We Buy Houses on Staten Island

Staten Island is the borough that sells least like New York City, and it needs a buyer who understands why. There is no subway. The North Shore, from St. George and Tompkinsville through Stapleton to Port Richmond and Mariners Harbor, has the oldest housing on the island: frame Victorians and two families from the 1890s to the 1920s, many of them carved into apartments, many of them owned by estates. The East Shore, Midland Beach, New Dorp Beach, and South Beach, took the full force of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and has spent the years since rebuilding, elevating, and in some blocks being bought out and returned to nature. The South Shore, Tottenville, Great Kills, Eltingville, and Annadale, is newer and larger, semi attached and detached houses from the 1960s onward, where the sales that come to us are mostly estates and divorces rather than distress.

The reasons Staten Island sellers contact us follow that geography. A grandmother’s Victorian in Stapleton that has not been touched since 1970 and has a basement apartment nobody registered. A bungalow in Midland Beach that was rebuilt after Sandy at the original height and cannot get insured. A semi attached house in Great Kills that four siblings in three states inherited and cannot agree on. A two family in Port Richmond with a tenant who stopped paying during the pandemic and never caught up. A foreclosure in Richmond County Supreme Court that has been running for three years and finally has an auction date.

We close on Staten Island properties in two to four weeks. We close occupied. We buy one to four family houses, townhouses, semi attached and detached, mixed use buildings on Bay Street and Richmond Avenue, condos, and vacant lots. Co-ops are the one property type we do not buy. We do not need you to clean out, make repairs, raise the house, or resolve the violations first.

Nick York walks every Staten Island property himself before we make an offer, ferry or Verrazzano, whichever gets him there faster. If the property is occupied, we coordinate the visit at the tenant’s convenience. If you inherited the house and live off the island, we handle the entire transaction remotely with your estate attorney.

Below are the Staten Island neighborhoods we have active offers in right now.

What houses are selling for right now

These figures come from current market data for the neighborhoods we buy in, updated quarterly. Condition drives everything: a house that needs work trades well below these numbers on the open market, which is exactly the gap our cash offers are built for.

Selling fast on Staten Island, whatever the situation

As cash home buyers on Staten Island, we are built for the sales that traditional listings handle badly. Staten Island sellers come to us with a parent’s house in probate, an inherited house full of fifty years of belongings, a house with Sandy damage that was never fully repaired or never got its elevation certificate, tenants who stopped paying in a North Shore two family, a foreclosure clock with an auction date, or open Department of Buildings violations from a basement conversion or a storm rebuild. We buy houses carrying tax liens and pay them from the proceeds at closing. None of that stops a cash sale.

Staten Island selling guides

Before you take any offer, read who pays the closing costs in a New York cash sale and our guide to selling a house with open DOB, ECB, and HPD violations. If the house belonged to a parent, what an executor can and cannot do covers the estate side, landlords should see selling a rental with tenants in place, and if there is an auction date on the calendar, how to stop a foreclosure auction in 11 days is the one to read first.

Common questions from sellers here

How fast can you close on a Staten Island house?

Two to four weeks is typical once we make an offer, because we pay cash and no lender is involved. New York closings happen at an attorney’s office with your own lawyer present. If you need longer, the closing date moves to fit your timeline, not ours.

My house was damaged in Sandy and never got its elevation certificate. Can you still buy it?

Yes. That describes a large share of the East Shore houses we see. A financed buyer cannot get insured without the certificate and the lender will not close without the insurance. We pay cash, carry the flood insurance ourselves, and close out the paperwork after closing.

My Staten Island house has a basement apartment that was never legal. Is that a problem?

It is common and it is not a problem for us. Unpermitted units kill financed deals over certificate of occupancy issues and they are a line item for us. We buy the house as it stands, tenant included, and handle the city afterward.

Do you buy co-ops on Staten Island?

No. Co-ops are the one property type we do not buy, because board approval defeats the purpose of a fast certain sale. Houses, townhouses, two to four families, condos, and mixed use buildings are all fair game.