Space engineer Ed Bock went to work on the Atlas rocket in 1961—a moment when the U.S. was struggling to catch up with the Russians on getting a man into space. (Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had circled earth that very year.)
After some early flubs, Atlas proved to be remarkably well engineered, carrying John Glenn to orbit and powering another 600 successful flights spanning 45 years. Bock went along for the ride—ending up as vice president and director of the Atlas program at Lockheed Martin.
Now Bock and his wife Laurie are lifting off from their two-story home in Highlands Ranch, headed to a nice cottage in Vi, a senior living community where homes often have a 4-year waiting list to get in. And they’ve found that making a downsize move in this market requires almost as much precision as a rocket launch.
“A downsizing move is unlike any other move you will do in your life, so having a solid plan in place is essential,” says Blair Bryant with The Steller Group Senior Solutions, the company that piloted the Bocks through that complex move.
How complex? “There’s very little inventory on the market of the kinds of homes people really want when they downsize,” says Bryant.
“That means you have to be looking well in advance and be ready to sell your own place as soon as that home turns up.”
Laurie and Ed had just returned from a cruise when that unit in Vi came on the market, 3-bedroom/3-bath with a 2-car garage. It had a long waiting list of potential buyers, but all of them had passed on it—probably because they weren’t well prepared to sell, Bryant says.
“We’re doing this before we need to,” says Laurie Bock, who has spent her own career in real estate and home remodeling.
She and Ed met Bryant last year at one of Steller’s free seminars on downsizing. (Steller has those coming up in Lakewood and Centennial in October.)
“You need to be thinking about the big picture,” Laurie says. You need to have a timeline. If you don’t, itap totally overwhelming.”
When the cottage turned up, Steller kicked into action. Its in-house staging expert got the home set to show. (It sold in a single weekend in August with two offers and closed last week.)
But the most complex parts were still to come.
“Itap important to have an agent who knows how to negotiate,” Laurie adds. Buyers are finicky in this market, and the Bocks wanted to stay in the house after closing to finish packing and execute their estate sale.
From Oct. 19-23 Steller will be helping the couple stage an estate sale—including machine tools from Ed’s very elaborate wood-and-metal shop in the basement, and some of the artistic lamps and other works he’s created there.
Meanwhile, Steller’s move contractor Vector Moving will carry out a seamless move into the new cottage, in a single day.
Steller has free seminars coming up on planning senior moves, one at Belmar Library on Tuesday, Oct. 17, and one at Southglenn Library, Wednesday Oct. 25. See box above for a schedule or visit DenverSeniorSeminars.com.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this postap preparation.
