Thursday, April 25, 2024
It’s no secret that moving can be stressful and a big burden, especially for senior citizens who may have to move from a house they've lived in for decades to a senior community or an assisted living facility.
Caring Transitions of Granbury strives to make the tasks of relocating, downsizing, decluttering and estate sales easier for residents of Granbury, Southwest Fort Worth, Aledo, Cleburne, Joshua, Benbrook, Crowley, Arlington, Weatherford, Burleson, Stephenville, Glen Rose and Godley.
Caring Transitions is the country’s first national franchising concept specializing in senior moving, downsizing and estate sales, which distinguishes the business from other move management companies.
“We’re not a moving company. We don’t actually do the moves ourselves,” owner Steve Dieterichs said. “We facilitate a contract with the movers and our client. We have heavy movers that come in and move everything over after we’ve packed it up. Reselling is much more than just unpacking stuff; it’s putting it in the right place. We do everything from putting sheets on the bed, to hanging pictures on the wall, to putting the toilet paper roll on the toilet paper holder.”
Steve noted, “It’s an interesting job in a lot of ways. We meet a lot of interesting seniors; they have a lot of stories, and they've done a lot of things. On the estate sale side, we find these things and research them and I learn something all of the time.”
They have come across many unique and strange items.
"We had a lady that had 700 clothes irons. We sold about half of them,” Steve said, with a laugh. “We found $5,000 under the mattress. We found a silver bar in a bag full of silver coins last year. We have found remains, ashes. We usually like for the family to move the ashes, but had one or two people ride in the front seat with me with the box.”
Caring Transitions of Granbury was founded in 2014 by Lynn Vanderburg. Shortly after the Granbury franchise was founded, Steve’s wife, Gina, responded to an employment ad and found much more than a part-time job.
“She worked for Lynn for about five years and Lynn decided she wanted to sell the business and get back into her health care field so she asked us to take it over and buy it in December of 2019,” Steve said. “We told her we wanted to run and operate the business for five months and make a decision but March was when everything shut down. We operated the business all of last year for her and then we bought it at the end of the year.”
The couple finished finalizing the sale early this year and now run the business as a team, with help from 13 employees.
“They’re by and large retired professionals — retired high school coaches, we have a retired hospital administrator. They relate well to the senior clients we have,” Steve said.
Steve said there are some seniors who have lived in their home for up to 50 years and need to downsize and relocate to an assisted living facility or a smaller apartment.
“It’s a real emotional time for them,” he said. “Sometimes the resident has just died and we deal with the families. The goal is to minimize the stress for the family and maximize the results, offset the costs for moving and put the house on the market.”
Although their main focus is seniors because they have the most need, Caring Transitions of Granbury will help anyone who needs it, whether it’s a young family relocating for work, a couple going through a divorce or an empty-nester ready to downsize.
Sorting through precious belongings and trying to figure out what to keep, sell or donate can be difficult, but Caring Transitions will help the client through the downsizing.
“Anybody who has clutter or has things that need to be moved, we can handle it,” Steve said. “We’ve cleaned out attics, garages. We deal with hoarding situations.”
To prep for an estate sale, Steve and Gina, along with their trained professionals, will help clean, sell, ship or store items that the client doesn’t want or need. Besides an estate sale, an online auction is another option, especially when dealing with gated communities like Pecan Plantation and DeCordova Bend Estates.
According to their website, Caring Transitions of Granbury has a mission to be the most trusted and respected provider of move management and senior relation services in their territory.
“We're growing quite a bit,” Steve said. “We increased our revenue by 95 percent last year and would still like to do better. We’re always trying to hire people, but it’s hard to find the right group of people.”
To request a service or to apply to become a member of the team, call Caring Transitions of Granbury at 817-514-6164 or visit their website at www.caringtransitionsgranbury.com.
“It's rewarding to be able to help seniors and their families,” Steve added. “That’s what we’re here for — to take that stress away. It’s stressful for anybody, but throw in a senior who’s changing their complete lifestyle, moving out of a house they’ve lived in for 30, 40 years, can be very emotional.”
