“I have people who would sell their Creekside townhome if they could find something in Rafter J, and I’ve had someone in Rafter J who would sell if they could find something in Melody,” Brady said last week. “I’ve had a lot of clients who say they’d ‘love to sell and move into something new or different, but there’s nothing for me to move into.’ ”

Gillespie agreed: “There used to be people moving around the valley,” he said. “Now they can’t compete with people” — as many as half of buyers these days — “bringing cash to the table.”

A number of circumstances in a radically changed property market contribute to the problem, but the biggest is probably the hugely increased demand paired with low inventory that’s made previous worries about short supply seem laughable.

Brady said last week that there were only about 40 residential offerings on the market, houses and townhouses, from one end of the county to the other.

“Prepandemic, we thought then we had low inventory,” she said. “Now we see we had nothing to complain about.”

The crazy mismatch of supply and demand means that a person who decides to sell is throwing a pork chop into a pack of hungry dogs. There’s a fight for everything decent that comes on the market, which makes it impossible for people to make a traditional move in the market, to advertise what they own while shopping for something to suit their new circumstances. Brady thinks uncertainty about finding a new place has intimidated some people who’d like to sell into sitting and waiting. The result, she said, is potential inventory that’s locked up.

The problem has also been inflamed by the big money many people from outside the valley can bring to the market. It’s good for some sellers, but not those who hope to stay in the community.

So Brady and Gillespie are trying to match buyers and sellers in advance, doing the shopping outside the traditional public means and make deals without it being a contest.

It’s not complicated: They’ve put up a map of the valley. They have clients who’d like to sell or buy — or, often, do both. They write basic info on an index card and pin it to the map at the location of the property. The card includes what could be for sale and also what the potential seller hopes to find as a replacement. Any agent at the Compass real estate office can walk past and see the potential deals.

The system also aims to avoid another problem: In the past people, sellers and buyers, might include contingency clauses, put conditions on the timing of the sale for either parties’ convenience with timing or financing. It’s harder to do that now, Brady said, because every house that goes on the market attracts a mob of shoppers, many of whom have enough cash in hand to override any desires of the seller.

“A seller when faced with a sale contingency offer and then has a cash offer to close in 10 days, the sales contingency deal can’t complete,” she said.

“If you’re an agent working for a seller the goal is the highest price for the best terms,” Gillespie said. Faced with a take-it-or-leave it offer for a lot of cash, he said, sellers “generally take the easier way, the more guaranteed way to go.”

The matchmaker system’s biggest benefit is for locals who hope to stay locals, the agents said. Sellers can stay out of the open market and the pressure it imposes. They know for certain ahead of selling where they will go. Many people with Jackson Hole property are happy to go the old route because their idea is to move to Arizona or downvalley to Star Valley; those who hope to remain here are the primary beneficiaries of the matchmaker board.

“This gives an advantage to locals, gives them a leg up in a market controlled and taken over by out-of-town buyers in the last 18 months, two years,” Brady said. “This is helping locals stay local.”

“It makes Jackson Hole better, trying to keep people,” Gillespie said.

The agents said they’ve even seen cases in which local sellers, having found local buyers, are willing to not put the biggest profit at the top of their list. They’re including who will buy the home in their thinking and if they will live in it.

“They like the idea of it going to a local,” Brady said. “It’s important to who it goes to ... they’re willing to leave some money on the table because they want to pass the torch.”

“They might not get the premium price,” Gillespie said, “but they’re creating the premium opportunity.”

Brady and Gillespie said Compass is also offering two other programs that have traditionally been done by banks: The firm offers bridge loans to help people buy new homes, the loans backed by the price they’ll receive in selling their old place; and it also has a program called Compass Concierge, a no-cost loan, also backed by the eventual sale of their property, to be used for home improvements to make their property more marketable.

“This gives an advantage to locals, gives them a leg up in a market controlled and taken over by out-of-town buyers in the last 18 months, two years.” — Katie Brady Real estate agent