move manager is a professional who specializes in that kind of move.

I'm Jeanette Nelson, a REALTOR® with Jeanette Nelson Real Estate, Keller Williams Realty, serving Orange County, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, and surrounding areas, helping families sell a home through a life transition with a written plan. As part of my Transition Planning Program, I coordinate the people who handle the move, including move managers, estate sale companies, movers and cleaners, so families aren't juggling every call.

Services vary by company. Many offer:

• Planning: a timeline and a floor plan of the new home
• Sorting: helping your parent decide what to keep, give, sell or donate
• Packing: careful packing and labeling
• Coordinating movers: booking and overseeing moving day
• Setting up the new home: unpacking, arranging furniture, hanging photos, making the bed, so it feels like home on day one
• Handling what's left: estate sale, consignment, donation and cleanout

A moving company moves boxes and furniture. A senior move manager manages the whole process, including the decisions and the emotions, and often coordinates the movers. Many families use both.

• Family lives far away or works full time.
• The timeline is short, such as an assisted living opening in a few weeks.
• Your parent needs patient, one-on-one help sorting a lifetime of belongings.
• Siblings disagree and a neutral person helps keep things moving.
• Health or mobility limits what your parent can do.

If family lives nearby, has time, and your parent is comfortable making decisions, you may be able to do much of it yourselves, with movers and an estate sale company for the heavy lifting.

Pricing varies by region and by the services you choose, according to the National Association of Senior and Specialty Move Managers (NASMM). Some charge by the hour, and others price the whole job as one package. NASMM members give a written estimate before you pay, so ask for one and see exactly what's included before hiring.

1. What services do you provide, and which do you subcontract?
2. Are you insured for liability and workers' compensation, and can you share references from local families?
3. How do you charge, and what's included in the estimate?
4. Who will be in the home with my parent?
5. How do you work with our realtor, the senior community and the estate sale company?

The move and the sale work best as one plan. If your parent is moving first, the house can be cleared, prepared and sold after. If they're selling first, the move manager and the sale timeline need to line up. See should my parents sell before or after moving to assisted living. I coordinate both sides so the timing works.

• Hiring movers alone when the real need is planning and sorting help.
• Not getting a written estimate.
• Leaving the parent out of decisions about their belongings.
• Planning the move and the sale separately.

A common example: a son in Arizona needs to move his mother from her Fountain Valley home into an assisted living community in three weeks. A move manager creates a floor plan for her new apartment, helps her choose what to bring and sets everything up before she arrives. I coordinate the estate sale and cleanout after, then prepare and list the house. The son stays informed with weekly photos and updates, without flying in every weekend.

If you're helping a parent move and need the move and the sale to work together, I'm happy to help. Call or text me at 714.366.8575 | DRE: 01397168. Jeanette Nelson is a Realtor® with Jeanette Nelson Real Estate, Keller Williams Realty, serving Orange County, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, and surrounding areas, helping families sell a home through a life transition with a written plan. Let's set up a private planning conversation.