Resources & Blog

Perry Aycock
Posted: Monday, January 30, 2012

Audits Work

Planning Your Work, Working Your Plan

Virginia United Methodist Homes (VUMH) has 6 CCRCs in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The organization's newest community, WindsorMeade in Williamsburg, opened in July 2008. Like many of the other CCRCs in the United States that opened during the recession, WindsorMeade faced a rapidly changing market:

• Values and the pace of home sales in the PMA dropped by 25% before opening
• Entrance Fees in the community were more than double the average home value in the PMA
• The percentage of depositors and residents from the PMA dropped below 60%
• Attrition of 10% depositors was more than 60% higher than projected
• Established and respected competitors offered lower Entrance Fees

For many of the new communities that opened in the last four years, these facts are painfully familiar… the good news is the results since VUMH asked RD to work with its team on the audit have far surpassed most of the communities in similar situations.

VUMH President and CEO Chris Henderson and his corporate, campus and consulting teams deserve much of the credit for the success at WindsorMeade. Chris focused the work of the key participants to provide a plan and a financial package that was compelling to the residents, prospects and financial partners of the community. RD is proud to work with Chris and be a part of his larger team. We are pleased to share a few key recommendations, the process and the success:

• Blend the opinions of the current marketing and sales leaders with RD's to present a concerted opinion on projected results
• Combine the revised move-in projections with financials, showing that lower entrance fees would increase revenue and occupancy
• Adopted suggestions as to sales process, compensation plans and home sale program

Results: Sales and, more importantly, move-ins increased from less than 1 per month to over 4 per month.