“I don’t want to move out of my home.”
Thirty or forty years of a life live inside these walls. We start with what staying looks like, honestly, before we talk about leaving.
Jeanine Lu
Senior Transitions · SF Peninsula
A quiet, dignified next step
The care decision comes first. The home sale funds it.
I help Peninsula seniors and their adult children plan the right next living situation, then guide the sale of a long-held family home. One person for both. No handoffs, no scramble.
Walk me through our options
Complimentary. Confidential. No obligation.
Burlingame · San Mateo · Redwood City · Foster City · SF
You are probably here because
Something has shifted, and the next step is not obvious.
Most families I meet are not ready to talk about listing a house. They are trying to answer a harder question first. These are the ones I hear most often.
“I can’t afford a care home.”
That worry is almost always spoken before the home’s value and the actual care options are on the same sheet of paper. Once they are, the picture usually changes.
“What about thirty years of belongings?”
The stuff is real. So is the grief inside the stuff. We move at a pace that respects both, with vetted people who have done this before.
“My siblings and I do not agree on the timing.”
Family disagreement is not a problem to muscle through. It is a signal we need a shared plan on paper. I facilitate those conversations often.
One guide, two worlds
Most families end up running two unfamiliar processes at once.
On one side, an emotional decision about assisted living, memory care, or a residential care home. On the other, a real estate transaction on a house held for decades. Different vocabularies. Different timelines. Different people asking for decisions in the same week.
I am licensed on both sides. That is the whole point of how I work. We sequence the care question first, honestly, then use the home as the resource that pays for the plan we chose. Never the other way around.
How we work together
A calm, sequenced plan. Never the house first.
The families who feel the least stress are the ones who make decisions in the right order. This is the order I use, refined over years of walking families through it.
01
Understand your situation first
Where you are emotionally, physically, and financially. Before I say a word about real estate.
02
Evaluate living options against real care needs
Assisted living, memory care, residential care home, staying in place. We look at each one honestly.
03
Build the transition plan
A written sequence with vetted resources: care advisors, elder-law attorneys, movers, organizers.
04
Prepare and sell the home
Right-sizing, respectful decluttering, and a Compass Plus prep strategy so the sale funds the plan.
05
Coordinate the move
Timing, logistics, and the small human moments most agents never see. I am there for those.
06
Stay in touch after
Transitions do not end at the closing table. I check in, and I stay a resource for the family.
Help us figure out the right order
Just a conversation. No paperwork, no pressure.
Jeanine Lu
Realtor · Compass · SF Peninsula
Why this work
I learned this work at home, before I learned it professionally.
I cared for my father at home during hospice. Later I became the primary caregiver for my mother after she was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's disease. That is where this work began for me. Not in a classroom.
Through those years I immersed myself in what families are actually navigating: dementia care and disease progression, long-term planning, and the real differences between assisted living, memory care, and residential care homes. I earned the credentials so I could speak the language on both sides of a transition, and be an honest advocate for the seniors and adult children I sit across from.
Most agents focus on the sale. I focus on the entire journey. The home is one piece of a life. My job is to make sure the whole life is handled with dignity, and that the sale, when it comes, is the resource that makes the rest possible.
On the cost question
"I can't afford a care home."
This is almost always the first sentence I hear. It is also almost always said before the home's current value and the actual care options are looked at on the same page.
When we sit down and put both sides in front of us, meaning what a Peninsula home is likely worth today and what a right-fit care situation actually costs, the conversation usually changes. Sometimes a residential care home is a better lifestyle fit than a large facility, and considerably less. Sometimes staying in place with support is possible for a season. Sometimes selling sooner opens up options that waiting would close.
I do not give medical, legal, or financial advice. I connect you with vetted professionals who do, and I help you make sense of what they tell you.
Get clarity on my parents' next step
Your timeline, your pace. Nothing to sign.
Start the conversation
Fifteen minutes. Just to think out loud together.
Bring whatever you have, or bring nothing. We will talk through where things stand, what a good sequence could look like, and whether I am the right person to walk beside you.
Talk it through with Jeanine
Complimentary. Confidential. No obligation.