11 Incredibly Useful House Hunting Tips from Parents and Design Pros

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Home really *is* where the heart is — no other place in our lives is as chockablock with memories. So why is buying a new one so darn hard right now? 

Now that we have a son, our home in Colorado — a formerly ginormous-feeling 1,400 square feet (hey, we’re former New Yorkers!) — can seem cramped, thanks in part to the omnipresent toy sprawl in our living room. Yet we’re in no rush to move. When you have kiddos in tow, spending oodles of time house-hunting gets all that much harder. 

“House hunting with kids is definitely a challenge,” says Kim Armstrong, a Rockwall, Texas-based mom of two (ages 6 and 13) and principal designer at Kim Armstrong Interior Design. “You want good schools, good neighbors, good parks and a good community.”

We turned to pros and real parents alike to get their best tips on house-hunting with your brood.

“The biggest complaint I get from clients who have just purchased a new home is that they can’t fit their furniture properly into the new space,” says Naomi Coe, author of the new book “Your Perfect Nursery: A Step-by-Step Approach to Creating the Nursery of your Dreams” and founder of Little Crown Interiors. “This is always more prominent in the nursery and kid’s rooms because they are often smaller than the other rooms.” When you’re looking at houses, Coe advises you keep a list of the furniture you know you need with you, and measure to ensure it will fit — a must for preventing headaches after you move in.

When you’re measuring, be sure to use eagle eyes in the baby’s room especially. “Nurseries are especially difficult because there are so many more safety concerns (like not putting a crib under a window), so it’s important to plan in advance if you can,” Coe says.

Every parent knows there are umpteen unexpected expenses that come with raising kids — and the same goes for the house buying process, says Denver, Colorado-based Lane Walsh, Broker Associate at Dwell Denver | Compass, and parent to 11-year-old Hazel.

She tells us, “You have your down payment saved but when you dig into it, you realize that you need money for your loan closing costs (usually between 1-2% of your loan amount), earnest money (somewhere between $5-$10k but the good news is that gets applied to the cash you need to bring to closing … just be prepared to have that at the time you write an offer on a house as it will be due shortly after going under contract), inspection money (sometimes up to $1,000 for the general inspection, radon test, sewer scope, etc.), and more.

It all adds up and it’s good to sit down beforehand and make sure you have all of the money you need ready and liquid so that you’re not scrambling. The process moves fast once it gets going!”

For more insider info, see Walsh’s blog post on buying your first house — helpful for folks with and without kiddos. 

Number one on Walsh’s list when you’re house hunting with wee ones: “Make sure they’re fed. This actually goes for everyone (grow-ups, too). We can tell when things start going downhill on buyer tours and it usually involves someone getting hangry!” Packing plenty of water and protein-filled snacks along for the ride for all-ages is a no brainer. 

You may want to spend extra time poring over a home’s floor plan or closet layouts … fun for you, but not-so-much for your mini me. For those moments, Walsh suggests making sure you’ve brought something for kids to do, like “their favorite toy, a phone or an iPad, a book. It’s really hard to get a feel for choosing the largest emotional and financial investment of your life when you’re little one is requiring all of your attention. Do what you can to make sure they are occupied so you can concentrate.”

“If you can do the initial viewings on your own and come back to the ones they need to see, you can focus all of your attention on them seeing it and gauging their feelings,” Walsh ways. “This is a luxury, of course, but if you have someone to watch the littles early in the process so you can weed out the ones you don’t want, they will be more likely to be engaged and weigh in when they see the houses that will work for the family.”

Every parent is well aware of one hidden secret for a happier home: bountiful storage. “You’ll want to look for a home that has plenty of closet space and other storage to fit your needs,” Coe says. “A larger home might seem like it has more storage, but that isn’t necessarily the case if there are smaller closets and less cabinetry.”

“I would think about how you can utilize spaces and which rooms, and how many rooms you need,” says Lauren Lerner, Scottsdale, Arizona-based mom of a 6-year-old boy and principal designer at Living with Lolo. “For example, you might want a dining room for entertaining a few times a year, but if this is designed with kids in mind, this space could double as a space where kids can do homework or play games, etc.”

“When kids are young, I like to be on the same level of the house with them,” says Jessica Davis, a Nashville-based mom of two boys aged 8 and 8 and principal designer at JL Design. When the monitor blares at 3 a.m. with a crying infant, knowing they’re just a few feet away in the next room is a major help. But “as they get older, you may want to list and find a home that allows some more privacy for pre-teens and teens,” Davis notes.

“What most families need no matter what the age of their children is storage,” Armstrong says. “When looking at a home, think of where your dumping ground will be (where the kids throw everything as they walk in the door or as you bring the stroller in from a walk). Is there a place you can create lockers or cubbies or a large laundry room you can manipulate?” Without one, you may find something else becomes a dumping ground.

Sure, you probably covet an expansive primary bedroom and multiple baths … but a dedicated playroom can be just as sanity-saving for parents, especially if it has a door so you can tuck messy play zones out of sight. “Having a space that can be designated as a playroom or closed off to the rest of the house is amazing to have because it allows the toys to stay contained to that one space and helps keep you as the parent a bit more sane, not worrying about the mess all the time,” Lerner says. “If you are listing a house with kids, find a time that it can go on the market when you can be out of town so that you can have showings without having to stress over cleaning up after everyone before each showing.”