Why Home by School?

The “Why” behind Home by School

I met Erin a few months into her husband’s new post in the Washington, D.C. area. Erin is a military mom and had recently been through a tough experience trying to relocate her family here.

Being a Realtor®, I wanted to understand what had been so complicated.  So I asked, she answered, and I realized that even though there is a ton of available information, moving to the D.C. area – and specifically to Fairfax County, VA- was not as straight-forward as it should be.

Erin’s main challenge was to find good schools for her kids

Erin’s first order of business was to choose the right Fairfax School for her children, and then cross-reference those schools with homes that met her family’s needs.

She said that selecting schools based on her criteria was the first challenge.  There is always a lot to learn about a new school system, the Fairfax County Public School district is very big, and the facts were hard find in one spot.

The second part of the challenge was to easily cross-reference available homes for sale in Fairfax, VA within the boundary of her preferred schools.

In the meantime, I asked for the opinion of another friend of mine, Mel, who is also a frequent relocator

Obviously, I hit a hot button because she said:

“I get so fed up with insisting that we have to live within X school district, and I don’t care how nice that house is, it’s outside the district and why am I wasting my time on houses that don’t qualify”

So a group of us got together and decided to help out people like Erin and Mel with their relocations

Home by School was born

• First, we compiled lots of info
  We worked on compiling publicly-available school facts in one spot; facts such as special programs, scores, and rankings.
• Then, we created a home search by school app
  Most real estate websites which link homes to a school match them using a zip code or a postal city. In most cases, this kind of matching is better than nothing, but it is not an accurate cross-reference.
  Ours is a different kind of search – it displays available homes for sale within a school boundary*.
• Last but not least, we focus on helping you
  We took our personal knowledge of the area and focused it toward becoming school boundary specialists. After all, we have the inside scoop; we either have kids in school, or our kids recently graduated, or we live within a school boundary.  Our focus is in knowing where the boundaries are, and everything else that goes with it such as commuting options, public transportation, shopping, parks, etc.

But there is a downside –

As Realtors®, we aren’t allowed to offer advice regarding schools. The Fair Housing Law prohibits the practice of “steering”, which basically prevents us from to recommending one school over another (or one zip-code over another, for that matter…).

The good news is that it’s perfectly o.k. to compile publicly-available information and present it in one place

So if you want to compare schools, we’ll be happy to help as much as we can by pointing you to the facts, and then wait for you to make an informed decision.

In short, Home by School was created to help relocating people select a school, then find a home or sale within that school boundary, and enjoy specialized help tailored to their needs.

If you think we can help you with your relocation, we would be happy help

You can start by reading our blog, or feel free to contact us if you have a questions.

Me and my
future diving buddy

P.S. Feel free to browse through the blog…