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.

I don’t think all kids are uncontrollable, far from it. I think many parents can’t be arsed and expect the rest of the world to tolerate their badly behaved kids.

My kids are as much part of the decision making process as we are and she shouldn't be leaving her dog in the house for viewings.

At the end of the day a lot will depend on the housing market and how much the vendor wants to sell.

When we bought most recently, there were several suitable options and so we just didn't bother with viewing places where the vendor was awkward. If there had been fewer options for us, we might have been more willing to work with them.

Similarly, if you're happy to wait for a buyer and/or willing to not get the best price you possibly could, you can be more awkward. If you really want to sell, you make it easy for buyers.

Depending on where the house is, in the current market you need all the viewings you can get. We last sold around ten years ago when the market wasn’t great, but we started with an open day hosted by the agent. We cleared out for the day, with dog. I have no idea who came to view, but one party made an offer and went on to buy anyway. As the sale progressed, they asked for further viewings - not to look at the house again, but to show their relatives and kids! It was a bit much but we gritted our teeth and accommodated it for the sake of the sale being successful. Spent many hours last minute polishing and removing dog bowls during that time!

I don’t think your friend realises that as the vendor her aim is to sell the house to the best offer, and she needs to do whatever it takes to secure that. I have two family members currently with houses on the market for over a year, and literally only a couple of viewings. If you limit those further, or make the house feel unwelcoming, or exert your (slightly chilly?) personality onto the feel of the house, it’s going to be a tough sell. As for the bitey dog, I love dogs but that’s just mental.

We took our children to view our house. The seller had lots of interest and offers, he sold it to us because he had brought up his children there and could see us doing the same. He was a lovely man in his 80's who had lived there for 40 years. Our children clinched the deal!

Not first viewings. Once you get to shortlist and second viewing, then yes, kids go too.

I've always made sure any animals were out of the way. Get the EA to do the viewing and take the dog for a walk.

It's more abnormal to have a dog in the house you're viewing than for children to come to viewings.

I think she is the one who needs to make arrangements for someone to look after her dogs if they are aggressive.

When DSs were about 6 and 7 they accompanied us to a house viewing. The owner’s big dog leapt at DS2 and knocked him over. Bad start. Then owner mentioned her DH was an undertaker. That put me right off. DH thought I was nuts when I said sleeping in an undertaker’s bedroom would give me nightmares. It didn’t help when I said bones buried by the dog in the garden could be human.
We didn’t buy it.

When we were selling, either husband or I took the children and the dogs out and the other one did the viewing. When we were buying we arranged childcare or went when they were on a visit to their dad EO weekend. Appreciate that not everyone can do that.

When I bought a house as a single parent the owner had died so it was me,the children and the EA.
If someone had brought children to a viewing I would expect them to have had a chat about not touching anything,staying with a parent at all times and generally behaving like the best behaved children the world had ever see. If they didn't I would have to bite my tongue and think of the potential sale.

Unless they're planning on contributing to the mortgage, then nope.

Wow, we are very different. We see it as our child’s home, so wished her included.

If someone had brought children to a viewing I would expect them to have had a chat about not touching anything,staying with a parent at all times and generally behaving like the best behaved children the world had ever see. If they didn't I would have to bite my tongue and think of the potential sale.

It's funny you say that but we did give our 3 year old a spiel like that on entry to one house and the vendor rolled her eyes and said something like "parents today! I never even needed to say things like that to mine". We did not buy that house.

My kids were fine on all viewings unlike DH who tracked in mud on one much to my annoyance

I always said it to mine if they were going to be in any public situation . My children are mine and of interest only to me. They should never impinge on anyone else's enjoyment of their coffee,lunch,library time ,whatever. "We are in public, this is how you behave".

We moved twice as children. Neither my older sister nor I had any role in house viewings.
I remember our parents would point out houses they viewed if we happened to drive past them, but we never had any role in the choosing of homes.

The first house we moved to, we didn't see until move-in day. We left one house after breakfast to go to school. Then went home to the new house.
The second time we moved, we were taken to see it a few weeks before moving in. All I remember is thinking how high the stairs seemed!

Maybe its because they had lived in 5/6different mitary quarters before we bought this house... but my children had no interest whatsoever in seeing houses with us. They were more interested in things like how close the park was and whether their preferred activities were nearby. The house was just bricks which you then make your home.

We were looking at things like location, room size and door/window/radiator positioning, potential for extension if necessary, parking... nothing really they needed input on.

Asking if they like it isn't 'getting a say'. 'Getting a say' is getting to have a meaningful part in whether you buy it or not.

its the seller who might have an issue with it, not the child's parents. They're not going to say anything to a potential buyer are they, unless something major gets damaged, doesn't mean they were happy with it!

When we moved we took 2/3 of the kids on a second viewing. Mostly because I wanted to know what the noise level was like with 5/6 people in the house as we live in a busy household.
Damn glad we did as two houses that were real contenders showed they had very very little internal soundproofing. It was fine with me upstairs and DH downstairs on the first viewing but vastly different with people in multiple rooms talking (and literally talking, not shouting).

In another we discovered that while the doorways were seemingly wide enough everywhere for DD4s wheelchair the layout was actually a pain in the backside to get in and out of the front door and porchway. It would have made day to day life really irritating.

I wouldn't be happy to view a house where dogs etc were running about either. Very inappropriate!

i agree. I think it’s hypocritical to expect children not to attend but insist your dogs do.

Of course you dont take them on a first viewing, if you like the property take them on second view.

It's the usual 'my lively kids are really little angels' brigade who ruin things for everyone else.

When we were selling our last house, I didn't mind families bringing babies but no toddlers or young children please!!

They start opening cupboard doors and playing hide and seek and generally being a right nuisance. I had cats and I would usually keep them in one of the smaller bedrooms for the viewing.

I think once you've had your offer accepted, then by all means bring them to a subsequent viewing.

Frankly it’s a sellers market. You are entering somebody’s home, consideration is needed. If you don’t like the viewing arrangements( rules re children, pets etc) let somebody else view and buy it.

I don’t think anybody is in a position to turn down a house because people have expectations about how your children behave in their home.

I have viewed a lot of houses in my time and found it much easier go go without the children. It is much better to be able to really concentrate on the viewing and inspecting the house.

Interesting it's a buyers market where I live.

My estate agent last time we moved wanted us out of the house too for at least an hour.