Pulte partnership turns downsizing into ‘rightsizing’
Downsizing can be daunting. The mere term can have negative connotations, Suzanne McGrath suggested. McGrath is the general sales manager at Pulte’s New England Division.
At Pulte, we prefer the term ‘right-sizing,’ and what we’re talking about is a home that’s more manageable. For some, a move of this kind could be for financial reasons, or perhaps they’ve found that they’re not using a lot of rooms in their current home. They may prefer to offload home maintenance,” McGrath explained. “There may be health reasons or a desire for one-level living, and quite often, we see buyers who move to be closer to family.”
Pulte has several distinctive properties around the greater Boston area that are proving to have particular appeal to the “55 and better” community, including new residents who’ve come from larger homes. Martin’s Landing in North Redding, Massachusetts is a Pulte community of 450 units—50 units for each low-rise building—with single-level homes ranging from 960 square feet to nearly 1,500 square feet in interior living space, and a choice of seven floor plans. “Martin’s Landing has great open space, with beautiful walking paths. The property backs up to conservation land, so it’s a very pretty setting,” McGrath said.
Pulte’s Pennington Crossing is a similar low-rise single-level-living property in Walpole, a South Shore community with easy access to Boston. “These one- or two-bedrooms homes are within walking distance to the town center — vibrant with shops, restaurants and community activities,” McGrath noted.
At Brooksmont in Holliston, Massachusetts, Pulte has built a community of 66 townhome-style condos in an idyllic setting—the site of a former farm. The homes at Brooksmont are available in one- or two-level options that range in square footage from 1,510 to 2,300.
To help its homebuyers make the move, Pulte partnered with Home Transition Resources (HTR), offering buyers interested in any of these three properties a $2,000 credit toward HTR services. Kate Grondin is HTR’s founder. She started the business after helping her own parents manage a move. “What started out as a really overwhelming process to my parents actually became enjoyable to them,” she recalled. Grondin’s firm offers an a-la-carte menu of services to clients in various stages of selling or relocation. An initial consultation with a client determines which services may be beneficial—for example, space planning, which is an analysis of the new home’s floor plan, followed by sorting and organizing items that will move to the new home. Other items can be distributed in a variety of ways, through charitable donations, gifts to family members, upcycling and consignment.
“We make sure that they feel good about what’s happening to the items they can’t take,” Grondin said. Her team can also help clients with preparing the home for sale by decluttering and staging the property. They can help with packing and unpacking, so at the end of the move-in day, clients can simply settle into their new home.
Just recently, HTR was acquired by WayForth. Though the branding will be new, Grondin said the mission remains: “We make the process of downsizing a lot easier and less disruptive to our clients’ lives.”
Grondin credits Pulte with enabling its homeowners to make the transition. “It really helps clients who fear that they can’t move and feel it’s just easier to stay put. We lighten the whole process up, making their dream of owning a new Pulte home come true.”