That’s the finding from the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2018 Moving With Kids report recently released, which uses information gathered from NAR’s 2018 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.
“Buying a house is rarely just a financial transaction, especially when children are involved,” NAR President Elizabeth Mendenhall said. “Parents are choosing the home they will raise their kids in, the schools their sons and daughters will attend and the neighborhood where they will play and make friends. Realtors help buyers navigate every emotional and financial factor to ensure families find their dream home.”
Some of the report’s findings don’t come as a surprise.
For example, 50 percent of buyers moving with kids under 18 years of age ranked the quality of the school district as an important factor when purchasing a home, while 45 percent listed the convenience to those schools as an important factor.
For those sellers without children in the home, however, the quality of the school district (11 percent) and convenience to schools (6 percent) mattered little.
And buyers with children in the home prefer larger homes (2,100 square feet with four bedrooms and two full bathrooms), while those without purchased slightly smaller homes (1,700 square feet and three bedrooms).
For 27 percent of buyers with children, child care expenses delayed the home buying process. The top compromises made by these buyers in their home search were size of home (30 percent), price of home (29), distance from job (22), condition of home (22), style of home (22) and lot size (21).
One of the many unique challenges facing sellers moving with kids is the urgency in which they want to sell their house. Twenty-six percent of sellers with children wanted to sell the home as quickly as possible, while only 14 percent of sellers without wanted to sell their home very urgently.
Sellers without children were 20 percent more willing to wait for the right offer than sellers with children.
The main reasons for selling are different depending on whether sellers have kids.
Twenty-four percent of sellers with children sold their previous home because it was too small, followed by job relocation (18 percent). Eighteen percent of sellers without children sold to be closer to friends or family, while 13 percent sold because their home was too large.
Similarities do exist between buyers and sellers with and without children, however, mostly in the way they utilize real estate agents and their expertise.
Eighty-seven percent of buyers purchased their home with the help of a real estate agent, with approximately 40 percent of buyers and sellers finding their first agent by referral from a friend, neighbor or relative.
About 20 percent of all sellers want their real estate agent to help sell the home within a specific timeframe, help them market the home to potential buyers and price the home competitively, while about 80% of all sellers said their real estate agent provided a broad range of services and managed most aspects of the home sale.
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