How we help landlords sell a tenant-occupied house in Northport
The reason a tenant makes a house hard to sell is that most buyers need vacant possession and their lenders insist on it. We do not.
We buy subject to the existing tenancy and take the tenant situation on ourselves after closing. You do not serve notice, you do not start a proceeding, and you do not pay anybody to leave on our behalf. If the arrangement is undocumented, the rent is behind, or the lease ran out long ago, tell us plainly and we will price it. Those are the Northport calls we get most.
Nobody has to be moved out before we look
New York does not make removing a tenant quick, and a landlord who is already tired of the property should not have to fight that fight just to be allowed to sell.
So we do not ask. The tenant stays, the lease comes with the house, and the situation becomes ours the day we close. If you want out of being a landlord, wanting out should not require one more proceeding first.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A house on Orchard Drive. A house on Gail Court. A house on Ashwood Court. All of them in Northport, all bought by us.
Northport is roughly 7,347 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11768, and the housing stock is mostly victorian, colonial, cape cod. Around Main Street and Northport Harbor, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Northport 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 Northport-East Northport Union Free School District does to a resale price.
Non-paying tenants and holdovers
A tenant who has stopped paying makes a house nearly unsellable on the open market. A buyer with a mortgage cannot get comfortable with it, and their lender gets comfortable even less.
It does not stop us. We price the property for what it is, non-paying tenant included, and we take the arrears situation on ourselves. You do not have to chase the money first to make the house saleable, and you do not have to make them current to make the number real.
Two-family houses and the unit holding up the sale
Investors buying multi-family with financing need cooperation from every tenant: access for the appraiser, estoppel letters, paperwork that reads cleanly. One tenant who will not answer the door is enough to collapse the whole thing.
We buy with our own funds, so an occupant who will not participate slows nothing down. We take the building with the tenants it has and sort out the rest after closing.
What the two paths cost in Northport
These are the two routes open to you with a tenant-occupied house, priced against what Northport houses actually sell for.
Work it against Northport's own numbers. The median sale here is $950,000. A 5% commission on that is $47,500, and seller closing costs of about 2% add roughly $19,000. Those are costs we can cover on our side. That is $66,500 gone before anyone counts the repairs it took to get the house listable.
There are two waits in a listed sale and people usually only count the first. In Northport the median house takes about 34 days to go from listed to a signed contract. Then it waits again, typically 45 to 60 days, while the buyer's lender orders an appraisal and underwrites the loan. Call it 79 to 94 days from sign to keys, assuming nothing goes wrong.
The part worth understanding is what a signed contract actually guarantees, which is less than most sellers assume. A retail buyer with a mortgage contingency can walk away right up to the end. If they do not qualify, if the appraisal comes in under the price, if they change their mind and let the financing lapse. A share of deals die exactly there, after months of waiting, and the house goes back on the market with time on it. We are not borrowing anything, so there is no lender to satisfy, no appraisal to come in low and no contingency to exercise.
| Listing with an agent | Selling to us | |
|---|---|---|
| Sale price | $950,000 (Northport median) | Our written offer |
| Commission | −$47,500 | None |
| Seller closing costs | −$19,000 | We can cover them |
| Repairs before listing | Out of pocket | None |
| Cleanout | Yours | Ours |
| Showings | Until it sells | One visit |
| Listed to signed contract | 34 days (Northport median, once listable) | 24 hours to a written offer |
| Contract to closing | 45 to 60 days (waiting on the buyer's lender) | A date you choose |
| Total wait | 79 to 94 days if nothing falls through | Yours to set |
| Can the buyer walk? | Yes (mortgage contingency runs to the end) | No financing to fall through |
| Before repairs and carrying | $883,500 | The number we put in writing |
Assumptions: 5% commission and about 2% seller closing costs on the listing side, and both move from deal to deal. Repairs and the cost of holding the house are not deducted, since they vary by property. A well-kept house with a good agent can come out ahead of a cash sale, and if that describes yours we will say it.
What we need from a Northport landlord to make an offer
Landlords sometimes delay calling because the tenant paperwork is a mess. A lease that expired years ago, rent taken in cash, somebody who moved a relative in at some point and nobody papered it.
None of that disqualifies the house. Tell us what is true and we build it into the number. The one thing worth being straight about early is anything a court has already been asked to decide about a tenant, because that affects timing and we would rather know at the start than at the closing table.
What you do not pay when you sell a tenant-occupied house
Each of the following comes with a retail listing of a tenant-occupied house, and none of it comes with ours.
- Agent commission
- $47,500 at 5% of the Northport median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $19,000 on a $950,000 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- Whatever it takes to make it listable, paid in advance none
- Cleanout and removal
- Per truckload, before anyone views it none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities through the 79 to 94 days a listing takes to sell and close none
When listing is the better move
The honest comparison is not our offer against an asking price. It is our offer against what a tenant-occupied listing actually produces. Showings scheduled around a tenant, a lender's appraiser needing access, a buyer discovering the arrears at the eleventh hour.
Weigh that against one visit, a written number and a closing date you choose. For some Northport landlords the listing still wins, and we will tell you when we think that is you.
Common questions
Do you need to inspect the tenant-occupied units in Northport?
Ideally yes, realistically often not, and we plan for that. Show us what the tenants will allow, tell us what you know about the rest, and we price the unseen units conservatively rather than walking away from the house.
What happens to the security deposits?
They transfer at closing, handled through the attorneys in the normal way. You do not need to refund or reconcile anything with the tenant beforehand.
Can you buy if the tenant is already in a court proceeding?
Yes. A pending case does not stop a sale, it just needs coordination between the attorneys. In many cases the proceeding can carry on after closing rather than you having to see it through first.
Will the tenants find out the Northport house is for sale?
Not from a sign or a listing, because there is neither. Most landlords tell their tenants when they choose to, and if the tenancy is tense it is worth a word with your attorney about how and when.
Do I have to give the tenants notice before selling?
That is a legal question worth five minutes with an attorney, because New York rules around tenants are specific. The selling side we can answer now: no tenant has to be given notice to leave in order for us to buy.