Did you know there is an app that connects prospects and referral sources with senior living communities that have vacancies?

By Steve Moran

Caring.com (a Senior Housing Forum partner) and that other online referral source are important lead sources for many senior living communities. But those are expensive leads and I get why senior living communities are constantly looking for more effective ways to generate leads. I am fascinated by the number of people and organizations that are looking for better more efficient ways to make this happen.

Will This Be the Killer App?

Recently, Steve Gilbert reached out via LinkedIn wanting to talk to me about his new online app — “Real Time Senior Living” — that was developed to help connect prospects and referral sources (mainly hospitals and skilled nursing) with senior living communities that have vacancies.

They are currently actively focused on Arizona, Nevada, and California, though they have a smattering of communities across the country. What focus means, is that they are actively working to tell hospitals and skilled nursing facilities about the app, which is free for them and consumers. It has the ability to reduce their discharge burden substantially.

Their initial focus was small board and care communities but they have seen a pretty fair amount of interest from larger providers.

What I Like A Lot . . .

These kinds of things have been tried before without a lot of success, but there are several things I really like about what Real Time for Senior Living is doing:

  • It is really simple to use for consumers, referral sources, and senior living communities

  • It works great for large and small communities

  • The business model is simple and reasonable: if you are a senior living community you go to the app store or google play store and purchase the app at introductory pricing that is less than $300 per year

  • The listings are simple and easy to update

Will it make it? I think it has a good shot and the price is so low that it is not much of a risk for any community big or small. You would only need to have 1 move-in every . . . 8 or 10 years to break even.

It won’t make the need to use traditional marketing channels like Caring.com go away, but it seems like a reasonable additional arrow in the quiver.

Your thoughts?