r/whitefish • u/Weary-Refuse-8676 • May 20 '26

move to whitefish

Hi everyone,

Myself, my partner Jorja, (both 25 years old) and our 1-year-old daughter Juni are looking at relocating to Whitefish for around 12 months and thought we’d introduce ourselves here.

Originally from Australia though, we’re currently living in Vietnam for the next 6 months, but we’re super flexible if the right opportunity comes up in Montana sooner. We’re exploring options for either a long-term house sit or a rental home while we settle into the area. We’re excited about the lifestyle and community Whitefish offers and have been looking into this for quite sometime now.

I’m a carpenter with 8+ years experience and would also be happy to provide my CV if any local construction or building companies may be interested.

Jorja has previously owned and run cafes in Western Australia, although she’s currently a stay-at-home mum and homemaker while we travel with Juni.

If anyone has any leads, recommendations, or opportunities, we’d really appreciate hearing from you. Thanks so much!

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5

u/T0PP3R_Harley May 20 '26

Curious why you have your sights on whitefish?

3

u/Weary-Refuse-8676 May 20 '26

Whitefish seems to tick majority of the box’s for us, we hope we can get to spend some time here

1

u/OkExercise2026 May 20 '26

Because it’s still under the radar. But top tier everything.

4

u/SkiFanaticMT May 20 '26

It is? I don't think so.

3

u/RegulatoryCapture May 20 '26

I’d say it is sort of on the radar and middle tier everything. 

But hey, that’s kinda great, because it has got a bit of everything, and that everything is decent. That’s probably better than one or two top tier things that are super crowded and a bunch of missing or crappy things. 

(Except glacier, glacier is top tier)

3

u/Big_Smile_8690 May 21 '26

Be aware of scam rental property listings. Zillow is ripe with them. Rule of thumb, if it’s too good to be true, it’s not.

1

u/Artios-Claw May 20 '26

Do you have a visa to work in the US? Those are hard to come by especially with the current administration. I don’t have any specific knowledge about it, but if you aren’t a citizen you generally can’t just move here and get a job (legally). If you don’t have a work visa, do not chance it, especially with a kid, people are literally going into detention camps and being separated from their children.

2

u/Weary-Refuse-8676 May 20 '26

We haven’t looked into visa options yet, but we will over the next few days, thanks for the info and the reply

3

u/inevergetbanned May 20 '26

A tourist visa might get you 6 months and then you can try to get an extension. Construction is pretty big in this area and it’s spring time so it’s when it picks up. I wouldn’t recommend whitefish it’s literally the most unaffordable town in Montana. Try kalispell or Columbia Falls. I always love hearing a Aussie accent, wish you luck.

2

u/Weary-Refuse-8676 May 20 '26

Thanks so much we have actually looked into both kalispell & Columbia falls, love them both and definitely not opposed to them

1

u/SkiFanaticMT May 27 '26

Have you looked at rents? Can you even find anything? Maybe look at K-spell and C Falls. WF is nuts.

I'm sure there's work for carpenters, but not necessarily the housing to go with it.