Home Search by Schools is Unreliable

Image via Wikipedia

Did you enter a specific school into your search criteria and still missed that hot new listing last weekend? Aren’t those “search sites” supposed to make it easy for ~~the consumer~~ you?

So, last weekend I was checking the MRIS database and noticed a Vienna VA real estate listing that didn’t have any schools identified. Since I keep an eye out for my clients, I immediately recognized that it fed into a specific elementary school that some clients really wanted… but there haven’t been any houses available. (really)

Adding school info is optional

To make a long story short, we met up and took a look on Sunday. On Monday we met to put together an offer and beat another offer that also came in on Monday (not on price but an “X-factor“).

Back to the school issue.

Public School information is added by the listing agent in our MLS (MRIS)… only if they choose to. Surprised? Well if you were the seller and knew that the elementary school was highly sought after, then wouldn’t you insist that your real estate agent leverage that fact. Isn’t that why they have SOL tests? Don’t those test scores help increase property values, if you are a buyer?

But my train of thought was interrupted when a Twitter friend responded to my tweet for input yesterday, and tweeted back that she rarely adds school information because, where she works in Fredericksburg VA, they change the boundaries almost every year. Well, there goes my theory about the SOL tests!

Her reasoning is simple: if the school boundaries are changed then the buyers may be upset because their home is no longer in the Harvard ES district. Well then, I guess that I can understand her point because I wouldn’t want that buyer’s lawyer calling me up either.

Another Twitter friend, Jeremy Hart, tweeted back that his MLS in Blacksburg VA requires members to enter the public school information for each house. Well, that make sense to me too.

Home buyers need to do school research themselves

What County School System is the home in?
For example, Google “Fairfax County Public School Boundaries”.
At the school system web site, enter the property address.
Contact the school if there is a question about changes.

So what are Northern Virginia real estate agents supposed to do? Maybe just list the price, items that convey, add some photos and hope everyone will figure it all out on their own. But what does a real estate agent do about that client who insists on adding “walking distance to Harvard ES” to the listing?

Easy… add a disclaimer: “Information provided is believed to be accurate…”