How To Sell a Home with Kids | 6 Helpful Home Selling Tips
You already have a lot of things to do when you are selling your home, but if you have kids, things can get a whole lot more stressful. This isn’t about having a perfectly staged house. It’s about keeping the home presentable and easy to show while your kids are actually still living in it, and depending on their age, that looks a little different for every family.
There are some things you can do to make selling with kids considerably easier, however. We give you some helpful tips for how to sell a home with kids, that should reduce your stress and your kid’s tantrums. Many of these tips build on the same fundamentals covered in how I’d personally prepare a home for sale, just with a few extra considerations for families.
6 Helpful Tips for Selling a Home with Kids
1. Prepare the Kids for the Move
The upheaval when moving home is enough for adults, but for children, it can seem a lot worse. It’s tempting to keep information about the move a secret from your kids, but telling them the truth early on will avoid the possibility of them finding it out for themselves. Telling them early is one of the first things you’ll want to do when selling a home with kids.
You may face some upset children if you don’t frame the move the right way. Focus their attention on the positives of the move. This might mean getting them excited about a bigger bedroom or living closer to an attraction that they like to visit.
Perhaps the prospect of decorating their new room the way they want might help. But any positives you can come up with to get them thinking positively about the move will make things easier.
If you’re going to be moving long-distance, you can plan a party so your kids can say goodbye to their friends properly. Though they will still be able to keep in contact with their friends online, a party can bring closure to living in their old house.
How much of this applies depends a lot on their age. Toddlers and preschoolers mostly need a simple, predictable routine and a familiar comfort item close at hand. School-age kids usually do better when they’re given a real role, like helping decide what to pack or picking out something for their new room. Teenagers often care more about privacy and being consulted on the showing schedule than about the move itself, so involving them in the planning tends to go further than trying to keep everything upbeat.
Older kids in particular can genuinely help with the selling process itself, not just the emotional side of moving. They can help decide which toys get packed, keep their own room picked up, understand why strangers will be walking through the house on short notice, and even help you build the showing routine covered later in this article.
2. Declutter
Make sure the majority of kids’ toys are packed away, so they don’t get in the way and distract buyers during showings. Buyers are looking to picture themselves living in your home, and toys scattered around the home aren’t going to make this easy for them.
For this reason, it is better to pack toys away to declutter the home. In fact, it’s a good idea to declutter the whole home, making your rooms appear more spacious and depersonalized. Pack family photos and your personal items as well as unneeded furniture. Renting storage can be the answer to free up space in your home while it is being marketed, and will also give you a head start on your packing.
A few kid-specific categories are usually the easiest place to start:
- Toys that aren’t part of the regular rotation
- Outgrown clothes
- Baby gear you no longer need
- Seasonal items like Halloween costumes or holiday decor
- Bikes, scooters, strollers, and sports equipment
Don’t forget the kids’ closets either. Buyers open them just like every other closet in the house, so it’s worth clearing out outgrown clothing and organizing what’s left rather than using the closet as a place to hide clutter from the rest of the house.
Get your kids to choose a few of their favorite toys, and pack the rest. Make sure to reassure them that they will get them back soon. You might face some resistance to this idea from younger children, but if you can turn it into a game it will be easier. This is really a storage question, not a getting-rid-of-things question, so try not to push a child into parting with something they aren’t ready to give up. Packing it away for a few months is a much easier conversation than asking them to donate it.
3. Deep Clean
Buyers are looking for a clean and tidy house, and when you have kids, this can be difficult to maintain. You will need to do a deep clean to remove any sign that kids have been living in the home.
There could be marks on the walls and doors to remove, as well as stains on the floor. You will need to clean the windows for finger marks both inside and out. Make sure you clean the house top to bottom, making sure the whole home shines. Buyers know families live in houses, so the goal isn’t to make the home look child-free, it’s to make it look clean, cared for, and easy to maintain.
In practice, that usually means one thorough deep clean before listing, focused on the spots kids affect most: fingerprints on doors and windows, crayon or marker on walls, dirty baseboards, food spills, carpet stains, bathroom messes, sticky kitchen surfaces, muddy footprints, and smudged appliances. After that, the goal is simply to maintain it rather than starting from scratch before every showing. If you’d rather hand this off, you can hire a professional housekeeper to clean bi-weekly.
4. Keep It Neutral
Homes with neutral color palettes tend to appeal to more buyers, but that doesn’t mean every kid’s room needs a fresh coat of paint. Don’t automatically repaint a perfectly acceptable bedroom just because a child lives in it. If the room has an especially bold color, a large mural, or a very specific theme, it may be worth toning down, and sticking with the best white paint colors for selling a home is an easy way to keep it consistent with the rest of the house. Otherwise, save the money, so you’re not wasting money preparing your home for sale: spend where it actually moves the needle, and skip the rest.
5. Be as Flexible as Reasonably Possible
To give your home the best chance of selling, and quickly, try to avoid restricting showings more than you need to. Excessive restrictions, like only allowing certain days or narrow windows of time, can genuinely reduce the number of buyers who see your home.
That said, you know your family’s schedule better than anyone. Nap times, school pickup, and bedtime are legitimate constraints, and being reasonably flexible doesn’t mean saying yes to absolutely everything. Being more flexible where you can will help your home sell faster, allowing you to move on with your life in your new home sooner.
6. Plan for Showings
You need to have a plan for what to do when showings are scheduled. It is better to not be present when your home is being shown to buyers, and you need to be prepared for this. There are some things you will need to make sure you take care of before you leave the home, and you might only have short notice in some situations. If you’re wondering whether anyone else needs to stick around, who should attend home showings and why covers that in more detail.
A “showing basket” makes short-notice showings much easier. The biggest challenge of selling a home with kids may not be getting the house clean, it may be getting everyone out the door when a buyer wants to see it. Someone calls asking to see the house in 30 minutes, and suddenly you’re hunting for shoes, snacks, and the diaper bag while trying to pick up what feels like 400 toys.
Keep one basket or bin per child where toys and stray items can be quickly tossed on your way out the door, rather than trying to find a home for everything every single time. A quick pre-showing routine can look something like this:
- Put toys in the showing basket
- Make the beds
- Put dirty clothes in hampers
- Clear bathroom counters
- Wipe obvious fingerprints off doors and windows
- Put dishes away
- Take out the trash if needed
- Turn on lights
- Grab the kids’ bag
- Leave the house
It’s also worth securing valuables, medications, firearms, and sensitive documents like school records before any showing, regardless of whether kids live in the home. That’s true for every seller, but it’s an easy thing to overlook in the rush of getting kids out the door.
You need to plan some destinations to take your family for a few hours at a time. Trips to the library or a park can be a great option for showings at any time or on short notice. You can eat at a restaurant or visit friends, whatever you choose you need to make things fun, but it doesn’t need to cost you much.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I tell my kids we’re selling our house?
Be honest with them early rather than letting them find out on their own. Focus the conversation on the positives of the move, such as a bigger bedroom or a new neighborhood, and give them small ways to feel involved, like picking out decor for their new room.
Should kids be present during home showings?
No. It’s best for everyone, including the kids, to leave the home during showings. Plan a bag of essentials and a few nearby destinations so you can leave on short notice.
How do I keep my home clean for showings with kids?
Set a daily reset routine, such as a quick pickup of toys and wiping down high-touch surfaces before bed, so the home is close to showing-ready at all times rather than requiring a scramble before every appointment.
Is it harder to sell a house with kids?
There are additional logistical challenges, mainly around decluttering, keeping the home consistently clean, and managing showings around your family’s schedule, but none of it is difficult with a little planning ahead of time.
Final Thoughts
Selling a home with kids takes more planning, but it doesn’t mean living in a spotless, staged house for months. Declutter before you list, keep a simple daily reset routine, have a showing plan ready, and involve your kids in age-appropriate ways. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s making the home easy for buyers to see while keeping the process manageable for your family.
Please consider spreading the word and sharing; How To Sell a Home with Kids | 6 Helpful Home Selling Tips
Selling with kids can feel impossible. Learn how to keep the house show-ready, manage last-minute showings, and make moving easier on your family. #homselling #tips #realestateAbout the Author
Top Wellington Realtor, Michelle Gibson, wrote: “How To Sell a Home with Kids | 6 Helpful Home Selling Tips”
Michelle has been specializing in residential real estate since 2001 throughout Wellington Florida and the surrounding area. Whether you’re looking to buy, sell, or rent she will guide you through the entire real estate transaction. If you’re ready to put Michelle’s knowledge and expertise to work for you call or e-mail her today.
Areas of service include Wellington, Lake Worth, Royal Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, Greenacres, and more.
