What we handle on a hoarder house
Families who call about a hoarder house have usually been circling it for years, and the first thing they need is somebody who treats it as ordinary. It is ordinary to us. We have walked a great many of these houses on Long Island and there is nothing in yours we have not seen.
We clear the property ourselves after closing, at our cost. We will walk a hoarder house without comment. We can move quickly or wait months. And if the owner needs support rather than a sale right now, we would rather help you find it than push a transaction nobody is ready for.
Do not clear it before we come
The cleanout is ours. Not a credit at closing, not a deduction from the number, not a condition of the sale. Ours.
What we ask is that anything of personal value comes out first, because after closing the hoarder house is ours and the contents go. If there is a specific item somebody wants, tell us before we start and we will look for it. On a full hoarder house that is a real search, and we do it.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A six-bedroom on Gladstone Avenue. A four-bedroom on Storey Avenue. A three-bedroom on Montauk Avenue. All of them in Islip, all bought by us.
Islip is roughly 18,418 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11751, and the housing stock is mostly colonial, cape cod, ranch. Around Main Street and Sunrise Highway, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Islip stop pulls buyers who commute, which supports the good houses and does very little for the ones that need a roof. We have bought enough here to know which streets take water, which blocks still have oil tanks in the ground, and what the Islip Union Free School District does to a resale price.
What we assess in a hoarder house, past the contents
The quantity of belongings affects our cost to clear, which is a known and fairly predictable figure. What actually moves the offer on a hoarder house is what sits beneath it all: the floors, the framing, whether water has been coming in, and the state of the mechanicals.
That is what we are looking at while we walk through. It is also why a full house does not frighten us the way it frightens a retail buyer seeing one for the first time.
Keeping an Islip hoarder house sale private
Nobody needs to know. No sign goes up in Islip, no photographs go online, and nobody walks through the hoarder house except us.
That matters more than people expect, particularly when the owner is still alive and still has neighbors who have known them thirty years. Discretion is a standard part of how we buy these, and you do not have to negotiate for it.
What you do not pay when you sell a hoarder house
Each of the following comes with a retail listing of a hoarder house, and none of it comes with ours.
- Agent commission
- $33,850 at 5% of the Islip median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $13,540 on a $677,000 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
- Charged by the truckload, and done before the first showing none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities across the 80 to 95 days it takes to find a buyer and then wait on their lender none
If the owner is not ready to sell their Islip house
Then nothing happens yet, and that is a legitimate answer. What we will do is leave a figure with the family so it exists when the moment arrives, and it usually does arrive.
What we will not do is call every few weeks asking whether anything has changed. A hoarder house is a family situation before it is a real estate one, and the family sets the pace on it.
What the two paths cost in Islip
These are the two routes open to you with a hoarder house, priced against what Islip houses actually sell for.
Work it against Islip's own numbers. The median sale here is $677,000. A 5% commission on that is $33,850, and seller closing costs of about 2% add roughly $13,540. Those are costs we can cover on our side. That is $47,390 gone before anyone counts the repairs it took to get the house listable.
There are two waits in a listed sale and people usually only count the first. In Islip the median house takes about 35 days to go from listed to a signed contract. Then it waits again, typically 45 to 60 days, while the buyer's lender orders an appraisal and underwrites the loan. Call it 80 to 95 days from sign to keys, assuming nothing goes wrong.
The part worth understanding is what a signed contract actually guarantees, which is less than most sellers assume. A retail buyer with a mortgage contingency can walk away right up to the end. If they do not qualify, if the appraisal comes in under the price, if they change their mind and let the financing lapse. A share of deals die exactly there, after months of waiting, and the house goes back on the market with time on it. We are not borrowing anything, so there is no lender to satisfy, no appraisal to come in low and no contingency to exercise.
| Listing with an agent | Selling to us | |
|---|---|---|
| Sale price | $677,000 (Islip median) | Our written offer |
| Commission | −$33,850 | None |
| Seller closing costs | −$13,540 | We can cover them |
| Repairs before listing | Out of pocket | None |
| Cleanout | Yours | Ours |
| Showings | Until it sells | One visit |
| Listed to signed contract | 35 days (Islip median, once listable) | 24 hours to a written offer |
| Contract to closing | 45 to 60 days (waiting on the buyer's lender) | A date you choose |
| Total wait | 80 to 95 days if nothing falls through | Yours to set |
| Can the buyer walk? | Yes (mortgage contingency runs to the end) | No financing to fall through |
| Before repairs and carrying | $629,610 | The number we put in writing |
The listing column assumes a 5% commission and seller closing costs of about 2%. Both vary. We have not subtracted repairs or the cost of carrying the house while it sits, because those depend on the property. A house in good condition listed with a good agent can absolutely beat a cash offer, and we will say so if that is your situation.
Why families stop halfway through a hoarder cleanout
Before you call anyone, it is worth knowing what you are being saved from. Clearing a hoarder house means multiple dumpster loads, labor by the day, sometimes a specialist crew where there is a biohazard element, and often a pest treatment afterward.
Families start this themselves, spend real money, and stop halfway. We have bought many a hoarder house at exactly that point, half cleared, and the half that got done did not raise the price.
Common questions
Is it safe for you to go into a hoarder house?
We have walked a great many of them and we know what to watch for. If a hoarder house is genuinely unsafe to enter, we can still make an offer from the exterior, the layout, and photographs.
Will you throw away things that matter to the family?
Take anything you want before closing. After that the hoarder house is ours, so if there is something specific, tell us and we will look for it while we clear.
Does the hoarder house need a cleanout before closing?
Never. The cleanout is our expense and it happens after the property is ours. Paying for a hoarder house cleanout before selling is money families do not get back.
Will anyone in Islip know the house sold this way?
Not from us. There is no sign, no listing and no photographs online, and the cleanout happens after closing. One person visits once, and that is the whole of the public footprint.
The owner is still living in the Islip house. Can you still make an offer?
Yes. An occupied hoarder house is common and it does not change how we buy. The timeline is the thing that usually needs care, and we can be patient with it.