This past weekend, we were out again showing homes to a great family. They don't live in town so when it comes to our home showing, everyone usually comes along. This weekend, their adorable little girls came with us. One is under 10, the other is around 11. We'd been out in the past with the kids and they did just fine in the beginning. As the day wore on, they were getting tired of looking and being in hot houses. (We're looking at short sales and foreclosures and checking them out in the middle of the afternoon in Tucson, AZ in the summer is not very pleasant.)
The night before we went out, I was sitting at home, wondering how to keep the girls entertained while allowing their parents to do what they needed to do - view the home and discuss their thoughts. I hit on an idea.
On our way to meet up with the family, we stopped off at Walgreens and picked up 2 spiral notebooks and different colored pens. When we got to the house, I gave the girls their 'present' and their instructions:
*Draw a quick picture of what the house looks like
*Write down what you like and don't like about the house
I didn't have time to find cute stickers. I wanted to get them smilie face stickers - happy and frown faces - that they could put on their 'review sheets'.
The idea went over wonderfully. They girls dutifully went through the houses, picking out high and low points, and making their notes. The younger of the 2 didn't have writing down very well but did know how to write 'pool'. (That's the only thing she really wants.)
Towards the end of the day, when we had just a couple more to see, we stopped for lunch. As we sat there, the older girl was in on the conversation with her notebook right there. (The younger girl was enjoying the playground. Can't say that I blame her!)
Suffice to say that I'm going to stock up on notebooks, pens and stickers and have them ready when clients have little ones along. It kept the girls entertained, engaged in the process and gave them something to do.
The bonus was reading their notes.
(A little edit for some of their notes)
As I mentioned above, the younger girl isn't of the age to make a lot of notes but was able to write 'pool' with a smilie face on most of the houses. The ones that didn't have a pool got 'pool :( '
The older girl made notes like "upstairs bedroom for us", "ew. rat in pool", "walls too white", "ugly paint". She was really into it!
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