Public boards of education in Atlanta, New York City, Chicago and other large markets tend to assign school districts by home address, putting the onus on prospective buyers to select the right neighborhoods to set their children up for academic and social success.
Complicating the situation: There are limited numbers of homes for sale in certain areas, especially in low- to mid-price points.
"If you get a good house in a good school district, bang, it's going to be gone," Douglas Rill, broker of Century 21 America's Choice in West Palm Beach, Florida, said in an interview.
Ask to tour the schools, meet with leadership
Before buyers even start looking for homes, they should allow enough time to research schools and school districts, according to Wendy Williams, founder of Williams Educational Consultants in Atlanta.
Parents can compile information online about a particular school's record on academics, transportation, diversity, extracurricular activities and advanced placement and foreign language courses, Williams said in an interview.
A school's academic performance over the past five or 10 years usually foreshadows future success, she said. "If you're pretty strong, you're probably going to get stronger."
Asking to tour schools in person and meet with faculty and officials, if possible, is an important part of the decision process, according to Williams and Ron Phipps, a broker at Compass in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Vermont.
During those meetings, officials can address the school's safety record, security protocols, and anti-bullying policies, among and other topics.
Find out the costs involved for sports and other activities. Also, plan to attend a basketball game or a music recital at the school.
"It may not be your child's favorite activity, but you can see the people," Williams said.
Employ other ways to get information
In Florida and other states, once buyers have identified suitable schools, their real estate agents can search for them by name in the local Multiple Listing Service, Rill said. MLSs feed online home search platforms.
But "providing school quality information can be a minefield of fair housing pitfalls and steering," the National Association of Realtors warns agents.
Cognizant of that, agent David Canaday of Watkins Real Estate Associates in the Atlanta metropolitan area, said he first refers clients to specific school rating websites. He also provides contacts at schools and school districts and helps arrange meetings with educators who work with special needs students.
Other good resources, he said, include homeowner associations, neighborhood social media groups and community chat rooms. They should be able to give first-person accounts of school culture, teacher quality, transportation, support of special-needs students and after-school programs.
It's natural to seek advice from friends or family members whose children have experience at a particular school but be sure to factor in their potential biases, Phipps said.
If parents don't have the luxury of time to properly vet schools in a new area, they may want to consider renting for six months or a year so they don't feel pressured to make a rushed decision, Williams said.
Buyers set on a specific home in a lower-rated district may want to consider charter, magnet or private schools, Rill said, because those may not require students to live within specific boundaries.
Be prepared for changes
Even if it all works out and a buyer finds the right home near the right public school, it's not necessarily a permanent arrangement, industry observers warn. School boundaries may change. Still, such shifts are rare and almost certainly wouldn't happen without public input, Rill said.
Despite all the research they may do, buyers need to accept that there are no perfect homes and no perfect schools, according to Phipps.
"Life is a matter of choices," he said. "It's 'How do I prioritize my family's needs?'"