Shirley, Long Island, NY
Sell your house fast in Shirley, Long Island.
We buy Shirley houses as is for cash. 1960s capes and ranches on the Floyd Parkway grid, houses behind on the mortgage, estates held since the parkway was built, houses with a failed cesspool, any condition.
$550,000
Median Shirley sale
39 days
Avg market days
+4.9%
YoY change
About the area
Why Shirley sellers call us.
Shirley is the hamlet in Brookhaven town on the west side of William Floyd Parkway, between the Forge River and Mastic on one side and Brookhaven hamlet on the other, with Montauk Highway and the Sunrise Highway interchange at the top, the parkway running down to the Smith Point bridge, and Narrow Bay at the bottom. It was laid out by a developer named Walter Shirley in the 1950s as a grid of numbered streets and lettered avenues on cleared pine barrens, and it was built between 1958 and 1975 with capes and ranches on 75 by 100 lots for families who worked at Brookhaven Lab, Grumman in Calverton, and the county. It was the cheapest place to buy a new house on Long Island then and it is one of the cheapest still, with a foreclosure rate that never came down after 2008, a tax base that strains the school district, and a stretch of streets near the bay that took water in 2012. The families who bought in 1962 are estates now, with children in Florida and the Carolinas.
The typical home value in Shirley is around $550,000, up roughly 4.9% over the past year, with houses averaging about 39 days on the market.
The loan from 2006 and the case in Riverhead
The most common Shirley call is a mortgage. A cape on a numbered street bought or refinanced in 2006 with a loan that went bad in 2009, was modified in 2012, fell behind again, and has a Suffolk County Supreme Court case adjourned since 2017. Suffolk foreclosures are the slowest in the state, and that delay is the opening. Until the referee’s sale in Riverhead happens, you own the house and can sell it. We get the payoff from the bank’s attorney, close before the date, and whatever is above the loan is yours.
The cape your parents bought in 1962 when the streets were new
The numbered streets off the parkway were new in 1962 and the families who bought then are estates now, with children in Port St. Lucie and Charlotte and a Suffolk Surrogate’s file in Riverhead. The house has the original kitchen, a basement that floods, a cesspool, a tank in the yard, and sixty years of belongings. We buy it full, wait for the letters, and each heir signs where they live.
Cesspools, the water table and the county health department
Nothing in Shirley is sewered, the water table is high near the bay, and a cesspool that fails often needs a variance from the Suffolk County health department before a new one can go in. A lender wants a certified system before closing. We buy with the cesspool as it is, price the replacement or the variance as a line, and deal with the county ourselves after closing.
The vacant house and the Town of Brookhaven
Shirley has a share of vacant houses, a parent gone and the children in Florida, the grass cut by the town and billed to the taxes, a vacant property registration, a code violation for a window or a deck, and a county tax lien growing behind it. We buy vacant houses with every one of those open, pay the balances from the price at closing, and the town’s file comes to us.
Where listing still wins in Shirley
A renovated cape with a clean title, a certified cesspool and no deadline should be listed, and we will say so, because first time buyers looking for the cheapest house on the South Shore are looking in Shirley. Where a cash sale wins is the loan with a referee’s date, the estate full of belongings, the vacant house with the town file, the cesspool the county will not permit, or the owner with a closing in Florida that cannot move.
What we buy in Shirley
Capes, ranches, high ranches and colonials, houses in foreclosure at any stage before the auction, vacant and abandoned houses, houses with a county tax lien, houses with a failed cesspool or an oil tank, houses near the bay raised or not, estates in any condition, mixed use buildings on Montauk Highway and William Floyd Parkway, and vacant lots. We do not buy cooperative apartments. If you own something unusual, call anyway.
The numbered streets, the parkway blocks, Smith Point and the Forge River edge
Shirley is priced by the grid. The capes and ranches on the lettered avenues and numbered streets between Montauk Highway and the middle of the parkway are the center of the market, priced on the block, the condition and the cesspool. The houses along William Floyd Parkway itself are priced for the traffic. The streets toward the Forge River and Mastic, and the ones down by Smith Point and the bay, are priced on the flood map. We build the offer from sales on your streets, with the comparable addresses on the sheet, and we show you which band your house is in before we show you the number.
Foreclosure defense, the retainer, and what delay actually costs
A Shirley owner behind on a 2006 loan has usually paid a foreclosure defense attorney a retainer at some point, and bought a year or two of adjournments for it. What the delay costs is interest and legal fees added to the payoff every month, taxes going unpaid, and a house that gets no repairs. By the time the referee’s date is set, the payoff is often larger than the house was worth when the case started. A cash closing before the date stops the clock, pays the bank from the price, and whatever is left is yours. We get the payoff figure ourselves and show it on the sheet.
Looking just beyond Shirley? You can also sell your house fast in Mastic Beach NY or sell a house fast in Patchogue NY, and you can read about how we buy houses in Central Islip NY.
Many Shirley homeowners also ask us how to sell a house when downsizing, sell a house fast when relocating, or sell a house in probate.
How a sale like this goes in Shirley
A Numbered Street Off William Floyd Parkway: a 1963 Cape With a Brookhaven Lab Pension Behind It, a Loan Refinanced in 2006, a Case in Riverhead Since 2018, a Cesspool the County Would Not Permit and a Referee's Date in November
He bought the cape on a numbered street off the parkway in 1984, the year he started at Brookhaven Lab, and refinanced it in 2006 to pay for his wife's care. She died in 2008. The loan went bad in 2009, was modified in 2012, and fell behind again in 2016 when the pension stopped keeping up with the taxes. The bank filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court in 2018. The case was adjourned nine times. In the spring of 2025 the cesspool failed, and the county said a new one could not go in the same spot without a variance. In September the referee's sale was set for the second week of November. He was seventy four.
A foreclosure defense attorney had taken a retainer in 2019 and bought two years. An agent in 2024 said the house could not be listed with a sale date on the calendar and a cesspool the county would not permit. A wholesaler sent a contract in August with a price that dropped twice before he stopped answering.
His daughter in Medford called us on September 22. We walked the house on September 24. The offer was written that night on the house as it stood: a 1984 kitchen, a roof from 2001, a tank in the yard, the cesspool as a line with the variance as ours to pursue, and a payoff from the bank's attorney that was a little over half the number. One page, with the sales on the neighboring numbered streets listed by address, and a closing date of October 16, four weeks before the referee's sale.
We closed on October 16 at an attorney's office on Montauk Highway. The bank was paid from the price at the table and the case was discontinued the following week. He walked away with the difference and moved in with his daughter. The variance application went in that winter. What he said was that for seven years everyone had been paid to delay it, and nobody had offered to end it.
Illustrative. Based on the situations we buy in across Shirley. A composite, not a single transaction, with details changed.
Common reasons Shirley sellers call us.
A 2006 loan modified in 2012 and behind again, with a case in Riverhead since 2017 and a referee's date coming
Until the sale happens the house is yours. We get the payoff, close before the date, and what is above the loan is yours.
Your parents' cape on a numbered street, bought in 1962, with sixty years inside
Heirs in Port St. Lucie and Charlotte, a Riverhead Surrogate's file. We buy it full and each heir signs where they live.
A cesspool near the bay the county will not permit in the same spot
We buy with the system as it is, price the replacement or the variance, and deal with the health department ourselves.
A vacant ranch the town cuts the grass on and bills to the taxes
We buy it with the registration, the violations and the lien open, pay the balances at closing, and the file comes to us.
A county tax lien that has compounded for three years
The balance comes off the price at closing, listed on the offer, and the lien is released when the deed records.
A house near the bay with a flood quote that ended the last deal
The premium is a line on our sheet, not the end of the sale. We carry the policy after closing.
An oil tank in the yard from the 1990s gas conversion
A bank wants it pulled and tested first. We buy with it in the ground and the soil result is our risk.
A move to Florida with a date on the calendar
We set the Shirley closing around it, about 14 days out, and the proceeds wire wherever you are.
Frequently asked questions about selling in Shirley.
How fast can you buy a Shirley house?
Send the address through the form or call (516) 964-7222. We come out within a couple of days, write a number within 24 hours with the Shirley comparables on it, and close at a Suffolk attorney's office on your date. About 14 days when the title is clean, longer with an estate or a lien.
The bank filed in Riverhead years ago and the referee's sale is set. Is it too late?
Not until the sale actually happens. We get the payoff from the bank's attorney, price the house against it, and close before the date so the case is discontinued and the equity above the loan is yours. The closer the date, the faster we move.
The cesspool failed and the county says a new one needs a variance. What then?
That is ours to solve. We buy with the system as it is, price the replacement or the variance as a line, and deal with the Suffolk County health department after closing. A lender wants it certified first, which is why financed sales die here.
I inherited the house with my brother and we are in Florida and North Carolina. Do we have to come to Shirley?
No. We coordinate with the Suffolk County Surrogate's Court file and your estate attorney, a neighbor lets us in, and each of you signs with a notary where you live. The house stays full until closing.
The house has been empty for three years and the town keeps sending letters. Can you buy it?
Yes. We buy vacant Shirley houses with the registration, the violations and the lien open. The balances are paid from the price at closing and the town file comes to us. If the estate was never opened, we help you get that started.
The county sold the taxes. Does that stop the sale?
No. A Suffolk County tax lien is a payoff figure with interest, paid from the price at closing and released when the deed records. Call before the county moves to a tax deed, not after.
Would listing do better?
Sometimes, and we say so. A renovated cape with a clean title and a certified cesspool, with no deadline, usually nets more listed. Ours is the better route when a loan has a date, the house is an estate, the house is vacant with a town file, the cesspool needs a variance, or you have a move to make.
What comes off the price?
Your payoff, any county tax lien, town charges or vacant property fees, and the New York State transfer tax, each itemized on the offer. No commission, no fees, we pay our own closing costs.