Union City, NJ, NJ
Sell your house fast in Union City, NJ.
We buy Union City houses as-is for cash. Attached two families, three families, rent controlled or vacant, any condition.
$550,000
Median Union City sale
73 days
Avg market days
+0.2%
YoY change
About the area
Why Union City sellers call us.
Union City is the most densely populated city in the United States, a mile and a quarter of attached houses stacked along the top of the Palisades with Manhattan filling the view. The housing is unlike anywhere else we buy: two family and three family frame houses built wall to wall with no side yards, brick rowhouses with a store on the ground floor, and lots so small that the backyard is a concrete pad. Most of it went up between 1890 and 1930 for the embroidery mill workers who gave the city its nickname, and most of it has been subdivided, extended, and rewired several times since. We have been buying houses in the NY metro area since 2000, and Union City sellers call us because a house like that has real value and almost no financed buyers who can close on it. For background on the city, see this Union City community profile.
Nick York handles acquisitions for EZ Home Buyers, and Union City is a market he approaches with a tape measure and a copy of the rent control ordinance. A three family on a thirty foot lot near Bergenline with three rent controlled tenants is a completely different asset than the same building vacant, and a house on the Palisades edge with a Manhattan view is different from both. If you are thinking about selling your house in Union City, you deserve a number that reflects what your building actually is, with the math shown. No agent fees, no repair demands, no financing that collapses at the appraisal.
Why banks struggle with Union City houses
Start with the lot. A financed buyer’s appraiser walks into a house that shares both side walls with the neighbors, has a ground floor unit that was carved out in the 1970s without a permit, and sits on a lot the city’s own zoning would not allow today. Then the appraiser looks for comparable sales and finds three attached buildings that sold as investment properties for numbers that make no sense next to each other. Then the lender asks about the rent roll and learns two of the three units are rent controlled at rates set a decade ago. At some point in that chain the loan gets declined, and the seller who waited three months for the appraisal is back at the beginning.
We close that gap. We buy with cash, we buy as-is, and everything on that list is a line item in our offer instead of a reason the deal dies. Shared walls, a ground floor unit with no certificate of occupancy, a rent roll frozen by the ordinance, none of it stops us.
The Union City sellers we hear from most
Landlords with rent controlled tenants come first. Union City’s rent control ordinance is one of the strictest in New Jersey, and a landlord with long term tenants paying far below market has a building that is worth much more empty than occupied and no legal way to make it empty. Many of those landlords are the children of the immigrant families who bought the building in the 1960s, and they are done. We buy occupied buildings with tenants in place at their actual rents and handle what comes after closing ourselves.
Estates are second. A parent who came from Cuba or Ecuador or the Dominican Republic and bought a three family near Bergenline passes, and the children are in Bergen County or Florida with a Hudson County probate to manage and a building full of sixty years 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, furniture and all. If the heirs live out of state, we also walk through what New Jersey withholds from nonresident sellers at closing so the settlement statement holds no surprises.
And then there are the buildings with a problem. A fire that closed one unit and left the others occupied. A ground floor store with a lease that runs another six years. An open violation from a city inspection that no one has been able to close out. We buy buildings with problems. That is most of what we do.
Liens, violations, and the paperwork side of Union City
Union City sells unpaid taxes and water as tax sale certificates, and with a dense city’s tax rate the liens grow quickly. Add open code violations, an unregistered unit, a fire escape citation, or a rent registration that was never filed, and a traditional sale becomes a series of conditions the buyer’s bank will refuse. We deal with tax liens and title problems as part of the purchase. Our attorneys run 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 Jersey’s court process is slow enough that selling during pre-foreclosure is almost always still an option.
What Union City houses are actually selling for
The median sale price in Union City is around $550,000, up roughly 0.2% over the past year, with properties averaging about 73 days on the market. The blocks along the Palisades edge with a Manhattan view have drawn buyers priced out of Hoboken and Weehawken, and a vacant, renovated two family there can sell for a number that would have been unthinkable ten years ago. But that headline assumes a delivered vacant building in good condition. A three family with rent controlled tenants, a ground floor unit with no certificate of occupancy, and a roof at the end of its life does not get the median. It gets a long wait and a financed buyer who backs out at the appraisal. We price the building for what it is, show you the math at the kitchen table, and leave the decision with you.
What we buy in Union City
Attached and semi attached two to four family houses, single family rowhouses, mixed use buildings with a store below and apartments above on Bergenline Avenue, Summit Avenue, and Palisade Avenue, small apartment buildings, and condos. We do not buy cooperative apartments. Most of what we see in Union City is the classic attached three family, occupied, but if you own something unusual, call us anyway and we will take a look.
How to reach us
Union City is part of our Hudson County coverage alongside Jersey City and Bayonne, and our New Jersey coverage runs through Newark, East Orange, Irvington, Elizabeth, and Paterson. If your property is down the hill, we buy houses in Jersey City NJ, at the end of the peninsula we can help you sell your house fast in Bayonne NJ, and across the river we buy houses in Newark NJ.
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 Union City is part of our core New Jersey 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 on a timeline that works for you.
Looking just beyond Union City? You can also sell your house fast in Jersey City NJ or sell a house fast in Bayonne NJ, and you can read about how we buy houses in Newark NJ.
Many Union City homeowners also ask us how to sell a house with code violations, sell a house with a tax lien, or sell a water damaged house.
Recent Union City transaction
An Attached Three Family off Bergenline, Sold With Three Rent Controlled Tenants
The owner's parents had bought the building in 1971, a few years after arriving from Cuba, and had lived on the top floor and rented the other two units to relatives and then to neighbors. By the time she inherited it, all three units were occupied by long term tenants paying rent controlled rates that had not kept pace with anything. She lived in Fort Lee, worked full time, and had spent two years learning that a rent controlled building in Union City is a job, not an investment.nnAn agent had told her the building was worth a great deal, vacant. It was not vacant, and the ordinance meant it would not be. Two investors had made offers that assumed she would somehow deliver empty units. She could not, and she did not want to spend a year in landlord tenant court trying.nnNick York walked all three units on a Saturday with the tenants' permission and sat down with her at the kitchen table on the top floor. The offer was based on the building as it stood: the actual rent roll, the actual condition, the roof, the fire escape citation, and the ground floor unit's missing certificate of occupancy. It was not the vacant number. It was a real number, and it came with the reasoning written out.nnWe closed in four weeks. The tenants kept their homes with a new owner responsible for the building, the citation transferred to us, and she walked away with cash and no more Union City phone calls. She told us afterward that the part she appreciated most was being the first buyer who did not ask her to solve the tenants first.
Common reasons Union City sellers call us.
Rent controlled tenants you cannot move
Union City rent control makes an occupied building worth far less than a vacant one and gives you no legal way to empty it. We buy occupied buildings at the actual rent roll and take the whole situation off your hands at closing.
Inherited a three family near Bergenline
Managing a Hudson County estate sale from Bergen County or Florida is exhausting, and the building is full of a lifetime of belongings. We work with executors and heirs through the Surrogate process, buy the house exactly as it sits, and close when the estate is ready.
A ground floor unit with no certificate of occupancy
Half the attached houses in Union City have a unit that was carved out decades ago without a permit, and it kills financed deals at the appraisal. It does not stop us. We buy with the unit as it is and deal with the city after closing.
Tax sale certificates and water liens
Unpaid taxes and water become liens that compound fast. We buy Union City houses carrying tax sale certificates and clear them from the proceeds at closing. You do not have to pay them off first.
Behind on the mortgage
New Jersey foreclosure is a court process and it moves slowly, which means there is usually still time to act. Selling before the sheriff sale can protect your credit and recover equity foreclosure would take.
Fire damage or a closed unit
A fire that shut one unit while the others stayed occupied is a nightmare to sell traditionally. We buy fire damaged and partially occupied buildings as-is and handle the rebuild ourselves.
A store below with a long lease
A mixed use building on Bergenline or Summit with a commercial tenant locked into a lease confuses residential buyers and their lenders. We buy mixed use with the lease in place and price it on the real income.
Divorce and a jointly owned building
When two people need to sell a Union City house and move on separately, a long listing helps nobody. We can close in as little as two weeks and split the proceeds however the parties have agreed.
Frequently asked questions about selling in Union City.
How do I sell my house fast in Union City?
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 seven to fourteen days out. No agents, no repairs, no fees, and no obligation to accept.
How fast can you close on a Union City building?
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 estoppel letters from tenants. If you need longer, for example to finish probate, we set the closing date around your schedule.
My tenants are rent controlled and paying far below market. Will you still buy?
Yes. That is the most common Union City situation we see. We buy occupied buildings at the actual rent roll, we do not ask you to remove anyone, and the tenants keep their homes with a new owner responsible for the building.
The ground floor apartment was never permitted. Is that a problem?
It is a problem for a financed buyer, because the appraiser and the lender will not count the unit. It is a line item for us. We buy the building as it is, price the unit honestly, and handle the city after closing.
There are tax liens on my Union City house. Can you still make an offer?
Yes. Union City sells unpaid taxes and water as tax sale certificates, and we buy houses carrying them regularly. The liens are paid from the sale proceeds at closing and our attorneys handle the payoff. You do not need to resolve them first.
I inherited a house in Union City and I live out of state. How does that work?
We handle the process remotely. We coordinate with the Hudson County Surrogate paperwork and your estate attorney, buy the house as it sits with whatever is inside, and close when the estate is ready. New Jersey withholds an estimated tax from out of state sellers at closing, and we walk you through that number before you commit.
How do you decide what to offer for a Union City property?
We look at recent comparable sales on the surrounding blocks, whether the building is occupied and at what rents, the condition and any missing permits, 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 Union City?
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 NJ neighborhoods.
Ready to sell your Union City house?
Submit your address. We respond within 24 hours.
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