What squatters and holdover tenants have in common
The version that surprises owners most is the holdover tenant who is not a bad person and not obviously a problem. The lease ended, nothing was renewed, life carried on, and now the property cannot be sold on the open market because no document says who is entitled to be there.
That gap alone is enough to end a financed sale. It is not enough to end ours.
When squatters mean you cannot get into your own property
The part owners find hardest is the access. You are responsible for the property, the taxes, the insurance and anything that goes wrong inside it, and you cannot simply walk in to look.
We do not ask you to. We will not request that you force entry on anybody, and we do not make an interior inspection a condition of the offer. We price what we can see, assume conservatively about the rest, and tell you exactly what we assumed.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A four-bedroom on Harrison Street. A three-bedroom on Renfrew Avenue. A three-bedroom on Rosser Avenue. All of them in Elmont, all bought by us.
Elmont is roughly 37,296 people in Nassau County, ZIP 11003, and the housing stock is mostly cape cod, ranch, multi-family. Around Belmont Park and UBS Arena, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Elmont-UBS Arena 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 Elmont Union Free School District does to a resale price.
Squatters, holdovers and an Elmont buyer's lender
A buyer with a mortgage has to hand their lender a property the lender could take possession of if it ever had to. A house with squatters in it is not that, so financed offers fall away as soon as the occupancy is disclosed.
We buy with our own funds. There is nobody behind us who needs the house empty, appraised from the inside, or documented to a standard the occupancy cannot meet.
Working through Nassau County occupancy cases
We have bought Nassau County houses at nearly every stage of an occupancy problem. Before anything was filed, in the middle of a case, and after an owner had spent a year on it and had enough.
What we can give you is a clear read on which parts of your situation are ordinary, what tends to happen next, and who to call. Proceedings in New York are slow and the timeline depends on the court, so nobody should be promising you a date. What we will say is that a difficult occupant has never been the reason we walked away from a seller.
How selling a house with squatters or holdover tenants in Elmont works
- 1
Tell us where it is
Just the address in 11003 and roughly what shape it is in. It takes a couple of minutes. Leave the house exactly as it is; we do not need it tidied, photographed or fixed.
- 2
One short visit
One of us comes by once, usually for less than half an hour. On a cape cod or ranch like most of Elmont, what we look at closely is the roof, the boiler and the wiring, not the finishes.
- 3
You get a number in writing
Within 24 hours, as a written figure rather than a range or a "starting around". Take it to a Nassau County agent for a second opinion if you want to. On a house already in showable condition, listing may well beat us, and we would rather you knew that.
- 4
The date is up to you
Close quickly, or set a date months ahead to fit probate, a tenant or your own move. Either way there is no 88 to 103 days of an Elmont listing looking for a buyer and waiting on a mortgage approval.
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
These are the costs of putting a house with squatters or holdover tenants on the market through an agent. None of them apply when you sell to us.
- Agent commission
- $36,250 at 5% of the Elmont median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $14,500 on a $725,000 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- Whatever the house needs, paid up front none
- Cleanout and removal
- Paid per load, before a single buyer walks through none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities for the 88 to 103 days of finding a buyer and waiting on their mortgage none
Listing an Elmont house with an occupant in it
If the occupancy is close to resolving and the property is in decent shape, waiting and listing afterward may net you more. We will tell you when we think that is your situation.
The median house in Elmont sold for $725,000 and took about 43 days to go under contract, then another 45 to 60 days waiting on the buyer's mortgage. That is 88 to 103 days in total, for a house that was ready to show on day one. The case for selling to us is when the occupancy has no date on it, which with squatters and holdover tenants is usually the whole problem.
Common questions
Will you buy an Elmont house with squatters in it?
Yes. We buy houses with squatters in place and take the occupancy on after closing. Nobody asks you to remove anyone, fund anyone's departure, or finish a case first.
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?
We prefer it, and we work with what is possible. Not being able to get inside is one of the defining features of these situations, so we plan for it rather than treat it as a surprise.
Will the neighbors know the Elmont 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.