55+ Active Adult Communities - new options for older adults

55+ Active Adult community residents are interviewed by the conference attendees to learn more about their preferences.

The InterFace Active Adult Conference in Dallas on June 1st and 2nd was a big hit! And the presentation content confirmed our assumptions - this is a lifestyle product... not a transactional product (i.e. multifamily). And YourTour will be a very valuable tool to 55+ Active Adult community developers and operators to sell the lifestyle value proposition of the community. Here are a few more takeaways from the conference:

Product Positioning: 55+ Active Adult is all about psychographics - meaning their lifestyle interests, activities, and choices as well as their attitudes, values, and opinions. And this is reflected in the lifestyle experience that a community can create for the prospective resident. In strong communities, resident engagement is critical. In some of the higher-performing communities, residents participate in 20 or more activities per month.

Sales & Marketing: The sales effort in the lease-up stage is challenging and is critical to success. Showcasing the vision of what's to come is imperative before opening. This is a consumer that is tech-savvy and may not be living in your immediate local market. In fact, several operators reported that 50% of their residents came from beyond a 20-mile radius of their community.

Flexibility: Once lease-up stabilization is achieved, the asset performs very well for an extended period of time; however, the building needs to be flexible in terms of transitional ability into independent living with some age-in-place services.

As Active Adult communities encroach on more traditional senior living markets, those existing communities will have to reposition themselves to compete with the shiny new penny that may also come with an attractive pricing structure. Look for these new communities to leverage technology to maximize the resident experience in every way possible.