Linda Kaufman and her husband were living in another state when they decided they wanted a home in a 55+ community in San Diego County. They had never met us. They found us online, arranged for Ken to show them properties on a visit in November, and then spent the next several months following the market from a distance while they sold their condo. When they finally arrived in California, they were under contract within a week.
That last detail sounds like luck. It was not. It was the result of everything that happened in the months before.
The Review
We lived out of state and wanted to buy a house in a 55+ Community in San Diego County. We were attracted by Ken Tritle’s online presentation, so arranged to have him show us properties when we visited in November. He showed us homes in several areas, but recommended Ocean Hills Country Club for us. For the next several months, Ken kept us apprised of the new listings and sales of homes in OHCC and helped us narrow our search on his user-friendly DreamWell Homes Realty website until we could sell our condo and move to California. As soon as we arrived, he showed us the available homes that met our criteria, and we had a contract that week. Ken is professional, knowledgeable, patient, and easy to work with. He found answers to our questions, considered our ideas, and recommended service providers that we would never have found on our own (including a medical professional who took care of us within an our of our call!)
Linda Kaufman · Buyer, Ocean Hills Country Club, Oceanside · Google and Zillow Review · October 2026
She posted it in two places. You can read it on Google, and she posted the same review to Zillow on October 7, 2026. Zillow lists every review on an agent profile rather than giving each one its own address, so look for her name there.
Ken’s reply
Thank you, Linda! The past year that we worked together was quite a journey and you accomplished so much! I am delighted to have helped you both with this transition to Ocean Hills Country Club and am thrilled with your choice of home because it fit your unique needs so well. I really liked how you explored many options before making the decision on which community worked best for you. I wish you decades of peace and happiness in your new home. With Gratitude ~ Ken
Ken Tritle, Realtor® SRES®, DreamWell Homes Realty · Zillow, October 8, 2026
They Did the Looking Before They Could Move
Most out-of-state buyers assume the search begins when they are ready to buy. These buyers did the opposite. They could not move until their condo sold, which was months away, so they used that time instead of waiting through it.
Ken sent them new listings and, more usefully, the sales. Watching what homes actually close for, month after month, is how you develop a feel for value that no single tour can give you. By the time they landed in California they already knew what a fair price looked like, which floor plans suited them and where in the community they wanted to be.
So the week it took to get under contract was not speed. It was months of preparation finally meeting the right house. A buyer who starts looking the day they arrive typically spends those same months learning the market, except they are paying for temporary housing while they do it.
If you are somewhere in that position now, the looking costs nothing and there is no obligation attached to it. Start here: San Diego 55+ communities, the community map, and the video tours.
He Recommended a Community, Not Just Houses
On that first visit Ken showed them homes in several areas before recommending Ocean Hills Country Club. That order matters. When you are moving across the country, the thing you are really choosing is a place to live the next part of your life, and the house is downstream of that decision.
Seeing communities you end up ruling out is not wasted time either. It is how the right one becomes obvious. Ken’s reply to this review makes the same point from the other side, that they explored many options before deciding which community worked best for them.
If you want to see the range before you narrow it, the top 10 gated 55+ communities in San Diego County is a reasonable place to start, and Ocean Hills alone has seventeen floor plans.
The Part Nobody Plans For
The detail in this review we would point to is not about real estate at all. It is the line about service providers they would never have found on their own, including a medical professional who responded within an hour.
When you move states in your sixties or seventies you leave behind a network built over decades. The doctor who knows your history. The dentist, the plumber, the person who fixed the garage door. All of it has to be rebuilt somewhere unfamiliar, usually while you are also unpacking.
An agent who has worked in one community for years knows who is reliable and who is not, and that knowledge is almost impossible to find through an online search. It costs nothing to ask, and it is the part of the job that continues after the sale closes.
Verify Any of This Yourself
We do not host our own review widget or publish screenshots. Every review quoted on this site sits on a platform we do not control, under the client’s own account:
- Linda’s Google review
- Zillow reviews for DreamWell Homes Realty, where she posted the same review on October 7, 2026
- Realtor.com reviews for DreamWell Homes Realty
- RateMyAgent verified sales and reviews, where each review is tied to a closed transaction
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you start looking at San Diego 55+ communities before you are ready to move?
Yes, and starting early is usually an advantage rather than a waste of time. Buyers who spend several months watching listings and sales in a community before they are able to buy develop a reliable sense of what homes are worth, which floor plans suit them and which locations within the community they prefer. By the time they can act, they recognise the right home quickly instead of spending their first weeks in California learning the market. There is no obligation in looking, and no reason to wait until your current home is sold to begin.
How do out-of-state buyers compare San Diego 55+ communities from a distance?
Photographs of individual homes are not enough, because what you are really choosing is a community and a location rather than a house. The things that matter from a distance are video tours that show the streets and amenities rather than staged rooms, a clear picture of what the HOA covers and costs, where the community sits relative to the coast, hospitals and an airport, and recent sales rather than asking prices. A good agent will also tell you when a community is not right for you, which is more useful than a list of everything available.
What should you do on a first scouting trip to San Diego?
See more communities than you think you need to, including ones you expect to dislike, because comparison is what makes the decision clear. Walk the streets rather than only touring homes, visit at the time of day you would actually be there, and ask what the drive is like to a hospital, a grocery store and the airport. Most buyers find that one or two communities feel right and the rest do not, and that reaction is difficult to predict from a distance. Treat the first trip as narrowing the field rather than finding the house.
How long does it take out-of-state buyers to find the right 55+ home?
It varies enormously, and the limiting factor is usually not the search. For buyers who have to sell a home first, the timeline is set by that sale. The useful thing to understand is that these two phases can overlap: you can be watching a community closely for months while your own home is being prepared and sold, so that when you finally arrive you are ready to make a decision rather than starting from the beginning.
How do you find doctors, dentists and trades after relocating to California?
This is the part most people underestimate. Moving states means rebuilding a support network from nothing, often at an age when you least want to be experimenting. Ask your agent, because a local agent who has worked in one community for years knows which providers are reliable and which are not, and that knowledge is rarely available online. Start before you need it. Registering with a doctor and a dentist in the first month is far easier than finding one in an emergency.
Looking at San Diego From Somewhere Else?
You do not need to be ready to buy, and you do not need to be in California. If you are a year out and simply working out which communities are worth a trip, that is a useful conversation to have now rather than later. Call or text Jean and Ken at 760-798-9024.
San Diego 55+ communities · Ocean Hills Country Club · Video tours · Downsizing in San Diego
Ken Tritle, Realtor® SRES®, DRE #01892793, of DreamWell Homes Realty, DRE #01777754. The review was posted publicly by the client on her own Google and Zillow accounts and was not solicited, edited or compensated. It is quoted here exactly as she wrote it.
