So You Want to Buy a School to Live In? We Can Help!
Should you buy a school? Buying a school can preserve history and revitalize a community; it also comes with challenges. Here’s what you need to know.
Choosing to purchase a school to use as your home can be the start of an exciting and unique journey. It can preserve a piece of history and has the potential to revitalize a community. But it can also lead to remodeling and re-zoning, which can be time-consuming and costly.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between 2021 and 2022, 755 schools were closed. While some of the buildings continued to house a school within a shared building, some of the school buildings may be abandoned and left to decline year after year.
When a school is abandoned, there is a chance that it will be put up for sale, much like many schools owned by Detroit Public Schools. In 2012, the city began selling off more than 200 vacant properties, many of which could be converted to adaptive reuse properties and turned into apartments, condos, and more, creating a unique investment opportunity.
If you’re considering buying a school as a single-family home rather than an investment property, that’s an option, too. And a more manageable one at that.
Step One: Consult with a Trusted Buyer’s Agent
Tell us a little bit about your plans (where you’re looking to buy and when you want to make a purchase), and we’ll connect you with top-rated buyer’s agents in your area. It takes only a few minutes, and it’s free.
We did some digging, talked to someone who renovated a local schoolhouse, researched the benefits of buying a school, and even dipped our toes into rezoning laws to bring you this guide for buying a school.
A new life for an old schoolhouse
When Stacie Grissom and her husband Sean, along with their son and their dog, moved back to their hometown of Franklin, Indiana, from New York City and began looking at homes, they never expected their Realtor® to tell them that the school they grew up near was up for sale for the first time since 1956.
Even though this schoolhouse in Franklin had been a residential home since 1956, when Grissom and Sean bought it, they knew it would need some love. But they were up for the challenge.
They understood that buying a school came with a unique set of challenges. Grissom says, “The price to buy the school was $175,000, and [we knew that] by the end of all the renovations, we [would have spent] a lot more than that.” The big building needed a lot of work, but the long-term project sparked their excitement.
The school held a special place for the couple. Not only was it in their hometown, but “Sean and I were on the same cross country team, and our competition course was right past the school.”
They’ve embarked on a research project to find out as much about the history of the school as they can, and Grissom even got to interview the 90+-year-old-women who used to live across the street. Grissom found out that “her parents used the school as a barn from the 40s until 1956, when it was purchased by the family we bought it from. Her family used the school to house farm equipment, turkeys, chickens, sheep, pigs, and even cattle!”
Because they lived in a school, they also wanted to have a school mascot. “We decided to make our school mascot the ‘Gobblers,’” Grissom says.
To do the project justice, Grissom and Sean enlisted the help of local experts and Grissom’s parents.
Grissom and Sean took a lot of advice and insights from her parents, who run a commercial real estate business. They were able to use their relationships with contractors and vendors to help the renovation work go smoothly.
For anyone considering buying a school, Grissom recommends “having someone who can give you advice on the long list of projects you need to line up!”
She also worked with Danny Causey, who offers conceptual architectural renderings in Franklin — you can check them out on her Instagram page, SchoolhouseHomestead. Causey helped them “design the layouts and plans for the school,” a handy step before they got architects and contractors going.
Where can I find converted schools for sale?
Finding a converted school for sale is a little more difficult than just typing “converted school for sale” into the Google search bar. It requires more digging, but if you’re really looking for one, there are ways to uncover them.
One way is to contact the school district in your area to see if they’re selling any surplus property.
You can also contact your city department or check their website to see if they have any property for sale. The City of Milwaukee, for instance, has a page dedicated to properties that are available for sale for adaptive reuse.
Other sites that provide listings for schools include:
You can also check your local real estate websites and check their commercial listings. Landman Realty in Friendship, Wisconsin, for instance, has a page dedicated to Wisconsin schools for sale.
