Shopping for a house with a baby

By Corduroy Sep 1, 2013

DH and I are considering looking for a house. Our last search, that ended about a year ago, was a big fat failure. We looked at over 400 houses. Now we have a 6 month old in tow we obviously need a new strategy. We're planning on using a relator much more strategically but well still need to look at some houses.

The town we're looking in is 45 min away from where we live and we don't have babysitters here or there. Any tips on the logistics of looking with a baby? Just the idea of dragging her in and out of the car multiple times stresses me out. Is it worth hiring a sitter?

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17 comments

looch
wonderful pear / 26210 posts

Sep 1, 2013

Looking back, I would have used a carrier, and just keep the car seat in the car.
Smurfette
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts

Sep 1, 2013

Can your realtor go pre screen the houses for you? We got a new realtor halfway through our search (started in Apr12 and went into contact New Years Eve), and he started doing that for us. I would send him the ones we were interested in and he would call/email with feedback. If he thought we might like it then we would set up an appointment for the weekend. It saved us so much time looking at houses that ended up not looking anything like the pictures.
yoursilverlining
eggplant / 11824 posts

Sep 1, 2013

We looked at homes when LO was newborn - about 4 months old. We just left her in the infant bucket car seat and carried that into the houses. It wasn't too much of a hassle, she usually just stayed in the carrier the entire visit, or if she fussed we would just hold her.

I would just try to prescreen as much as you can (by neighborhood/features/etc.) and also try to book as many appointments as possible in a day so you don't have to drive back and forth too many times.
immabeetoo
honeydew / 7687 posts

Sep 1, 2013

Could you send him and FaceTime through the house if he likes it?
Pink Champagne
clementine / 943 posts

Sep 1, 2013

400 houses is a LOT. It would help immensely to have your realtor screen the homes for you. Make sure they are very clear on what you are looking for (sounds like they maybe weren't so clear if you looked at 400 houses).
Also, perhaps make a "Must Have" list and a "Nice to Have" list. If you couldn't find ONE house in 400 that you liked, either it's time to find a new realtor or you're being way too picky.
woodentulip
persimmon / 1379 posts

Sep 1, 2013

We had a 6 month old and an almost 3 year old when we were house hunting. Also looking about 40 minutes away from where we were staying. IT WAS HARD.

When it came down to it, our realtors 'got' what we were looking for. They knew the area, our price range, and what sort of house we wanted.

We looked at about 40 houses, about 35 of them were just to get an idea of what was out there. They were all far off from our ideal.

But then we became particular, stopped going every day, and our realtors kept their eye on what was coming on the market.

When the house that we did end up buying came on the market, they said "I think that you should both come" (initially it was only me and BOTH KIDS during the days. Ugh, it was terrible). They knew that it was what we were looking for.

We got a sitter for that one, and did an evening visit. And then a daytime visit with the kids. And then an inspection.

It was an offer date (bidding war) house, so my husband was the sole bidder on our behalf, as it was after the kids bedtime and we felt that we didn't have to both be there. It worked out fine!

I had a carrier with me for all the house hunting, but would most frequently leave her in the car seat and bring it in. Honestly, our visits inside houses were often less than 5 minutes because we just knew that they wouldn't work for us!
Freckles
honeydew / 7444 posts

Sep 1, 2013

400 houses is a lot.

Our strategy was to have one person (the pickier one) look at the homes, and would only get the other one to look at it if it was worth seeing. Honestly, MLS pictures and info are good enough to weed out the bad ones. There is no point wasting your time on houses that are "meh".

I would not hire a babysitter. Leaving her with a stranger would be more stressful than bringing her in and out. I would use a carrier to make things easier. If she is napping, then i would have one person go in, and if it is worth seeing the other one would take a look.

I agree with the pp and do a better job in pre-screening. 400 houses indicates you didn't prescreen or you're very picky (nothing wrong with the latter! We are super picky the second time around). I think at one point during out search we told our realtor to stop wasting our time with houses he knew we wouldn't end up liking.

Good luck!!
Corduroy
pomelo / 5258 posts

Sep 1, 2013

I totally agree that 400 is ridiculous. We started looking at lots of open houses to see what was out there about two years ago. After seeing about 100 we found a short sale that we liked and was a good deal. We got DH's boss's wife to quickly write an offer for us since we didn't have an agent. We thought it would be a quick process so it didnt matter that she was an hour away. We were in contract on that house for 6 months and kept looking. That never went anywhere but during that time we went to lots of open houses and decided to look in another city. We did about three months of going to open houses every weekend and then a few months of going with our realtor.

In total I think we wrote 10 offers. It was a very competitive market. Most of our bids were $30 - 70k over asking. We were in contract on one but days before closing (after the inspection period) the owner revealed that they knew the back yard and the deck were sliding down the hill. That was a $30k repair that we didn't have extra cash for.

We were in contract on another but we didn't like what that inspection revealed either (& DH decided it was too small). We're kicking ourselves for walking away from both of those houses now. They've both gone up at least $110k. Kinda makes us want to vomit.

We ended the house hunt when I was 6 months pregnant, we had to be out of our apartment in 60 days, and we wrote 5 offers in one week and got nothing. The day we decided to be done our agent fired us further proving to us that our hunt was going nowhere.

Obviously we want to do everything differently this time. Starting with finding a local agent that we're not afraid to fire because she's the boss's wife.
avivoca
watermelon / 14467 posts

Sep 1, 2013

@Corduroy: We house hunted prior to getting pregnant, but we visited open houses so we could meet agents. I think that's a great way to see how an agent works and acts in the field. We decided on three, only one answered our emails, and we interviewed her because she was the only one who wanted our business.
blackbird
wonderful grape / 20453 posts

Sep 1, 2013

We actually just looked at home and we used a carrier. Much easier to put them in and out of. Our realtor uses an online portal for available properties so we are able to heavily narrow down what we are interested in .

For us to move, it would have to be *awesome* and a big step up. So we are 'passively looking', essentially. In the meantime, we are putting time and money into our current home so we can sell it in < 5 years.

I asked my girlfriends for good agents. I really really like the one we have. She emailed me back extremely promptly and in general is very responsive. That's my biggest business peeve ever (not responsive people)

Is your field maybe a little too broad? 400 houses is a *ton*...not knowing what your area is like.
dolphin
pomegranate / 3768 posts

Sep 1, 2013

We're looking at houses now too and been bringing LO with us. DH would bring her in the car seat or we would carry her. We don't see that many in a day though. Maybe just 3 in one day. DH likes to bring DD because he believes babies have a good sense if the house has good or bad energy. If DD cries, its a no no. Lol. We have fun taking DD along.
Corduroy
pomelo / 5258 posts

Sep 1, 2013

We decided to look at a couple open houses today just to get an idea of current home values. LO screamed the entire way there (I thought she would nap). We even stopped to make sure she was OK and take a break. We quickly looked at three houses and were sure that LO would nap on the way back home. Nope, crazy banshee screams the whole way. Poor girl. I seriously considered getting on the train with LO to ride home but that would be three times as long. The whole thing was every bit as horrible as I had built it up to be in my brain - and worse. At least I know we will never do another open house weekend for "fun". The houses all had crazy issues too.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the park laying around trying to forget the ride of terror. Tonight we will research agents.
yoursilverlining
eggplant / 11824 posts

Sep 1, 2013

@Corduroy: I don't mean this in a bad/mean way....but do you trust your spouse to preview homes for you and narrow the field? If your LO isn't cool with house hunting and it becomes stressful for everyone involved; can either you or your partner go alone to check out short-listed places and further narrow the field to just a couple? When we house-hunted, I looked at a couple without my husband, and could easily cross them off our list without us both needing to take time off work to see them. That ended up helping a lot. Good luck!!
mrsbookworm
pear / 1823 posts

Sep 1, 2013

I think one of you going and prescreening the houses sounds like a good idea. We're also going to be in the house market, in a different state, and I'm sending DH to narrow it down before I bother going there.
Ginabean3
pomegranate / 3401 posts

Sep 1, 2013

We are currently house hunting and we have a 6 month old. Like the PP, we use a carrier. We have an awesome agent who takes us to houses but we also like to see open houses on our own. Luckily LO is very agreeable for the most part. She sleeps in her car seat when we are driving around and moves to the carrier with minimal fuss and falls back asleep. We take her everywhere with us because we are new in the area and don't have anyone to look after her......and she has adapted well!
heffalump
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts

Sep 2, 2013

When we were house hunting we drove by a ton of houses without actually going in them. We would look online, write down the address of the ones we thought we might like, and drive by to make sure that we like the outside first. This way we could see if they had a big fenced in backyard, we like the neighborhood, it's not on a busy street, etc. Then if we liked a house we told our realtor we wanted to see it. We actually only looked inside of one house, and it's the one we bought.
Dandelion
watermelon / 14206 posts

Sep 2, 2013

We were house hunting right up until the weekend before I went into labor with S. I had a 5 year old, too, so he just came with us when we were around. We didn't buy a house, then...signed a lease for a year in this house. Next Feb we start looking again, and if in April, we don't find anything, I'm sure LO will be toted around with us.

Luckily, since then, we've gotten a better grasp of what we really do want for our first house, so this time around might be a little easier.

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