What happens to a listing when the system fails
The frustrating part is the gap between the problem and the reaction to it. A cesspool is a solvable piece of work, done by contractors who do it every week, and yet it clears a room of retail buyers faster than almost anything else.
That is because nobody in a conventional sale can size it. The seller does not know, the buyer does not know, the agent does not know, and the only way to find out is for somebody to spend money. So the deal stalls over the cesspool, and stalled deals rarely restart.
What we take on when the system has failed
The useful thing we bring to a failed cesspool is proportion. Homeowners get handed a figure by the first company they phone, assume that is the figure, and make a decision about their house on the strength of it.
We do this constantly. We can look at the age of the house, the lot, where the system sits and what the ground is like in that part of Suffolk County, and form a realistic view of what the cesspool actually needs. Sometimes it is smaller than you were told. Tell us what happened and we will tell you plainly what usually comes next.
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.
Replacing the cesspool first is usually the expensive order
The order most people reach for is: fix the cesspool, then sell. Everybody has that instinct and it is frequently the costly route.
Once the excavator is in the yard, whatever the ground turns out to hold becomes yours to deal with, mid-sale, with a buyer waiting on you. Sellers go that way and find the job growing while they stand there watching it. Selling with the cesspool as it is moves that risk to us, which is most of the reason to do it this way.
What replacing a waste system actually involves
People assume a failed cesspool means one specific job at one specific price. It does not. Two houses on the same Huntington street can need quite different work depending on the lot, the water table and what was installed originally.
So treat the first number you are quoted carefully, in both directions. A contractor who has actually been out and looked at the cesspool, plus the county health department for what is required, will get you nearer the truth than anybody working from a phone call.
How we arrive at a number on a house with a failed cesspool
The honest answer on a house with a failed cesspool is that we work backwards from what it is worth once it is fixed, subtract what fixing it costs, and subtract what we need to make for the risk of being wrong about either. There is no secret to it and no algorithm.
- What it is worth repaired. Not the Huntington median of $935,000 on its own, but what houses like yours on your street actually closed at recently.
- What the work costs. Roof, boiler, electric, the kitchen and bath. In Huntington the stock is largely victorian and colonial, and on houses that age the mechanicals are usually the expensive part rather than the cosmetics.
- How long we will hold it. The median Huntington house goes under contract in about 38 days once it is showable, then waits 45 to 60 days more on the buyer's lender. Ours has to get to showable first, and we carry taxes and insurance across the whole of it.
- What we are wrong about. Opening a wall finds things. That risk is priced in, which is a large part of why a cash number sits below a retail number.
Why the number works for us and not for you
This is the part most cash buyers are vague about, so here it is plainly. We run millions of dollars of construction a year. That volume buys materials at contractor pricing and keeps the same crews working year round, which means the identical renovation costs us roughly half what a homeowner would pay to have it done.
That gap is the business. It is also why doing the work yourself before selling so rarely pays: you would be buying the same roof and the same boiler at retail, then hoping the market hands it back to you at resale. It usually does not. We are not making money because you sold cheaply. We are making it because we build cheaply.
And if the number does not work for you, say so. We would rather hear that than talk anyone into anything. We will look at your situation and tell you honestly what we think your options are, including the ones that do not involve us. Plenty of people are better off listing with an agent, and when you are one of them we will say so rather than let you find out later.
Why cash matters when the cesspool has failed
On a financed sale, somebody has to make the cesspool right before the money moves, and that somebody is almost always the seller. Plenty of people agree to it because they think there is no alternative.
There is. We buy with the failed system in place, at our cost, and we close on the date you pick. Nothing about the cesspool has to be resolved beforehand, because there is no underwriter sitting behind us asking for it.
What you do not pay when you sell a house with a failed cesspool
Every line below is a cost of listing a house with a failed cesspool 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
What to do next about the cesspool at your Huntington house
New York has disclosure obligations for sellers, and what applies to your situation is a legal question. Ask an attorney about the cesspool before you sell to anyone, ourselves included.
Separately from that: tell us everything. When the cesspool failed, what it did, who has looked at it, what they said. None of it puts us off, and all of it makes the number solid the first time. The deals that fall apart are the ones built on half the story.
Common questions
Do I have to fix the cesspool before you buy a Huntington house?
No. We buy with the cesspool exactly as it is. The repair or replacement is our project after closing, not something you arrange first.
What does a new cesspool or septic system cost?
That varies widely, and a single honest number for it does not exist. Get a contractor out, and ask the county health department what a replacement at your address has to be. If you would rather skip the whole exercise, sell the house with the cesspool as it is.
The cesspool backed up but the house is still livable. Is that a failure?
Sometimes a backup is a blockage and sometimes it is the cesspool reaching the end of its life, and telling those apart takes somebody who has opened it up. Either way we buy, and either way it is worth knowing which one you have.
A buyer walked away over the cesspool. Does that hurt my chances with you?
No. Most Huntington owners who call us about a cesspool have already lost at least one contract to it. It is the usual route to this conversation rather than a mark against the property.
Do you buy houses on septic as well as cesspools?
Yes. Cesspools, septic systems, older arrangements nobody has a clean name for, and houses where the system was never quite right to begin with. The condition of it does not stop us.