Stapleton, Staten Island, NY
Sell your house fast in Stapleton, Staten Island.
We buy Stapleton houses as-is for cash. Victorians on the hill, two families near Bay Street, carved up apartments, any condition.
$800,000
Median Stapleton sale
77 days
Avg market days
+3.9%
YoY change
About the area
Why Stapleton sellers call us.
Stapleton is the oldest part of the North Shore that is still mostly houses, and the houses show their age in both directions. Stapleton Heights, on the hill above Bay Street, has some of the grandest Victorians on Staten Island, built for shipping and brewing families in the 1880s and 1890s, many of them carved into three and four apartments during the Depression and never put back. The flats below, between Bay Street and the water, have the two families and rowhouses that housed the workers, along with the vacant lots and the odd warehouse left from the neighborhood’s industrial century. The ferry is a fifteen minute walk from most of it, which has brought a new kind of buyer to the North Shore in the last decade, and that buyer wants a renovated house with clean paperwork, which is not what most Stapleton houses are. We have been buying houses in the NY metro area since 2000, and Stapleton sellers call us because a Victorian with four apartments, three of them illegal, a slate roof at the end of its life, and a tenant in housing court is a hard sale to a bank and a normal one to us. For background on the neighborhood, see this Stapleton community profile.
Nick York handles acquisitions for EZ Home Buyers, and Stapleton is a market he prices on what a house was built as, what it has become, and what the city thinks it is. A Victorian on Ward Avenue with a one family certificate of occupancy and four kitchens is a different sale than a legal two family on Broad Street with a paying tenant, and both are different from a rowhouse near the old homeport that an estate has been carrying since the pandemic. If you are thinking about selling your house in Stapleton, you deserve a real number with the reasoning written out, from a buyer who has walked every floor and pulled the certificate of occupancy. No agent fees, no repair demands, no financing that dies when the appraiser counts the kitchens.
Four kitchens, one certificate of occupancy, and why banks walk away
The defining Stapleton problem is the house that became a building. A Victorian that was cut into apartments eighty years ago has four kitchens, four electric meters, and a certificate of occupancy for a single family house. An appraiser will not count the extra units. A lender who hears about them may decline the loan outright. Add a slate roof from 1890, a boiler that predates the Verrazzano, knob and tube wiring behind horsehair plaster, and a Department of Buildings file with violations going back to the 1970s, and a financed buyer’s inspection report reads like a demolition order. The house sits, the seller is told to legalize apartments the zoning will not allow, and the taxes keep coming.
We close that gap. We buy with cash, we buy as-is, and the extra kitchens, the violations, and the roof are line items in our offer instead of reasons the deal dies. Our guide to selling a house with code violations explains how the city’s system works, and Stapleton is where we use it most on the island.
The Stapleton sellers we hear from most
Estates come first. Stapleton houses were held by families for fifty and sixty years, and when a parent or grandparent passes, the children are often in New Jersey or the South Shore or out of state with a Richmond County Surrogate’s Court probate to manage and a house full of a century of belongings. We work with executors and heirs constantly, we can wait out the Surrogate paperwork, and we buy inherited houses exactly as they sit. If the heirs live out of state, we walk through what New York withholds from nonresident sellers at closing so the settlement statement holds no surprises.
Landlords are second. A carved up Victorian is four rents on paper and a full time job in practice, and many Stapleton landlords inherited the job rather than chose it. Rent that stops arriving, HPD inspections, a tenant who knows the housing court calendar. When a landlord is done, we buy the building with tenants in place, at the actual rent roll, and handle everything after closing ourselves.
And then there are the owners who simply cannot carry the house anymore. Stapleton’s Victorians are expensive to heat, expensive to roof, and expensive to insure, and an owner on a fixed income can fall behind on taxes without ever missing a mortgage payment. Once the city sells the taxes into the lien sale, the clock starts. Selling before it runs out keeps the equity in the family.
Liens, the tax lien sale, and the paperwork side of Stapleton
New York City sells unpaid property taxes and water charges into its annual tax lien sale, after which the lien holder’s interest compounds quickly and can eventually lead to foreclosure. Add open Department of Buildings violations from decades of unpermitted work, HPD violations on the apartments, an ECB judgment that became a lien, and a certificate of occupancy that has not matched the house since the Depression, and the title report on a Stapleton Victorian runs pages. We deal with tax liens and title problems as part of the purchase. Our attorneys pull the municipal searches and payoff letters every week, and our offer accounts for what has to be satisfied at closing. If you are behind on the mortgage as well, New York’s court process takes two years or more in Richmond County, and selling during pre-foreclosure is almost always still an option.
What Stapleton houses are actually selling for
The median sale price in Stapleton is around $800,000, up roughly 3.9% over the past year, with houses averaging about 77 days on the market. Ferry access and the new development along the waterfront have brought buyers from Brooklyn who never looked at the North Shore before, and a renovated Victorian with a legal layout on the hill sells quickly. But the headline number assumes exactly that. A Victorian with four illegal kitchens, a slate roof at the end of its life, and a tenant in housing court does not get the median. It gets price cuts, a financed buyer who disappears at the appraisal, and years of heating bills in the meantime. We price the house for what it is, show you the math at the kitchen table, and leave the decision with you.
What we buy in Stapleton
Victorians and colonials on Stapleton Heights, one to four family houses, rowhouses and two families in the flats, houses that have been carved into apartments legally or not, mixed use buildings on Bay Street and Van Duzer Street with a store below, condos, and vacant lots. We do not buy cooperative apartments. Most of what we see in Stapleton is the old house that became a building, owned by an estate or a tired landlord, but if you own something unusual, call us anyway and we will take a look.
How to reach us
Stapleton is the center of our North Shore coverage. Down the island we buy houses in New Dorp and across the East Shore, and over the Bayonne Bridge we can help you sell your house fast in Bayonne NJ and in Jersey City. Our full borough coverage is on the we buy houses on Staten Island page.
Our written offers stay open for seven days, no pressure attached. Take the number to your family, your attorney, or a competing buyer and compare freely. Offers built on real math do not fear a week of thinking.
EZ Home Buyers is a family-owned company based in Great Neck, NY 11021. We have been operating across the NY metro area since 2000, and Stapleton is part of our core Staten Island coverage. Call us at (516) 964-7222, email info@ezhomebuyers.com, or fill out the form on this page. Nick York will be in touch quickly, usually the same business day. We schedule a walkthrough at your convenience, make a cash offer within 24 hours of seeing the property, and close at a New York attorney’s office on a timeline that works for you.
Looking just beyond Stapleton? You can also sell your house fast in New Dorp NY or sell a house fast in Bayonne NJ, and you can read about how we buy houses in Jersey City NJ.
Many Stapleton homeowners also ask us how to sell a water damaged house, sell a fire damaged house, or sell a house when downsizing.
Recent Stapleton transaction
A Victorian on Ward Avenue, Sold With Four Kitchens and a One Family Certificate of Occupancy
His grandmother had bought the Victorian in 1958, when it already had four apartments from the Depression and a one family certificate of occupancy from 1890 that nobody had ever updated. She lived on the first floor and rented the other three. When she passed, the grandson, the executor, lived in Middletown, New Jersey, and inherited three tenants, a slate roof that leaked into the top floor apartment, a boiler that had been nursed through two winters, and a Department of Buildings file with violations going back to 1974.nnHe listed it. The first buyer's appraiser counted one unit, the lender declined. The second buyer, an investor, offered a number that assumed the tenants would be gone and the roof would be his problem. The agent suggested he apply to legalize the apartments, which a zoning attorney told him would take two years and might not succeed.nnNick York walked all four apartments on a Saturday with the tenants' permission, went up to the top floor to see the roof leak and down to the basement to see the boiler, and sat with the grandson at his grandmother's kitchen table with the certificate of occupancy and the violations printed out. The offer accounted for the roof, the boiler, the illegal units, the violations, and the reality of three tenants at below market rents. It was a real number for the building he actually owned, and the reasoning was on one page.nnWe closed in four weeks at his attorney's office in St. George. All three tenants kept their homes with a new owner responsible for the building, the violations transferred to us, and he drove back to New Jersey with a check and his grandmother's house off his shoulders. He said afterward that we were the first buyer who had not asked him to turn the building back into a house before they would buy it.
Common reasons Stapleton sellers call us.
A Victorian carved into apartments the city never approved
Four kitchens and a one family certificate of occupancy end every financed deal at the appraisal. It is a line item for us. We buy the building as it is, tenants included, and handle the city after closing.
Inherited a house from a grandparent who bought it in the 1950s
Managing a Richmond County Surrogate sale from New Jersey or another state, with tenants and a century of belongings inside, is exhausting. We work with executors and heirs through the process, buy the house exactly as it sits, and close at an attorney's office when the estate is ready.
Tired landlord with three rents and a housing court date
A carved up Stapleton house is a full time job. We buy occupied buildings at the actual rent roll, nonpaying tenants included, and take the whole situation off your hands at closing.
A slate roof, an ancient boiler, and knob and tube wiring
The classic North Shore inspection killers are line items in our offer, not reasons the deal dies. We buy the house as it is and do the work after closing.
Tax lien sale notice in the mail
Once the city sells your unpaid taxes and water into the lien sale, the interest compounds fast. We buy Stapleton houses carrying tax liens and clear them from the proceeds at closing.
Behind on the mortgage
New York foreclosure takes two years or more in Richmond County, and until the auction you can still sell. Selling before the sale protects your credit and recovers equity foreclosure would take.
DOB and HPD violations going back decades
Open violations and an ECB judgment that became a lien scare off buyers and their banks. They do not scare us. We buy with violations open, pay the liens from the proceeds at closing, and deal with the city ourselves.
A house that costs more to carry than you can afford
Heating, roofing, and insuring a Stapleton Victorian on a fixed income is how owners fall behind on taxes without missing a mortgage payment. We visit once, make a written offer, and let you pick a closing date that ends the bleeding.
Frequently asked questions about selling in Stapleton.
How do I sell my house fast in Stapleton?
Call (516) 964-7222 or submit the short form on this page. We visit the property, make a written cash offer within 24 hours, and you pick the closing date, often two to four weeks out. No agents, no repairs, no fees, and no obligation to accept.
How fast can you close on a Stapleton house?
In most cases we close in two to four weeks from the offer. We pay cash, so there is no bank timeline. Occupied buildings sometimes take a little longer for tenant estoppel letters. New York closings happen at an attorney's office with your own lawyer present.
My house has four apartments but the certificate of occupancy says one family. Can you still buy it?
Yes. That is the most common Stapleton situation we see. A financed buyer's lender will not count the extra units and will often decline the loan. We price the building honestly on what it is, buy it as it stands with the tenants in place, and handle the city after closing.
The tenants pay below market rent and one is in housing court. Do they have to leave first?
No. We buy occupied Stapleton buildings at the actual rent roll, including tenants who are behind or in court. They keep their homes with a new owner responsible for the building, and you never have to finish an eviction.
I inherited the house and I live in New Jersey. How does that work?
We handle the process remotely. We coordinate with the Richmond County Surrogate's Court paperwork and your estate attorney, buy the house as it sits with tenants and belongings in place, and close when the estate is ready. New York withholds estimated income tax from nonresident sellers at closing, and we walk you through that number before you commit.
The roof is slate and the boiler is ancient. Does that kill the offer?
No. Both are line items in our offer. Financed buyers struggle because the lender wants them addressed before closing. We pay cash, buy the house as it is, and do the work ourselves afterward.
How do you decide what to offer for a Stapleton property?
We look at recent comparable sales on the surrounding blocks, what the house was built as and what it has become, the actual rent roll, the condition of the roof and systems, and every violation and lien that has to be settled at closing. Nick York walks the property and gives you a straight number with the reasoning explained.
Do I pay commissions or fees when I sell to EZ Home Buyers in Stapleton?
No agent commissions and no listing fees. We cover standard closing costs on our side. The offer we present is what you walk away with, minus any existing mortgage or liens paid off at closing. No surprise deductions on closing day.
We also buy in nearby Staten Island neighborhoods.
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