Is BUYING in a GOOD SCHOOL DISTRICT even that important anymore?

[Shiloh Lundahl]

The reason for this post is because I often read other investors post about looking for a property in an area where they have good schools. We did that. We bought a home in Burbank, California, a very expensive suburb of LA, because the school system was rated really high compared to the other schools in nearby cities. But after a year of my wife checking our kids out of school early to take them to acting auditions, she got fed up with the annoyance of the school system (not to mention the socialistic and extreme liberal political climate of the schools in LA). So she pulled them out of school and started to homeschool them. So it really didn’t matter as much whether we lived by a good school or not at that point and we could have purchased a cheaper property that was bigger and nicer for a lot less by going just a little farther outside of Burbank.

I am starting to see a lot of alternative schooling options now-a-days, especially in Arizona where I also live and invest. Here are some alternative schooling options. You can:

• Go to your neighborhood school
• Get an exception to go to another school outside of your area (this happens all the time by the way)
• Go to a charter school
• Go to a Montessori school
• Go to a private school
• Go to an academy 
• Do online school
• Do home school
• Do a mix of online and home school
• Do a co-op school

And I’m sure there are others I’m not familiar with. So if in your listing for the property you are renting or selling you state the excellent alternative schools in the area, does it really matter which school district you buy in if the boundaries are a lot less ridged than they used to be?

What are your thoughts?

[Donald SaintVal]

It absolutely still matters, and no less than before. The number one factor for any parents when buying a home is area schools. Yes there are alternatives, but most who are searching for the alternatives are those who cannot be in their desirable school district.