To think it’s normal to take your kids to a house viewing?

[HouseMover2024]

Friend is trying to sell her house and has taken issue with people bringing their children. In her view, they should arrange childcare and it’s inappropriate for them to bring children. If they do bring their kids she thinks they should be left in the car with parents taking turns.

Friend doesn’t have children. She can’t relate to the fact that childcare outside of work time isn’t particularly easy to find.

Part of her reasoning is she has animals she says it’s not practical to remove and is worried a child might get bitten.

I have an opposing view and actually have taken my young children to viewings. I ensure they are respectful and take their shoes off/don’t touch anything. But it’s not always practical to arrange childcare especially at weekends. When my home has been on the market I remove my pets for viewings.

@Zwellers A vote, no, but sometimes kids might get you to consider things you hadn't.

DS and DIL recently viewing houses. 4 year old DD said she wanted one ‘with my own bathroom.’ 🤣. When they moved she went into the main bedroom and said ‘This is perfect for me.’ 😂
Needless to say, her wishes were not taken into consideration!

Absolutely not. I can't imagine any situation when it would be appropriate.

We've always taken our kids to view houses. If someone told me that we couldn't bring our children to view a house, we'd probably skip the viewing, unless we were madly keen.

Agree with a pp - I much prefer viewing a house with an agent rather than the owner!

If I could arrange childcare I would.

I did take a toddler sometimes but they were well behaved and supervised. I do member viewing a house before I had children where they tied up the dog but let their five year old run free. He was a bit of a terror and the parents were selling their hillside property after an unfortunate instance with the child hanging on over a sheer drop. I was too busy trying to stop him impaling himself on an exercycle to concentrate on the house. I told the real estate agent that I'd rather deal with the dog than the child following us around. Your friend is unreasonable though as adults don't want to be bitten either by an aggressive dog. They should be tied up, caged or in the garage for all viewings.

Lucky you having parents nearby to help. I was fortunate to have one elderly and non-driving MIL who who would do emergencies, but many people don't have family close by or able to babysit. It's often not a choice......

It wouldn’t even cross my mind that a seller would be stupid enough to have a dog with a history of biting in the house when the agent was doing viewings! Children or no children, the dog shouldn’t be there.

A dog with a bite history needs to be out of the house during all viewings.

Obviously children need to be well behaved, but if she won’t let anyone view with children she is restricting her market.

I would also rather view the house with an agent.

I remember all of the houses we viewed, as kids.

Why is your friend living with animals that might bite a child? She's the outlier here.

Well if she doesn’t have kids why wouldn’t she? Yes she shouldn’t have the dog around for viewings, but there are plenty of people prepared to live with a dog with a bite history.

Your friend is already disadvantaged in selling a house that has a dog in it. Lots of people would be put off by that.

If she also bans children from viewings she's going to be on the market a long time.

She should put her animals in a cage during viewings if they might bite visitors

Agree.

I'm in Scotland and the only time I've ever viewed a house being shown by an estate agent was a house being sold by the estate of a decelerating.

Totally normal for vendors to viewings.

All the people saying they wouldn’t bring their kids must surely have family close by. That’s a luxury not everyone has. We don’t and never have done. Any viewings we’ve ever done have also been evenings or weekends so they’ve always come with us.

If someone had a dog I’d expect the dog to be taken out or kept in the garden whilst we view the house then the owner transfer the dog inside so we can see the garden.

OP, has your friend declared to the estate agent that they have a dog at home with a history of biting? They really should have done that.

I had my children with me when viewing about 25 years ago . Absolutely fine . Our most recent house they were all at school or university.
The arguments about rooms then were crazy.
So yes I do think children should be involved.

The problem with kids is that everyone has different views on what is acceptable behaviour. And very rarely do people say “oh yes my kids a nightmare” because they have raised them to the standard they think is acceptable, they think they are fine for everyone else.

I stopped inviting friends with kids round to mine because I would cringe every time one of them would open a yogurt to feed a child whilst sat in a sofa in the living room, or give them a fruit pouch to eat and then let them run off without washing their hands, or keep touching wallpaper to ‘count the flowers’, or pick up the “pretty horse statues” to look at, or start plaiting the tassels on the sofa. All I could see was things I had worked hard to afford being damaged by sticky fingers. The parents wouldn’t see a problem, because we have different standards (which is fine), but I don’t want those kids in my home.

I think it is key to remember that when you are viewing a house you are in someone’s private home. I can’t see all of the people on this board claiming to have angelic kids really do have children that for half an hour will walk round a strangers house and not touch things or poke around.

I don't think anyone is saying that they've got angelic kids. I've got kids who aren't angelic 24/7, but absolutely know how to behave in a restaurant/someone's home/similar. I wouldn't take them if they didn't.

I'd think it more appropriate she got her dog taken out for a walk when viewings take place.

I went to visit a house once and there was a huge snake in a big tank. I screamed and ran out. Vendors should make viewers aware of any animals in case of phobias, like in my case.

After taking ours for a second viewing (we were pretty certain, and ready to put in an offer, which was subsequently accepted) the vendors suddenly pulled out. The kids were really disappointed as it had a swimming pool which they were so excited about. They still mention it occasionally. We're in our forever home now but if we were looking again I would definitely not take them!

I have never taken my kids to view houses and I would prefer kids not to come to mine if I was selling to honest. With regards to pets, we viewed a house where the owners turned their little box room in to a giant bird cage and the birds were flying round and shitting all over the place. I just walked out of the viewing. Had I of known that I would never have viewed. I don’t think you or your friend are wrong or right, just personal opinion.

Well-behaved children would be welcome at mine. On occasion, I've even ended up playing with them while the parents had a good look around!

Who leaves animals in their house for a viewing? That’s weird! (I say this as someone who has sold a lot of houses!)