Louisville and Southern Indiana real estate FAQ

As little as 0% down on a VA loan, 3.5% on FHA or 3% on some conventional loans, plus closing costs and a small reserve on top. Which you qualify for turns on your credit score, your debt-to-income ratio, and whether you or a co-borrower has served. I'll introduce you to two or three local lenders so you can compare their actual numbers before you look at a single house.

Plan on 30 to 45 days from accepted offer to closing when you are financing, plus however long it takes you to find the house.

Cash purchases can close faster because there is no lender underwriting or appraisal timeline to wait on. The part nobody can schedule is the search itself, which is why getting fully pre-approved first keeps you from losing the right house to a faster buyer.

You sign a written buyer agency agreement that states your agent's compensation before you tour homes, and that compensation can be paid by the seller, by the listing brokerage, by you, or by some combination — it is negotiated on every transaction.

We go through the agreement line by line before you sign it, and I will tell you in writing what is being offered on any specific home before you make an offer on it.

Yes — get pre-approved first, because in this market most listing agents will not present an offer without a pre-approval letter attached.

Pre-approval also tells you your real budget instead of an estimated one, which saves you from falling in love with a house you cannot finance.

Yes — I am licensed in Kentucky and in Indiana, so I represent you in Louisville and in Southern Indiana without handing you off to another agent.

Homes in the Louisville-area ZIP codes I track went under contract in an average of 31 to 75 days over the last twelve months, so plan on roughly 4 to 11 weeks to contract, plus 30 to 45 days to close.

Your ZIP code, price point and condition move you inside that range — Okolona and Highview ran 31 days, Radcliff 75. On the Indiana side the range was 28 to 47 days. Source: GLAR published market statistics, cumulative days on market, trailing twelve months to September 2026. Indiana: SIRA MLS via Matrix, closed Residential/Farm, trailing twelve months to 21 September 2026.

Your costs are the compensation stated in your listing agreement, your share of closing costs, any transfer or recording fees, and whatever repairs or concessions come out of negotiation.

In Kentucky the transfer tax falls on the seller at fifty cents for every $500 of sale price, collected by the county clerk when the deed is recorded, so a $250,000 sale costs you $250. Indiana has no comparable transfer tax but requires a Sales Disclosure Form with a $10 fee on most sales. Title and closing fees are quoted by the closing agent. We go through your net to seller before you list, so you see the estimated number that lands in your account rather than a guess.

Fix the things a buyer's inspector will flag and a lender may require — roof, HVAC, water intrusion, electrical and anything actively broken — and skip full remodels you will not recover.

I walk the house with you and we go through a prioritized list, including what to leave alone.

Mostly, yes — sold-to-list ratios across the Louisville-area ZIP codes I track run from 96.3% to 99.7%, so a well-priced home closes within a few percent of asking.

The Highlands sold at 98.0% of asking price, in line with the Louisville-wide norm, in an average of 54 days. Old Louisville sold at 96.3% with 8.42 months of inventory. Price and speed move together. Source: GLAR, closed residential, trailing twelve months to 11 October 2026. Days: GLAR published market statistics, cumulative days on market, trailing twelve months to September 2026.

Sell first if your equity has to fund the purchase; buy first only if you can qualify to carry both payments at once. When you sell first, a rent-back keeps you to one move. Your lender settles the qualifying question in an afternoon, and the timeline is built around that answer.

Median sale prices across the 30 Louisville-area markets I track ran from $159,900 in Wyandotte and Taylor-Berry to $725,000 in Prospect over the last twelve months.

That covers 11,024 closed sales. 22 of the 30 markets were up against the prior twelve months; 4 were down — Lyndon and Hurstbourne; Eastwood and Lake Forest; Mount Washington; and The Highlands. The middle of those 30 neighborhood medians sits around $313,647, but the city-wide figure is less useful than your own ZIP's. Source: GLAR, closed residential, trailing twelve months to 11 October 2026.

Your home's value is what a buyer in your ZIP code will pay for a home of your size and condition today, which I establish from recent closed sales within about a mile of you, adjusted for what your house actually has.

Request a valuation on the home value page and I walk you through the comparable sales themselves, not just a single number.

Automated estimates are a starting point, not a valuation, because they cannot see your finished basement, your new roof, your busy-road frontage or the condition of the house next door.

They also lag: they are built from data that has already closed and been recorded. A pricing opinion from an agent who has walked the house and the comps will differ, sometimes by a lot.

An appraisal is a licensed appraiser's formal opinion of value ordered by a lender for a specific loan; my comparative market analysis is a pricing strategy for a specific sale, built from the same closed sales but aimed at what a buyer will pay, not at what a lender will lend.

Only after the change shows up in public records or a listing — automated models read tax records and prior listing data, so unpermitted or unrecorded work is invisible to them.

0% on a VA loan if you are eligible, 3.5% on FHA, and as little as 3% on some conventional first-time buyer products.

Down payment assistance programs exist in both Kentucky and Indiana and change periodically, so I confirm current program terms with a lender before you count on one. Kentucky Housing lends up to $12,500 toward a down payment and closing costs; Indiana's First Step lends 5% of the purchase price and Next Home is open to repeat buyers as well as first-time ones. All of them are second mortgages you repay, not grants. Full details on the down payment assistance page.

Most FHA lenders in this market start around a 580 score with 3.5% down, and conventional products generally want 620 or higher.

If you are below that today, a lender can usually tell you the two or three specific actions that move your score enough, and how long they take.

I do, in order, before each step happens: pre-approval, search, offer, inspection, appraisal, final walkthrough, closing.

You will never be asked to sign something I have not explained, and there is no such thing as a question that is too basic.

Buying wins past roughly five years, renting wins under about two. Buying builds equity with every payment, but closing costs and selling costs need time to be earned back — under two years there isn't enough time.

Sell first, unless the community requires a deposit before your sale closes. If it does, a bridge plan with your lender covers the gap; if it does not, the sale funds the move and nothing is borrowed.

In stages: sort and remove first, then repairs, then photos, then list — trying to do them at once is what makes downsizing feel impossible.

I can refer estate-sale companies, senior move managers and haulers who work in Louisville and Southern Indiana regularly.

Federal law excludes a substantial amount of gain on a primary residence you have owned and lived in for two of the last five years, and anything above that exclusion may be taxable.

The exclusion is $250,000 of gain filing single and $500,000 filing jointly, if you owned the home and lived in it as your main residence for at least 24 months out of the five years before the sale — those months do not have to be consecutive. I am not a tax advisor; your CPA gives you the number that applies to your situation, and I give them the closing figures they need. Source: IRS Topic 701, Sale of your home.

Yes, in both Jefferson County and the surrounding counties, with different models — age-restricted ownership, patio-home associations, independent living and continuing-care campuses.

The four differ on three things: whether you own or rent, whether there is an entry fee, and what happens if your needs change. Age-restricted ownership means you buy the home and hold the deed, with an HOA handling the exterior — federal law allows the 55-and-older restriction when at least 80% of occupied units have a resident 55 or over. Patio-home and villa associations are often not age-restricted at all; they are simply low-maintenance, which is what most people are actually looking for. Independent living is rental, with meals and activities included and no healthcare attached. Continuing-care campuses charge an entry fee on top of a monthly fee and buy you a path from independent living through assisted living on one campus. I will tell you which model fits before we tour anything, because touring is where people commit emotionally.

You can sell once the estate has legal authority to transfer title, which usually means an executor or personal representative has been appointed and the court has authorized the sale if the will did not.

In Kentucky the will is probated in the District Court of the county where the person lived, and the court's order appoints the executor. In Indiana the estate opens in circuit court, and the court grants either unsupervised administration — where the personal representative can sell real estate without a separate court order — or supervised administration, where each sale needs court approval. Which one applies decides how quickly a house can be listed. The estate attorney confirms who can sign; I handle the sale from that point.

Weeks for an uncontested estate where the will grants a power of sale, and many months when the estate is contested or authority still has to be established. Which one you're in is usually clear from the will and the court file before anything is listed.

A Kentucky estate stays open at least six months so creditors can present claims, with final settlement filed after that and generally within two years. In Indiana, creditors have three months from the first published notice, and an unsupervised estate files its closing statement within a year. None of that holds up a sale — once authority is established, a house can be listed and closed long before the estate is settled.

One spouse buys the other out, you sell and split proceeds under your agreement, or one spouse stays temporarily under a court order — the decree or agreement controls, not either party's preference.

Kentucky and Indiana divide property differently, which matters when the house is on the other side of the river from your attorney. Kentucky assigns each spouse their non-marital property first, then divides the marital property in just proportions — there is no presumption of a 50/50 split. Indiana puts everything into one pot, including property either spouse owned before the marriage or inherited, and starts from a rebuttable presumption of an equal division. Your decree or settlement controls either way, and your family law attorney tells you which framework your case is in. When both parties are on title, I keep communication documented and identical to both sides.

If title passed to multiple heirs as co-owners, yes — every owner on title must sign, and where they cannot agree the attorney advises on the legal remedy.

If the property is still in the estate, the personal representative signs instead.

Remove personal property and anything hazardous, then stop — heavy renovation on an estate property is rarely recovered, and buyers for these homes expect to do work.

Same day, and usually within the hour during business hours — fast response is one of the things clients name most often in reviews.

Closed transactions, October 2020 through September 2026: 55 sides totaling $13,834,043 — 52 in Kentucky recorded in GLAR ($13,216,543) and 3 in Southern Indiana ($617,500).

More than 65 Google reviews averaging 4.9 stars.

Five things come up again and again: she answers, with calls returned day or night; patience, especially with first-time buyers; negotiation, with repeat clients crediting her with two good deals in a row; ten of the reviews are from other REALTORs, loan officers and a builder's sales representative; and clients who come back years apart. Every review is reproduced in full on the reviews page.

RE/MAX, and she is a REALTOR® licensed in Kentucky and Indiana.

Louisville and the surrounding Kentucky counties — Jefferson, Bullitt, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, Nelson, Hardin and Fayette counties, plus Madison County, Kentucky — and Southern Indiana, including Jeffersonville, New Albany, Clarksville, Sellersburg, Floyds Knobs and Charlestown.

Only with an Indiana license — Alexandria holds one, in addition to her Kentucky license, so she represents clients in Southern Indiana directly.

Jeffersonville, New Albany, Clarksville, Sellersburg, Floyds Knobs and Charlestown.

Median sale prices in the Southern Indiana towns I track ran from $215,000 in Clarksville to $440,500 in Floyds Knobs over the last twelve months, with Jeffersonville at $265,000 and New Albany at $251,625.

That covers 2,722 closed sales across 7 towns, 6 of which were up against the prior twelve months. Source: SIRA MLS via Matrix, closed Residential/Farm, trailing twelve months to 21 September 2026, searched by town rather than ZIP.

You work with an Indiana-licensed agent and an Indiana closing, and the contract forms, disclosures and closing procedures follow Indiana practice.

Indiana requires a Sales Disclosure Form signed by both you and the buyer and filed with the county auditor before the deed can be recorded, with a $10 fee on most sales. Contract forms, inspection and financing deadlines and the closing itself follow Indiana practice rather than Kentucky's. Alexandria holds an active Indiana license, so that is handled directly rather than referred out.