Room (Kitchen) with a view (of the backyard and kids playing).

Child-Friendly Floor Plan

Test your knowledge of today’s housing market, and guess which of the following can be a deal breaker for many family buyers with young children:

A. Not enough Bedrooms on one level.
B. Dated Kitchen and/or Bathrooms.
C. Busy street.
D. No view of the backyard from the Kitchen.

Answer: all of the above.

Room With a View (of the Backyard)

While choices “A,” “B,” and “C” should come as no surprise, veteran Realtors know that “D” can also be a deal breaker for many families with young children.

Still, perhaps the biggest issue for such families is a floor plan where the kids’ Bedrooms are on a different level than the parents.

Particularly challenging: when the kids’ Bedrooms are on the first (main) floor, and the Master Bedroom is on the second.

P.S.: Unfortunately, while there is a long (and growing) list of MLS fields for everything from minimum desired room dimensions to number and type of fireplaces (wood burning vs. gas), there’s no input field (yet) for backyard visibility.

About the author

Ross Kaplan has 19+ years experience selling real estate all over the Twin Cities. He is also a 12-time consecutive "Super Real Estate Agent," as determined by Mpls. - St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business Magazine. Prior to becoming a Realtor, Ross was an attorney (corporate law), CPA, and entrepreneur. He holds an economics degree from Stanford.

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