All Forum Posts by: Shane H.

Ah I see - I know nothing about the locals yet here.   Still learning the lay of the land - do wish the city and county would get their heads out of you know what and invest in some curb appeal and facilitate some development.  Topeka has a lot of good qualities - severely lacking in the looks department compared to other places - if taxes were lower I wouldn't have much to say but it's at least 30-40% higher on property taxes and nearly a couple cents higher on sales tax vs lets say Wichita.  

@Jacob Sampson so the woman named Rebecca Leach is a tried and true slum lord?  Kind of looked like that via google street view.  Lots of those types in Wichita - they suck the money out of places never putting anything back in then dump/sell their holes to someone else and try to cash out on their unrealistic numbers.

If you buy that package you'd be buying a FT job.  I guess if you dont like your job nothing wrong with that but I dont specialize in C- and D properties.  IMO living here in Topeka thats what those are.  Nothing wrong with that just not my cup of tea.  Topeka has no positive development anywhere around it and those would have likely near 0 appreciation.

@Mark Sam - what is your goal Mark?  Do you want to become a RE Investor, own a business, what are you passionate about - what would you do if money is no object?  Do you really want a computer science degree or to work 9-5 using said degree?

You have a problem (if you want to call it that) of having a lot of options even MORE options if you are willing to move.  Not sure if you're tied to the area where the condo is - but man $500k cash plus $200k cash - you can do a lot of things in a lot of places if you're willing to sacrifice and be intelligent with your decisions.

College (NOW) is a waste of time and money IMO DEPENDING on what you want to do with your life.  I say this as I attained my BBA from Wichita State back in 2003 being 39 now - but times have completely changed in how one learns, opportunities, how you can connect socially etc.  Again for those that probably wont read and will jump on me about my statement - my statement depends on what you want to do (or think you want to do) with your life.  My late grandparents relayed to me that some of the major advancements they were privy to in their life was the microwave, television, computers - they really didnt get to be around long enough to see much of the internet revolution - Mine so far has been the internet and social media and simply having virtually any piece of information at your fingertips - I'm sure a large contingent on here remember encyclopedia salesman or possibly their grandparents or parents having bought a set which is instantly outdated - or having to use them in school....

Youtube, social media, Google, smart phones, lap tops/desktops etc etc have completely changed our world and education, specifically secondary education and the way it is presented to us as consumers has NOT changed or adapted at all and probably wont for decades unfortunately due to bureaucracy. 

Anyways guy, you have a ton of opportunity at your fingertips depending on what direction you'd like to go.

Reading the stuff about Assisted living and the fact that most of it is BS is frustrating on here -- enough so that if I continue to visit this site I will likely start a blog to tell the truth.

Medicaid is not evil - if someone runs out of funds or goes on Medicaid it is not a bad thing.   It happens every day - Our facility specializes in Medicaid (HCBS in KS) - we understand it and just because a facility accepts medicaid does not mean it is bad.  Unfortunately it does have a negative connotation in folks minds which I had at first initially.

To the original poster Jason - I will tell you this - do your homework when you pick a facility for your MIL - the big/flashy do not always give the best care - you can have all the amenities in the world but if you do not have happy staff, good management on site, and a host of other things in order your MIL will not receive the care she needs.  This is a very emotional decision and should be treated as such.  Investigate, thoroughly - look up the State Survey's on facilities or if you are looking hard at a place ask for their State Survey or where you can read it online.  

A lot of the larger facilities will take Medicaid if someone comes in private pay and can pay private pay for a year or two years or whatever their guidelines are - some facilities will move you to a different room (shared room or possibly a smaller one) it just really depends on the facilities policies.   

Again Jason - I'd caution you to take much advice from anyone telling you to invest in AL or some of the advice above - wherever you take your MIL please make sure you check the state survey, read online reviews and most importantly find referral sources that can vouch for the care someone will receive at a particular facility.  Care above all else is what matters.  We've gotten a # of staff from other big places here that were unhappy with how they were being treated - I know they never treated a resident bad at the previous place of employment but I'd get stories of things that other staff there would do which is sometimes why they'd leave among other things.

Best of luck to you.

For Medicaid there is a 5 yr lookback on assets/funds - Medicaid can pay for assisted living - however few facilities work with medicaid (or whatever the program is called in your state - in KS it's called HCBS - Home & Community Based Services)  - I'm not fully educated on medicare which kicks in for SNF - skilled nursing facility -- so I do not know the nuances of that -- if there's proof of elder abuse regarding funds I'd guess the local authorities and possibly Medicare/Medicaid could come after the guilty parties.

@Jason Dalka you've been given bad advice on the assisted living business - please disregard all of it.  

As someone said - first thing to do is get her affairs in order if you haven't already and have DPOA's set up for finance and health if 2 people will be involved or just one for all affairs - definitely consult an attorney and get everything in writing - if your family goes and invests her money and you lose it or there are not checks/balances and someone is essentially embezzling money you're asking for trouble and can cause her all sorts of issues.  

We've seen a few things like this when folks are admitted to our place - we always want DPOA's set up before hand -- we do not necessarily get involved in the finances but would report anyone we'd suspect would be abusing their families funds and have seen people get caught doing so.  

@Kevin Zheng   

Dollars and cents aside - what is best for your mom - there's pro's / con's to all 3

You're asking a somewhat vague question as there are lots of things to consider - such as how much money she has (will she outlive it and eventually go on govt assistance -- the answer to this really could help you in your search for an AL facility or SNF (skilled nursing facility) --- 

What are her present needs - how is her health - what does she need help with presently?

Do you have other things in order such as DPOA, DPOA for health, DPOA for Finance or a DPOA for both?  

Lots of things to weigh out - Her present health condition and needs can really help narrow down what is best for her.

@Jason Turgeon Our business focuses on the lower income/middle income folks - we just make it work with the present system.

As someone else spoke above a lot of seniors will try to "Age in place" at home and this can be more affordable - however any way you dice it...it will take up mom/dad's resources.  

One thing I've noticed is that if someone is "alone" at home I believe that is more detrimental than living in a small "community" and being around folks similar to them in age/health - I've seen many come from home and then after a month or two really "perk" up once they've moved here and adjusted.

@Ronny Lee When my wife and I moved here (Topeka) Fall of 2017 from Wichita to relocate for the purchase of our business we were forced to rent due to the move happening on short notice and also due to being newly self employed I could not get a loan to buy a house.  So we had a bit of experience on the renter side of things for the first time in my life.  

Do not go with Shawnee property mgmt - we ended up renting/buying the house we moved into that they had (it was part of their family portfolio and we saw potential in fixing it up and the school district it was in so lived with it but until we knew we were staying in it and would buy they would hardly respond to anything - a couple times the AC quit and I was at work/wife was at home and it was 90 plus inside the house, when we moved in the house was completely filthly and had not been cleaned at all - walking around on the laminate floors your feet would be black in about 5 mins due to all the dirt - bugs/spiders everywhere -- House needs completely rebuilt and is in a great location - quite frankly house is a piece of crap but it's what we could afford and I felt comfortable buying not to mention I believe it has a ton of upside in just cleaning up the 6 acre lot, we strategically add on to the house and rebuild it and the sky is the limit - but they were completely non responsive and check out their google reviews - they are accurate)

I'd heard from some of our employees that either WCW  or RMS (I probably have the initials wrong on both but it's close enough) were good - one of those 2 have good reviews online and whichever was the good one the employee mentioned they had rented from/through them for quite a while and had been having a good experience and responsiveness if anything was ever wrong.

In WIchita I manage my own stuff and manage a couple of properties for others but my younger brother does/has lived in a rental for a couple of years that is managed by Cedar Mills - he's had a pretty good experience with them - I was also at his house in March when the UFC fight came to town as I stayed the night there  - anyways long story short on Saturday afternoon around 4pm there was a ghetto rigged sprinkler riser pipe buried in the ground in front of the water hydrant (the homeowner did this when they lived there)  - my brother didnt know about it as it had some sort of rotted piece of plywood covering it up - he stepped to shut off the water faucet and broke through the wood breaking the riser - it didnt have the proper shutoffs on it so we had to cut the water at the meter to the house - Cedar Mills had a plumber out at his house in a couple hours to fix it and - I was actually impressed - I'd have a hard time pulling that off on a Saturday that late.