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Q: Where does The Center for Active Living's funding come from?

The Center's annual budget is roughly 1.6 million dollars. Membership dues cover about 7%, donations cover about 22%, and the rest comes from government grants, program activity fees, thrift store sales, facility rentals, and event income. The donation share is what keeps programming accessible regardless of a member's income.

Q: How can I donate to The Center for Active Living?

You can give any amount through Chris Gibson's personal fundraising page at fundraise.givesmart.com/vf/2026Breakfast/ChristopherGibson, or buy raffle tickets at the Center's front desk for a chance at Alaska or Hawaiian Airlines roundtrip vouchers. Both go to the same place — keeping programs affordable for every neighbor who walks through the door.

Aging in place West Seattle is the goal for most clients of real estate agents and financial advisors over 60 — but staying home is a community problem, not just a financial one. The Center for Active Living serves over 1,600 West Seattle neighbors aged 50+ with affordable meals, programming, and wellness services that make staying home actually viable. Member dues cover only 7% of the budget; donations cover 22%. I serve as Board Treasurer, and I’m asking 20 of my connections to chip in any amount during this month’s annual fundraising campaign.

Chris Gibson, Board Treasurer for The Center for Active Living, supporting aging in place West Seattle through the nonprofit's annual fundraising campaign

Aging in place West Seattle is a community problem, not just a financial one

If you’re a real estate agent or financial advisor in West Seattle, you’ve had a version of this conversation: a client over 60, sitting in a paid-off home, asking some flavor of “should I stay or should I sell?” The financial side is usually the easier half. Equity is liquid if they need it. A reverse mortgage, a HELOC, a rental of part of the home — there are tools. The harder half is the part nobody talks about until it’s a crisis: can they actually live here, day to day, for the next 15 years?

That’s a community question, not a financial one. And in West Seattle, the answer for 1,600 of our neighbors is The Center for Active Living. As a result, it is the closest thing we have to community infrastructure that makes aging in place actually viable.

This is why I serve as Board Treasurer there. Furthermore, it’s why I’m asking 20 of my West Seattle connections to consider donating any amount during the annual fundraising campaign.

What clients actually need to stay home

Here’s what most aging in place plans miss. The financial structure is solved at the table — it’s the day after closing where things get hard. Three things consistently break:

Isolation. Staying home alone is not the same as aging in place. Without regular contact with people, mental and physical decline accelerates. The U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory found that lacking social connection raises mortality risk on par with smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
Daily nutrition. Cooking for one, every day, with declining energy is a setup for skipped meals and processed food. As a result, that snowballs into worse health outcomes that can force a move out.
Falls and physical decline. The single biggest event that puts a senior into assisted living is a fall. Fortunately, most falls are preventable with regular balance and strength work.

None of that gets fixed by a refinance or a portfolio rebalance. It gets fixed by community.

What The Center for Active Living actually does

If you haven’t been inside the building on SW Oregon Street, here is what’s happening every week:

40+ weekly programs — yoga, tai chi, line dancing, balance and strength classes, art, language groups, history lectures, ukulele, mahjong, chess. Real instructors. Real consistency. The kind of “show up every Wednesday” rhythm that builds friendships.
Affordable daily meals — hot lunches Monday through Thursday plus Margie’s Cafe weekday lunch made from scratch. The food matters. The eating-with-other-people matters more.
Wellness and support services — social worker outreach, counseling, support groups for Parkinson’s, Low Vision, Caregivers, Diabetic, and Aging Well. Free elder-law legal consultations. Fall-prevention exercise classes.

That last category is the one most people don’t know about. For example, a free elder-law consultation can save a family thousands of dollars and weeks of confusion when a parent’s health changes. Similarly, a fall-prevention class is one of the most cost-effective interventions in geriatric medicine. As a result, these are small services with outsized consequences for whether someone gets to stay home.

If your client is sitting on equity in a West Seattle home and wants to stay, this is what actually makes it work. The Center recently hosted an aging in place resource fair covering some of the financial tools — including reverse mortgages as one piece of a longer plan — but the financial tools assume the community piece is already in place. The Center is that piece.

Why donations matter — the math behind aging in place West Seattle

Most people assume a community center for older adults runs on member dues. However, it doesn’t. The Center for Active Living’s annual budget is roughly $1.6 million. Of that total, membership dues only cover about 7%. In contrast, donations cover 22% — about 3 times what members pay. Meanwhile, government grants, program fees, the thrift store, and rental income cover the rest.

The donation share is what keeps programming affordable for every neighbor walking through the door, regardless of income. Without it, the Center either raises fees and prices people out, or cuts programs. Either way, neither outcome serves the goal of aging in place.

This is why I’m asking. Not for a big check. Not for a particular amount. Just for 20 people in my West Seattle network to give any amount this month. You can donate through my personal fundraising page here — and yes, that link tracks back to me, which helps with the board fundraising goals I’m responsible for.

Chris Gibson serving as Board Treasurer on The Center for Active Living's staff and board page in West Seattle

Why I do this

Serving on the Board of Directors as Treasurer made sense for me because the financial side of nonprofit operations is what I know how to help with. Beyond that, I write the checks too. When clients move their parents into West Seattle, the Center is one of the first places I send them. On top of that, I attend events and show up for this organization in a real way — because this is one of the places I genuinely care about in this neighborhood.

If you work with West Seattle clients over 50, the Center should be in your toolkit too. Specifically, drop-ins are welcome, dues are modest with sliding-scale options, and many wellness services and support groups are free of charge. As a result, for a client weighing whether to stay or sell, a tour of the Center can change the conversation entirely.

One more thing — the raffle

Alaska Airlines flight voucher offered as a raffle prize in The Center for Active Living's annual aging in place fundraiser

If a flat donation isn’t your thing, the Center is also running a raffle: two roundtrip ticket vouchers on Alaska or Hawaiian Airlines, no blackout dates. Tickets are $50 each or three for $100, available at the Center’s front desk. Full raffle details are here. All proceeds go to the Center.

FAQ

What is The Center for Active Living?

The Center for Active Living is a nonprofit community center in West Seattle (formerly the Senior Center of West Seattle) that serves more than 1,600 adults aged 50 and older. It offers daily affordable meals, more than 40 weekly programs, wellness and support services, and free elder-law legal consultations.

How does The Center support aging in place in West Seattle?

The Center supports aging in place by addressing the three biggest non-financial barriers to staying home: isolation, nutrition, and physical decline. Daily community meals, ongoing balance and strength classes, and recurring social programs give older West Seattle residents the consistent contact and physical activity that keep them independent at home.

Where does The Center for Active Living’s funding come from?

The Center’s annual budget is roughly $1.6 million. Membership dues cover about 7%, donations cover about 22%, and the rest comes from government grants, program activity fees, thrift store sales, facility rentals, and event income. The donation share is what keeps programming accessible regardless of a member’s income.

How can I donate to The Center for Active Living?

You can give any amount through my personal fundraising page on GiveSmart, or buy raffle tickets at the Center’s front desk for a chance at Alaska or Hawaiian Airlines roundtrip vouchers. Both go to the same place — keeping programs affordable for every neighbor who walks through the door.

How can a real estate agent or advisor use The Center as a referral?

Send your West Seattle clients aged 50+ to the Center directly. Drop-in visits are welcome, dues are modest with sliding-scale options, and many wellness services and support groups are free. For a client weighing whether to stay or sell, a tour of the Center can change the conversation entirely.

If you have a client navigating an aging in place decision in West Seattle, send them my way. The financial side I can help with directly. The community side, the Center already has covered.

Want to see what other people say about working with me? You can read reviews at Mortgage Matchup and on Google.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

A virtual mortgage closing lets everyone on the loan sign electronically from wherever they happen to be. The borrower, the co-buyer, the co-signer — each one joins a short video call with a remote notary, on their own schedule. Most lenders still won’t do this. Instead, they make every party show up in person at a title company on a specific day, at a specific time. However, United Wholesale Mortgage is one of the lenders that does offer virtual mortgage closing, in both Washington state and Colorado. I had a recent file with two co-buyers and two co-signers spread across multiple time zones, and what would have been a week of scheduling chaos turned into a non-event.

Woman signing a virtual mortgage closing on a laptop from a beach chair, dog at her feet — A virtual mortgage closing turns a beach chair into a closing table. Each signer logs in from wherever they are.

What a Virtual Mortgage Closing Actually Is

A virtual mortgage closing replaces the in-person signing room with a secure video call. Instead of driving to a title company, you log in from your laptop or phone. Specifically, the notarization happens through Remote Online Notarization, or RON. A licensed notary checks your ID over video and notarizes your signatures digitally. Subsequently, the closing team countersigns, the county records the deed, and the lender funds the loan. So legally, the transaction matches an in-person closing in every state that permits RON.

Overall, the difference is the friction. Nobody drives across town. Nobody rearranges the day. Consequently, the whole closing becomes a thirty-minute video session, and the bottleneck shifts from “get everyone in the same room” to “find a half-hour that works.”

Father attending a virtual mortgage closing on a laptop from the bleachers at his kid's soccer game — Sign from the sidelines. Every party on the loan can join from anywhere on their own schedule.

Why Most Lenders Still Make Everyone Show Up in Person

RON has been legal in most states for years. Both Washington state and Colorado permit RON for mortgage closings, but lender adoption stays uneven. Specifically, building the technology takes real engineering work: secure ID verification, audio and video recording, integration with title companies and county recorders. Therefore, plenty of mid-sized lenders just haven’t built it. And some retail banks and credit unions still default to in-person closings because their compliance teams prefer that posture, full stop.

So if your client lands at a lender that doesn’t offer it, every signer has to physically appear at a title company. The slot is fixed: a specific date, a specific time. In theory that’s tolerable. In practice it’s the part of the deal where things break.

What Most People Don’t Realize: A Co-Signer Is a Co-Buyer

Here’s a misconception that bites a lot of buyers. When someone co-signs on a mortgage, they’re not just lending a credit score. Maybe a parent helps a kid qualify. Or a sibling lends their income. Or a friend bridges a credit gap. Whatever the situation, the co-signer signs the note. They’re on the loan. So they have to show up to the closing the same way the primary borrower does.

For example, take a parent in Spokane helping their daughter close on a house in Denver. Traditionally that meant flying out for a thirty-minute appointment. A co-signer who travels for work had to reschedule the trip. Likewise, someone already feeling like they’re doing the buyer a favor saw the in-person requirement as punishment for being generous. The friction isn’t theoretical. It lands hardest on the people doing the most help.

Man completing a virtual mortgage closing on a laptop from a hospital bed — When a co-signer can’t physically travel, a virtual mortgage closing keeps the deal on schedule.

How a Virtual Mortgage Closing Solves the Logistics Problem

Once everyone on the loan can sign remotely, location stops mattering. First, each signer gets a link. Next, they join a short video session with the notary at a time that works. They walk through the documents on screen, then sign. The whole thing usually takes about an hour per signer, often less. Some sign from a kitchen table. Others sign on a lunch break. Three signers can do it in three different time zones on the same day, and nobody has to coordinate calendars beyond their own.

Finally, the deal closes on schedule. Nobody flies in. Nobody takes a half-day off work. The buyer gets the keys.

A Recent Example: Two Co-Buyers, Two Co-Signers, Four Schedules

A recent file of mine had two co-buyers and two co-signers, four signers total. Each one lived in a different city. Each one kept a different schedule. Under the old model, this kind of deal drags closing out by a week while everyone tries to find a mutual two-hour window. With UWM’s virtual mortgage closing, though, each of the four signed at their own convenience. The whole signing wrapped inside a single business day. All four sat in different time zones; the property was here in South King County.

Overall, the narrative for my client flipped completely. What used to feel like extreme inconvenience for the people doing them a favor became extreme convenience instead. That’s not a small thing. Treat co-signers and co-buyers well at closing, and they say yes the next time a family member asks for help.

On the other side: a remote notary runs the closing for two borrowers over video.

What This Means for Your Next Deal

If you’re a real estate agent and your buyer needs a co-signer to qualify, the lender choice matters more than people realize. By contrast, a lender without virtual mortgage closing can turn a clean qualification into a logistics scramble on day 28 of a 30-day close. So ask early, before the buyer commits, whether the lender supports it. The question is simple: “Do you offer Remote Online Notarization for every party on the loan, in this state, on this product?” The answer should come back yes, no, or a quick check. Never a long story. For West Seattle, Vashon Island, and Bainbridge Island agents in particular, ferry schedules and Friday traffic can turn a one-hour closing into a half-day operation. Virtual closing removes that variable entirely.

Want more on the questions worth asking a lender before recommending one to a client? Read What I Wish I Knew About Pre-Approvals. UWM’s products are summarized on the loan options page. The National Notary Association keeps a current state-by-state guide to RON law, and the Mortgage Bankers Association tracks adoption data on digital and remote closings.

FAQ

Is a virtual mortgage closing legally the same as an in-person one?

Yes. Indeed, RON produces a legally binding mortgage in every state that permits it, including Washington and Colorado. The county records the deed the same way. The lender funds the loan the same way. Signing and notarization just happen over secure video instead of across a table.

Is a co-signer the same as a co-buyer on a mortgage?

For mortgage purposes, yes. A co-signer signs the note and joins the loan, so they count as a co-buyer in everything that matters at closing. They sign the same documents the primary borrower signs. They attend the closing the same way, virtually or in person.

Why don’t more lenders offer virtual mortgage closing?

Two reasons. First, the technology stack takes real engineering that smaller lenders haven’t built: identity verification, secure video, integration with title companies and county recorders. Second, some lenders’ compliance teams still prefer in-person closings as their default, even where RON is fully legal. Notably, UWM ranks among the few wholesale lenders that have rolled out RON broadly.

Can a virtual mortgage closing work if signers are in different states?

Yes, in most cases. Specifically, RON laws apply to the notary’s location, not the signer’s. So as long as the notary holds a license in a state that permits RON for mortgage closings, signers can join from anywhere with a stable internet connection. For deals with co-buyers and co-signers spread across multiple states, that’s the whole point.

Don’t just take my word on virtual closings

If you want a read on how I work with clients before sending one my way, here’s where past borrowers and partners have weighed in:

Reviews on Mortgage Matchup ↗ Reviews on Google ↗

Follow along:

If you have a client who needs a co-signer or co-buyer to qualify and you want to know whether their lender will make closing day painless or painful, send them my way. We do virtual closings as a default, not an exception.

Tag: washington home loans

Aging in Place West Seattle: Why I Support The Center