This Is the Hardest Part of Selling a House as a Parent

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I’m currently trying to sell my house, and it is a lot more complicated to do that when you have two kids living in it. Here’s why. 

I’m currently in the process of selling my house so I can move to a different neighborhood that is a better fit and that has less traffic. I’ve sold houses several times before in the past two years, and the process has been relatively simple.

This time, in theory, it should be even easier because we have no mortgage loan on the house to pay off and we haven’t even unpacked a lot of our boxes from the last move.

But, the reality is, this is my hardest home sale ever and there’s a simple reason for that — I have two children now, and parents face a major added challenge when looking for a home buyer.

Here’s what the issue is.

This is an added challenge for parents selling a home with young kids

Selling a house as a parent of young children is infinitely more challenging due to the complexity of dealing with home showings.

In 2022, a study showed it took an average of 17 showings to sell a home. My last house took about 14, and I’m already up to three for my current home. And during each of these showings, you need to do two things that aren’t very easy for a parent of a toddler and a preschooler:

You have to leave the house so the buyers can look at the space uninterrupted by small children who are eager to show them around and demonstrate how all of their toys work.You have to have the home looking its best, which means you cannot have a million legos and other toys all over the floor. Or kids socks and shoes tossed every which way. Or orange juice spilled on every surface.

Since most people want to schedule showings on evenings or weekends — prime time for kids to be home and for family fun to be going on — this means that I often have to scramble to get the house cleaned up and get my kids into the car.

And, sadly, since toddlers and preschoolers can make a whirlwind of a mess in minutes even when trying to be careful, this sometimes means cleaning up the house multiple times a day.

Coping with selling a home with kids

Dealing with the challenge of showing a home with small children is something many parents will have to face unless they’re lucky enough to time their moves better than I did. And, there’s really no great solution.

What we’ve done, though, is pack up a lot of the messiest toys with many pieces into boxes already for the move and leave out the bigger ones so it’s faster and simpler to pick up when people want to come see the house — especially on short notice. This has given us a head start for getting ready to relocate in addition to streamlining the cleanup process.

We’ve also scouted out the closest local park where we go if it’s sunny out and the closest Dollar Tree where we visit if it’s raining when showings happen. That way, we have someplace to go and head back to ASAP after the showing is over.

These tips have made the process easier, but it’s still not fun, and I’m hoping we find a buyer any day now.

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