Be the Solution with Maria Quattrone

Downsizing Done Right: How Denise Swick Built a Profitable Niche Helping Seniors Transition with Confidence

• Maria Quattrone • Season 1 • Episode 358

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In this episode of the Be The Solution Podcast, host Maria Quattrone sits down with longtime friend and real estate veteran Denise Swick, founder of Downsize Allies.

With more than 35 years in real estate and 3,000+ homes sold, Denise shares how she shifted from being a traditional agent to building a high-impact, high-margin niche business focused on seniors, executors, and families navigating major life transitions.

This is a powerful conversation about:

  • Why the riches are in the niches
  • How downsizing is rarely “just a sale”
  • Protecting seniors from predatory investors and wholesalers
  • Turning personal pain into professional purpose
  • Building a solution-based business that truly serves clients

If you’re a real estate agent, investor, or family supporting aging parents, this episode delivers clarity, compassion, and strategy. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Why Downsizing Is a Growing Real Estate Niche
  • What Downsize Allies Actually Does
  • The Emotional Side of Senior Transitions
  • Why Seniors Are Being Preyed Upon
  • Pricing Expertise Is Critical for Seniors
  • How Agents Can Enter the Downsizing Niche
  • 2026 Outlook: Optimistic and Purpose-Driven

Best Quotes 

Denise Swick:

“Downsizing is rarely just a sale — it’s a life transition.”


Maria Quattrone:

“The riches are in the niches, especially when you’re truly solving problems.”


Guest Information

Denise Swick
Founder — Downsize Allies
📍 Dayton, OH / Northern Cincinnati
🌐 https://downsizeallies.com

Connect with Maria Quattrone:
Facebook: Maria Quattrone
LinkedIn: Maria Quattrone
YouTube: Maria Quattrone
Instagram: @maria_quattrone
TikTok: mariaquattronerealestate
Website: MQrealesate.com
Office number: 215- 607-3535

Maria Quattrone:

Okay, my friends, I'm excited today. I am Maria Quattrone, the host of the Be the Solution podcast. Today I have my friend, long, long time friend, Denise Swick from Downsize Allies. Denise and I met about a long time ago, maybe two plus decades. 15 plus years. Yeah. And at the Mike Furry. So anybody who knows, who's been in real estate a long time, Mike Furry was everybody uses Mike Furry scripts. Well, the top agents still use Mike Furry scripts. So Denise and I met at the Mike Furry conference and became fast friends. So welcome, Denise.

Denise Swick:

Thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Maria Quattrone:

So one of the things in real estate, a lot of people try to be everything to everybody. And we've all done that over the years. And you know, one of the things that I'm really proud of you for doing is taking what you've done for three decades plus and creating a company called Downsize Allies. And today we're going to talk about the riches are in the niches. And when you focus a narrow focus, it brings you so many more opportunities by being not one thing to everybody, but really focusing on how you can help one particular segment of the population. And as we know, in today's market where we are, there are a lot of seniors who are downsizing. And you decided what's gotta be five years ago now? How long?

Denise Swick:

I started doing what I call what I call back then senior relocation back really in about 2015. I got certified in estates and probates and then senior relocation in 2018. So I've been doing this for quite a while, yet in uh 2021 or I think it's 2021. 2021, um, I had a Remax franchise and um I had a team and a franchise, and I decided that that just wasn't where I wanted to go next. So I um branded independently as the Swick Real Estate Group, and then I started a company called Downsize Dayton, which as it grew became downsized allies. Um, and we now really focus on helping seniors, executors, and their families navigate what's rarely just a sale, it's typically a life transition. Um, and we manage the entire downsizing process, planning, clean outs, repairs, moving, coordination, and the home sale, or we have a guaranteed buy purchase, we can buy the house.

Maria Quattrone:

So um and you have so in in 2025, you purchased how many homes?

Denise Swick:

We did, I have a really small crew right now. So we did a total of nine, I believe.

Maria Quattrone:

That you purchased and you repositioned in the market, yeah, either doing late cosmetic work or complete flips.

Denise Swick:

Yes. Well, actually, six of those we purchased, but three of those were a program um called My Guaranteed Max program. So um if it's better for the client that we can go in and put smart money into their home so that they get more money out of it, we do that too. So it's the same process. That's why I say we did nine total rehabs, whether it is complete or light, which is what we do for our clients, because we're not just a one size fits all. Um, you know, we we are truly a solution provider. That's why I love your podcast, be the solution, because that's what we that's what we do.

Maria Quattrone:

So it really is a solution-oriented company where you're looking at each client independently and figuring out what is the best solution for them. 100%.

Denise Swick:

Most agents, you know, agents can sell the house, investors can buy the house, whatever, but you know, we manage the transition. Uh, seniors just don't need a listing agent, uh, their families. They need a plan, coordination, and they need most importantly, certainty. And that comes with experience and processes. Um, at Downsize Allies, we really handle the house and everything else from decluttering to repairs for moving. Um, and we even do, you know, the guaranteed sale, what have you. So we literally turn what for most is an overwhelming process into a simple, step-by-step, manageable, you know, process so that there's a a guaranteed outcome. And a lot of our clients, you know, their kids, it not even not let them the seniors, but the clients, children don't know what to do. Many times they're not even living in the area, and even if they are, they're busy and have their own lives. So yeah, that's what we do.

Maria Quattrone:

It's quite a bit for families to be able to handle their parents, yeah, either estates or while they're still alive. Yeah. And they don't they don't do this every day, so they don't know the ins and outs of it. So you're their guide, yeah. And guiding them to whatever the best solution is. And so how question, how has this changed you in your life? Because real estate is not just about you know us selling things and helping people, but it it transforms us as individuals.

Denise Swick:

Yeah, and that thanks for asking that question. That's good. So transparently, um, you know, I've been last year was 35 years selling real estate, and I've sold over 3,000 homes and very proud of that. And I helped a lot of people because you know, I'm in Dayton, Ohio, northern Cincinnati, and you know, we had the worst of the worst market back in the 08, but even before that. Um, so I did a lot of expired listings and where other agents had failed. Um, so I came along and was honest with them and helped them get their home sold, which I feel like I was providing a purpose there too. But now this is um just so much more purposeful because you know you can sell a house, but we're making impacts, if that makes sense. It's um we're we're it's life transitions for people, and we are we're there to guide them the whole way. It's a very holistic um solution-oriented real estate process.

Maria Quattrone:

It certainly is. And for you though, as like a human, how's it changed you?

Denise Swick:

Um so personally, I'd gone through, and I think this is where my passion for this comes from, is personally at a young age. I my mom passed away at 30 when I was 34, and you know, I was becoming the top agent in my marketplace, and you know, just you know, moving and shaking every day. And and suddenly when she passed, I had a grandmother 88, an uncle 89, and uncle that was 60 and mentally challenged and bedridden that the rock star real estate Denise had to figure out how to take care of. So I had to myself navigate a lot of the personal, emotional, um, financial, and physical part of the the seniors. And um fast forward, I believe that's what really is driving me to keep. I know the fears, I know the insecurities, I know the the pressures, I know all that because I went through it myself. And so as a person, it's made me more um empathetic. Whereas, you know, I could go on three listing appointments a day and take 10 listings a week, and that was just nothing for me. This process is a lot longer. I mean, it could be, I mean, from the time I meet with a client until we actually get the house on the market minimally is 30 days, and it's taken as long as a year and a half. So it's maybe more patient. Well, at least my I have a team that helps with the patients.

Maria Quattrone:

So something that happened two decades ago set you up for what you're doing today, and you know, we can't connect the dots forward only backwards.

Denise Swick:

100%. Like I had no idea back then.

Maria Quattrone:

But you didn't you didn't know why. You know, it's funny because we don't we never know why until we know why.

Denise Swick:

Yeah. And um, you know, back then what was a huge burden um has become an enormous blessing now.

Maria Quattrone:

Yeah. Yeah. We just don't know. So if somebody wants to get into this niche, what are some recommendations you have for them?

Denise Swick:

Um really learn and understand what seniors need and want. And it's it's seldom, rarely just about the house. It's it's a lot more than that. Um understand the demographic, understand the fears, and understand how you can come up with solutions to to make it happen. Um, get involved in some networking organizations. The the senior transition industry is a whole industry, and I didn't know that was a thing either, but it is. Um there's groups, there's networking groups, there's um a lot of places that um you can go to meet people to to really start helping seniors and and then understand it's not just about the house. It's it is a big process, and and you know, I I after doing it for so long, I kind of make it look easy, but I've spent years networking with other service providers, and that's where I initially was calling it downsized Dayton, but that's so small, and I know that this is going to be much larger. And um, then I realized that even I can't do everything on my own. I need allies to do it, right? So um my allies are clean out companies, they are um senior communities, they are uh movers, they are packers, they are. I have two hoarder specialists on my team because that's something I wasn't prepared for. Like um at any socioeconomical level, there is hoarding. And um doesn't have to be like you see on hoarders the gross, messy, you know, bed bug ridden house, but that also happens. So be prepared on listing appointments. You may see that too. But um, but literally, uh people collect a lot of stuff over over time, and then figuring out and having the ability to talk to them about how, you know, really one man's junk is not necessarily another man's treasure. A lot of times it's just junk. So, but you know, learning those skills and learning the the empathy that goes along with it and not just being a typical real estate agent because I I I'm not never have been, nor do I really I'm a solution provider, is what I am right now.

Maria Quattrone:

It's all about being this, it's all about being the solution. Yep. Look at that, excuse me, not only for our business, but for our life. Yeah, 100%. For our life.

Denise Swick:

Yep. And I've as a result, I've came up with multiple different programs. Um, you know, if you go to my website, downsizeallies, a l-l-i-es.com, you can see some of our programs there. And and what's funny is, you know, most of them were things that I was already doing and just didn't have a name to them, right? I mean, I've done guaranteed sales for builders for years when the market was not great. And, you know, we would guarantee the sale of a house so that the builder wasn't stuck with a a home that somebody else had their selections into it when the time was ready, because you know, back then in the early, mid and even late 2000s, you know, 2000 to 2010, like you know, 2000 to 2000, really 15, 16, at least in Dayton and northern Cincinnati, um, it it took sometimes a while to sell a house if it wasn't priced right. And so through my 20 years of calling and and you know, working with expired listings, I became expert at pricing. And that's the other thing is seniors don't have, you know, six once you once you get it ready to get on the market, it could take six months, but once it gets on the market, you don't have six months to try to sell their house, right? Because any home at any market, whether you're in Philadelphia, you know, PA, Dayton, Ohio, or you know, LA, it's it's about the price based on the features and everything else the house has to offer. And all the homes, the ones that are priced the best for what they offer are the ones that are going to sell the fastest. And that's where you have to really know pricing because seniors don't have a lot of time to mess around. And you know, when you're in your 30s, 40s, and you know, 50s, you can make some different financial mistakes because you have hopefully more time to correct them. But when you're in your 60s, 70s, 80s, and you know, even a lot of our clients are in their 90s, um, you don't have a lot of time to make financial mistakes. And so they need an expert that can really guide them, not just somebody that's looking for a real estate sale.

Maria Quattrone:

That's that's a big difference, and that's where you come in and your company comes in.

Denise Swick:

Yep, 100%. So um, I don't know if you saw the recent NAR 2025 survey, but what's really funny is um right now the average home seller is age 64 years old. The average first-time buyer, Maria, which is shocking, it's the highest that it's ever been, is aged 40. I saw that. So isn't that insane? Insane. I bought my first house at 22 years old. And people, it used to be people lived in their houses for five to seven years. Well, now, you know, these seniors, and and then there's the the Gen X, which is me, you know, it's it's the seniors, the silent generation, which is 75 and above, the baby boomers, which is like 60, I don't know, like 61 or 62 and above, and then the Gen Xers, which are like late 40s up to you know, 60 or whatever. So those three age groups really monopolize roughly 65 percent, 70 percent of all the housing in the United States. And with the average person now buying a home at 40 and the average selling being 64, that just poses some really interesting challenges. And instead of living in your house five to seven years, the average homeowner now has lived there 11 years. So that's also the longest record in you know, longest tenure um ever been recorded. So times are changing, things are different. Um, and being able to move and adapt with that and understanding what your client needs, other than just a sale, is um is is definitely important.

Maria Quattrone:

I think it's important for people to realize, you know, really all the challenges that go through you go through as both being on the real estate side as an agent, but the challenges that the homeowner has to go through in order to sell their house.

Denise Swick:

Right. There's a lot of hurdles.

Maria Quattrone:

There's an extreme amount of hurdles, and there's so many moving parts, and that's why I always believed in the team model, a model where you have multiple people on the transaction helping guide the transaction. Yeah, it's not just about marketing of the house, prepping of the house, consulting the client, but you have to then you sell it and then you have to make sure it gets to the closing table. So there's a you know, six, seven different parts of it.

Denise Swick:

I I still do some other real estate too, you know, because I've been in this this town and real estate for a long time. And so literally just last week, um, a client came to me who had been on the market for and she's an investor. You went down. Hold on. My little Frenchie decided he went off my lap. So um she came to me and 90 90 90 days almost, I think it was like 86 days, she'd been on the market and she was an investor. And she hadn't the agent wasn't calling her back, wasn't texting her, wasn't, I mean, it would take her a week to get a hold of her. And it doesn't take 90 days in any market. I mean, our market is dramatically shifting to, I mean, it's already a buyer's market now, it's no longer a seller's market, not even neutral, it's like a buyer's market. But um didn't even call her back. And and I can't believe how patient some people are. I would have fired her a long time ago, you know? And then once they get them, then they beg and grovel and I'll do better. And I'm like, are you kidding me? Like they promised you 90 days ago they'd sell your home and it's 90 days, and they've been lying to you for that long if if they've not been calling you and explaining to you what's going on in the market. She never got any feedback from any of the showings that happened, not one. She didn't even know how many showings she had or if she had any in in almost 90 days. That's just absolutely ridiculous.

Maria Quattrone:

Negligent.

Denise Swick:

Yeah, it's 100% negligent. The level of and lack of customer service is, and you and I have been this way forever. It's because that's why we're good at what we do, and we have a huge past client following, is because we're honest. We show up, we tell the truth, and we then do what we say we're gonna do. You know, we can't control the market, we can't control the pricing. But an expert like you and me pay attention to it, and if it's not selling, you know why, and you share that with your client, you know, because again, the best properties are gonna sell at the best price.

Maria Quattrone:

So Denise said, you know, it's interesting because the average age used to be 28 and then it was 31, and then it was 32, and then it was 33, and then it literally jumped. Seven years.

Denise Swick:

Yeah.

Maria Quattrone:

And that that shows you just how difficult it is to become a homeowner today. Yeah. A reflection on income, a reflection on pricing. I mean, the prices since COVID went up in some markets. Almost double. Yeah.

Denise Swick:

It was unsustainable.

Maria Quattrone:

And so there's an affordability problem in the real estate industry, not just in your market or my market. nationwide. And I think that's something that this administration, you know, is certainly tried to is certainly now trying to combat. So we shall see if any of the uh dozen things that were thrown out in the last gosh few weeks or month or so will come to fruition for 2026. So I'm curious as to for your year and are you optimistic?

Denise Swick:

Oh 100%. 100%. So you know not to just you know overstatistic like over give you too many statistics basically but um as of 2025 79 to 80% of homeowners age 65 and older own their homes outright also. And homeownership remains high in those age groups 75 plus literally 79% of people that are 75 and older own their homes and own them outright. And those age 55 to 64 which is you know my age group about 75% of us own homes. So there is a huge what they call the huge transfer of wealth but in some cases the homes need so much work they're a burden that's another whole topic is how homes literally are killing our seniors. The trend is to age in place and that's not always the best thing. But if you look at really just the the sheer numbers of who owns the homes and then the 40 year olds that are buying them and this is not getting into you know whatever but literally and I can't remember the exact number but it was absolutely huge and and this administration is addressing it trying to address it too is like 51 or 52% of the homes that sold last year in certain areas were to institutional buyers. So the big companies like BlackRock and so forth are going after these homes and are buying them and so first time buyers and so forth don't even have an opportunity that's another whole conversation that that could be had about the craziness of what's happening right now in the real estate industry. And the real estate industry you know drives the United States I mean just one house affects a hundred different trades you know so a hundred different jobs are involved from the inspector to the underwriter to the assistant to the title surveyor you know what I mean like if you really think about all the people that are involved in one transaction people don't realize all the moving parts and moving pieces and how many people that it supports with one home sale. You know you move in then you need to paint so you know Home Depot and Lowe's and like all of those places and contractors you need flooring you need paint you need to do your kitchen or whatever you know handyman services. So one real estate transaction impacts a hundred people let's say a hundred jobs and the institutional buyers they have their own crews so they're not going out and supporting the local economy and a lot of them are also I'm not yeah I'm gonna use the word many investors and many investment companies like that they literally prey on our seniors um and you know I mean how many calls a day or text a day do you get about we want to buy your home? We want to you know we'll give you X amount and most of the time it's just smoke and mirrors you know and they don't know who they're calling or texting or what your house is.

Maria Quattrone:

Yeah we want to buy your house I said great it's $975000.

Denise Swick:

Yeah yeah I play with them sometimes too and one just recently called I have a a a a multi-unit that's worth I don't know five five fifty something like that and uh I said sure like I'm I'm open like what do you want to give me for it? They came back with an offer of like uh $225 or something like that. I'm like holy smokes I'd buy it at that too you know I'd buy 10 of them you know but and literally just this last week um I have a sweet lady I met with her and her husband literally a year ago um he unfortunately passed away he was he was ill then but they got home health care and so forth and um he passed away right before Christmas and literally we've been working together to figure out if I'm gonna buy her home or we're just gonna sell it or what we're gonna do. But in the meantime she got a call for one of these we buy homes places and um she sent me the contract and they were going to give her more than what I told her it was worth as is and I literally said to her I'm like you know if I want what's best for you not just a transaction right and um so I started looking into you I said send me the contract they sent you and it was nothing but a wholesale contract Maria they would lock her she doesn't have 60 days she's already signed a a senior home up in Michigan and she's already you know January's gone so she two months you know um and she's paying on this home up there they want to lock her property up for 60 days um before and then they had the right to list it with a a local remax agent and if they sold it they could have signed the contract it was nothing more than a wholesale agreement the only thing they had in into it was if it never sold or anything didn't happen in 60 days they would give her a thousand dollars they would forgo their earnest money 60 days cost a senior a lot more than $1,000 but that's that whole bait and switch it's the whole whole I mean if there's anything I wish this administration or anybody could do would be get rid of wholesalers because they literally are all practicing real estate without a license and as bad as people think real estate agents can be and unethical or not truthful or whatever wholesalers are a hundred times worse and there's nothing you can do about it like there's no like NAR OAR your local board you can file complaints whatever there's no wholesalers we did we can say you know like they're just individuals I'm sorry Philadelphia if you are wholesaling real estate you're required to have a real estate license now oh they need that and like it's it's it's gross and in fact it's actually not even wholesaling it's assignment of sale so yeah real wholesale real wholesaling was when you bought the property you know cash you fix it up you put a tenant in it or you flipped it and that was real wholesaling right back in 20 years ago and then the internet came along and YouTube came along and people thought well I can mean get rich off of other people by taking their equity out of their house and just flipping in on the MLS and picking up 40 50 60 80 000 for doing nothing. This um one transaction these are just these are just true excuse me true stories um this the lady that came to me last week um she's an investor also and she's you know she'd heard of me and she knows what I'm doing she knows I'm also an investor but she um she bought the home she was the third buyer in nine months it sold for $67,000 from one wholesale buyer to another company sold it from $67 from the owner to the wholesale company then it sold from that company to another company for $99,000 and then she bought it for $115 so that alone tells you how much money was left on the table for the owner right they convinced them it was only worth $6700 it sold three times in literally it was seven to nine months for sixty thousand dollars more that's insane right and that's that's where we shine because we're going to make it a win-win with that seller and us we are that ultimate buyer but we're not going to steal their property from them we're gonna make it you know we can't lose money but we're not going to leave 60 some thousand dollars on the table for the owner to then you know and then the ultimate end buyer was an investor too that then went in and fixed it up and you know they had the most risk in the game it's that's another that's another whole topic in another whole podcast but who but those are the type of people honestly that are preying on our seniors and one of the reasons that I just feel I need to reach more and more and more seniors so that they don't get bamboozled I'll use that word by um some unethical you know institutional buyers out there. Exactly yeah it's funny because we say the same thing on expires I gotta call them so they don't end up with experience again and they had it wasn't the funnest part of our job for 20 years was it like getting up and being on the phones by 8 a.m and calling getting screamed at and yelled at but once you got them calmed down like they were some of the best clients I ever had because once you got the appointment which you've done thousands of them too um you know where other agents have lied to them for six months nine months six years whatever and um you come in you tell them the truth and they're like oh my God how many times did you go on an appointment where they said in the first week I had an offer of what you're telling me my house is worth and my agent told me not to take it I'm like did you tell the agent to buy the house you know like it's so insane but anyway that's a soapbox but but you're right like you and I both and and so I took that purposeful experience and this purposeful experience because you know a lot of these seniors sometimes they're not happy either right they they don't want to move so you just you take what you learn and and you learn how to help people realize a win-win solution be the solution and that's what it's all about 100% and the riches are truly in the niches especially now because people once they know what you do and then they can tell other people what you do and well if you even if you look back at at our careers which have been extremely similar over the last 15 20 years um you know us being the solution were the expired listings like we were you know we were their solution we were the ones that are willing to be strong and tell them the truth and you know if they're unrealistic walk away because it's not neither it's in neither of our nature to lie to somebody just to get our sign in the yard you know but that's unfortunately what happens which is why we were able to sell thousands of homes and in the process make a lot of money but more importantly help these people get what they need and when you do that like the the the income naturally comes when you're doing the right thing you know and I think that's one of the biggest issues with real estate agents is they're always chasing that proverbial dollar not even looking at what's important for the client which is indeed why many people don't make it 20 plus years in the industry.

Maria Quattrone:

You know there were uh yeah yeah in my case 35 I wonder I'm gonna do the next 35 like I can't even say that it just doesn't even sound real I've been selling real estate that long but what's fun is um I think it was 950 some thousand agents last year didn't even sell a home out of 1.6 and about I don't know a huge amount of those agents pretty close to the same literally exited the real estate industry in 2025 which thank god for the consumers out there we're as I as I say Denise all the time we're all not created the same hundred percent just because we have a real estate license so truly understanding what the what the clients issues are challenges and being the solution so yeah thank you thank you again for coming on the podcast thanks for having me before and I'm excited to continue to watch your journey in downsize alleys and you know you are the solution really helping your clients so good for you God bless and here's to a great 2026 amen thank you