Selling your Home when you have Children -

Get out of your home if possible: take a holiday, stay with family or friends while your house is listed for sale. Tidying up every day before viewings and leaving your home every time a potential Buyer wants to see it may be stressful.

If you are unable to leave your home here are a few more things to add to your to-do list:

1. Declutter all the children’ stuff – To make this livable, invest in some inexpensive plastic storage bins with lids that you may shove all the necessary toys into in each room the children play in.

2. Remove the clutter in your hallway or foyer. It’s easy for children’s stuff to accumulate here and you probably do not want that to be the first impression Buyers have of your home.

3. Put away the cute family photos. Sorry! But it will be that much more exciting to see these family photos displayed in your new home.

4. If you have a baby/babies, place any unnecessary baby gear that is not essential in your cupboards or garage for minimal impact on Buyers. For example: store your pram in your motor vehicle boot, place the highchair in the garage and remove any evidence of the baby from your master bedroom during viewings.

5. Put the potty away.

6. Clean the bathroom – whether you have boys or girls, there often make a mess on the toilet floor, you do not smell it, however, Buyers will.

7. Find a new place out of site for schoolbooks and homework – see plastic storage bins as mentioned above.

8. Mornings are a big rush. Before leaving your home for the day, take a moment to ensure there are no signs of lunch assembly, sticky jam and bits of egg in the kitchen.

9. Make sure all the colourful plastic in the kitchen is out of site. This goes for bottle accessories any other child-related things that are usually left on the kitchen counters.

10. Check the laundry for soaking clothes. Potential Buyers would prefer not to see a mess in the laundry area.

11. Check the children-height glass on patio doors for fingerprints – just clean it.

12. Make sure you wipe down the bathroom your children use. There may be toothpaste, hair left in the sink etc.

13. Ask your teenagers to keep toiletries under the wash hand basin in the cupboard – including their shampoo, conditioner and anything else they may usually keep in the shower.

14. The bedroom check: Double check your children have not cleaned their own bedrooms by stuffing everything into the cupboards as Buyers often inspect the cupboards to get an idea of the size of space.

15. Warn your teenagers that people will look inside cupboards – if they have private things, they need to be in private places.

16. Make sure the video games are put away. Games, controllers, cords, consoles and characters may make a big mess in a hot minute.

17. Check the garden to make sure the toys have not been left lying around. Try and contain them in a garage, shed or box if possible.

18. If you have a swimming pool, make sure that the gates are closed in case Buyers happen to have children with them on the viewing.