Kendal-Crosslands is the region’s countryside flagship: four Quaker-founded communities on more than 500 acres of Brandywine countryside outside Kennett Square, two of them full lifecare campuses and two of them cottage neighborhoods that feed the same care system, with published pricing and a disclosure statement posted on its own website. This guide is written from the seller’s side of that move, because the entry fee and the Chester County house are usually the same money. It is independent research; Samantha is a real estate agent, not affiliated with Kendal-Crosslands, built from the community’s published pricing and disclosure statement.
What Kendal-Crosslands is, in verified numbers
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Not-for-profit, Quaker-founded Life Plan organization; seeded by a Philadelphia Yearly Meeting grant in the early 1970s |
| Campus | More than 500 acres near Kennett Square, Chester County, minutes from Longwood Gardens |
| Four communities | Kendal at Longwood (170 acres) and Crosslands (243 acres) with full lifecare; Coniston (36 acres) and Cartmel (62 acres) as independent cottage neighborhoods |
| Contracts | Type A (Lifecare) and Type B (Modified Lifecare, 3-year and 5-year versions built to pair with LTC insurance); medical assessment required |
| Refund plans | 90%, 50%, or 0% refundable entry fees at Kendal and Crosslands |
| Published sample pricing | Studio $99,000 / $3,988 monthly; one-bedroom $198,000 / $4,854; two-bedroom $323,000 / $6,350; expanded two-bedroom $382,000 / $6,672 (single occupancy, standard agreement) |
The community publishes its pricing tables and its full 2026 disclosure statement on its own site, and the Pennsylvania Insurance Department explains what those disclosures must contain. Transparency at this level is itself a signal worth weighing.
Four communities, two commitment levels
- Kendal at Longwood and Crosslands are the full commitment: lifecare contracts, entry fee plus monthly fee, the complete care continuum on campus. The two differ in texture: Kendal’s cottages and garden apartments cluster more tightly; Crosslands spreads across its 243 acres in a horseshoe where the walk to the community center is part of the design.
- Coniston and Cartmel are the lower-commitment entry: independent cottage neighborhoods (36 and 62 acres) inside the same campus system, with two-bedroom cottages starting around $500,000 and monthly fees near $3,467 in the 2026 disclosure. For households not ready for a lifecare contract but wanting the community and the adjacency to care, they function like a village on the campus’s doorstep.
- The move between levels is the point. Coniston and Cartmel residents sit next door to the continuum when needs change, which is a materially different position than aging in a conventional 55+ community twenty minutes from the nearest care. Comparing Cartmel to an ownership community like Hershey’s Mill makes the tradeoff concrete: deed and market exposure there, contract and adjacency here.
Lifecare, Modified Lifecare, and the three refund plans
- Full Lifecare (Type A) prepays every level of care and keeps monthly fees consistent even in skilled nursing, which the community notes exceeds $16,000 a month at per diem rates. It is the maximum risk transfer, priced accordingly, with the largest prepaid-medical deduction under IRS Publication 502 in the year paid, the same year as the house sale.
- Modified Lifecare (Type B) comes in 3-year and 5-year versions with a set number of included care days, built to sit on top of a long-term care insurance policy. If you hold a solid policy, Modified converts it into part of the design; our CCRC funding guide frames that decision with current cost-of-care data.
- The refund axis is familiar: 90% and 50% plans preserve assets for the estate at higher entry fees; the 0% plan minimizes entry cost. Refunds pay to the resident or estate on departure, and the estate mechanics are the ones our executor’s guide walks through.
- The medical assessment is a reason not to wait. Both contracts require approval, and lifecare underwriting favors applicants who apply while healthy; deferring the decision two years can close the better contract entirely.
Sequencing the house sale against the move
- 01House number first. The valuation plus the net proceeds calculator produces the after-cost figure to hold against the published price tables, which conveniently exist here.
- 02Choose contract and refund plan with the adviser, and schedule the medical assessment early. The disclosure statement is already public; read it before the first serious visit rather than after.
- 03Reserve, then list, on one calendar. Target the closing at or just before move-in so proceeds wire straight to the entry fee. Southern Chester County municipalities vary widely in resale requirements; the fee index lists every one we cover.
- 04Decide the bridge deliberately. Sell first and move once, or move first and carry both briefly; the sell-first-or-buy-first guide walks the tradeoffs.
The Chester County house this move usually involves
The house behind a Kendal-Crosslands move is usually a southern Chester County house: Kennett Square and Kennett Township, East Marlborough and Unionville, Pennsbury, Chadds Ford, West Chester, or across the line from Wilmington’s northern suburbs, often a house with acreage whose grounds have become the reason to move. Three field notes for exactly that sale:
- Acreage sells differently. Land-heavy Chester County properties reward preparation of the grounds as much as the house, and the buyer pool (often relocating families and equestrian buyers) shops seasonally; timing the listing matters more here than in tract-suburb markets.
- Know your municipality before listing. Start with the Kennett Square guide for the campus’s own orbit and the Chester County guide for the wider picture; township requirements in this corner of the county range from nothing to full inspections.
- Mind the tax windows. The $250,000/$500,000 exclusion covers most of these sales, but long-held houses with large gains are exactly where the exclusion runs out; our PA and NJ tax guide covers the math, and the lifecare deduction in the same year can matter more than families expect.
Samantha, SRES®, sells the houses on both ends of this exact move across Chester County. If Kendal-Crosslands, or the Quaker countryside model generally, is on your shortlist, start with the free valuation that turns the house into a number you can hold against the published tables, or ask her how your township’s timeline fits the community’s. Five hundred acres, four communities, three refund plans, two contracts; still one calendar.