This study was designed to investigate influences on and content of communication between retirement housing providers and retirees who are their potential customers. This included communications: 1) prior to deciding on a retirement apartment, 2) the actual deciding process, and 3) postpurchase influences. Data gathered during the pre-decision stage indicated that the expectations of many seniors are influenced by various groups and individuals. The expectations formed are the basis for future communications with retirement communities. Second, the actual deciding process involved determining what "triggers" the seniors' decisions to begin shopping for retirement apartments. Third, the study focused on postpurchase influences which included communications with seniors who were apartment owners' or renters' regarding attitudes based on their experiences of living in retirement apartments. The research was conducted in two retirement communities, one was located in Florida and the other in Indiana. Information from the two retirement communities was compared and contrasted. The data indicate that each retirement community was unique in many ways. One important uniqueness was the values of the retirement community management organization. Seniors either found a particular retirement community attractive or unattractive based on how it fit their value systems. Seniors depend on person-to-person communication. Most tend to drawn conclusions about the retirement communities based on what they have learned about the retirement communities over a period of years. It was also learned that many seniors in the shopping process do a good amount of self-evaluation during the deciding process. Most seniors don't see clear differences between nursing homes and retirement communities which provide multiple levels of care when both are located on the same site. This makes the decision to move into a retirement apartment a more difficult one. Seniors miss many of the benefits of retirement apartment living because they wait until they are incapacitated in some way before moving into a retirement apartment. / Department of Educational Leadership