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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Taking children to a house viewing?

136 replies

Bubblegumfan · 19/01/2018 15:15

In your opinion lovely mumsnetters? As either the buyer or seller, is it ok to take young children along to view a house for sale?

OP posts:
Cath2907 · 19/01/2018 15:50

Of course we'd take DD - she is going to live in any new house too. As long as your DCs can be well behaved it isn't a problem.

Idontdowindows · 19/01/2018 15:50

Bring the kids, it's a great way of making them part of the process of a new home :)

WaxOnFeckOff · 19/01/2018 15:51

I once found my two cosied up in the owners bed!

We didn't have any option other than to view with them. They were mostly great but homeowner engaged us both in conversation and said not to worry about them looking round....it went too quiet and there they were laughing and giggling under his duvet...

Didn't mind people bringing kids to ours when we were selling. It's a great opportunity for the hard sell on the kids. Get them playing in the garden etc. :o

2018SoFarSoGreat · 19/01/2018 15:51

Sold our house recently and for some odd reason my underwear drawers were opened every single open house. Only reason I knew was they both stuck unless closed by lifting while pushing. Only think we could think of was the room the dresser was in was staged as a nursery and little ones were reaching for the basket of artfully displayed soft toys on top. Quite unnerving though.

We took DGSs only once offer was accepted. 7 year old is rather opinionated 😳

Mildura · 19/01/2018 15:52

As an estate agent, no problem, as long as the children are well behaved.

I have shown buyers around houses where the children have jumped all over beds and sofas, without the parents saying a word.

BobbinThreadbare123 · 19/01/2018 15:52

I've had people look round my house with babes in arms, toddlers and even dogs. They're going to live there too!

I only objected to the adult couple who trod dog shit through my entire house, noticed, and left sharpish.

Opaldaisies · 19/01/2018 15:52

Yes fine. But keep an eagle eye on them. Not just in case they break anything but because especially when you are busy taking everything in and chatting with the agent or homeowner, kids are far more likely to hurt themselves or have an accident or do something unexpected that they wouldn't normally (especially under 5's).

tired17 · 19/01/2018 15:54

We took DD who was 4 at the time to all the houses we viewed, for ages after her favourite game was walking round our house with a clipboard pretending to be an estate agent pointing out all the features in the rooms!

Evelynismyformerspyname · 19/01/2018 15:55

I was really happy that the people who bought our house had two small kids, but then I'd been childminding in our house and think the fact that the kids settled in and seemed at home straight away probably sold it. We had an asking price offer a couple of days after they viewed.

Firenight · 19/01/2018 15:58

We did second viewings with the 3 year old. He was in nursery for the day of back to back first viewings though - that exhausted us and would have been crazy to drag a kid around.

WhatWouldOliviaPopeDo · 19/01/2018 15:59

We took ours for the first few, then she started to get bored and annoying so we dropped her off at friend's for a playdate for the rest. Word of warning, she got really annoyed when kids came to our house for viewings and played with her toys! They left them scattered across her bedroom and saw it as an invasion of privacy, which I guess it was. So make sure your kids understand they can look but not touch!

jellybeanteaparty · 19/01/2018 15:59

We took the children to some viewings. We had promised a trampoline would be bought for the new house so every viewing got a loud assessment of suitability to fit one in!

reluctantbrit · 19/01/2018 16:01

it depends. When we bought our current house Dh and I often viewed first alone (often also just one of us) and only took DD (then 2.5) to the short list. I wanted to concentrate on the house, not DD.

We once rented a house which the landlord put on the market and we agreed to have the estate agent around for viewings. I really got angry one day when he arrived with 3 families, all with young children and didn't check on them at all, it was a nightmare. I didn't appriciated coming into the guest bedroom afterwards finding all pillows on the floor and dirt marks on the bedding.

Ohyesiam · 19/01/2018 16:05

If they are potentially going to live there , yes. If they are just randoms, no.

DwangelaForever · 19/01/2018 16:08

I took my 1yo to all my viewings and the house we ended up going for she cried her eyes out when we left 🙈 all 3 of us loved it!

Funnyface1 · 19/01/2018 16:10

I've only taken ours twice because both houses were already vacant. I wouldn't have been upset if people brought their children to view mine though.

MummyNessi · 19/01/2018 16:11

As a buyer I try to avoid taking the kids as I would rather view the house on my own the first time. But I don't think it's a problem for the buyer. I would take the kids along for a second/ third viewing when we seriously considering a house though.

DurhamDurham · 19/01/2018 16:12

We've had many viewings with families bringing their small children along. It's usually fine, the children are either shy or excited and keen to look around.
The only time I was pleased that the family left was when a family cam with a girl of 7 and a boy of 5. They were a nightmare, they were opening bedside drawers, crawling under beds, jumping on the beds, climbing in the wardrobes, demanding drinks and food. The boy refused to come downstairs and the parents were happy to leave him upstairs by himself to 'explore'....I was less inclined to leave him unsupervised and asked the parents to get him. They were in the house for about 40 mins and we literally sighed with relief when they left.
It's a tricky thing to manage because you want the family to like the house and you don't want to alienate them by saying anything negative but we came so close to it with that family.

2ndSopranos · 19/01/2018 16:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GlitterBurps · 19/01/2018 16:13

It’s fine if well behaved. We took baby and DS1 aged 3 as we didn’t have any childcare. DS1 was very well behaved at first and had the job of counting toilets. All was fine until he asked the owner of the 3rd house if they could cook him some food Blush. He also ran into a bedroom and dived on the bed which unfortunately was loads of boxes stacked up with sheets and a duvet and fell apart Blush. Luckily the estate agent and owner laughed and later chose us over another buyer as they liked that another family were going to raise their kids there.

Phalenopsisgirl · 19/01/2018 16:18

Our buyers turned up with 3 kids, they walked through the door going ‘wow’ and they all oood and ah’d around the whole house. We knew we’d got the kids seal of approval and indeed the offer came in that day.

thethoughtfox · 19/01/2018 16:19

Mine fell outside on the path and sobbed the whole time crying 'I want to go home' We couldn't concentrate on looking round and the poor couple who owned the house were desperately trying to cheer her up. It was so uncomfortable all round. Wouldn't do it again.

allthgoodusernamesaretaken · 19/01/2018 16:19

He also ran into a bedroom and dived on the bed which unfortunately was loads of boxes stacked up with sheets and a duvet and fell apart

I wouldn't be impressed by that. You're lucky the owner thought it amusing.

I think it's fine to take children if they're supervised

tolerable · 19/01/2018 16:20

sometimes unavoidable...if its a choice-ditch the kids for first viewing.

mindutopia · 19/01/2018 16:20

It's fine as long as they aren't destroying the other people's house. Realistically, when we look for a house in another year, we will have no choice. We have no family nearby who could help us and friends work during the day and though our dd is in school during the weekdays, we'd have to go on a weekend and take her with us as the area we're moving to is 2 hours away, so it would be difficult to get there, do the viewing and get home before 3pm. I think if you're the seller and your market is generally families, it's going to be unavoidable for many people.

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