Casey Kempter

Your Kansas City Condo and Townhome Realtor

I live in a downtown Kansas City condo, and I sell them. If you are weighing a loft in the Crossroads against a high-rise in Quality Hill, trying to make sense of an HOA budget, or wondering whether a building will even qualify for your loan, you are talking to someone who deals with those exact questions as a resident and as a Kansas City condo and townhome Realtor. That is my niche inside Nelson Home Group, Keller Williams KC North, and it is the part of this business I enjoy most.

Condos are not the whole story, though. I am licensed in both Missouri and Kansas, and in 2026 alone my clients have closed everywhere from the Northland and Independence to Olathe, Leavenworth and St. Joseph, on everything from a $190,000 starter home to an $899,000 VA purchase in Blue Springs. First-time buyers, military families and sellers who need a straight answer on price all get the same approach.

I grew up in Johnson County and I am a Midwesterner through and through. Outside of real estate you will find me painting, showing work at a local art fair, chasing live music, or working through Kansas City’s restaurant list with my wife. We are raising two boys, two dogs and one very opinionated cat.

How I Work: Do the Homework Before the Offer

The best example of how I operate is a Liberty purchase from the summer of 2026. Garrett and Elizabeth were first-time buyers shopping on price per square foot, and the house that penciled out had just fallen out of contract. Most buyers walk away from a house like that. I asked for the previous buyer’s inspection report instead. It showed an $8,700 sewer line replacement, so we built that repair into the offer before anyone signed anything. They closed at $345,000, the seller covered the sewer line, and the appraisal came back $10,000 over the purchase price. You can read the full story here: When a Home’s Sale Fell Through: A Liberty, MO Buyer Win.

That is the pattern on every deal. Find the problem before it finds you, price it in, and let the numbers do the negotiating. Being part of Nelson Home Group means I also have a transaction coordinator, a marketing team and a team leader who is a licensed mortgage originator behind me, so nothing waits on one person.

What Buying or Selling a Condo in Kansas City Really Involves

A condo transaction has a second client in the room: the building. Before a buyer falls in love with a view I want to know the HOA’s reserve balance, whether there is a pending special assessment, what the owner-occupancy ratio looks like, and whether the association is on the approved list for conventional, FHA or VA financing. A building that is not warrantable narrows your buyer pool if you own there and narrows your loan options if you want to buy there. Knowing that on day one, rather than on day twenty of a contract, is the whole game.

The approved list is not always where you expect it, either. In 2026 I helped EJ and Deborah, a veteran couple relocating from California, buy a loft at Fountains on Broadway with a VA loan after the building came back as not VA approved. It was approved; the VA had it on file under a different street address than the one on the door. A call to the HOA, a lender change mid-contract and three short closing extensions got it done, under list price. Read the story: using a VA loan on a downtown Kansas City condo.

For sellers, condo pricing is building-specific. The right comp is the unit two floors down that closed last quarter, not the average for the zip code. I pull building sales history, factor in parking, storage and floor, and price to the buyers who are actually searching downtown right now. Whether you are buying your first place in the River Market or selling a unit in Midtown, I will walk you through it. If you are getting ready to sell anywhere in the metro, start with our guide to selling a home in Kansas City.

Condo Guides I Have Written

I write the condo and townhome content for Nelson Home Group, Keller Williams KC North, because these are the questions my own buyers and sellers ask every week. Start with these three:

• Fannie Mae’s new condo rules: what the August 2026 end of Limited Review means for financing a downtown Kansas City condo, for buyers and for owners who plan to sell. Read the Fannie Mae condo rules breakdown.
• Condo HOA fees and reserve funds: how to read an HOA budget, what a healthy reserve looks like, and the questions to ask before you write an offer. Read the HOA due diligence guide.
• Buying vs. renting in the River Market: the 2026 numbers on what a one-bedroom costs to rent against what it costs to own. Read the River Market buy vs. rent analysis.

Credentials and Production

• Licensed Realtor in Missouri and Kansas: Missouri license 2023036092, Kansas license SP00251319. Member of Nelson Home Group, Keller Williams KC North, the highest-rated real estate team on Google in the Kansas City metro.
• 2026 production: 16 closed transactions and more than $5.1 million in sales volume through August 2026, on both sides of the state line.
• Price range: closings this year from $190,000 to $899,000, including downtown and Midtown condos, suburban single-family homes and VA purchases.
• Specialties: downtown Kansas City condos, townhomes and lofts, first-time buyers, VA and military buyers (including VA loans on downtown condominium projects), homes that have fallen out of contract, and relocation buyers who found us through a Google or AI search.
• Team resources: dedicated transaction coordinator, in-house marketing, and a team leader who is also a licensed mortgage loan originator, so financing questions get answered before they become problems.

Where I Work

Downtown and Midtown Kansas City are home base, but my 2026 closings map covers most of the metro on both sides of the state line.

• Kansas City, MO: downtown, River Market, Crossroads, Quality Hill, Westport and Midtown condos, plus Northland neighborhoods. Kansas City, MO homes for sale and North Kansas City.
• Northland and Clay County: Liberty, Gladstone and Pleasant Valley.
• Eastern Jackson County: Independence, Blue Springs, Lee’s Summit and Pleasant Hill.
• Kansas side: Olathe, Overland Park, Kansas City, KS and Leavenworth.
• North of the metro: St. Joseph and the smaller towns along I-35 and US-36.

Relocating to Kansas City

A lot of my buyers are moving here from out of state, and many of them start by asking an AI assistant or Google where to live in Kansas City. If that is you, the honest answer is that downtown, the Northland and Johnson County are three different lifestyles at three different price points, and the right one depends on your commute, your budget and whether you want a yard or a rooftop deck. Start with our Living in Kansas City area guides for neighborhood-by-neighborhood research, then read the Kansas City relocation guide. Military families moving to Fort Leavenworth or Whiteman AFB should also see our veterans and VA home buying resource. When you are ready to tour, I can set up a single day that covers all three areas so you can compare them in person.

Common Questions

Can you buy a Kansas City condo with a VA or FHA loan?
Yes, if the building is approved. VA and FHA each keep an approved condo list, and conventional lenders have their own warrantability rules around owner occupancy, reserves and litigation. I check approval status before we tour so a military buyer is never told no after falling in love with a unit. I also check it twice, because the VA list is not always filed under the address on the door: in 2026 I closed a VA loan for a veteran couple on a Fountains on Broadway loft that the first search said was not approved. It was, under a different street address. Here is how that closed. For the loan side, our team’s VA home buying guide covers the details.

What should a first-time buyer know before buying a condo downtown?
Read the HOA documents before you write an offer, not after. The monthly dues, what they cover, the reserve study and any planned special assessments change the real cost of ownership more than a few thousand dollars of purchase price ever will. Our first-time buyer guide walks through the rest of the process.

Should I avoid a house whose sale already fell through?
No. Ask why first. Sales fall apart over financing and cold feet as often as over the house itself, and when an inspection was the reason, that problem has usually already been diagnosed and quoted. Get the report, price it in, and you may end up in a better position than the buyer who walked.

Do you work in both Kansas and Missouri?
Yes. I hold active licenses in both states, which matters for buyers comparing Olathe or Overland Park against Liberty or Lee’s Summit. You get one agent across the whole search instead of a referral at the state line. Our guide to buying a home in Kansas City covers how the process differs between the two states.

How do I reach you?
Call or text 913.406.9415, email [email protected], or reach the team at 816.680.6624. Meet the rest of Nelson Home Group, Keller Williams KC North. Equal Housing Opportunity.