What we take on when a house needs work
Most owners facing a list of repairs have been handed numbers by contractors with an interest in the job being large. We price repairs every week, at contractor rates, on houses we own.
So the most helpful thing we can do is give you a realistic read: which repairs genuinely need doing, what they cost at trade pricing against what you would be quoted retail, and whether the Hempstead market will return that money. Then a written as-is number, so you can compare the two paths properly instead of guessing at one of them.
What selling as-is actually means with us
No repairs, no cleaning, no staging, no painting, no landscaping, no cleanout. You do not make the repairs and you do not credit us for not making them.
The number we put in writing already accounts for every repair the house needs, because we have already priced them. That is the difference between an as-is offer from somebody who does this work daily and an as-is offer from somebody who will discover the repairs later and come back to you about them.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A six-bedroom on Princeton Street. A five-bedroom on Flint Avenue. A three-bedroom on Carolina Avenue. All of them in Hempstead, all bought by us.
Hempstead is roughly 59,169 people in Nassau County, ZIP 11550, and the housing stock is mostly colonial, cape cod, tudor. Around Fulton Avenue and Main Street, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Hempstead 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 Hempstead Union Free School District does to a resale price.
Making the repairs and listing, or selling as-is?
The pitch for making repairs first is always the finished price. What gets left out is everything between here and there: the money for the repairs, the months while the work runs, the taxes and insurance and utilities through those months, and the commission at the end.
Run all of it before you commit. On plenty of Hempstead houses the repair route genuinely wins, and we will tell you when yours is one of them. On plenty of others the arithmetic is far closer than the contractor's quote made it look.
Why the same repairs cost us about half what they cost you
A homeowner making pre-sale repairs is the most expensive buyer of construction there is. One job, retail materials, and a contractor pricing in the hassle of a small project for a client who has never managed one.
We sit at the other end of that. Steady volume means contractor pricing on materials and crews that stay busy, so the same repairs run us about half. We would rather explain that plainly than pretend an as-is offer is generous for reasons we cannot account for.
How selling a house sold as-is in Hempstead works
- 1
You give us the address
The street address in 11550 and a sentence or two about the condition, by phone or the form. No photos needed, and nothing has to be cleaned or repaired first.
- 2
We walk through it once
A single visit by one person, normally under thirty minutes. With a colonial or cape cod built when most of Hempstead was, the roof, heating and electric matter far more to us than the kitchen does.
- 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 Nassau County agent. When a house is ready to list as it is, listing can beat us, and we would rather you knew.
- 4
Closing happens on your date
If you need it done quickly, it can be. If probate, a tenant or a move means waiting, we wait. What you skip is the 102 to 117 days a Hempstead listing usually spends on finding a buyer and then on that buyer's lender.
Repairs worth making before a Hempstead sale
Sort the repairs into two piles. One pile is the work that keeps a mortgage from being approved: roof, structure, active leaks, electrical that will not pass, sometimes heat. The other pile is everything a buyer would simply prefer.
If you are selling, the first pile can be worth funding and the second almost never is. Even the first pile only pays off if you can get those repairs done at a sensible price, which is the part a homeowner has the least leverage over.
Old stock, tired mechanicals, and why none of it puts us off
Owners frequently apologize for the condition of a house before we have even looked at it. There is no need. A Hempstead house of that vintage needing repairs is the normal case rather than the exception.
What we are actually assessing is scope: which repairs are cosmetic, which are structural, and whether there is a water problem sitting behind any of them. None of those answers make us walk away. They set the number.
What you do not pay when you sell a house sold as-is
Every line below is a cost of listing a house sold as-is the retail way that simply does not arise here.
- Agent commission
- $33,000 at 5% of the Hempstead 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
- Per truckload, before anyone views it none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities across the 102 to 117 days it takes to find a buyer and then wait on their lender none
Price the house before you fix it
A written as-is offer is free and it takes one visit. Get it before you sign a contractor's proposal, not after.
With both numbers in front of you, the decision is arithmetic rather than a feeling. Repairs plus carry plus commission, set against a cash figure available now. Plenty of Hempstead owners look at the two and decide to make the repairs, and that is a perfectly good outcome. The mistake is committing to the repairs without ever seeing the other number.
Common questions
Can you sell a house as-is?
Yes. Selling as-is means the buyer takes the house in its current condition and the seller makes no repairs and gives no repair credits. We buy Hempstead houses that way every time. What as-is does not change is what the law asks a seller to disclose. Your attorney will tell you what applies to your sale, and nothing about selling to us changes that.
How bad does a Hempstead house have to be before you walk away?
We have bought houses that needed taking back to the studs and a few that needed demolition. The scale of the repairs changes the number, not whether we are interested.
Should I get my own inspection?
Not on our account. If you already have a report, show us and it saves a little time. If you do not, spend the money elsewhere, because we will be assessing the repairs ourselves anyway.
Will you ask for a credit for the repairs after the inspection?
That pattern exhausts sellers and it is not ours. We look once, we price the repairs once, and the figure we put in writing on a Hempstead house is the figure we close at.
Would I do better making the repairs and listing?
It happens, particularly when the repairs are cosmetic and the Hempstead market is moving. It happens less often when the repairs are structural, or when the money has to be borrowed. We will give you an honest read either way.
Can you point me to a contractor if I decide to make the repairs?
Yes. We work with trades across Nassau and Suffolk constantly, and we are glad to point you at people who do good work at fair prices, even when the outcome is that you list the house instead of selling it to us.