What squatters and holdover tenants have in common
The version that surprises owners most is the holdover tenant who is not a bad person and not obviously a problem. The lease ended, nothing was renewed, life carried on, and now the property cannot be sold on the open market because no document says who is entitled to be there.
That gap alone is enough to end a financed sale. It is not enough to end ours.
No access, and how we work around it
An unseen interior gets priced as an unseen interior and we are straightforward about it. There is a real difference between a house we have walked and a house we have not, and we would rather explain that difference than pretend it away.
What does not change is our willingness to buy. Squatters or holdover tenants in the property do not put us off, and we will not use an inspection we could not do as a reason to cut the number later.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A house on Kent Place. In Smithtown, bought and paid for by us.
Smithtown is roughly 25,629 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11787, and the housing stock is mostly colonial, split-level, ranch. Around Main Street and the Smithtown Bull, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Smithtown stop pulls buyers who commute, which supports the good houses and does very little for the ones that need a roof. We have been buying across Suffolk County for 15+ years. We know what the Smithtown Central School District does to a resale price, which blocks still have oil tanks in the ground, and what a house like yours is actually worth here.
Why an ordinary buyer cannot close on this house
A buyer with a mortgage has to hand their lender a property the lender could take possession of if it ever had to. A house with squatters in it is not that, so financed offers fall away as soon as the occupancy is disclosed.
We buy with our own funds. There is nobody behind us who needs the house empty, appraised from the inside, or documented to a standard the occupancy cannot meet.
How we help Smithtown owners with squatters or holdovers
We have bought Suffolk County houses at nearly every stage of an occupancy problem. Before anything was filed, in the middle of a case, and after an owner had spent a year on it and had enough.
What we can give you is a clear read on which parts of your situation are ordinary, what tends to happen next, and who to call. Proceedings in New York are slow and the timeline depends on the court, so nobody should be promising you a date. What we will say is that a difficult occupant has never been the reason we walked away from a seller.
How selling a house with squatters or holdover tenants in Smithtown works
- 1
Tell us where it is
Just the address in 11787 and roughly what shape it is in. It takes a couple of minutes. Leave the house exactly as it is; we do not need it tidied, photographed or fixed.
- 2
A quick look in person
We visit once and it rarely takes more than half an hour. On the colonial or split-level houses that make up most of Smithtown, we check the roof, the boiler and the electric before anything cosmetic.
- 3
You get a number in writing
Within 24 hours, as a written figure rather than a range or a "starting around". Take it to a Suffolk County agent for a second opinion if you want to. On a house already in showable condition, listing may well beat us, and we would rather you knew that.
- 4
You choose when to close
Soon, or months away if probate, a tenant or your next move has to come first. You also avoid the 68 to 83 days a listed Smithtown house typically takes to find a buyer and get through the buyer's mortgage.
Selling a Smithtown house in the middle of a case
Owners who have already started a holdover case often assume they are committed to seeing it through. Usually they are not committed to seeing it through personally.
We have taken houses on mid-proceeding more than once. The costs and the waiting from that point become ours. What matters for the offer is an accurate picture of where things stand, including anything that has not gone your way, because surprises late in a deal help nobody.
What you do not pay when you sell a house with squatters or holdover tenants
Every line below is a cost of listing a house with squatters or holdover tenants the retail way that simply does not arise here.
- Agent commission
- $39,875 at 5% of the Smithtown median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $15,950 on a $797,500 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- The work it needs to show well, out of your pocket first none
- Cleanout and removal
- Paid per load, before a single buyer walks through none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities while you spend 68 to 83 days finding a buyer and waiting for their loan none
The comparison, made honestly
If the occupancy is close to resolving and the property is in decent shape, waiting and listing afterward may net you more. We will tell you when we think that is your situation.
The median house in Smithtown sold for $797,500 and took about 23 days to go under contract, then another 45 to 60 days waiting on the buyer's mortgage. That is 68 to 83 days in total, for a house that was ready to show on day one. The case for selling to us is when the occupancy has no date on it, which with squatters and holdover tenants is usually the whole problem.
Common questions
Will you buy a Smithtown house with squatters in it?
That is work we do regularly. Tell us what you know about who is in there and how long they have been there, and we will put a written number on the house.
My tenant's lease ended and they will not leave. What now?
That is a holdover situation, and the first call is a landlord-tenant attorney, because the New York rules here are specific and they change. We can give you a name. Alongside that we can make you an offer on the house as it stands, so you can see both roads at once.
How long does it take to get somebody out?
Longer than owners expect, and that is the honest answer. Proceedings in New York are slow. If the uncertainty is the part you cannot live with, selling moves it off your side of the table entirely.
Do you need to get inside before making an offer?
No. We make offers on houses we have not been inside regularly, and we will not ask you to force access on anyone. We price conservatively where we cannot see and say clearly what we assumed.
Will the neighbors know the Smithtown house is being sold?
Nothing about the sale is public until it closes. That matters more than usual here, because a property with squatters in it does not need the extra attention.