Moving to Gardiner, MT (Billings, Missoula: for sale, real estate, rentals)

[dam1]

My husband and I plan to move to Gardiner not later than May - sooner if our house here in Arizona sells quickly. I must admit I am somewhat concerned about the lack of available housing, at least that I can find on the internet. I have talked with 3 different realtors and get the same response - most houses sell before they are ever listed. Now I'm trying to find something that we might be able to rent until we can find a house.

Is this "word of mouth" real estate business pretty much the same across Montana or is just because Gardiner is such a small town.

We live in the mountains in Arizona so we are used to cold, wind and snow. Property here is so expensive, sales tax is so high, and my husband and I both love Yellowstone so those are the reasons we want to move.

[melissa mower]

What do you and your husband do for a living? Retired or employed? I definitely do not think houses sell before they hit the market, in fact, the flathead valley has accumulated so much inventory sellers are reducing prices. Flathead valley being greater Kalispell area. Why Gardiner??

[GiftShoppeGuy]

Originally Posted by melissa mower

What do you and your husband do for a living? Retired or employed? I definitely do not think houses sell before they hit the market, in fact, the flathead valley has accumulated so much inventory sellers are reducing prices. Flathead valley being greater Kalispell area. Why Gardiner??

Gardiner is one of the entrances to Yellowstone, and homes now, at least in our area are selling before they hit any kind of listing agencies....some of our waiting lists are pretty long, and like Missoula 20 years ago, we can't gettem built fast enough..... Don't see that Gardiner would be having a housing glut like Kalispell is having either.
I can see the money making potential in Gardiner, shouldn't have much of a problem making tourist money there if you invest properly.

I live, work and play in the Great Falls area, and word of mouth does more here than any presumed listing agency ever could..... especially these days. We here don't put a lot of faith in listing agencies that reside outside of the state.... like a full 95% of them do. The internet just doesn't do any kind of good justice to us when they present our Montana land to the world.

Word of mouth still works very well, and is preferred east of the continental divide.

[kfranken]

I accepted a job at Yellowstone NP and need rental housing in Gardiner in the next month or 2. I looked at the most recent Gardiner newsletter at

Gardiner, Montana Chamber of Commerce Weekly Newsletter (http://www.gardinerchamber.com/newsletter.asp - broken link)

but it listed no rentals.

I hear that mobile/manufactured homes/trailers are common rentals. That's fine. How do I find them if I am in AZ now?

Do you have any suggestions/recommendations re: how to find rental housing in Gardiner? Websites or newspapers that list rentals? Bulletin boards in the
city or park where people are looking for housing/housemates? Do you know any names or numbers/email addresses of people I might contact re: housing rentals?

I am clean, quiet, non-smoker/non-drinker/non-partier, no pets. I don't mind sharing housing with a housemate.

Kevin

[GiftShoppeGuy]

Originally Posted by kfranken

I accepted a job at Yellowstone NP and need rental housing in Gardiner in the next month or 2. I looked at the most recent Gardiner newsletter at

Gardiner, Montana Chamber of Commerce Weekly Newsletter (http://www.gardinerchamber.com/newsletter.asp - broken link)

but it listed no rentals.

I hear that mobile/manufactured homes/trailers are common rentals. That's fine. How do I find them if I am in AZ now?

Do you have any suggestions/recommendations re: how to find rental housing in Gardiner? Websites or newspapers that list rentals? Bulletin boards in the
city or park where people are looking for housing/housemates? Do you know any names or numbers/email addresses of people I might contact re: housing rentals?

I am clean, quiet, non-smoker/non-drinker/non-partier, no pets. I don't mind sharing housing with a housemate.

Kevin

Hopefully, we might have been blessed with a bit of luck, in that I will be actually driving through Gardner next week.

As I've said before, it's the word of mouth that gets things done around here, and upon speaking with a few of my old development friends in Missoula today, I'll be in touch with a few of their friends in Livingston while on my way to and through Gardner. These are those that have got their finger on the pulse of the area, and with you having a job in hand, I'm quite sure we'll be able to rustle up a good place for you.

There are places, they just may not be listed... As I said before... and once a friend makes the query, it's amazing just what falls from the woodwork with regard to rental or lease-options.

Some call it the "good-ole-boy" network... I just call it networking with friends to accomplish the better end... that's all.

Stay tuned

[kfranken]

Originally Posted by GiftShoppeGuy

Hopefully, we might have been blessed with a bit of luck, in that I will be actually driving through Gardner next week.

As I've said before, it's the word of mouth that gets things done around here, and upon speaking with a few of my old development friends in Missoula today, I'll be in touch with a few of their friends in Livingston while on my way to and through Gardner. These are those that have got their finger on the pulse of the area, and with you having a job in hand, I'm quite sure we'll be able to rustle up a good place for you.

There are places, they just may not be listed... As I said before... and once a friend makes the query, it's amazing just what falls from the woodwork with regard to rental or lease-options.

Some call it the "good-ole-boy" network... I just call it networking with friends to accomplish the better end... that's all.

Stay tuned

Thanks for the offer. Feel free to contact me privately if you can see my contact info. (email address or Yahoo Messenger ID) in my profile. Otherwise, I'll check this forum.

Kevin

[GiftShoppeGuy]

Originally Posted by kfranken

Thanks for the offer. Feel free to contact me privately if you can see my contact info. (email address or Yahoo Messenger ID) in my profile. Otherwise, I'll check this forum.

Kevin

I will definitely be in touch on this one.

Irony is such that I was just two jumps away from there yesterday, coming back over from Billings. If I would have jumped on the laptop yesterday, and saw this post, I would have gone the extra 55 miles to check it out for you.

Not to worry though....

I'll be down to Yellowstone next week anyway.

[kfranken]

OK. Thanks. I'll owe you big time if you find some decent housing options for me.

[kfranken]

I only want rental and can only afford rentals. There are very few rentals available, even in the fall/winter off-season. I've been very surprised. I've even had an ad in the newsletter the last 7 weeks saying I'm looking for rental housing and have had a few calls, but many were from north of Gardiner like Jardine, Corwin Springs, etc., towns even smaller than Gardiner. The few calls I've gotten from Gardiner folks have been for places that are either too big (2-3 bedrooms, and I'm single) or just run-down shacks/trailer/manufactured homes. The housing situation here is grim, and it has been this way for 20 years or so, I'm told. The houses/trailers/manufactured homes here are mostly old, falling apart, hideously ugly, and just plain disgusting. The town is definitely stuck in a past century.

It is a great place to live, if someone can find a house to live in.

Originally Posted by ridgerunner98570

There are plenty of houses for sale in Gardiner. Some are word of mouth but most get listed in the Gardiner of Chamber of Commerce newsletter. You can find it on line, just type in Gardiner Chamber of Commerce in your search engine .Same goes for rentals. It is the off season here right now but for those of you who are getting a job at Yellowstone, most of them offer houseing so ask your job recruiter. Xanterra has housing of the own but pets not allowed. The cheapest houses in Gardiner are about 175000 to 200000 for 900 sq feet. And it goes up severly from there. Gardiner is a great place to live with extremly low crime and good schools. People are friendly here like they have never met a stranger. Mostly because the population changes 1000% from spring to winter. So most everyone is new. There are a few churches here and a half a dozen bars. We have 3 local sheriffs that live here and about 5 federal rangers in town. Hence our low crime rate! This is a walking community as all the town is within a very short walk. About 15 minutes from one end to the other. Jobs are plentiful in the summer months and scarce in the winter. All in all a very nice place to live.

[montanahogrider]

Well you are right about the trailers being old and ugly. There are two units available at the Calamity Jane trailer park that I know of but they are old but the owner has remodled them. His name is Gordon Hoefer. 406 848 9462