6 steps: the first conversation, a written offer with proof of funds, attorneys on both sides, contract and deposit, title, closing. About 30 days from signing, and longer if you need it to be.
The address, a rough sense of condition, and what’s going on.
A price and terms, with dated proof of funds.
Yours reviews the contract, the deposit and title.
Customarily 5% to 10%, held by your attorney.
Where old liens and estate problems surface.
About 30 days from signing, or your date.
People who have inherited a house they do not live near. People whose agent has told them the property needs $40,000 or $80,000 of work before it can be listed. People sitting on a house that is full, 40 years of a parent’s belongings, where clearing it out is the reason nothing has happened for 2 years.
None of those require fixing before a sale. But the process is different from an ordinary listing, and knowing the shape of it is what keeps you from being taken advantage of.
A serious buyer needs the address, a rough sense of condition, and the situation: whether it is occupied, whether there is a mortgage, whether an estate is involved. That is enough to produce a number.
You should not be asked for a Social Security number, bank details, or a signature at this stage. Anyone asking is doing something other than buying your house.
A written offer should name a price, state the condition basis, state the closing timeline, and state the deposit. It should arrive with proof of funds: a bank letter or a lender letter, dated recently, naming the entity that will actually sign the contract.
Check 2 things. Undated proof of funds tells you nothing. And proof of funds naming a different party from the one on the contract tells you the person in front of you may intend to sell your contract to somebody else rather than close on it.
Then compare the offer against listing the house the ordinary way. If the difference is larger than the cost of the work plus the months of waiting, list it. That comparison is the honest test, and it is worth doing on paper. A cash sale is worth taking when the house cannot be financed as it stands, when you cannot or will not do the work, when the cleanout is the real blocker, or when certainty and timing are worth more to you than the spread. Plenty of houses fail that test and should go on the market with an agent instead. See selling to us and listing side by side.
Residential sales in Nassau County, and everywhere else in downstate New York, are handled by attorneys on both sides. Your attorney prepares or reviews the contract, holds or supervises the deposit, deals with title, and attends the closing. This is not an optional formality and it is not there for the buyer’s benefit.
Expect to pay your attorney a fee, typically a modest one on a straightforward residential sale. It is the best money you will spend in the transaction. A buyer who suggests you can skip it, or who offers to have “their attorney handle both sides,” is telling you to walk away.
At signing the buyer posts a deposit. The customary figure downstate is 5% to 10% of the purchase price, held in escrow until closing, normally by the seller’s attorney, at which point it is credited toward the price. Ours is 5%, held by your attorney, not ours. See what our offer looks like.
Deposit size is the most reliable signal a seller gets. A buyer offering $500 or $1,000 on a six-figure house is a buyer who has priced the cost of walking away, and often one who intends to sell the contract to somebody else. A buyer posting a real percentage into your attorney’s escrow has made walking away expensive, which is the point.
The contract should also state plainly that there is no financing contingency and no appraisal contingency. Without those clauses the sale does not depend on a bank approving anything.
The buyer orders a title search. This is where problems surface: an old mortgage never formally discharged, an unsatisfied judgment, unpaid taxes or water charges, a deceased owner still on the deed, a boundary or survey issue.
Most are resolvable and your attorney will handle them. But they take time, and they are the most common reason a 30-day closing becomes a 60-day closing. If you know of anything, an old lien, a sibling who was never removed from the deed, an estate that was never fully settled, say so at the first conversation rather than letting it emerge at title.
Both attorneys, both parties, and the title company. Any mortgage balance is paid off from the proceeds, taxes are adjusted to the date, the deed is transferred, and you receive the balance. 30 days from contract signing is normal for a cash purchase in Nassau County. It can be longer if you need it to be, and a buyer worth dealing with will work to your date rather than theirs.
Used properly it means 3 things: you make no repairs, you give no warranty about the condition, and the buyer accepts the property as it stands after seeing it. It should also mean, with a buyer worth dealing with, that you do not have to empty the house. Take what matters and leave everything else.
Confirm that in writing before you sign, because some buyers say as-is and still expect the property delivered broom-clean. That distinction is worth thousands of dollars and several days of work that nobody in the family wants to do.
What as-is should not mean is that the price can drift downward after the contract. A buyer who has walked the property and signed without an inspection contingency has no mechanism to reduce the price later. If one tries, that is a renegotiation, not an as-is sale.
We buy these regularly and can make you an offer. Say so at the very first conversation, including any dates you’ve been given, because the timeline changes how the closing is sequenced.
New York gives you specific protections when you sell a home in default or foreclosure, including written disclosures and a right to cancel. Those sales have to be handled through counsel from the beginning. The protections exist for your benefit, and any buyer who waves them away or urges speed is exactly the buyer those rules were written about. Read more questions homeowners ask us.
We buy across Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, and in lower Westchester, from our office in Floral Park. In Nassau that includes Floral Park, Elmont, Valley Stream, Franklin Square, New Hyde Park, Hempstead, West Hempstead, Freeport, Baldwin, Roosevelt, Uniondale, Levittown, Hicksville, Massapequa, Lynbrook and Oceanside, among others. See every town we buy in.
Tell us about the house. You’ll have a real number in writing by the end of the next business day, and no follow-up campaign if you decide against it.
Goes to offers@investngroup.com. See how selling to us works.