Smithville, Missouri 64089 · Clay County
Smithville asks for the longest drive of any market Paul works, and gives back the newest houses, the highest ownership rate and the largest lake in the Kansas City metro. Whether that is a good trade depends entirely on your week, and Paul will say so either way.
Paul Sidwell has lived in the Kansas City area since 2001 and has been licensed since 2014, in Missouri and in Kansas, with RE/MAX Revolution. Before real estate he worked in home construction and remodeling.
Smithville is the one market in his coverage where that background points forward rather than backward. Roughly seven in ten Smithville homes were built in 1990 or later, and new construction is active right now on streets like Lake Meadows, Blackhawke and the 194th Court blocks. On a new build the questions are the allowance list, the grading, the phase schedule and what the finished street will look like in three years. Paul has stood on both sides of that conversation.
He holds the Certified Residential Specialist designation along with ABR, CFSP, AHWD, CPS, RENE and e-PRO training, and he co-authored The Hidden Costs of Overpricing. His office is at 2 Victory Drive in Liberty and his practice runs across the Northland in Clay and Platte counties.
A model home is a sales office. Paul reads the allowance list, the change-order terms and the phase schedule, and he attends the builder walkthroughs so the punch list is written down by someone on your side.
Smithville sells a $289,000 builder plan and a $629,000 custom in the same month. Comparing a new build to a ten-year-old resale on price alone is how buyers overpay, and it is the subject of the book he co-authored.
Twenty-nine minutes each way is about 240 hours a year. For some households that buys a newer house and a lake. For others it does not, and Paul would rather say so before you write than after you move.
Smithville is the one market in his coverage with a genuine recreational draw. It is also a market where rent runs under one percent of value. He will show you both numbers.
Humphrey Smith, known locally as Yankee Smith, settled on the Little Platte River in 1822 and built the first water-powered flour mill in Clay County. The settlement around it was called Smith's Mill before it became Smithville, and the city incorporated in 1868.
The event that made the modern city came a century later. The Army Corps of Engineers authorized Smithville Dam in 1965, began construction in 1972 and finished the dam in 1977. Impoundment started in 1979 and produced a 7,190-acre reservoir with 175 miles of shoreline, built first for flood control and water supply and second for everything people now drive up here to do.
What followed was growth. Nearly seven in ten Smithville homes were built in 1990 or later, and builders are still platting. The result is a small city with a historic downtown on the National Register, a lake that draws more than a million visits a year, and subdivisions that did not exist when the dam was finished.
Smithville is the one market where this is the first question, not a detail.
| Buying new | Buying resale | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical range | Roughly $286,000 to $630,000 | Roughly $140,000 to $680,000 |
| What is on the market |
|
|
| What Paul checks | The allowance list, the change-order terms, the grading plan and what the phase schedule means for your street. | System ages, septic and well where it applies, the flood designation near the creeks, and permits on any addition. |
Read together those four numbers describe a market that is still appreciating while taking longer to clear, which is what happens when builder inventory and resale compete for the same buyer. Homes.com puts the trailing twelve-month median at $365,000 and average days on market at 47. Zillow's series for the ZIP ran between $373,367 in April and $405,917 in June 2026. None of those are wrong; they measure different windows.
Figures come from Redfin, Zillow and Homes.com and shift month to month. Smithville closes a modest number of homes each month and sells across a very wide range, so a citywide median is a starting point rather than an appraisal.
Paul will price your street against Liberty and Gladstone so the trade is a number, not a feeling.
Ten subjects and one hundred specifics, drawn from the public record and Paul's market notes.
In clients' own words, exactly as they wrote them on Google.
We were first time home buyers with a lot of questions. Paul was able to answer all of them, walk us through the things we didn't think to ask, as well as navigate everything with us. Kept us in the loop at all times, no matter the time or day of the week. Worked extremely hard to make sure everything was on track for closing! In the future when we buy or sell again, I'll be shooting Paul a message to get the process started again. Stellar guy!
Paul was invaluable to our search for our first home. He answered all of our questions, even ones we did not think of during the buying journey. He was very patient, knowledgable, and available throughout the process. We would definitely recommend Paul for any one looking to a buy a home.
I highly recommend Paul and his team for your next home sale or purchase! He and his team go above and beyond during the entire process and keep you in the know at every turn. He made the process as smooth and enjoyable as can be!
Redfin put the median sale price at $372,027 for the three months ending May 2026, up 5.5 percent year over year, and Homes.com puts the trailing twelve-month median at $365,000. The range matters more than the median here: recent sales have run from about $140,000 for a small in-town home to nearly $680,000 for custom acreage, and active builder inventory has listed from roughly $286,000 to $630,000. Which number applies to you depends mostly on whether you are buying new or resale.
That is a household question rather than a market one, and Paul answers it honestly. The mean commute is 28.9 minutes each way, the longest of the four Northland markets he covers, and only 10.9 percent of working residents work from home, the lowest share. Five days a week, that is roughly 240 hours a year. For some households that buys a newer house, a bigger lot and a lake ten minutes away. For others it does not, and Paul would rather say so before you write an offer.
Smithville is the one market in Paul's coverage where this is the first question. Nearly seven in ten homes here were built in 1990 or later and builders are still active, so new inventory competes directly with resale for the same buyer. New gives you warranty and nothing deferred; resale usually gives you a better price per square foot, an established lot and mature trees. What decides it is the comparison done properly, which means reading the builder's allowance list against a real resale comp rather than a brochure against a listing photo.
A 7,190-acre Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Little Platte River, the largest body of water in the Kansas City metro, with 175 miles of shoreline and about 5,000 acres of public land around it. The dam was finished in 1977 and impoundment began in 1979. It was built first for flood control and it supplies the city's drinking water. It also carries two full-service marinas, two swim beaches, 777 campsites, 36 holes of public golf at Paradise Pointe and more than 60 miles of trail, and it draws over 1.3 million visits a year.
Not as a cash-flow play, and it is better to know that going in. Zillow's rent index for the ZIP stood near $1,861 in July 2026 against a median sale price between roughly $373,000 and $406,000 that spring, so gross rent sits well under one percent of value. Add the 86.1 percent ownership rate and the renter pool is genuinely small. What Smithville offers an investor is time: appreciation plus tenants who tend to renew. The lake also makes this the one market in Paul's coverage where short-term rental demand is real, though anyone buying on that basis should confirm the city's current rules and any subdivision restrictions first.
The allowance list, the change-order terms, the grading plan and the phase schedule, in that order. Those four documents decide what your final price actually is and what your street will look like once the builder finishes. Paul reads them with you and attends the builder walkthroughs so the punch list is recorded by someone representing you rather than the seller. Outside the city's service area he also checks well, septic and the flood designation before an offer goes in.
Pricing, inspections, appraisals, probate, VA purchases, new construction and the rest of it, written out in full for the whole Kansas City Northland at Paul's Authority Center.
No cost, no obligation and no drip campaign. One conversation about your situation, your number and your timing.
A builder's lot, a resale you saw, or just Smithville against Liberty.
New against resale, and Smithville against the market you would otherwise buy in.
The drive, the price per square foot and what your street supports, in writing.