Photos by Chuck Kirman / Star staff Shirley and Allan Walter check out the koi pond as they stroll through their new community of University Village in Thousand Oaks. They formerly lived in Camarillo.

The Walters pose for a picture in their new one-bedroom residence. They took advantage of a program that enabled them to defer their entrance fee while their prior home sold.

Rather than deferring dreams, University Village in Thousand Oaks is deferring payments to help people move into the retirement community while they wait for their homes to sell.

It's a creative approach tailored to a down real estate market.

People can move in to a unit and enjoy all the amenities by paying the required monthly fee, but their one-time entrance fee is put on hold until their homes sell.

It's a "have your cake and eat it too" solution for people who want to move in, but can't because their money is tied up in their homes, said Warren Spieker III, vice president of University Village Thousand Oaks.

About 60 people have taken advantage of the program, while even more have used it at other retirement communities run by Continuing Life Communities, parent company of University Village.

Each deferral is a customized plan. Spieker said buyers are required to put down a 10 percent refundable deposit, but then he works with them to determine what percentage of the balance they need deferred.

Currently, there are about 20 people with outstanding balances who owe amounts ranging from $258,000 to $798,000, depending on the unit they selected in the retirement community.

For Allan and Shirley Walter, the program meant that they didn't have to let go of the one-bedroom residence they locked in at the pre-construction price even though it took longer than expected to sell their Spanish Hills home.

The deferral program provided peace of mind.

The Walters signed up for the retirement community even before the home they wanted was built. There is an assortment of units that residents secure with an entrance fee, and the monthly fee provides them access to healthcare, long-term care, meals, activities and other amenities. The monthly rate ranges from about $2,700 to $4,000.

Last year, the Walters learned that their new home — on the third floor of an apartment-style building with a view of the foothills — was ready. In July, they put their house in Camarillo up for sale.

It wasn't a good time.

"The real estate market went to pot," Walter said.

"If we could have sold in December, it would have been a different story," his wife noted.

They started to worry that their home wouldn't sell before time ran out for them to move to University Village. It would mean losing their place on the waiting list — and a good price.

That's when officials at University Village resurrected a program used in the early 1990s at another retirement community to help residents in a similarly tough housing market.

"It really took the pressure off us because we knew we weren't going to lose this," Shirley Walter said.

For the Walters, the program let them extend the amount of time before the entrance fee was due. Walter said he was able to use that extra time to arrange financing for the entrance fee — and then their Camarillo house sold in October.

Selling at a proper price

Walter said he lowered the price on his Camarillo home, but it was worth it because he might have lost the locked-in price at University Village.

Spieker said many people who move into University Village have lived in their homes for decades and have more realistic assumptions about price. That often leads to faster sales.

"These are folks not holding out for top dollar or last year's price," he said.

Spieker said his company works with residents involved in the deferral program, advising them on what is a reasonable price and the best way to sell their homes. The ultimate decision, however, rests with the residents.

If sellers hold out for an unrealistic selling price, the community can give them notice that they need to pay within a certain amount of time or move back into their homes. It lets both sides know that they're not stuck, Spieker said.

Doug Michie, an adjunct professor at California Lutheran University, said every house will sell if it's properly priced — even in the current market. The problem with a lot of sales on the market now is that a lot of people have more mortgage debt than their home's current value, he said.

Many seniors are in a better position, having paid down or paid off their mortgages.

"Coming out of the Depression, the children of that era are of the attitude of trying to pay their mortgage down by the time they retire," he said. "Perhaps we're now seeing the reason why the older generation put such an emphasis on paying down their mortgage."

He commended University Village's program to help seniors. Michie said he expects homeowners will try more ways to get people to buy. Already, more creative financing is starting to crop up, he said.

The University Village deferral program is not foolproof. Spieker said there was one incident where a woman said she needed to remodel her old house before selling it. She lived for three months in the community and then said she wanted to leave.

"In hindsight, she used us as a stopping point as she remodeled the kitchen in the home and moved back into it," Spieker said. "That's not the goal. It's not what we'd like to see happen."

Most people are honest

But he said he was willing to take that risk to offer a program that most people use with honest intentions.

University Village, which features 367 detached homes, condominiums and apartments, is about 80 percent occupied, with 40 people on a list waiting for a particular type of home to become available.

The Walters moved into University Village in November during Thanksgiving week. Now they're poster children for the deferral program, promoting the community to friends, family and anyone else.

"We're very happy here," Walter said.

"Golly, it's so wonderful," his wife added.