LIFETIME

Keeping up with today’s savvy customers through educational opportunities

BY S. ROBERT AUGUST

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us how to preserve ourselves, while spending 90% of the time within the confines of our own homes.

What have we considered and what are we doing?

We have learned how to enhance our homes through lifestyle changes around daily activities, including work and hobbies. We have remodeled, bought an existing home with more features, and/ or purchased a new ready-built spec home or a custom-built home with all the features, advantages and benefits we desire.

Most importantly, buyers have re-established and refined what they want in their homes now and have begun thinking about what they want in their homes as they age.

Keeping up with today’s savvy home buyers and homeowners requires a bit of legwork. And it starts with education.

A variety of resources are avail- able to builders and developers wanting to keep up with the agingin-place and universal design markets. These include programs, certification courses and a treasure trove of guidance provided by: the Living in Place Institute, Wellness Within Your Walls and Universal Design Living Laboratory.

#1Living in Place Institute

Louie Delaware, founding principal and president of the Living in Place Institute, created this preventive maintenance and universal design institution after realizing the high cost of well-care facilities for the average family. Studies have proven that people live longer in their own homes than elsewhere. The longer folks can reside in their personal residences, the more meaningful and cost-effective lives they enjoy with