Once you have made the decision to move to a retirement community and know the kind of place that you are looking for, you need to make a list of the ones that seem likely to be able to meet your wants and needs. It can be a very good idea to enlist family members to aid in your research and to begin matching up your desires with your budget. At this early stage you should identify between three and five retirement communities you might want to move to, which would make sure that you have plenty of variety to choose from while ensuring that the process is still manageable when it comes to making tours and visits to the sites in question.
While visiting a retirement community is a good start, you should not limit yourself to just checking out the model units and the grounds. It can be a really good idea to try to get a feel for what life would really be like in such a community by attending an event or lecture or registering for a class. Even doing simple things such as making use of the transportation system in the community or eating lunch on site can tell you a great deal about what it would be like to actually live there.
Once you are more confident about your choice, one last thing you can do prior to full relocation is to stay overnight or even give the community a trial run for a few days so that you can connect with residents and learn about their experiences.
Lance Grooms
