Juli Anne Gibson joins Suzanne to talk about home maintenance, which not only keeps a senior safe, it can defer expenses, or increase the value of our home. Maintaining a home can help seniors aging in place in their homes for as long as they can. Juli Anne is the founder and CEO of Real Estate 55 Plus.

About maintenance, Juli Anne says, "It not only keeps the senior safe, but it also can defer expenses, or it can increase the value of your home. Oftentimes if we're coming in, doing an assessment, there's been lack of maintenance on systems and the property itself, which are gonna cost a lot more money than it would have had they been preventative. And as we age, we don't see smell or hear things that we might have when we were younger. They're giving us clues that there's an issue in our home. 

"The furnace is probably first, because we're going into the fall right now. Having your furnace checked is super important. You make sure that it, it's working properly, so you have adequate heat coming on. But you also want to make sure that you have your air ducts cleaned out, for two reasons. One is if your air ducts get clogged, especially your dryer, that can start a fire. Number two is, if you have allergies at all, and it's clogged in your air ducts or in your vents in your bathrooms, that can cause all kinds of havoc on your breathing.

"With the roof, if you have an area that has a lot of moss, it's just ugly to look at, but it expands and contracts, and that's what causes the shingles to deteriorate. So having moss removed, having someone inspect your roof, looking for either cracked shingles, or flashing, or a rain cap that's missing. So that helps with any leak prevention, coming into your home. They can also take a look at your gutters and make sure that they're not full. Full gutters cause water spills. What do water spills do? They wreck havoc on siding and windows and intrusion into basements.

"As far as walking with moss, it becomes very, very slippery and slick when it's wet. So making sure that someone's coming in and removing the moss from your sidewalks, and your stairs, and your decks, is super important to make sure that you have a clean space to be able to walk."

Learn more:
* Real Estate 55 Plus: https://realestate55plus.com/
* Juli Anne Gibson: https://realestate55plus.com/team/
* Call 800-964-1553 to speak to a live person

Hear more shows with Juli Anne Gibson: https://answersforelders.com/tag/juli-anne-gibson/

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Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/

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