Successfully Marketing your Family Home ... The Yorkshire Dad Blog ...

When you have kids, moving is stressful. Having already gone through it once it is not an experience we are keen to repeat anytime soon, but I know from your emails and comments that many of you are trying to do exactly that right now.

The odds are that hundreds of you are currently trying to sell your home, which is tricky when you have young kids in the house. Getting your home to look its best with a toddler and young baby is not easy.

Effectively marketing your house with a young family is not easy, but not impossible. Understanding what the potential issues are and putting a plan in place to deal with them is key to getting the best price for your home, which is why I have put together this post.

Getting good listing photos done

The best estate agents in York, or any other part of the country, will all tell you that first impressions count. Therefore, the listing photos that your agent takes of your home have to be good. You need to do everything you can to make your house look as good as possible before the agent arrives to take them.

That means hiding the clutter, and rubbing any marks the kids have made off the walls or doors. On the day the agent is due to take the photos, it is well worth letting a friend or relative look after the children. Be sure to make the appointment late enough in the day to allow you to clean up properly. This approach ensures that the kids do not mess up the rooms, and allows you, and the agent to focus on getting the listing right.

Take the time to tidy up the garden. Your agent will tell you whether it is wise to move your kid’s play gear out of the way for the photos. He or she will know whether items like slides and swings will make your garden look bigger or smaller in the photos. They will know if having these things in shot will appeal, or not, to the demographic that is most likely to be interested in buying your home.

It is always worth taking the time to dress a property before you put it up for sale. Doing so, adds thousands to the value, so it can be a good investment. You can find out more about doing that here.

Handling viewings

The next hurdle is making sure that your home looks as good as possible for each viewing. You need to avoid showing your house at busy family times. For example, the last thing you need is to be in the middle of cooking, or worse feeding your toddler during a viewing. Most agents are very understanding, but you need to be very clear about what times are suitable, and which are not.

You need your home to be as neat and tidy as possible during a viewing, which is a big challenge when you have children. The best approach is to put aside some cupboard space, or get some plastic bins that you can put those day-to-day items, and kid’s toys into before people come into view. That way once the potential buyer has left all you need to do is to go to one place in each room to restore things to normal, and once again have everything close to hand.