Editor's note

This is Part 1 of a three-part series on seniors living in houses that no longer suit their needs. Parts 2 and 3 will appear in the next two Sunday Real Estate sections.

Next Sunday in Real Estate: Seniors' choices -- smaller house or retirement community?

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette photos Professional organizer Paul Regan has been helping Cathryn Irvis organize and sort through the accumulated material from the Oakland home she shared with her late husband, K. Leroy Irvis, including paintings done by her husband. Click photo for larger image. Related Story Seniors with decades worth of belongings wrestle with decision on what to part with

Hilda and Henry Sunderman had always loved the seven-room house in Fox Chapel where they had lived for 36 years.

So the decision last year to downsize to a two-bedroom apartment at a retirement community in Butler County was a very difficult one.

"That was home," says Mr. Sunderman, a retired business manager. "It was the longest we lived in any one place in 54 years of marriage."

Now in their late 70s, the couple had reached the point where mowing the lawn and washing the house's 29 windows was just too big a chore. Adding to their stress level was a health scare in 2004 that started them thinking about what might happen if one of them got sick.

"It was something we had to do, and we knew it," says Mrs. Sunderman, a retired teacher. "We had to face it."

Concordia at Cabot, which is run by Concordia Lutheran Ministries, wasn't their first choice; they actually purchased a two-bedroom villa at Masonic Village at Sewickley in 2005 and moved in some small items. But they had to give it up when their first Realtor failed to sell their house in time. After they changed agents, the house sold quickly, so quickly that Concordia was their only option.

The Sundermans had one factor in their favor: They made the decision to move on their own, before an illness or death forced it upon them. That is the situation facing Cathryn Irvis, widow of former state House Speaker K. Leroy Irvis.

A drawing of the late K. Leroy Irvis by his granddaughter Alyssa, 12, hangs on a wall in the basement space he used as a woodshop. Click photo for larger image.

When he died last year after a six-month bout with cancer, she was left with a 13-room house in Schenley Farms filled with 32 years of memories, a 3,000-volume library and dozens of artworks he had created. With help from a professional organizer, she spent nearly a year getting ready to move.

"This is a house that we rebuilt together," she says. "Emotionally, I just could not move those things right away. I had to give myself time to move the things he loved so dearly."

Key among them was her husband's woodshop, where he spent hours crafting African-style masks, sculpture and paintings. She's keeping some of the artwork and giving some to their children.

Next month, her house will go on the market, and she'll start looking for an apartment to "regroup in" near her daughter's home in Philadelphia.

"I would like to start over in something smaller," she says.

Getting rid of cherished possessions is one of the most difficult parts of downsizing. Mrs. Sunderman, for example, had to surrender much of the cut glass that had been in her family for years. She's found comfort in her new abode in hanging family pictures "everywhere they could" on the walls.

Almost as emotional is selling and saying goodbye to a home that you've lived in for so many years. Then there's change, a fearful thing for many seniors.

"When we get older, we get more set in our ways, and it's harder to adapt," says Fred Thompson, who has been a Realtor for more than 40 years and is director of senior services for Howard Hanna Real Estate Services.

"There's a lot more hand-holding, and it takes more time," agrees Charlotte Gibbons, the Howard Hanna agent who sold the Sundermans' home. "You really have to be understanding of what they're going through."

Niche services

	Cathryn Irvis is temporarily storing the wood sculptures carved by her late husband, K. Leroy Irvis, in a small third-floor room as she sorts through items in their Oakland home to get it ready for sale. Click photo for larger image.

To help agents handle seniors' unique needs, Howard Hanna, Prudential Preferred Realty and other real estate companies have separate divisions and programs devoted to seniors. On a broader level, there's a new designation being offered through the National Association of Realtors aimed at educating Realtors on the needs of buyers and sellers age 50 and older.

Rose Gevaudan of Prudential is among the more than 15,000 agents and brokers nationwide and 35 in the Pittsburgh area to earn the Seniors Real Estate Specialist designation. It requires attending a two-day course and passing an exam.

One thing that sets seniors apart, Mrs. Gevaudan says, is their need to know they're in control, and that decisions are not being made for them. They also require more patience than a younger buyer or seller. It's not unusual for a senior to contemplate a move for two years or more before actually doing it.

"It's a slow process to educate them about everything," she says, "and they need to be reassured they can call you with questions at any time."

Educating retirees

Since many seniors have not bought or sold a house in a long time, they often need a refresher course on things like disclosure laws, the various inspections that have to be done and radon, mold and other potential sources of litigation that were nonexistent so many years ago.

"Real estate has changed about 300 percent since Mom and Dad bought a house back in the '50s," says Bette Zrimsek of RE/MAX South, who became a senior specialist in 2000.

"Back then it was simple. You made a deal on a handshake in a lot of cases, or simply signed the papers and went to the bank for a mortgage."

Property inspections, she continues, are one of the hardest thing for many seniors to understand, especially when an inspection uncovers a defect they've lived with for years.

"It's like, 'We've had that electric box or furnace for 40 years, and the lines have always been loose.'"

Pricing can be another delicate issue. It's not unusual for older sellers to feel their home is worth more than neighboring houses because they've been in it for so long, says Marie Parrish of Coldwell Banker, who earned the SRES designation 14 months ago.

But because many retirement communities require sizable deposits along with monthly charges, it's crucial that they know exactly how much cash they can count on after the sale.

"You have to tell them what they need to know and not what they want to hear," she says.

The SRES designation is not a prerequisite for finding the best Realtor. Nearly 70 agents at Howard Hanna have taken the course, notes Mr. Thompson. But because there is a fairly steep fee to maintain the designation, only a handful have kept it. What's more important, he says, is to choose an agent with a proven track record.

Retirement communities do what they can to make this major life change as painless as possible. Along with open houses, for instance, Sherwood Oaks in Cranberry regularly schedules moving seminars that provide information about Realtors, appraisers, professional organizers and moving companies.

The Sundermans, meanwhile, are still trying to adjust to their two-bedroom apartment more than a year after moving.

"It's been difficult," says Mrs. Sunderman, who particularly struggles with her smaller, galley-style kitchen.

"We're just not there yet, feeling like home," her husband says.