Taking children to a house viewing?

[Bubblegumfan]

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?

Shit not shot

I'm genuinely not kidding, if someone opened the wardrobes there would be a metric shit tonne of crap to fall out, it's all shoved in and precariously balanced, chances are you'd get hurt! If a child opened a wardrobe they'd definitely have got hurt! I joked with the estate agent that it was clean but not to open any cupboards but I didn't think people actually did!

Totally fine either way. Take them

Bring an iPad for inside and have non sticky/dry treats in the car for good behaviour between viewings. Just try to get them not to touch things and try to keep them away from the walls.

I think prospective buyers (nothing to do with children) normally open built in wardrobes. Not free standing ones obviously. It would be a bit weird to buy a house having not looked at part of it. Especially in a small house or flat big built in wardrobes giving lots of storage can be a selling point, and finding out after buying that the built in wardrobes are shallow would be very disappointing. As another poster pointed out it might also be somewhere you'd notice a smell or sign of damp.

How can you tell whether house fits you all in properly without the children.

If I am prepared to spend thousands and tie myself to a shark (aka bank) then I make the main decisions if I have primary school age children and younger.

They may like the look of a house or garden but they do not have any idea about insulation, noise, building structure, tiredness of decorations or build-in cabinets/bathroom/kitchen.

It would be difficult to explain why I wouldn't go for a house they like. An older child/teenager - yes, you can talk about it and they have a decent level of understanding that first impression do not count always.

I see it similar to schools, I may take a child's view into account but it is a parent's decision.

Well we went......
And kids behaved well, seller seemed very taken with him. So i was worrying for nothing. Didnt look in fitted wardrobes and didnt want to look like a CF

I’ve always thought it’s quite important to take kids

As long as they don't trash the house there's no issue.

Woohoo glad you took them! We took ours and encouraged viewers of our house to bring theirs. Some of the stories on this thread are pretty grim though like kids getting into a bed/jumping on a bed Thankfully we didn't experience anything like that!

Yes, my parents took me and sibling to viewing prospective homes (empty and new) and i absolutely loved imagining how it would look when filled and decorated with our furniture, which room would i like to have...Lovely warm fuzzy feelings of happiness.