Brentwood, Long Island, NY
Sell your house fast in Brentwood, Long Island.
We buy Brentwood houses as-is for cash. Capes and ranches, illegal apartments, houses behind on the mortgage, any condition.
$635,000
Median Brentwood sale
62 days
Avg market days
+1.6%
YoY change
About the area
Why Brentwood sellers call us.
Brentwood is the largest hamlet on Long Island and the center of Suffolk County’s working class housing market. The blocks between the Long Island Expressway and Sunrise Highway, from Brentwood Road east to the Central Islip line, are capes, ranches, and split levels built in one long push through the 1950s and 1960s on modest lots, bought by Italian and Irish families then and by the Salvadoran, Honduran, and Dominican families who make up most of the town today. Brentwood houses work hard. A large share of them have an accessory apartment in the basement or over the garage that has never been permitted, a second family in the house, and a mortgage that was refinanced in 2006 and never fully recovered. Suffolk County led the state in foreclosure filings for most of the last fifteen years, and Brentwood has been near the top of that list the whole time. We have been buying houses in the NY metro area since 2000, and Brentwood sellers call us because a cape with an unpermitted apartment, a tenant who stopped paying, and a foreclosure case that has been in Suffolk County Supreme Court since 2019 is a hard sale to a bank and a normal one to us. For background on the hamlet, see this Brentwood community profile.
Nick York handles acquisitions for EZ Home Buyers, and Brentwood is a market he prices on the layout, the paperwork, and the foreclosure docket as much as the house. A cape on a quiet street off Third Avenue with a legal layout and a paying tenant is a different sale than the same cape with a basement apartment the Town of Islip has cited and a referee’s sale date on the calendar, and both are different from a ranch in Pine Aire that an estate has been carrying for two years. If you are thinking about selling your house in Brentwood, you deserve a real number with the reasoning written out, from a buyer who has walked every floor and read the court file. No agent fees, no repair demands, no financing that dies when the appraiser finds the second kitchen.
Accessory apartments, Town of Islip permits, and why banks walk away
The defining Brentwood problem is the house that became two houses. A cape with a basement apartment for a brother in law, or a garage that was converted for a tenant, is income on paper and a violation in the Town of Islip’s file. The town’s accessory apartment permit exists, but most of these units were never put through it, and a financed buyer’s appraiser will not count a unit that is not on the certificate of occupancy. Then the lender looks at a house with two families in it, a rent roll that includes a tenant who has not paid since 2021, and a roof and a cesspool that are both at the end of their lives, and the loan gets declined. The house sits, the seller is told to legalize or remove the apartment, and the mortgage and the taxes keep coming.
We close that gap. We buy with cash, we buy as-is, and the apartment, the violations, the rent roll, and the cesspool are line items in our offer instead of reasons the deal dies. Our guide to selling a house with code violations explains how the town’s system works, and Brentwood is where we use it most on Long Island.
The Brentwood sellers we hear from most
Foreclosure comes first, more than anywhere else we buy on Long Island. New York runs foreclosure through the courts, and Suffolk County cases routinely take three years or more from the first missed payment to a referee’s auction. That slowness is an opportunity: until the auction actually happens, you can still sell, pay the lender from the proceeds, and keep whatever equity is left. Selling during pre-foreclosure beats losing the house on the courthouse steps in Riverhead, and our guide to the Long Island foreclosure timeline walks through every stage.
Landlords are second. A cape with an accessory apartment is two rents on paper and a full time job in practice, and many Brentwood landlords inherited the job or fell into it when a family member moved out. When a landlord is done, we buy the house with tenants in place, at the actual rent roll, and handle everything after closing ourselves.
Estates are third. A parent passes and leaves a ranch near Brentwood State Park to children who are in Florida or North Carolina or still in the house, with a Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court probate to manage and a house full of a lifetime 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. Our guide to how long probate takes on Long Island covers the court side.
Liens, taxes, and the paperwork side of Brentwood
Suffolk County property taxes are among the highest in the country, and a Brentwood tax bill that goes unpaid becomes a county tax lien that compounds and can eventually lead to a county tax deed. Add a Town of Islip violation for the accessory apartment, an open permit from a deck or a pool that was never closed out, a cesspool that fails the county health department’s requirements at transfer, and a mortgage in default, and the title report runs long. We deal with tax liens and title problems as part of the purchase. Our attorneys pull the county and town searches and payoff letters every week, and our offer accounts for what has to be satisfied at closing, including the cesspool.
What Brentwood houses are actually selling for
The median sale price in Brentwood is around $635,000, up roughly 1.6% over the past year, with houses averaging about 62 days on the market. First time buyers priced out of Nassau have kept demand steady, and a renovated cape with a legal layout and a new cesspool sells quickly. But the headline number assumes exactly that. A cape with an unpermitted apartment, a nonpaying tenant, a failing cesspool, and a foreclosure case on the docket does not get the median. It gets price cuts, a financed buyer who disappears at the appraisal, and months of carrying costs while the court case grinds on. 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 Brentwood
Capes, ranches, split levels, and colonials, two family houses, houses with accessory apartments legal or not, houses in active foreclosure at any stage before the auction, houses with failed cesspools, mixed use buildings on Suffolk Avenue and Fifth Avenue, and vacant lots. We do not buy cooperative apartments. Most of what we see in Brentwood is the postwar cape with a second kitchen and a mortgage problem, but if you own something unusual, call us anyway and we will take a look.
How to reach us
Brentwood is the center of our Suffolk County coverage. Next door we buy houses in Central Islip and can help you sell your house fast in Bay Shore, and across the county line we buy in Hempstead and Levittown. Our full Long Island coverage is on the we buy houses on Long 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, forty minutes from Brentwood on the Expressway. We have been operating across the NY metro area since 2000. 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 Brentwood? You can also sell your house fast in Central Islip NY or sell a house fast in Bay Shore NY, and you can read about how we buy houses in Hempstead NY.
Many Brentwood homeowners also ask us how to sell a house in foreclosure in Brentwood NY, sell an inherited home, or sell a house during divorce.
Recent Brentwood transaction
A Cape off Third Avenue, Sold Six Weeks Before the Referee's Auction With a Tenant in the Basement
The owner had bought the cape in 2005, refinanced it in 2007, and lost his job in 2009. He caught up once, fell behind again, and the bank filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court in 2019. The settlement conferences went nowhere, the case sat through the pandemic, and in early 2024 a referee's sale date arrived in the mail. Meanwhile his cousin's family had been living in the basement apartment since 2016, paying what they could, and the Town of Islip had cited the unit after a neighbor complained.nnHe listed the house. The first buyer's appraiser found the second kitchen and would not count it. The second buyer's lender saw the foreclosure docket and the cited apartment and declined. The agent told him to get the cousin out and the apartment removed. He had six weeks and no money for either.nnNick York walked the house on a Tuesday, including the basement, and sat down with him at the kitchen table with the court docket, the town violation, and the payoff figure from the bank's attorney printed out. The offer accounted for the payoff, the cited apartment, the roof, the cesspool, and the reality of a family in the basement. It was a real number, and it was enough to pay the bank in full and leave him with equity that the auction would have swallowed.nnWe closed in nineteen days at his attorney's office in Islip, three weeks before the auction date. The bank was paid from the proceeds, the case was discontinued, the cousin's family stayed with a new owner responsible for the house, and he walked away with a check instead of a deficiency. He said afterward that nobody else had read the court file before making an offer.
Common reasons Brentwood sellers call us.
A foreclosure case with a referee's sale date
Suffolk County foreclosures take years, and until the auction you can still sell. We buy houses at any stage of the case, pay the lender from the proceeds at closing, and put whatever equity survives in your hands instead of the auction's.
An accessory apartment the town has cited
Most Brentwood capes have one, and once the Town of Islip has cited it, financed deals are over. It is a line item for us. We buy the house as it is, tenant included, and handle the town after closing.
Tired landlord with a second family in the house
A cape with a basement apartment is a full time job, and a tenant who stopped paying makes it a lawsuit. We buy occupied houses at the actual rent roll, nonpaying tenants included, and take the whole situation off your hands at closing.
A failing cesspool
Suffolk County requires the cesspool to pass at transfer, and a failed one kills financed deals. We buy houses with failed or unknown cesspools, price the replacement honestly, and handle the county health department ourselves.
Inherited a house from parents who bought in the 1960s
Managing a Suffolk County Surrogate sale from Florida or the Carolinas is exhausting, and the house is full of a lifetime of belongings. 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.
County tax lien notice in the mail
Suffolk property taxes are among the highest in the country, and once they go unpaid the county lien compounds fast. We buy Brentwood houses carrying tax liens and clear them from the proceeds at closing.
Open permits from a deck, a pool, or a garage conversion
Open town permits and violations scare off buyers and their banks. They do not scare us. We buy with permits open and close them out ourselves after closing.
Ready to leave Long Island
The taxes, the commute, and the house are the last things holding you here. We visit once, make a written offer, and let you pick a closing date that lines up with the move.
Frequently asked questions about selling in Brentwood.
How do I sell my house fast in Brentwood?
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 three weeks out. No agents, no repairs, no fees, and no obligation to accept.
How fast can you close on a Brentwood house?
In most cases we close in two to four weeks from the offer. We pay cash, so there is no bank timeline. If there is a referee's auction date on the calendar, we can move faster, and we have closed in under three weeks to beat one. New York closings happen at an attorney's office with your own lawyer present.
My house is in foreclosure and the auction date is set. Is it too late to sell?
Almost never. Until the referee's sale actually happens, you own the house and can sell it. We get the payoff figure from the bank's attorney, price the house against it, and close at your attorney's office in time to discontinue the case. The earlier you call, the more options you have.
My basement apartment was never permitted and the town cited it. Can you still buy the house?
Yes. That is the most common Brentwood situation we see. A financed buyer's lender will not count the unit and will often decline the loan once it is cited. We price the unit honestly, buy the house as it is, tenant included, and handle the Town of Islip after closing.
The cesspool failed. Does that kill the offer?
No. Suffolk County requires the cesspool to pass at transfer and a failed one ends most financed deals, but it is a line item for us. We price the replacement, buy the house as it is, and handle the county health department ourselves.
I inherited a house in Brentwood and I live out of state. How does that work?
We handle the process remotely. We coordinate with the Suffolk County Surrogate's Court paperwork and your estate attorney, buy the house as it sits with whatever is inside, 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.
How do you decide what to offer for a Brentwood property?
We look at recent comparable sales on the surrounding blocks, the condition of the house, the roof, and the cesspool, whether the layout matches the certificate of occupancy, the rent situation if it is occupied, the mortgage payoff if there is a case, and every lien and violation 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 Brentwood?
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 Long Island neighborhoods.
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