Ann’s Choice in Warminster is where a remarkable share of Bucks County’s downsizing conversations end up: the county’s largest retirement community, and one of the largest on the East Coast. This guide is written from the seller’s side of that move, because the entrance fee and the house are, for most families, the same money. It is independent research, Samantha is a real estate agent, not affiliated with Ann’s Choice or Erickson, built from the community’s published materials and the University of Pennsylvania emeriti association’s independent CCRC guide, with the house-sale sequencing that the marketing brochures leave out.
What Ann’s Choice is, in verified numbers
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-profit, fee-for-service (Type C) continuing care retirement community, managed by Erickson Senior Living |
| Opened | 2005 |
| Campus | 103 acres in Warminster, Bucks County; climate-controlled walkways connect most buildings |
| Scale | Roughly 2,000 residents; independent living apartments plus on-campus assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing |
| Contract | One contract type: 90% refundable entrance fee, refundable to the resident or estate |
| Regulation | CCRCs in Pennsylvania file disclosure statements with the PA Insurance Department |
The campus model is the draw: dining venues, clubs, pools, medical offices, and the care continuum inside one gate, with the practical guarantee that a health change means moving buildings, not moving towns. The PASEF guide is the best independent read on the community’s specifics, and the PA Insurance Department explains the disclosure statements every prospective resident is entitled to review.
The money model: entrance fee plus monthly package
Ann’s Choice runs on two payments (Erickson’s pricing page carries current figures):
- The onetime entrance fee, 90% refundable. Scaled to the apartment: 2024 independent figures ranged from six figures for studios to over $900,000 for the largest two-bedroom plans, with most one- and two-bedroom apartments landing in the $200,000s to $500,000s, in other words, the sale price of a typical Bucks County house, which is not a coincidence. The refund returns to you or your estate when you leave, less any amounts drawn for qualified care.
- The monthly service package covering utilities, maintenance, dining, transportation, and amenities, published in the mid-$2,000s to high-$3,000s for one person in the 2024 independent figures, plus an add-on for a second person. Compare it honestly against the full carrying cost of the house it replaces (taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, lawn, snow), not against the mortgage-free fantasy number; for many longtime owners the gap is smaller than expected.
- Fee-for-service care. As a Type C community, care is billed when used, at rates the disclosure statement lays out. The contract-type tradeoffs, and the partial medical deduction that can apply to CCRC fees, are covered in our CCRC funding guide, which is the companion to this page.
Sequencing the house sale against the move
- 01Get the house’s real number first. Every downstream decision, which apartment, which refund plan, how much cushion remains, keys off what the house nets, not what it lists for. A valuation plus the net proceeds calculator produces that number in days, before any deposit is written.
- 02Reserve, then list, on one calendar. The standard successful pattern: apartment reserved, house listed within weeks, closing targeted to land at or just before move-in. Move-in coordinators at large communities do this dance constantly and will tell you their flexibility honestly; your agent’s job is making the house side hit its dates, which in this region includes the township’s resale paperwork (Warminster and its neighbors each have their own; the fee index lists them).
- 03Decide the bridge question deliberately. Selling first is financially cleanest; moving first avoids living through showings at 78 but means briefly carrying two residences. Both work when chosen; the expensive version is drifting into one of them by missed timing. Our sell-first-or-buy-first guide walks the tradeoffs.
Selling the house this move actually involves
The house behind an Ann’s Choice move is usually a specific house: a three- or four-bedroom single or split in Warminster, Warrington, Southampton, Horsham, or the Doylestown orbit, owned twenty to fifty years, structurally sound, cosmetically dated, and full. Three field notes for exactly that sale:
- Prepare in passes, not renovations. Clear, clean, brighten, fix the broken; skip the kitchen remodel. Buyers for these houses are young families paying for the school district and the bones. The room-by-room checklist and a senior move manager cover the clear-out.
- Mind the tax windows while the calendar is friendly. The $250,000/$500,000 exclusion covers most of these sales, and where a spouse has died, the two-year window in our surviving spouse guide can decide the timing by itself.
- The proceeds pay the fee at closing. Title-to-entrance-fee wiring is routine; tell the community’s finance office and the title company early so the money moves the day it exists.
The coordination checklist
- 01Tour, get the disclosure statement, and read the refund provisions with your attorney or adviser.
- 02Valuation and net proceeds number for the house, before reserving.
- 03Reserve the apartment; put the move-in window in writing.
- 04List on the coordinated calendar; start the township’s resale paperwork immediately.
- 05Clear-out in passes, with the move manager booked for the final two weeks.
- 06Close, wire, move once, and let the refund provisions and estate documents be updated the same season.
Samantha, SRES®, has sold the houses on both ends of this exact move across Bucks and Montgomery counties, on the community’s calendar, with the township paperwork and the family logistics handled. If Ann’s Choice, or any campus like it, is on your shortlist, start with the free valuation that turns the house into a number, or ask her how your township’s timeline fits the community’s. The move is very doable; it just deserves one calendar instead of two.