Do We Need to Plan Ahead?

As with so many other questions, the answer is, “It Depends”.  Usually when people ask me if there are waiting lists for Retirement Residences my answer is that typically there are not. But there are exceptions to every rule.

This week I visited Christie Gardens which is located at Dupont and Christie in Toronto. They have been in business for 25 years and have a facility that seems to combine the best of the old and the new. This makes them very popular. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I was told that the waiting time for one of their life lease units could be 12 to 18 months.

If you are planning ahead and visiting residences just so that you have an idea of where you would like to go should the need arise or the spirit move you, being told about the wait time would be a great early warning bell to alert you to put yourself on the list.

But if you didn’t plan ahead, and you need to make the change soon, you are probably out of luck.  Strike Christie Gardens off your list.  That might be okay though, because there are still a lot of Retirement Residences in the city.  But if you are like the client that I am doing a search for….that is you have some unique requirements that Christie Gardens fills nicely, then it is really unfortunate.  If you go somewhere else you may be making more compromises than you had hoped.

You never know what lies ahead.  Scouting the terrain can tip you off to things like waiting lists early, which may make your life much easier in the future.