As a real estate agent, you know schools play a major role in how buyers search for homes. Nearly 40% of all buyers with children under 18 are influenced by the quality of the school district in their neighborhood choice, according to the National Association of REALTORS® 2022 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

And if you’re a home buyer currently — or planning to start — searching for your home sweet home, you know the importance of understanding the quality of schools in areas where you might want to live.

Here at Realtor.com®, we know how crucial having access to data about school quality is for both agents and home shoppers alike. That’s why we built the ability to search for a home by school boundaries to help buyers narrow their search to specific elementary, middle, and high schools, a feature designed to simplify the home search process.

Being able to search for a home by school area has always been one of the top-requested features from our buyers, so we built it into our powerful home search tool back in 2017. And agents know the importance of schools on home buying decisions continues to grow. With our school search feature, it’s easier than ever for those who are already familiar with an area or community to find homes within specific district boundaries.

Let’s break down what real estate agents and home shoppers need to know about this tool.

What home shoppers need to know

When you visit Realtor.com® to start your home search, you can simply enter the name of a school into the search bar, the same way you can search for properties by ZIP code or city. You’ll then be presented with the map view and a “pin” showing the school name you searched and location, along with homes for sale within the boundaries or nearby.

School search joins a growing list of Realtor.com® enhancements including:

Inclusion of Matterport 3D virtual tours on select listings, so you can virtually walk through listings that interest you — no matter how far you are
Enhancements to local community pages, including market trends, commute times, and recommended homes, helping you get a clearer view into what the area has to offer
Integration of Yelp reviews of neighborhood amenities, including shopping and restaurants, so you can start picturing yourself in the community you’re searching

Each of these features helps you get a deeper understanding of what living in your potential community is like, going a step further than simply viewing listings based on a city or ZIP code you type in.

What agents need to know

With nearly all buyers starting their home search online, it’s no surprise they’re equipped with a deep understanding of their ideal homes and neighborhoods well before they even contact an agent. NAR’s 2022 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers found an interesting buyer trend, too: the average miles moved from their current home to their new home was 50 miles, a huge jump from the previous average of 15 miles.

These buyers are going to need to research nearby school systems, and tools like this can help empower you to give them guidance on the quality of schools in the areas they’re searching. With the search by school tool, if you have listings near a specific school, they’ll appear when buyers search for the school name. School search gives consumers one-click access to a home’s full Realtor.com® listing page.

If your clients have younger children or have voiced interest or concern regarding schools in the area, be sure to share this tool with them. It’s another powerful part of your local market expert toolkit.

Realtor.com® is here to help

We know how important finding the right school can be for home shoppers, and we know agents on Realtor.com® need to have the latest and greatest tools to make the home-buying journey seamless for their clients.

With the school search tool, active and motivated buyers can get matched with their home sweet home near the school of their choice, along with an agent that’s a local expert to help them navigate every step of the process.

To learn even more about searching for homes by school boundaries, visit our dedicated blog about it here.