Sell your house fast in Toms River, NJ.

Toms River is the county seat of Ocean County and the biggest town on the Jersey Shore that is not a beach town, though it has beaches: Ortley Beach and the barrier island strip across the bay are part of it. The mainland is where most people live, in 1950s to 1980s capes, ranches and colonials between the Garden State Parkway and Barnegat Bay, in the lagoon neighborhoods of Silverton, Shelter Cove and Snug Harbor where the backyard is a bulkhead and a boat, and in the adult communities, Holiday City, Silver Ridge and the rest, where tens of thousands of people over 55 own a ranch on a slab. Superstorm Sandy came through in October 2012 and the town is still sorting it out.

The typical single family home value in Toms River is around $550,000, up roughly 3.0% over the past year, with houses averaging about 56 days on the market.

The Sandy rebuild that never finished

Fourteen years after the storm there are still houses in Silverton, Ortley Beach and along the bay that were gutted and never put back, or raised on pilings with the money running out before the siding went on, or rebuilt by a contractor who took the Rebuild by Design money and left. Some have an open permit from 2014. Some have a certificate of occupancy problem. Some have a lien from the state’s elevation grant that nobody told the heirs about. A financed buyer cannot touch any of them. We buy Sandy houses in whatever state the storm and the contractor left them, we take on the permits and the grant paperwork, and we finish the job after closing.

Lagoon houses and the flood insurance bill

A house on a lagoon in Toms River is the dream for a lot of buyers, until they see the flood insurance quote. Since the federal flood maps were redrawn and the Risk Rating 2.0 pricing came in, a house that was not raised can carry a premium in the thousands a year, and a lender requires the policy. That quote kills financed sales every week. We buy lagoon and bayfront houses with the elevation and the premium priced into the offer, raised or not, and the insurance becomes our problem.

Holiday City, Silver Ridge, and a parent’s ranch

The adult communities off Route 37 and Mule Road hold tens of thousands of ranches owned by people who moved down from North Jersey, Staten Island and Brooklyn in the 1980s and 1990s. Now a great many of them are estates. The children are back up north, there is an Ocean County Surrogate’s file, the house has its original kitchen, a roof that is due, and a community association that wants the buyer approved and over 55. Agents want it emptied and updated first. We buy adult community ranches as they sit, belongings included, we handle the association approval, and the heirs sign from wherever they are.

Septic, wells, and the houses the sewer never reached

Parts of northern Toms River and the blocks toward Manchester still sit on private septic and wells. A lender wants both inspected and the septic certified before funding, and a forty year old system that has been quietly working will fail the inspection. We buy without the contingency and replace what needs replacing after we close.

Where listing still wins in Toms River

A raised, renovated lagoon house with a current elevation certificate, or an updated ranch in a good section of Holiday City with no deadline, should be listed, and we will say so. Buyers from North Jersey and Staten Island line up for houses a lender will finance. Where a cash sale wins is the Sandy rebuild with the open permit, the lagoon house with the flood quote, the estate full of a parent’s things, the septic that will not pass, or the owner who needs to be in Florida by a date.

What we buy in Toms River

Capes, ranches and colonials on the mainland, lagoon and bayfront houses raised or not, Sandy rebuilds in any stage, adult community ranches in Holiday City, Silver Ridge, Silveridge Park and the rest, houses on septic and wells, estates in any condition, houses in foreclosure, and vacant lots including raw Sandy lots. We do not buy condominiums in buildings with pending litigation. If you own something unusual, call anyway.

Mainland, lagoon, barrier island, and adult community: four markets in one town

Toms River is big enough to be four different places. The mainland between the Parkway and Hooper Avenue is capes and colonials priced like any suburb. The lagoon neighborhoods along the bay are priced on the water, the elevation and the insurance. The barrier island strip, Ortley Beach and the blocks around it, is summer houses and Sandy rebuilds priced on the beach and the flood zone. And the adult communities are ranches on slabs priced on the association, the age restriction and the condition. A financed buyer’s appraiser sometimes mixes them up. We do not. The offer is built from sales in your section of Toms River, and the comparable addresses are on the sheet.

What all four share is that the township was built between 1955 and 1985, and a house that has not been renovated carries the same list no matter the section: the original electrical panel, a roof on its second or third layer, a furnace from the 1980s, a crawlspace or slab that has taken water, and in the older sections a buried oil tank. A lender’s inspector writes it all down. We read the same list and price it, and the house closes anyway.

Ocean County taxes, the sheriff’s sale, and the clock

Toms River property taxes are high for the house you get, and on an empty estate house or a rental that stopped paying they are the clock. New Jersey foreclosure runs through Ocean County Superior Court and takes well over a year, which is the opening: a house in default with a sheriff’s sale somewhere ahead still has equity in it, and a cash closing before the sale date pays the lender, stops the interest and the attorney fees, and keeps the rest yours. Tax sale certificates attach the same way and get paid at closing out of the price, itemized on the offer before you sign.

Looking just beyond Toms River? You can also sell your house fast in Brick NJ or sell a house fast in Sayreville NJ, and you can read about how we buy houses in Old Bridge NJ.

Many Toms River homeowners also ask us how to sell a house when downsizing, sell a house fast when relocating, or sell a house in probate.