People buy homes for all sorts of reasons — fenced yards, fireplaces and big master bedrooms. But, as many parents can attest, those factors often take a back seat to the school zone where the house is located.
Now, thanks to a new search tool from Redfin, parents can find their dream homes in the school zones where they want their kids to get an education. (It’s not just for parents mind you, with homes in top school zones showing higher overall values).
With the new search function, home shoppers can search for properties in specific school zones.
“…If parents have their hearts set on junior going to Garfield High, they can see all the homes for sale served by Garfield, as well as sign up for alerts that let them know when a new listing comes on the market in the specified school zone,” says Redfin spokeswoman Jani Strand. She said the company prioritized this feature because of a number of requests from customers.
The new search function — which allows home shoppers to search by school name — is available in the 19 markets in the U.S. where Redfin operates. To get started, users click the school icon and then peruse homes for sale within that school’s boundaries.
If this all sounds familiar, you may recall that Seattle online real estate startup Estately launched a school zone search feature 15 months ago. Like Redfin’s new service, Estately CEO Galen Ward said that home shoppers can get email alerts on homes for sale in specific school zones.
“We are proud to have pioneered school search,” says Ward. “We are accustomed to many of our features getting adopted by the competition. It’s fine, we just keep moving faster.”
