near - doesn't restrict itself to tangible things. death can be near, for instance.
near-by - usually refers to tangible things: a subway station, a school, etc.
near by - I don't think that exists in this context.
close-by - I've never come across it with a hyphen
close by - to keep someone close by, ganz in der Nähe halten
close to - in proximity to. the cschool is close to a train station
close - nahe. We've walked for hours; are we at least close?
near to - very close in meaning to "close t."
by - in der Nähe von (eventuell): The crayon is right by your hand.

I hope this helps a bit.

Danke, sehr sogar! Thank you, very much indeed!

Benutzt man near-by mit "to"
Beispiel:
The house is near-by to a school oder
The house is near-by a school

Mit gleicher deutscher Bedeutung hat LEO:
Siehe Wörterbuch: near by
und
Siehe Wörterbuch: nearby

Ich habe aktuell vor mir eine Spezifikation, deren US-Autoren im englischen Ursprungstext mehrfach mit Bindestrich schreiben "near-by" oder
Siehe Wörterbuch: close-by

aber:

[...]
near by - I don't think that exists in this context.
close-by - I've never come across it with a hyphen
[...]

#1Verfasserdude

Muss LEO da aufgeräumt werden?

Benutzt man near-by mit "to"
Beispiel:
The house is near-by to a school oder
The house is near-by a school

Here you would say simply "The house is near a school."

Actually, "nearby" is more an adverb or adjective than a preposition:

"My house is on Main Street and her house is nearby."
"The fire spread from the school to the nearby houses."

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nearby