What we take on when a house needs work
Most owners facing a list of repairs have been handed numbers by contractors with an interest in the job being large. We price repairs every week, at contractor rates, on houses we own.
So the most helpful thing we can do is give you a realistic read: which repairs genuinely need doing, what they cost at trade pricing against what you would be quoted retail, and whether the Smithtown market will return that money. Then a written as-is number, so you can compare the two paths properly instead of guessing at one of them.
As-is, and the repairs we will not ask you to make
As-is gets used loosely, so here is what it means when we say it. Whatever repairs the house needs, they become ours at closing. Leave the furniture, leave the contents of the basement, leave the roof alone.
Sellers sometimes spend a weekend and a few hundred dollars tidying before we visit, and we would rather they did not. The condition is priced into the offer once, at the start, and cleaning up ahead of the visit does not move the number.
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.
The repair-then-list arithmetic on a Smithtown house
There are two prices for any house that needs repairs: what it fetches today, and what it might fetch once the repairs are done. The gap between them is not profit. That gap has to cover the repairs, the time, the carrying costs, and the risk that the work uncovers something worse.
That last risk is real on older Smithtown stock. Opening a wall to fix one thing regularly finds two more, and a homeowner funding repairs out of pocket has no cushion for it.
Why the same repairs cost us about half what they cost you
We run millions of dollars of construction a year. That buys materials at contractor pricing and keeps crews working steadily rather than bidding for one-off jobs, and the result is that the same repairs cost us roughly half what a homeowner pays to have them done.
That is the whole reason this works. A homeowner paying retail for pre-sale repairs usually cannot recover the cost out of the sale price. We can do the identical work for about half and still leave room in the number, which is why we can buy a house that needs repairs nobody else wants to take on.
How selling a house sold as-is in Smithtown works
- 1
You tell us about the house
An address in 11787 and a rough idea of condition. Two minutes on the phone or the form. We do not need photographs, a clean house, or anything fixed first.
- 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.
Which repairs return their cost before a sale, and which do not
Broadly, the repairs that stop a buyer's lender objecting are worth making, and the repairs that only make a house prettier are not, if you are selling rather than staying. A roof that fails an appraisal blocks the sale outright. A dated kitchen only reduces the price, and rarely by as much as a new kitchen costs.
This is why a homeowner usually does not get their money back on pre-sale repairs. You pay retail for labor and materials, then recover whatever the market decides to give you, and those are not the same number.
Why repairs are normal in Smithtown housing stock
Long Island housing of a certain age carries a predictable set of repairs: an oil tank nobody wants to discuss, a roof at the end of its run, old wiring in a corner of the attic, a basement that takes water every spring.
We have seen every item on that list many times over. In Smithtown specifically, the colonial and split-level stock tends to need the same handful of repairs, which is exactly why we can price a house quickly and stand behind the number.
What you do not pay when you sell a house sold as-is
These are the costs of putting a house sold as-is on the market through an agent. None of them apply when you sell to us.
- 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
- Whatever the house needs, paid up front none
- Cleanout and removal
- Charged by the truckload, and done before the first showing 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
What to do before you commit to repairs on a Smithtown house
A written as-is offer is free and it takes one visit. Get it before you sign a contractor's proposal, not after.
With both numbers in front of you, the decision is arithmetic rather than a feeling. Repairs plus carry plus commission, set against a cash figure available now. Plenty of Smithtown owners look at the two and decide to make the repairs, and that is a perfectly good outcome. The mistake is committing to the repairs without ever seeing the other number.
Common questions
Can you sell a house as-is?
You can, and to a cash buyer it is the normal way to sell. The price already accounts for the condition, so there is no repair list and no renegotiation after an inspection. Selling as-is is about repairs, not paperwork. Whatever disclosure a Suffolk County seller owes still applies, and your attorney is the one to confirm it.
How bad does a Smithtown house have to be before you walk away?
We have bought houses that needed taking back to the studs and a few that needed demolition. The scale of the repairs changes the number, not whether we are interested.
Should I get my own inspection?
Not on our account. If you already have a report, show us and it saves a little time. If you do not, spend the money elsewhere, because we will be assessing the repairs ourselves anyway.
Will you ask for a credit for the repairs after the inspection?
No. The repairs are priced into the offer when we make it. A number that moves after the fact is exactly what sellers in this position are trying to get away from, and we know that.
Would I do better making the repairs and listing?
It happens, particularly when the repairs are cosmetic and the Smithtown market is moving. It happens less often when the repairs are structural, or when the money has to be borrowed. We will give you an honest read either way.
Can you point me to a contractor if I decide to make the repairs?
Yes. We work with trades across Nassau and Suffolk constantly, and we are glad to point you at people who do good work at fair prices, even when the outcome is that you list the house instead of selling it to us.