As a parent himself, Baris knows
how unpredictable children can be, and
that – for the most part – people tend to
be understanding about child-related
mishaps when tots accompany buyers or
live in the home being sold. In the case
of 3-year-old Eli and the bitten tongue,
“everyone was just mostly worried
about him. And about getting us out of
the house, too, I guess,” he says with a
laugh.
“The main thing to remember is that
dealing with these real estate trans-
actions, it’s just like life,” says Baris, an
agent with Coldwell Banker in Fort Lee.
“It can be stressful and confusing, but at
the end, you just have to laugh.”
The Starkmans did not buy that
house, closing instead on a home in
Demarest. (Eli, for the record, got
stitches and has made a full recovery.)
They had been renting in Englewood
Cliffs, after moving from Westchester
County to be closer to the catering
business they own, The Elan in Lodi.
“Having your kids with you is not
really ideal because you can’t really
pay the best attention if you are busy
watching your toddler, so maybe my
advice is to not bring your kids unless
you have to,” Starkman says. “Oh, and
bring a first aid kit.”
INVOLVE YOUR CHILDREN
When Barbara Ostroth works with
sellers who have children, she give her
clients – the small ones – a contract to
sign so the house will be ready for a
showing.
“It says things like ‘I promise to clean
my Cheerios from the kitchen table and
put away my toys, to make sure my bed
is made every morning,’” says Ostroth,
of Coldwell Banker in Alpine/Closter.
Along with standard decluttering
suggestions – a bin for shoes at the
door, a garage sale where kids get to
keep the proceeds of their junk they let
go – Ostroth says parents need to step
up their parenting game as well as their
selling one.
“You’re looking at short-term pain for
long term gain,” she says. “If you’re not
willing to set a limit and enforce rules
about your children picking up after
themselves, you’ll be doing everything.”
“YOU WANT TO WALK INTO A HOME AND
SEE WHAT YOU DREAM OF DOING BUT DON’T
HAVE THE ABILITY TO ENFORCE YOURSELF.”
BARBARA OSTROTH, COLDWELL BANKER IN ALPINE/CLOSTER
Besides, Ostroth says, kids take
the process more seriously when you
involve them in it. “Their lives are being
upended but this helps them feel like
they have some control,” she says.
Given that a potential buyer looking
at that three-bedroom colonial has their
own children – and their accompanying
clutter at their own home – why are they
so unable to overlook kid clutter in a
home they are looking to purchase?
“You want to walk into a home and
see what you dream of doing but don’t
have the ability to enforce yourself,”
Ostroth says. “You see someone who has
all the kids’ toys picked up, and all the
Container Store bins because you want
to see what you aspire to.”
AGENTS AS SITTERS
Many agents say they wind up as
babysitters during showings.
“It often happens that the parents
are looking at the house and paying
attention to the house, and if I see the
kids wandering off, I’ll try to re-direct
them,” says Maryanne