https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 19 Apr 2026 07:03:56 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826983 Thu, 07 Jun 2018 07:22:15 +0000 catlady 2826983@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: Good point. We were told that basically anytime is "in season" here although there is definitely a spring market and a shorter fall market. I get the sense that summer is actually not the best time to sell in our area but it would probably be fine either way (we bought our current house in June or July, if I remember correctly). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826980 Thu, 07 Jun 2018 07:02:48 +0000 PinkElephant 2826980@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@catlady: I'm just skimming while giving the kids breakfast, but one thing I don't think anyone mentioned is to consider the "season". If selling before you move will mean you get to list in "high season" (which in my area, and probably most areas, is summer months when children are between school years, so June-Sept), then I'd definitely go that route. You'll have a larger pool of interested buyers and most likely will sell your house at a higher price. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826960 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 22:08:27 +0000 Shantuck 2826960@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Also, as a tip, we rented a storage unit and hauled a bunch of stuff there before we listed to make it look like our closets and rooms had plenty of space. Just a thought...</p> <p>ETA: didn’t realize that others had the same tip but highly recommend that! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826954 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 21:07:26 +0000 ChitownRo 2826954@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were in a very similar scenario last summer. We had our offer accepted (didn’t need to sell our old place for the down payment or mortgage contingency) and then ultimately decided on your option 1. </p> <p>We also were in a hot market, and wanted to sell at peak market - so spring/summer. As with PPs, we just planned to get away for the weekend. We listed Thursday night, vacated our place by Fri noon had some private showings on Friday and then open houses Sat and Sun. We had multiple offers by the time we returned Sunday at 5pm.<br /> It was a TON of work to get the place ready while living there, but I was proud of how it looked in the end. I think our furniture and decor was as nicer or nicer than staging would have been. We had decorated to fit the space (custom table etc) and had spent years trying to perfect it. Staging with a company normally looks a little sparse and sort of generic in my opinion. </p> <p>Of course, decluttering took real effort. We had a 3.5 and 1.5 yo with all of their stuff in 1500sf. So we got a storage unit and put SO much there. I basically was trying to live like we were on vacation - like what toys would I pack for a week away somewhere. For closets - empty at least 2/3 of the contents out. Remainder of stuff in closets was organized into nice looking bins. We honestly put 70% of our hanging clothes in storage. Again, mentality of what would be needed for 1-2 weeks. We even took a lot of the items from our basement storage and put those into a rented storage unit.<br /> Finally, for some of the last minute giant items (kid kitchen, high chair, diaper pail, all trash cans and bathroom items like shampoo) we put that in the garage before leaving for the weekend.<br /> Good luck! You can do this!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826937 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 19:59:16 +0000 LCTBQE 2826937@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@catlady: yeah, the bedrooms were very decluttered with neutral linens and stuff and looked totally fine, but their couches were pretty gross and I can see why they did it that way. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826934 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 19:50:16 +0000 catlady 2826934@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LCTBQE: Yes, we plan to sit down with our seller's agent next week and get her recommendation. Still, I'm glad this thread has helped me get a sense of pros and cons of both options. That's interesting about renting only some furniture, that's something I hadn't considered. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826931 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 19:41:34 +0000 LCTBQE 2826931@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I've never sold, only just recently bought, but wondering if you could get your selling agent's opinion on if your house would fetch significantly more or get a bidding war going or anything if you did some painting and did have it properly staged. they'd probably reassure you with a solid opinion vs all of us who've never seen your house/furniture and don't know your market. Also, the house we bought was fixed up with some staging furniture *while* the sellers were living here. took me a few minutes to figure out why anyone would have 4 couches in their basement. I don't think it was every room, just the living/dining if I had to guess. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826924 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 19:20:16 +0000 Shantuck 2826924@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I’d tough it out with option 1 as well. We prepped our house and had two consecutive weekends of open houses on Saturday and Sunday and we stayed with my parents for that week so we didn’t have to prep it so many times. Even if you could do a Saturday/ Sunday open house and stay at a hotel, thay might help. When we were staying there and had a showing, we only allowed ourselves to use certain rooms of the home (only one bathroom) to limit what we had to do to get ready. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826920 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 18:17:57 +0000 wrkbrk 2826920@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@catlady: after after after after! I cannot explain the hassle of cleaning organizing packing and showing a house with kids. And I only have one! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826876 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:45:56 +0000 muffinsmuffins 2826876@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Pretty much echoing what everyone else has said: we sold before we moved and it sucked but it wasn’t too long of an annoyance. We were actually potentially going to be homeless as we had like 5 weeks to buy something before our short close. We lucked out with a vacant property and could choose our closing date that was already stipulated in the sale of our house. It was a hectic time but it was all over quickly.</p> <p>I really was nervous about paying 2 mortgages because a friend of ours had a brutal time selling and carried 2 for a long while. I couldn’t have handled the stress and deadline even if we had enough money to comfortably do it.</p> <p>ETA: definitely echo what someone else said above about pre-inspecting. We had a foundation issue discovered during our sale and it actually fell through. We had to fix it, then disclose it, which was a pain. But we still sold within a week of listing again. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826875 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:45:28 +0000 catlady 2826875@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsLonghorn: A weekend away is a fantastic idea! I am totally going to push for this if we decide to sell soon. We are lucky that the kids are in full time daycare so during the work week, we can be mostly out of the house anyway (and summer time means it's easy to have them play outside in the evenings instead of in the house).</p> <p>Thanks so much everyone, these are all really great ideas. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826872 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:40:54 +0000 MrsLonghorn 2826872@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I vote to sell before you move. We live in a sellers market, and knew that our house wouldn't be on the market for long. We coordinated a long-weekend getaway with putting our house going on the market, and it was AMAZING. Any chance you could do that?</p> <p>I only had to clean/declutter once for photos, and then tidy up the night before we left town. We got 3 offers that weekend, and made our decision during lunch on our first day back. Our realtor put a "coming soon" sign in our yard a week before, to get people's attention, and I mentioned the upcoming listing in a few neighborhood FB groups in advance, so people could tell their friends. </p> <p>Also, @kiddosc's list is spot on. Prepared food/eating out/paper plates are a lifesaver. And I would just load up your schedule with out-of-the-house activities. Any chance you have a friend who could do spontaneous play dates, when you get a call and have to run? (Otherwise, trips to the splash pad, library, park, etc... will become the norm). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826869 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:35:04 +0000 avivoca 2826869@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We just did this. DDs are 4.5 and 1.5. We knew we wanted to sell so I took about 8 months getting things ready and we submitted a contingency offer on a house we liked. Two weeks later, we listed our house and had an offer after one day of showings. It was nuts, we had 15 showings in one day and the cat peed on the bed (their boxes were out in the garage). We didn't even rent a storage unit, we just had our things neatly stacked in the garage. Then we just had to clean up before the appraisals and inspections, but since most of our stuff was packed, it was easy. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826866 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:33:50 +0000 kiddosc 2826866@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We sold our house while we were living in it with one child since we were planning to move across the country. It really wasn't terrible and since the market was so hot in our area we accepted an offer within the week. Tips that really helped us:<br /> Rent a storage unit and move everything you don't need out of the house.<br /> Move out most toys, definitely anything that couldn't be lined up neatly in a closet or stashed in a bin.<br /> Plan to eat out a lot and spend as much time out of the house as possible.<br /> We also had our house pre-inspected so that we were sure there weren't any major issues that could hinder a sale. Foundation problems were a huge issue in our area and we didn't want to be caught off guard. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826864 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:31:39 +0000 catlady 2826864@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Foodnerd81: Ooh, good point. We have 2 months to close so I'm guessing our best bets are to either try to sell within month 1 or else just wait until we are out. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826862 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:29:00 +0000 Foodnerd81 2826862@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@catlady: we didn’t do this, but just one thing to keep in mind- once you get close to moving day it will be really hard to keep things neat while packing. We rented our condo out and pretty much couldn’t show it to potential renters once I started pulling things out to pack. Or, we could, but had to hope they could see past the moving boxes stacked neatly in the corner. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826857 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:24:46 +0000 catlady 2826857@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@raspberries: Great tips! I didn't think of the kitchen smells thing. Definitely going to look into getting a storage unit if we go this route. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826856 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:19:51 +0000 raspberries 2826856@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We just did this also - my husband and I are frugal, so we did option 1. Our housing market is pretty hot, and it was on the market 15 days before we accepted an offer.</p> <p>It was a huuuuge pain trying to keep the house in tip-top shape with two little kids - they only had to give you an hour's notice for a private showing, so the house had to be in pretty close to perfect shape around the clock. If you go this route, my best tips are basically to get a storage unit and pack away everything you can so the house looks neater and cleaner, get take-out and/or picnic foods so the kitchen stays clean and the house doesn't smell like food, and make frequent family walks/playground trips a thing so there's less of an opportunity to mess things up. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826855 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 14:16:42 +0000 catlady 2826855@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@SwanSong: Glad it worked out for you! Would love to hear if you have any tips. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826843 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 13:39:09 +0000 SwanSong 2826843@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We just did this last fall with a 4 year old and 18 month old. We listed before he put an offer on a new house, it wasn't bad, BUT our house had eight offers within 2 days of listing so the process wasn't dragged out; so my worry about keeping a constantly clean house was unfounded. Since you're in a hot market, Id say sell before you move. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826842 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 13:39:03 +0000 catlady 2826842@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Ajsmommy: Yes, I'm leaning towards this too, but also nervous about the double mortgages. We will definitely sell quickly so at least I know that will work out.</p> <p>@bhbee: Good point about staged homes selling for more. Our RE agent told us we didn't really need to do anything except de-clutter, but honestly our furniture is nasty after many years of cats and kids so I don't know how well it will show. (We will be throwing away most of it before moving anyway!) I will probably ask her about it again though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826839 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 13:37:39 +0000 hellobeeboston 2826839@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>So you don't need to sell your current home before you close on your new one?</p> <p>If that is the case, i would sell before you move. If you're deal is already in progress, you should be able to time it to put it on the market and go under agreement and sign the p&amp;s, and just say they need to close after you close on your new home. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826831 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 13:24:57 +0000 bhbee 2826831@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Probably I’d try to tough it out with #1 - id just like to get it done. And in our case we’d need to down payment from the sale to buy. </p> <p>Could be worth asking a good realtor in your area - I’ve heard them say you can sell higher in a perfectly staged house, so might be worth asking what they think the difference is (they might also have a hookup on the staging co price) and then once you have an idea of the total financial picture you can weigh how much convenience might be worth to you. </p> <p>Thinking about either option makes me never want to move again :silly: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826826 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 13:21:49 +0000 Ajsmommy 2826826@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Following...we'll be in the exact same situation in 8-10 Months (buying a new home // currently waiting for the lot we want to open)</p> <p>I'm leaning towards option 2....even though it scares me to carry two mortgages at a time technically until it sells. But dh is adamant that it's a sellers market and it'll sell fast </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/timing-of-moving-and-selling-home-with-kids#post-2826820 Wed, 06 Jun 2018 13:08:28 +0000 catlady 2826820@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>After a long search, we just got an offer accepted on a new house! But now we face the reality of selling our current home and moving. We've never sold before and never moved with kids (we have a 4 year old and an 18 month old).</p> <p>We have a couple options for timing (and our RE market is crazy so we know our current home should sell quickly either way).</p> <p>1. Sell before we move. This would obviously require us to clean, declutter, stage, and have open houses while we are still living here. Will be tricky and stressful with the kids and cats but probably do-able. </p> <p>2. Wait until after we move before we sell. This would require us to hire a staging company and rent furniture before selling. It's probably easier logistically but we will have a couple months of paying 2 mortgages plus the fee for staging. Plus it will drag out the whole process (we'd be dealing with this while unpacking and setting up our new home).</p> <p>Which would you choose? </p>