What we see in Lindenhurst occupancy cases
Owners describe a surprising variety of the same problem. A tenant whose lease ended two years ago who still sends something occasionally. A relative of a former tenant who stayed after the tenant left. People who moved into a vacant house nobody was watching closely.
We have bought houses out of all of those. The label matters to a court and to your attorney. To us it is a set of facts that goes into the number.
Making an offer on a Lindenhurst house we cannot enter
We make offers on houses with squatters that nobody has been inside for a long time. That is normal work for us rather than an exception, and it is a large part of why owners in this position call a cash buyer first.
Give us the outside, the age of the property, whatever you knew about the condition before the occupancy began, and anything you have been told since. That is enough for a written number.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A three-bedroom on Palm Street. A three-bedroom on Easton Street. A house on Venetian Boulevard. All of them in Lindenhurst, all bought by us.
Lindenhurst is roughly 27,148 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11757, and the housing stock is mostly cape cod, ranch, hi-ranch. Around Wellwood Avenue and Montauk Highway, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Lindenhurst stop pulls buyers who commute, which supports the good houses and does very little for the ones that need a roof. We know which of these streets take water, where the older systems fail first, and what the Lindenhurst Union Free School District does to a resale price.
Listing a house with a holdover tenant still in it
There is also what a listing does to the situation itself. Photographs online, a sign on the lawn in Lindenhurst and strangers arriving on weekends is not a sensible way to handle a property with squatters in it.
We do none of that. One conversation, a written number, and nothing that announces anything to anybody.
Working through Suffolk County occupancy cases
The first thing worth having is a landlord-tenant attorney who does this work regularly, and we know who they are on Long Island. Whether you sell to us or not we will make that introduction, because the law here is specific and good advice early changes what the situation costs you.
The second thing is a genuine option. We buy houses with squatters and holdover tenants in place, close on your date, and take the occupancy on ourselves. You are not asked to resolve anything first.
How selling a house with squatters or holdover tenants in Lindenhurst works
- 1
You tell us about the house
An address in 11757 and a rough idea of condition. Two minutes on the phone or the form. We do not need photographs, a clean house, or anything fixed first.
- 2
A quick look in person
We visit once and it rarely takes more than half an hour. On the cape cod or ranch houses that make up most of Lindenhurst, we check the roof, the boiler and the electric before anything cosmetic.
- 3
We put a figure in writing
You have a written number within 24 hours, a single figure rather than a "somewhere around". Feel free to check it with a Suffolk County agent. When a house is ready to list as it is, listing can beat us, and we would rather you knew.
- 4
You choose when to close
Soon, or months away if probate, a tenant or your next move has to come first. You also avoid the 76 to 91 days a listed Lindenhurst house typically takes to find a buyer and get through the buyer's mortgage.
If a holdover proceeding has already been started
A pending case does not prevent a sale. It needs coordination between the attorneys, and in many situations the proceeding carries forward after closing rather than the owner having to finish it.
Tell us what has been filed, when, and where it currently stands. Your attorney and ours work out the sequencing between them. Owners are frequently relieved to learn that reaching the end of a holdover case is not a prerequisite for getting out.
What you do not pay when you sell a house with squatters or holdover tenants
Every line below is a cost of listing a house with squatters or holdover tenants the retail way that simply does not arise here.
- Agent commission
- $33,000 at 5% of the Lindenhurst median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $13,200 on a $660,000 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- The work it needs to show well, out of your pocket first none
- Cleanout and removal
- Charged by the truckload, and done before the first showing none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities while you spend 76 to 91 days finding a buyer and waiting for their loan none
Listing a Lindenhurst house with an occupant in it
The median house in Lindenhurst sold for $660,000 and took about 31 days to go under contract, then another 45 to 60 days waiting on the buyer's mortgage. That is 76 to 91 days in total, for a house that was ready to show on day one. That assumes a property that shows well and can be handed over empty. A house with squatters in it can do neither, which is why these listings tend to sit and then sell to a cash buyer anyway.
You can start at that point rather than arrive at it in four months with days on market attached to the house.
Common questions
Will you buy a Lindenhurst house with squatters in it?
That is work we do regularly. Tell us what you know about who is in there and how long they have been there, and we will put a written number on the house.
My tenant's lease ended and they will not leave. What now?
That is a holdover situation, and the first call is a landlord-tenant attorney, because the New York rules here are specific and they change. We can give you a name. Alongside that we can make you an offer on the house as it stands, so you can see both roads at once.
How long does it take to get somebody out?
Longer than owners expect, and that is the honest answer. Proceedings in New York are slow. If the uncertainty is the part you cannot live with, selling moves it off your side of the table entirely.
Do you need to get inside before making an offer?
No. We make offers on houses we have not been inside regularly, and we will not ask you to force access on anyone. We price conservatively where we cannot see and say clearly what we assumed.
Will the neighbors know the Lindenhurst house is being sold?
Nothing about the sale is public until it closes. That matters more than usual here, because a property with squatters in it does not need the extra attention.