Monday, December 04, 2006

Real estate advice for parents without a clue

Must have been a slow week in real estate.

I’m going to get the business for this post but I was exasperated reading this. You can make any subject super complicated. No offense to Anne Brennan, author of the front page Tribune story this weekend titled "Family Planning"... but come on. The premise of the advice/story is fine. Take heed when shopping for a house with kids. Don’t take them with. I mean, don’t most parents have a clue about how their own kids' behavior may be in this very adult activity?

But the advice goes way overboard in for our oversensitive, wimpy parenting generation.

"- Let kids have input in decorating.
- To beat boredom, make house hunting a game. Buy little toys and wrap them in comic paper or tissue paper. After each house, say "great job." Each earns a special treat. Part of the excitement for the kids is unwrapping the treat."

I’m sorry… I’m old school. Our parents put us in a car and poof… we were in a new house. And somehow we made it, even without a DVD player and Suzie’s ‘Lil I-POD


Here’s a couple awesome quotes from honest Realtors concerning the kid issue…

"I'll ride with [parents with booster seats] or follow them. I'd rather not have kids in my car. At times, it's unavoidable," Barbrow says.

"A lot of agents have new cars," Goldblatt says. "We hope the other people are going to drive. Kids come in with Goldfish crackers, scuffing seats. Babies are crying--parents say, `please pull over' or they have to change a diaper--and then the car smells, or a child throws up in the car."

Whammo! Tell us what ya really think.

Full disclosure: The Chicago Real Estate Local has his first child on the way… I love kids.

No comments: