Many customers and clients ask their real estate agent about the local school district as part of their search for a new home. While this seems like an easy conversation for the real estate agent, its not. There are a lot of discriminatory undertones to this conversation and real estate agents need to self-protect while answering questions. Remember, the Fair Housing Act prohibits racial steering, among its aims to provide equal access to protected classes of purchasers / renters.

Still further, boundary lines are confusing and often may result in a trickier situation than is appreciated by both the buyer and their agent; particularly when the home for sale is not being sold by a family with school aged children who would know.

Regardless, the best real estate agents know to refer their customers and clients to third-party sources when things can get hairy and instead focus on the introduction of the parties and the negotiations. This is particularly true in the modern age of the internet where websites have far more data than a real estate agent could possibly remember. So, a great agent will just provide their customers / clients with the names of the websites.

Do you want to know where to send your customers and clients when they ask you about schools?

Sure you do; try these:

1. National Center for Education Statistics: Federal entity that collects and analyzes data related to education. Use the NCES's School Search tool to learn about public schools, private schools, colleges and public libraries near any house anywhere in the US. Interestingly, this tool will provide your clients with the race / ethnicity of students without having to touch on this discriminatory topic. You will also learn such important information as total district students, total classroom teachers and student/teacher ratio.  
2. Greatschools: Non-profit that supports families to champion their children's education. Use the Greatschool's Moving With Kids tool to learn the best children's books on moving, how to have a Plan B!, imagine your ideal school, consider your child's needs and to learn about traditional school alternatives. Also, and similar to NCES's School Search, Greatschools offers such a Find a School feature and it offers many of the same quantitative data as the NCES, but also gets qualitative with reviews by people in the community, which will really hit home to your customers and clients. 
3. SchoolDigger: A project by Claarware LLC, a software development shop, which should be the go to place for district boundaries for schools as their maps just make it so easy. Once you find your area on their interactive map you can click on the school you believe to be applicable to a given area and check their boundaries to see what areas are included in the district. However, knowing the difficulties that boundary lines bring to any question, the site has an important disclaimer that "Not all boundaries are included". So, make sure to check the seller's tax bill to be sure what school district goes with the property. 

Breslin Realty, welcome to Center Moriches; we at Lieb School and Lieb at Law are glad to be your neighbor. On their website, Breslin offers its site plan to bring big box retail to the quaint Moriches community.

While many may dislike the thought of big box retail in such a historic community in their initial gut reaction, this project should be viewed positively as it offers life to a very dead downtown that should benefit from some out-of-town traffic and life. More so, Breslin knows the community's unique character and seems to be embracing our culture with their marketing efforts. Specifically, the site plan's comments read as follows:

"Being one of the Gateways to the famous Hamptons of Long Island, this site affords major big box retailers the unusual opportunity to capitalize on one of the most sought after markets on Long Island. The location enjoys a non-competitive advantage on the South Shore, due to lack of developable, zoned retail properties; and due to the access from Sunrise Highway and Montauk Highway, your customer can access the site within minutes of Southampton, as well as the Moriches and surrounding trade areas."

We guess the secret of Center Moriches' marvelous location, being situated as the Gateway to the Hamptons, is out and more and more people will want to share in our pristine waterfront properties and striking downtown charm.

Welcome Breslin!

Many look with envy at the good fortune of the broker, who reaps a large pot from simply introducing the parties to the deal, but to those who do not live in his shoes, think this:

"[A] broker is never entitled to commissions for unsuccessful efforts.

The risk of failure is wholly his.

The reward comes only with his success.

That is the plain contract and contemplation of the parties.

The broker may devote his time and labor, and expend his money with ever so much of devotion to the interests of his employer, and yet if he fails, if without effecting an agreement or accomplishing a bargain, he abandons the effort, or his authority is fairly and in good faith terminated, he gains no right to commissions.

He loses the labor and effort which was staked upon success.

And in such event it matters not that after his failure, and the termination of his agency, what he has done proves of use and benefit to the principal.

In a multitude of cases that must necessarily result.

He may have introduced to each other parties who otherwise would have never met; he may have created impressions which, under later and more favorable circumstances, naturally lead to and materially assist in the consummation of a sale; he may have planted the very seeds from which others reap the harvest; but all that gives him no claim.

It was part of his risk that failing himself, not successful in fulfilling his obligation, others might be left to some extent to avail themselves of the fruit of his labors."

This is the life of a broker as articulated by NY's Highest Court in the case of Sibbald v. Bethlehem Iron Co. in 1881, which remains true to this day. A broker deserves everything he gets as he must live in an all or nothing world. Here is to the broker who makes the deals happen!