Streets in Shirley we have bought on
A sample of what we have bought in Shirley: a house on johns neck road; a house on seymour drive.
Street names only, never house numbers. The sellers are entitled to their privacy, and a property address in a marketing page is a small betrayal of somebody who trusted you with a difficult situation.
Why we only buy on Long Island
Knowing a market means knowing what a specific street trades for, which trades are worth doing, and which contractor can actually get to a job in Shirley next week. That knowledge does not scale nationally, and companies that claim it does are usually assigning your contract to somebody who does have it, after taking a cut.
So we buy in Nassau and Suffolk and nowhere else. It means we say no to houses outside the area, and it means the number we give you in Shirley is built on comparable sales we have actually seen rather than on a formula.
What actually moves the number on a street
Not the town-wide average. What matters is what houses like yours, on your street or the two beside it, actually closed at recently, and what condition they were in when they did.
In Shirley that means paying attention to things a spreadsheet misses. Which blocks back onto William Floyd Parkway, which streets took water in the last bad storm, where the William Floyd Union Free School District boundary runs, and which stretches have had enough recent renovation to pull comparable sales up.
We buy in every part of Shirley
There is no part of Shirley we decline, and no condition we decline either. Occupied, vacant, mid-probate, tenanted, fire damaged, hoarded, condemned. Those are the houses we look for rather than the ones we avoid.
If you are outside Shirley but still in Nassau or Suffolk, call anyway. The boundary that matters to us is the county line, not the town line.
How selling to us works in Shirley
- 1
You give us the address
The street address in 11967 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 come and look at it
One visit, one person, usually under half an hour. On a ranch or cape cod of the age most of Shirley was built, we are mainly looking at the roof, the boiler and the electric rather than the kitchen.
- 3
You see the number
Within a day you get our offer as one written figure. Get a Suffolk County agent's opinion alongside it if that helps. For a house that could go on the market as it stands, listing may come out ahead, and we will tell you if so.
- 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 88 to 103 days a Shirley listing usually spends on finding a buyer and then on that buyer's lender.
What we actually do with them afterward
They get rebuilt and sold, or occasionally held. Either way the house comes back into use, which is worth something to a Shirley street where an empty property has been sitting for a year or two.
We are straightforward about being a business rather than a charity. But the model only works if the houses actually get renovated to a standard somebody will buy, which is a different incentive from an operation whose only product is a contract to be sold on.
What makes Shirley a market we work
Partly the housing stock, which is mostly ranch and cape cod of an age where boilers, roofs and electrical services are reaching the end of their lives. Partly proximity, which is what lets us schedule work without a premium for the travel.
And partly that Shirley is a place where people stay. Houses here are frequently owned for thirty or forty years and then sold by the family rather than by the original owner, and that particular situation, an estate or a move into care, is most of what we handle.
The boundaries and landmarks we work around in Shirley
William Floyd Parkway, the Smith Point Bridge, Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge. These are not decoration on a page. Proximity to each of them changes what a house is worth, and in different directions depending on which one and how close.
The William Floyd Union Free School District boundary is the other line that matters more than most people outside the area realize, because it moves values in ways that do not show up in a town-wide average at all. Two houses a few hundred feet apart can sit on different sides of it.
Common questions
Do you buy in every neighborhood in Shirley?
Yes. There is no part of the town we decline and no condition we decline.
My house is not in Shirley. Can you still buy it?
Almost certainly, as long as it is on Long Island. We work Nassau and Suffolk and nowhere else, but we work all of both.
Will you put my address on your website?
No. We name streets at most, and never house numbers. If you would rather we did not mention the street either, say so and we will not.