RetireNet.com was established in 1995 as The Retirement Net, and has since become the largest online network of Active Retirement, Independent Living, Assisted Living, Nursing Care, Home Health, Home Care, and Home and Community Based Retirement Services in the world. Our current list of member communities tops 103,000.

You Can Tell The Pioneers By The Arrows In Their Backs!

Stephen Shultz began with an idea, and one client - The Moorings of Manatee, in Ruskin Florida - to create a single source where the aging Boomer population could go to find their perfect retirement spot. Initially, the process was slow, as the Internet was still a very new idea for most marketers, and there was a great deal of skepticism that the Senior market would embrace the technology.

As we now know, quite the opposite was true, and this market has become one of the most prolific users of the Internet, and this statistic is growing annually. The aging Baby Boomer market is also the fastest growing demographic in the United States, and possess a great deal of leisure time and disposable income. Recognizing the potential this technology brought to the table, RetireNet.com partnered with MHC Homes in Spring 1996 to bring the concept to a national audience. This new player in the Senior Marketing arena quickly gained traction, and began growing exponentially, adding dozens of communities each month purely by word of mouth!

The earliest versions of RetireNet.com were simple directories with a brief description of the community and a link to the community website. Then, as now, websites vary greatly in their appearance and content. Some did a great job of showcasing the community, while others left a little to be desired. Any requests to RetireNet.com for additional information on a community was simply forwarded manually to the community contact person. This was an inelegant way of presenting the information, and Shultz became determined to seek out a better way. After much research and planning, Shultz chose to relocate their offices from Lakeland, Florida to Asheville, NC. Like many technology companies had discovered, Asheville offered a vast array of technical resources, along with the quality of life he sought for his family.