Harvard University is investigating its head fencing coach over financial transactions he made with the family of a current and a former student on the team, including a home sale shortly before the younger one applied to the school.

Twenty-year veteran coach Peter Brand sold his Needham, Mass., home to Jie Zhao in 2016 for nearly $1 million, hundreds of thousands of dollars above its valuation, according to the Boston Globe, which published a story Thursday afternoon detailing the home sale.

The...