My Aunt was one of the first home owners to move into the Lantern Court development when it was first built in 2013. At the age of 88 she enjoyed many happy years there and made lots of friends. She especially enjoyed the social aspect of retirement living, regularly attending the organised activities and events run by the development. As she was close by, my sister and I would visit often, and we have many fond memories of the time we shared.
Sadly, in 2017 my Aunt lost her battle with cancer and passed away. As Executor of her Will it became my responsibility to administer her estate and sell her retirement apartment at Lantern Court.
We originally instructed a local estate agent to put my Aunt’s apartment on the market, as this appeared to be our only option at the time. Unfortunately, due to limited exposure and the agent’s inexperience of retirement living we had little success.
In November, we were notified by Lantern Court’s House Manager, Richard that McCarthy Stone were launching their own resale service for preowned retirement properties. As we were already aware of McCarthy Stone’s reputation and their expertise in retirement living we felt they would be best placed to sell my Aunts apartment. We therefore cancelled our contract with the local agent and instructed McCarthy Stone’s Resales team. Within 26 days from instructing them we had agreed a fair sale price on the property.
The transaction went through extremely smoothly and we contacted the buyers who were purchasing the property on behalf of an elderly relative. We built up a great relationship and shared our own experiences of supporting my Aunt into retirement living. We recommended using McCarthy Stone’s removal service, who took care of everything when my Aunt originally moved into Lantern Court, making the whole process stress-free.
We also instructed McCarthy Stone’s Solicitors to act for us in the resale of my Aunts’ apartment- who were great. We found keeping everything under one roof helped simplify the lines of communication and made the whole process a lot easier.
We fully anticipated with Resales being a new initiative for McCarthy Stone that we would potentially experience some teething problems. Our only criticism would be that at times we would have preferred to have spoken direct to our property consultant rather than being diverted to the main call centre. However, I would happily recommend McCarthy Stone Resales if the call handling had improved.
Overall, we were really pleased with the McCarthy Stone Resale service and only felt they should’ve done it sooner!