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 Bay Shore 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 four-bedroom on Gardiner Drive. A four-bedroom on Brentwood Road. A three-bedroom on Nugent Avenue. All of them in Bay Shore, all bought by us.
Bay Shore is roughly 29,244 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11706, and the housing stock is mostly cape cod, colonial, victorian. Around Main Street and Bay Shore Marina, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Bay Shore 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 Bay Shore 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 Bay Shore 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 Bay Shore works
- 1
Tell us where it is
Just the address in 11706 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
A quick look in person
We visit once and it rarely takes more than half an hour. On the cape cod or colonial houses that make up most of Bay Shore, we check the roof, the boiler and the electric before anything cosmetic.
- 3
A written offer within 24 hours
One figure, in writing, inside 24 hours. Not a range. Show it to a Suffolk County agent if you want a second view; if the house is already in good enough shape to list, an agent may get you more, and we will say so.
- 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 77 to 92 days of a Bay Shore listing looking for a buyer and waiting on a mortgage approval.
Repairs worth making before a Bay Shore 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 Bay Shore 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
Each of the following comes with a retail listing of a house sold as-is, and none of it comes with ours.
- Agent commission
- $32,500 at 5% of the Bay Shore median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $13,000 on a $650,000 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- Everything a buyer would flag, paid for before you list none
- Cleanout and removal
- Charged by the truckload, and done before the first showing none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities for the 77 to 92 days of finding a buyer and waiting on their mortgage 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 Bay Shore 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 Bay Shore 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 Bay Shore 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 Bay Shore 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.