About 55places

You’ve come to the right place.

At 55places, we love helping you find the next place you’ll love to call home. 55places.com is the trusted online and personal resource for finding the perfect place for what's next. Our visitors know what they want out of life, but we understand why they prefer the help of a knowledgeable, resourceful advocate to get there. By recognizing their needs and providing relevant, insightful, and unbiased content, 55places empowers visitors to make their right move.

 

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You’ll make the leap.

There come times in life when we’re compelled to take action, jumping headfirst into new, exciting, and uncharted territory. This is why total transparency is a number one priority—right from the get go. We share every detail with our visitors, letting them know what they can expect from us and the entire process. While there may be the occasional unexpected turn, 55places paves the way from here to home with all of the best information, unbiased content, and on-the- ground insight to help visitors find the perfect next place.

 

We are committed to:

• Sharing unbiased website content: no buy-ins and no sponsorships.
• Delivering the best possible experience, both online and in person.
• Providing visitors exactly what they need—when and where they need it.

 

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Discover what makes 55places different. 

A leading authority in the real estate industry, 55places makes the search not only more approachable but also more enjoyable—from the beginning, where our online experience makes visitors feel at home, to the end, when they actually are.

 

Our People

Every 55places real estate agent is hand selected based on their knowledge and expertise of the communities they represent. Our experts connect visitors with places that fit their needs and lifestyles, offering advocacy through honest, informed answers to every question and helping them find exactly what they’re looking for.

Exploring new opportunities for growth while keeping connected to what matters, our visitors build meaningful relationships in their communities, which brings greater purpose to the work 55places does. We take each visitor’s perfect next place very seriously; in fact, only two percent of real estate agents who apply to our program are accepted, and the number of satisfied visitors today speaks volumes to this unique approach.

 

Our Values

55places didn’t grow into a national network of industry-best real estate experts without first aligning on the guiding principles that define our culture and determine how we work. While some things change, others remain the same—and our values are among those steadfast things that will always stay central to our character as both a company and an advocate. 

Transparent

We do not offer sponsorships to builders or outside parties. We do not accept financial compensation to influence placement or ranking on 55places.com.

Authentic

When partnering with 55places to find what’s next, the experience is real—rooted in a genuine desire to hear visitors’ needs and deliver the ideal outcome.

Trusted

55places real estate experts have decades of experience. A proven track record, combined with open, honest communication, creates a sense of trust and deeper connection.

Expert

We bring out the best in every community, meaning we work with the most knowledgeable partners, who offer deep insights for making the right decisions.

 

Our Story

In 2003, 55places CEO Bill Ness was working as a sales leader for an active adult community developer when he started noticing patterns in the types of questions his clients were asking. Realizing that there was no national, independent resource that could provide real answers, he started 55places in 2007, which indexed every active adult community in the Chicago area then quickly scaled to become a proprietary platform with national reach.

Bill was joined in 2011 by COO Danny Goodman, and together they toured the country, personally visiting more than a thousand communities and meeting with homebuilders and residents. Growing into the trusted and respected real estate destination it is today, 55places has built an unrivaled network of industry-leading experts, with tens of millions of visitors each year to its website. 55places has helped thousands of visitors find communities that speak to who they are and offer them opportunities to be exactly who they want to be.

 

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Discover what’s next.

We are a complete and trusted resource for many home seekers in the market today. We reflect new and better approaches to living, serving as a model of excellence in transforming our industry. We see shifting priorities and preferences, with an eye toward a return to the essentials—sense of community, connection, place, purpose, security, and self.

Thinking about the past, we see how far we’ve come. Thinking about the future, we can’t help but be excited by the incredible innovations taking place and the possibilities that lie ahead. From our roots as a real estate website, we’ve grown into the place that visitors think of first when looking for their perfect next place.