DeKALB — After 52 years housing NIU presidents, the university received an offer Monday on the property at 901 Woodlawn Drive for an undisclosed price.

The offer is not yet written in an official contract, Castle View Real Estate Agent Mary Nelson said.

The home, built in 1952, was listed at $295,000 and sits on 1.3 acres of land, Nelson said. She hosted an open house Feb. 18 for potential buyers, and an offer was made within 48 hours of the showing, she said.

“We have a verbal contract,” Nelson said. “This is unique; the university has never done this before. The question was, who signs the deed? Here’s a resolution by the Board of [Trustees] to sell the house but is that enough? [The university] is working with a local attorney to try to resolve all those technicalities.”

Nelson said it won’t take long for the potential buyer to close on the property. She said the university told her to take the property temporarily off of selling websites.

“It was a very good offer, so it’s going to be a quick close,” Nelson said. “We continued to get two showings a day and finally the university said, ‘We’re really happy with this offer; we don’t want to be wasting people’s time. Take it temporarily offline.’”

There were two inspections on the house, one on Monday and one Tuesday, Nelson said.

“We know the roof is not good; it’s in rough condition,” Nelson said.

State law requires the university to reinvest the money into improving facilities on campus. It will be used to revitalize classroom spaces and address other maintenance needs, such as roof repairs and a variety of other building improvements, according to an NIU news release.

The university declined to comment.