How we help owners of a Shirley house that needs repairs
Our genuine advantage here is that we run millions of dollars of construction a year, so we know what the repairs on a Shirley house actually cost rather than guessing at them.
That is useful to you even if you never sell to us. We will tell you what we think the repairs run, which ones a buyer's lender will insist on, and which are cosmetic and not worth doing before a sale. If that analysis points toward making the repairs and listing rather than selling as-is, we will say so, and it happens more often than people expect.
As-is, and the repairs we will not ask you to make
As-is gets used loosely, so here is what it means when we say it. Whatever repairs the house needs, they become ours at closing. Leave the furniture, leave the contents of the basement, leave the roof alone.
Sellers sometimes spend a weekend and a few hundred dollars tidying before we visit, and we would rather they did not. The condition is priced into the offer once, at the start, and cleaning up ahead of the visit does not move the number.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A house on Johns Neck Road. A house on Seymour Drive. Both in Shirley, bought and paid for by us.
Shirley is roughly 26,360 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11967, and the housing stock is mostly ranch, cape cod, hi-ranch. Around William Floyd Parkway and the Smith Point Bridge, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Mastic-Shirley 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 William Floyd 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.
Making the repairs and listing, or selling as-is?
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 Shirley 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.
Contractor pricing, and why it changes the math
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 sold as-is in Shirley works
- 1
Tell us where it is
Just the address in 11967 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
One short visit
One of us comes by once, usually for less than half an hour. On a ranch or cape cod like most of Shirley, what we look at closely is the roof, the boiler and the wiring, not the finishes.
- 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 Suffolk County agent. When a house is ready to list as it is, listing can beat us, and we would rather you knew.
- 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 88 to 103 days of a Shirley listing looking for a buyer and waiting on a mortgage approval.
Repairs worth making before a Shirley 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 Shirley 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
- $27,500 at 5% of the Shirley median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $11,000 on a $549,990 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
- Paid per load, before a single buyer walks through none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities for the 88 to 103 days of finding a buyer and waiting on their mortgage none
What to do before you commit to repairs on a Shirley house
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
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 Shirley 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 Shirley 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 Shirley 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 Shirley 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.