John D. Thomas, Agent Publishing’s editor-in-chief and vice president of content strategy

My wife and I are considering moving to the suburbs, but even thinking about the prospect of relocation makes my brain shut down.

Why? It’s not because I wouldn’t be interested in looking for and finding a fresh new place to live after being in the same urban home for more than a decade. It’s that the prospect of hosting an open house is essentially inconceivable, given that we have a very active three-year-old boy. And by very active, I mean that our house looks like a giant used toy store (my son gets a lot of hand-me-downs from his cousins) that a pack of raging buffalo has just rumbled through. (The other day I saw a large, dark food stain high on a wall at a point I know he can’t reach and was befuddled about how he could have done that damage.)

Which is why I was so interested to edit and read this week’s cover package on current open-house strategies. In the end, the expert advice and anecdotes we assembled from veteran professionals helped me understand that a great real estate agent would be able to help even someone in our situation get their home in shape to show to the public. Now if we could only find an agent who is also a babysitter.