STL Home Journey
George Kindler
13 Years Experience At Your Fingertips
Talk first. Then a lender. Text me the address. Walk the house for what costs money. Two numbers before every offer. Then you decide.
A conversation. We get on the phone or meet in person, usually for about an hour, and you tell me your goals, what you want in a house and where you’d like to buy. I walk you through the timeline, then email you a summary with your first prep step: talking to a lender.
Yes, before I start working for you as your agent, but not before you’re confident we’re a good fit. I always offer to walk an open house with you first. That’s an interview, not representation, so it doesn’t take a signed agreement. When we do sign, it’s at a rate that makes sense, and Missouri has required that written agreement since August 28, 2025.
Text me the address before you schedule, and I’ll tell you what I see before you give up a Saturday. At the showing, I help you spot the deal breakers before you pay for an inspection.
I’ll give you two numbers: what I think the appraiser will value the home at, and where the market will likely land, within a $10,000 range. Comps come first, concessions second. What you write is your call.
No. I’m on your timeline, and I hate hard sales tactics. It’s your purchase and you’re the one on the hook for the mortgage, so my job is to get you every piece of information I can find, then let you decide.
Answers reflect George’s own process as a licensed Missouri agent. Missouri’s written buyer-agreement requirement took effect August 28, 2025.
If you’re thinking about buying a house, I’m not going to start by sending you a stack of listings and a schedule of Saturday showings.
Finding the house isn’t the hard part anymore. You can do that from your phone. My job shows up before and after you find one you like: what you can really afford, what the listing isn’t telling you, what the house is worth, and what it takes to get it to closing.
Buyer education is my favorite part of this job. Here’s what working with me looks like.
Before you talk to a lender, we get on a phone call or meet in person. You tell me about your goals, what you’d like to find in a house and where you’d like to buy. I walk you through the home buying timeline and what to expect at each step.
That conversation usually runs about an hour. Not because I demand it, but because buyers have a lot of questions, and I love answering them. We typically cover:
Don’t sweat remembering all of it. After we talk, I send you an email that covers our conversation and your prep steps, starting with talking to a lender.
I hate hard sales tactics. I look at myself as a counseling advocate. Ultimately this is your purchase, and you’re the one on the hook for the mortgage, not me.
Because the lender tells us what you qualify for, and together we keep anything on your credit from changing that before closing.
After our first conversation, I send every buyer to a lender. The lender and I go over what not to touch on your credit and how any change would affect what you can buy. That’s why credit surprises rarely happen to my clients. Hold big purchases like a car or furniture until after closing.
Get pre-approved before we tour, keep the letter current and choose a lender whose process I trust to close on time. A deal that falls apart in underwriting costs everyone.
Then we talk about what the number means. The pre-approval amount is the most the lender will loan you under their guidelines. It isn’t necessarily what you should spend. I want you to keep six months of house payments in reserve after your down payment and closing costs, whatever the loan program requires.
By your budget, how strong a borrower you are and how much you want to compete. “Is now a good time to buy?” doesn’t have one answer. It depends on you, so I’m strategic about it buyer by buyer.
Shop in the fall, or look at homes that have been sitting.
Fall or spring can both work.
Narrow the must-haves. That does more than waiting for the perfect month.
If you also have a house to sell, the order matters. Selling first, I’d list at the end of winter. Buying first, buy in the spring and sell in the summer.
Yes. I always offer to walk an open house with you first. I’m not working as your agent there. It’s an interview, and it’s educational, the same as my YouTube videos or this site, and none of those need an agency agreement. You get to see how I look at a house before you commit to anything.
We sign a buyer agency agreement, absolutely. Missouri requires one before I start working for you as your agent. But not before you’re confident we’ll work well together, and it’s for a rate that makes sense.
Text me the address first. Before we schedule, I verify with the listing agent whether the seller is offering buyer-agent compensation, and how much. I pull the price history, days on market, the seller’s disclosure, the listing photos and the showing calendar. Five minutes with the county permit record tells me whether work was done legally. If you’re using an FHA or VA loan, many times I can tell there are going to be conforming issues before we ever set foot inside.
Then I tell you yes, it’s worth scheduling, or here’s what I’m seeing that concerns me. I tell you what I see before you give up a Saturday.
What costs money, not paint. What I’m looking for changes the moment I know what kind of house we’re walking. You’re deciding whether you want to live there. I’m looking at the mechanicals, the basement, the electrical panel and the exterior.
I decode the furnace and air conditioner serial numbers at the showing, so I know their age before the inspector does. If I see a Federal Pacific panel, peeling paint on an older house or a major foundation issue, I tell you before we write. I won’t let my buyers write an offer on a home that won’t close.
I tell every buyer: it’s your job to fall in love with the house. It’s my job to make sure you’re not falling in love with a disaster, and that you’re not spending money when you shouldn’t.
That’s why I help you identify deal breakers before you pay for an inspection. When you do spend the money, the inspector isn’t pointing out what was obvious at the showing. They’re looking at what you can’t see: the systems, the roof and under the basement floor.
And the things I find aren’t just warnings. Found before the offer, they’re negotiating tools. It changes the conversation: I’m not reacting to the inspection report, I’m prepared for it.
How much activity they’ve had, whether there are offers in hand, whether the seller is flexible on timing or terms, what issues I should know about and whether the seller is open to repairs if the offer makes sense. The moment you give me permission, I’m on the phone. Most listing agents tell you more than you expect if you ask directly.
I also want to know we’re working with a reasonable seller before we present the offer. So I make the listing agent aware of the conditions we saw at the showing and ask whether the seller is open to repairs if the initial offer makes sense. Their answer tells us a lot about how the inspection negotiation will go.
I put that next to the showing count, the days on market and the comparable sales. Sometimes the answer changes the whole offer. I once wrote an offer that looked below list on paper but won, because I found out the seller needed a 60-day close and we could give them that.
I start with the full last year of comparable sales. Then I give you two numbers: what I think the appraiser will value the home at, and what the market will likely land on, within a $10,000 range. Sometimes they’re the same. When they aren’t, the gap is what you need to understand before you write.
You will never feel pressure from me. Not to write a higher purchase price. Not to move faster than you’re comfortable with.
Comps first, concessions second. If you need concessions, I structure the offer price to account for them instead of layering them on top of an already-low number. My position is always to keep more cash in your pocket, and stale listings are a great way to do it. Days on market sets your leverage, not your opening number.
When there really are multiple offers, I’ll use an escalation clause with a hard cap. An appraisal gap guarantee is different: it can win the house, but only after I’ve asked the listing agent the right questions about the competition, and only when you have the cash to cover it. For a financed purchase, earnest money is typically about 1% of the price.
Rarely, but it can happen. I’ll be honest with you. Since the NAR settlement, your buyer agreement states what I’m paid, and you’re responsible for anything the seller doesn’t cover. In St. Louis, that’s nothing new for my buyers: since 2013, they’ve signed agency agreements with a stated amount.
It’s still very rare that a buyer pays my commission. Not because it’s guaranteed, but because the net number is what I focus on when I present the offer, not which column the debits and credits land in.
We ran into a rare seller who didn’t want to pay buyer-agent compensation, even though the net number made sense. So it does happen. But I’ve only had buyers pay it when all the numbers worked.
Once we’re under contract, I set reminders on a calendar we share and track every deadline on my end. On day one, schedule the inspection for day 3 or 4, not day 8, so the results come back with time to make decisions.
I need you to answer, too. If I’m reaching out three or four days before a deadline and can’t get a response, I can’t protect you from a waiver. Keep your credit and your bank accounts exactly as the lender saw them until after closing.
It depends on the item. Anything major, or anything that affects the loan, occupancy or moving in, gets repaired before closing. Small items can be a credit or a home warranty, and working items with nothing to fix get a home warranty.
Before that, get as many inspections as you can afford. Each one has found something that saved my clients thousands. That includes a sewer scope on every St. Louis home, whatever its age or area. A scope runs $150 to $300. A sewer lateral replacement typically runs $4,000 to $12,000 and can exceed $15,000 in some cases.
I go through every report with you before we respond. Safety hazards go to the top of the list. Here’s how I match the remedy to the item:
Major items, and anything that affects the loan, occupancy or moving in without worry. A credit doesn’t fix the problem; it makes the seller’s repair yours.
Small items you can live with for a while. A credit can make more sense than a handyman.
Working items with nothing to repair, like a dated furnace that still runs.
When I represent a buyer, I want major repairs completed before closing.
Proof of the repairs, and the wire. For any repair the seller agreed to make, I ask for written documentation before the final walk-through, not at the closing table. If something new turns up at the walk-through, call me right away.
Then the rule I give every client on every deal: before you wire a single dollar, call your title company at a phone number you looked up yourself. Not a number from an email. Verify the account, verify the amount, then wire.
Nobody caught it, because nobody called to verify. Earnest money or down payment, verify before you wire, every single time.
Yours. I protect my client, while also being transparent and fair to the other party. But representation doesn’t look like equal action or advice.
Same house, same inspection report: when I represent the seller, I’m reducing risk and making sure the deal closes, so I usually steer toward a credit. When I represent you, I’m reducing your risk and making sure the agreed repairs are done before closing. Different client, different advice.
I don’t think buying a house should require you to blindly trust your agent. It’s your purchase, on your timeline. You should know what you can really afford. You should know what I found before you toured. You should understand the two numbers behind your offer. And when the inspection comes back, you should understand why we’re asking for a repair, a credit or nothing at all.
That’s how I work.
Selling instead? Here’s how I work with sellers →
Yes. You can have your own agent, stay unrepresented, or have me represent both you and the seller with everyone’s written consent. In dual agency I keep each side’s negotiating information to myself, so I can’t push your number against the seller’s.
Your buyer agreement states the amount, and you’re responsible for whatever the seller doesn’t cover. In practice it’s rare in St. Louis for the buyer to pay it: before we look at a house, I verify with the listing agent whether the seller is offering compensation and how much, and when I present the offer I focus on your net number.
Yes. FHA and VA hold the property to a higher safety standard than a conventional loan, so I look for conforming issues from the listing and at the showing, before we write. VA buyers usually have more room to get a loan commitment than FHA buyers.
Yes. MHDC First Place and Next Step are the main down payment programs for St. Louis buyers, and they run through participating lenders, which is one more reason the lender conversation comes first.
It depends on your plan. If you’re selling first, list at the end of winter, around February. If you’re buying first, buy in the spring and sell in the summer. Either way, get approved before you decide.
Call or text me before you schedule anything. We’ll talk through what you can really afford and what I see in the house you’re looking at.
📞 Call or Text 314.435.1087
I’m not selling you a house. I’m showing you how to think about buying or selling a house.