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 Huntington 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.
Selling a Huntington house without making any repairs
The repairs stop being your problem the moment we agree a price. We are buying the house in the condition it stands in today, and the offer reflects exactly that.
What we will not do is what a retail buyer usually does: agree a price, send an inspector, then come back with a list of repairs and a demand for a credit. The repairs were in our number the first time. A Huntington seller should be able to plan around a figure that does not move.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A five-bedroom on Broadview Drive. A house on Harmon Drive. Both in Huntington, bought and paid for by us.
Huntington is roughly 19,474 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11743, and the housing stock is mostly victorian, colonial, tudor. Around Heckscher Museum of Art and Paramount Theater, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Huntington stop pulls buyers who commute, which supports the good houses and does very little for the ones that need a roof. We have been buying across Suffolk County for 15+ years. We know what the Huntington Union Free School District does to a resale price, which blocks still have oil tanks in the ground, and what a house like yours is actually worth here.
The repair-then-list arithmetic on a Huntington house
There are two prices for any house that needs repairs: what it fetches today, and what it might fetch once the repairs are done. The gap between them is not profit. That gap has to cover the repairs, the time, the carrying costs, and the risk that the work uncovers something worse.
That last risk is real on older Huntington stock. Opening a wall to fix one thing regularly finds two more, and a homeowner funding repairs out of pocket has no cushion for it.
How we can profit on repairs a Huntington owner would lose money on
We run millions of dollars of construction a year. That buys materials at contractor pricing and keeps crews working steadily rather than bidding for one-off jobs, and the result is that the same repairs cost us roughly half what a homeowner pays to have them done.
That is the whole reason this works. A homeowner paying retail for pre-sale repairs usually cannot recover the cost out of the sale price. We can do the identical work for about half and still leave room in the number, which is why we can buy a house that needs repairs nobody else wants to take on.
How selling a house that needs repairs in Huntington works
- 1
You tell us about the house
An address in 11743 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
We come and look at it
One visit, one person, usually under half an hour. On a victorian or colonial of the age most of Huntington was built, we are mainly looking at the roof, the boiler and the electric rather than the kitchen.
- 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 Suffolk 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
You pick the closing date
Fast if you need fast, or months out if you are waiting on probate, a tenant, or somewhere to move to. Either way you skip the 83 to 98 days a listed Huntington house spends finding a buyer and then waiting on that buyer's mortgage.
Lender repairs versus pretty repairs
The repairs that matter to a sale are the ones an appraiser or an underwriter will flag. Everything else is a negotiation about taste.
Walk your list with us and we will tell you which is which. What we will not tell you is that every repair pays for itself, because it does not. A homeowner paying retail for repairs and recovering them at market rarely comes out ahead, and anybody promising otherwise has work to sell you.
The kind of houses Huntington actually has
Huntington is largely victorian, colonial, tudor stock, much of it built long enough ago that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. Boilers, wiring, roofs, and one bathroom last touched decades ago.
That is ordinary here, and none of it is a reason for us to walk away. Houses of that age come with repairs attached. We have bought plenty of them in Suffolk County and we price the repairs rather than react to them.
What you do not pay when you sell a house that needs repairs
Every line below is a cost of listing a house that needs repairs the retail way that simply does not arise here.
- Agent commission
- $46,750 at 5% of the Huntington median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $18,700 on a $935,000 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- Whatever the house needs, paid up front none
- Cleanout and removal
- Per truckload, before anyone views it none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities across the 83 to 98 days it takes to find a buyer and then wait on their lender none
Price the house before you fix it
Whatever repairs you are about to commit to, get a written as-is figure first. It costs nothing and it gives you the one comparison that matters: what the house is worth today against what it might be worth after you have spent the money and the months.
Sometimes the repair route clearly wins and we will say so. What you should not do is discover afterward that a large check written for repairs moved the sale price by rather less than the check.
Common questions
How bad does a Huntington house have to be before you walk away?
There is no condition threshold. Repairs are a line item for us rather than a decision point, because we do this work constantly. Tell us the worst of it and we will still come and look.
Should I get my own inspection?
You are welcome to, but you do not need one for us. We price the repairs ourselves, and we are not going to use an inspection to renegotiate after the fact.
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 Huntington house is the figure we close at.
Would I do better making the repairs and listing?
Sometimes, and we will tell you when we think so. It depends on which repairs, what they cost you at retail, and whether the market rewards them. Get the as-is number first so you are comparing two real figures.
Can you point me to a contractor if I decide to make the repairs?
We can. If you decide the repairs are worth making, we would far rather you used somebody reliable than whoever answers the phone first. Ask us and we will tell you who we would call.