The Help You Didn't Know Existed: Senior Real Estate Advocates, Move Concierges and Placement Advisors

Here is the moment almost nobody plans for. The house is paid off, the stairs have gotten longer, and there are 40 years of belongings in it. Somebody in the family says the word "downsize," and then everyone goes quiet, because no one has any idea who you actually call first.

It turns out there is an entire profession built for this. Actually, three of them. They sound similar, they overlap, and they get paid in completely different ways — which is exactly why it pays to know the difference before you pick up the phone.

1. The real estate agent with senior credentials

Most people know a Realtor. Fewer know that some Realtors go get extra training specifically in the 55-plus transition, where the deal is rarely just a deal. It is a family home, adult children with opinions, a timeline tied to health, and sometimes a hospital discharge date.

Two credentials show up most often:

• SRES® (Seniors Real Estate Specialist) — a designation from the National Association of REALTORS® for agents working with clients 50 and up. It is the more common of the two.
• CSHP (Certified Senior Housing Professional) — a deeper, longer program from the Seniors Real Estate Institute, founded by Dr. Nikki and Chris Buckelew and based out of Oklahoma. Agents who hold it describe it as a roughly six-month course, not a weekend class.

An example of what that looks like in practice: Lorraine Montalbano, a Keller Williams agent in northern New Jersey, earned the CSHP designation through the Institute and built a practice she calls Senior Real Estate Advocates around it. Her own framing is "educator, advocate, Realtor" — she coordinates the whole move, not just the listing, and works with a bench of vetted vendors to handle the parts a normal listing agent never touches.

She is not one of a kind, and that is the useful part for our readers. Institute-trained and SRES agents are scattered across the country. If you are in Central Jersey, Florida, Arizona or Ohio, there is very likely someone locally with the same training.

How they get paid: at closing, out of the sale, like any real estate commission.

2. The senior move manager, or "move concierge"

This is the one most families have never heard of and end up wishing they had heard of sooner. A senior move manager does not sell your house. They handle the physical and emotional labor of the move itself: sorting room by room, deciding what fits, drawing a floor plan of the new apartment so you know the sofa will actually work, arranging estate sales or donations for what is left, hiring and supervising the movers, then unpacking and setting up the new place so the first night feels like home instead of a warehouse.

Moves For Seniors — which brands itself "your senior move concierge" — is one of the national players. Founded in 2007, it works through a network of local, vetted crews and says it has downsized and relocated thousands of older adults across the country, with services available nationally. They handle both individual family moves and contracts with senior living communities. Services on their menu include downsizing, local moves, long-distance moves, move planning and organizing, and full estate cleanouts.

There is also a professional body worth knowing: NASMM, the National Association of Senior Move Managers, which is where you can look for a member near you and read what the profession considers standard practice.

How they get paid: you pay them directly, usually hourly or by project. Industry write-ups commonly put a full downsizing-and-move project somewhere in the $2,500 to $7,500 range, which swings widely with how much stuff there is and how far you are going. Get a written estimate and ask what is included before anyone touches a box.

3. The senior living advisor (the medical and safety side)

The third specialist is not about square footage at all. It is about care. When the question changes from "should we sell the house" to "does Mom need assisted living or memory care, and which one," you are in different territory — and a real estate license does not answer it.

In New Jersey, Judy Collan of Senior Living Advisor NJ works only that side, and only in this state. She is a Certified Senior Advisor® and a Senior Real Estate Specialist®, holds an engineering degree from Rutgers and spent years as a project manager at Johnson & Johnson before this. She started the company after going through it herself — trying to find assisted living for her mother and her mother-in-law and finding almost no real help. She has been working with New Jersey families for more than 20 years.

What she actually does: sits with the family, narrows the field to communities that fit the care needs and the budget, goes on the tours with you, and sends a written summary after each one so you can remember which place was which at 9 p.m. when they all blur together. Her practice also extends into the downsizing, decluttering, home sale and moving side, or coordinating the people who do it. Her stated specialty covers 55-plus adult communities, independent living, assisted living and memory care — including families working against a hospital discharge clock, which is how a lot of these calls start.

Reach her at 732-221-7115.

How they get paid: here is the part to understand. Placement and advisory services like this are almost always free to the family. The advisor is compensated by the community when a resident moves in.

The one question to ask, every time

"Free to the family" is not a scam. It is the standard business model of the entire senior living referral industry, and plenty of advisors in it do genuinely excellent, patient work — the reviews on Collan's own site read like people who felt rescued.

But you should still know how the money moves, because it can shape which communities you get shown. Referral-fee arrangements mean an advisor typically works with the communities that have agreements with them. Senior housing trade coverage has been openly critical of the model for years, mostly on the grounds that operators find it expensive and families are rarely told how it works.

So ask, plainly and without apology:

• How are you paid, and by whom?
• Do you have agreements with every community you're showing me, or only some?
• Are there good options near me that you don't get paid on? Will you tell me about them anyway?

A good advisor will answer all three without flinching. Anyone who gets cagey has told you something useful.

How to put the team together

These three roles are not competitors. The families who get through this well usually use two or three of them, in this order:

1. Start with care, if care is the driver. A senior living advisor first, because the level of care determines everything downstream — including what you can spend and how fast you need to move.
2. Then the agent. An SRES or CSHP-credentialed agent to price the house, time the sale against the move-in date, and quarterback the transaction.
3. Then the move manager. The senior move concierge to actually empty 40 years out of the house without destroying anyone's back or anyone's relationship with their siblings.

And one financial note we would be negligent to leave out: the house sale is a taxable event with real planning around it — the primary residence exclusion, the cost basis of decades of improvements, how the proceeds get invested to cover an assisted living bill that does not stop coming. None of the three professionals above is your tax or income planner. That part is ours: ask us and a licensed advisor on the Second Act 360 team will run the sale, the exclusion and the income math with you before the closing, not after it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Certified Senior Housing Professional (CSHP)?

CSHP is a designation for real estate agents issued by the Seniors Real Estate Institute, an Oklahoma-based training organization founded by Dr. Nikki and Chris Buckelew. Agents who earn it complete an extended program — commonly described as about six months — focused specifically on late-life housing transitions, downsizing and working with families.

What does a senior move manager cost?

Fees are typically hourly or per project and paid directly by the client. Published industry estimates commonly cite roughly $2,500 to $7,500 for a full downsizing and move, varying with the volume of belongings, the services chosen and the distance. Always request a written estimate.

Is a senior living placement advisor really free?

For the family, usually yes. Placement advisors are generally paid a referral fee by the community when a resident moves in. That is standard in the industry, but it is worth asking each advisor how they are compensated and whether they will also mention communities they have no agreement with.

Do I need a special Realtor to sell a home when downsizing?

You do not need one, but credentialed agents (SRES® from the National Association of REALTORS®, or CSHP from the Seniors Real Estate Institute) are trained for the specific complications of these sales: estate and family dynamics, health-driven deadlines, coordinating movers and cleanouts, and the emotional weight of a long-held family home.

Are these services available outside New Jersey?

Yes. SRES and CSHP agents practice nationwide, Moves For Seniors offers services nationally through local partners, and NASMM lists senior move managers across the country. Judy Collan's Senior Living Advisor NJ practice is New Jersey only.

Second Act 360 does not receive compensation from any company or advisor named in this article. Details were taken from each provider's own website in September 2026 and can change — verify pricing, credentials and service areas directly.