C. Barkley-Romero is a member of the California.com Recommended Business Program, which highlights only the best businesses in the Golden State. To be featured, each business must be highly regarded, have a unique California story, and make a positive impact in their community. 

As of 2020, practically everything in our lives has changed, including the real estate market. Even though kids aren’t going to school full-time like they used to, there can be a lot of anxieties around moving to a new area, starting school, and making new friends. Here are a few tips to help your family if you’re moving with children. 

5 Tips and Tricks for Moving with kidS

1. Make the family meeting fun and keep your poker face on

Talking to your children can be super intimidating, when you don’t know how they’ll react to big news. If you show that you’re nervous, they will pick up on that vibe and assume this move is a bad thing.

Instead, order some pizza and make a thing of it. Explain exactly why the move is taking place, how it will make their lives better, and promise them that they will have a say in their new home. 

Bonus points for making a vision board so they can show you exactly what type of home they want to live in and how they want their new room to look. In my family, we like to make them for our iPads and put them as our home screen so we can see it every day and manifest it! 

2. When Relocating with children, let them join you for the showings

Getting multiple people into a showing is a little difficult these days and some listings don’t allow children. But if they do, let them join in on the fun! If they don’t, call your kids on Facetime so they can see their room. They can tell you exactly what they like and don’t like and it makes it a lot less scary having seen it outside of pictures. 

3. Do some research on the schools before you pick the area 

Before moving to a new house with kids, make sure you know what the schools are like. There are some great websites to make sure you get the low-down on every school—after all, it’s where your children will be spending most of their time outside of the house.

GreatSchools has everything from test scores and college readiness rankings to student progress assessments. One of my favorite sites is Niche. It has academic ratings, teacher scores, lists of clubs, and how well the students are prepared for college. The site even breaks down diversity along with health and safety—which, of course, is a huge factor right now. 

A broader assessment can be found on SchoolDigger which ranks the states based on education and the schools within them.

4. Once you pick the one, be a tourist in your new town

Location, location, location— am I right? You moved to that area for a reason, so start learning the lay of the land before you move in. 

Drive by the new school, visit the local beach, and hit up the most kid-friendly and COVID-safe restaurant they have. When moving to a different house with children, the more you can do to hype the new neighborhood, the better. 

If you don’t live nearby, head out there for a weekend. If you dish out the money for this option, make sure it’s after your offer is accepted and you get through the appraisal and inspection.

If traveling there before escrow closes is not an option, try to beat the moving van by a few days to have an adventure before the work starts.

At the very least, hop on Google and do some research. Get out your calendar and plan family outings for after you get there to ensure that it isn’t all move and no play. Then stick to the dates you plan!

5. Plan to give back to your new community in honor of your children

Showing up to a brand new school on the first day can be kind of like showing up to a party where you don’t know anyone. Personally, whenever I show up to an event where I’m the newbie—and pretty much every event where I’m not a newbie—I never show up empty handed. 

Having your kids involved with giving back after your home closes can be a huge ice breaker for them. I love helping clients host book drives. Their new neighbors are usually happy to get them off their hands and the schools are always excited to accept the kid-friendly titles. The rest, we take over to the local library. 

My team also loves to collect bottles and cans to recycle. Then, we donate the trade-in money directly to the child’s new club. The world is pretty much our oyster, but it’s best not to ask for monetary donations—so let the creative juices flow!

Change is rarely easy. Books like Who Moved My Cheese can be beneficial, even for us adults. Relocating—especially when you’re moving with children—can be scary since you’re leaving the friends and neighborhood you know, but it can be an extremely bonding time for a family. 

From someone whose best friends are an eight-year and a five year old—yes my nieces are my best friends—we know how to make this fun.