Where our experience helps most
Practically, a hoarder house in Valley Stream needs three things handled: the contents, the structure underneath them, and the family. We deal with the first two entirely and try hard not to make the third harder.
Take whatever matters to somebody. Leave everything else. We will assess what is under it, put a written number in your hands, and let you decide in your own time. There is no follow up campaign, and nobody from here will call the owner of the hoarder house directly.
You do not have to empty a Valley Stream hoarder house to sell it
Families routinely spend weeks and several thousand dollars on dumpsters before calling us, believing no buyer will look at a hoarder house otherwise. That money is simply gone, because we were always going to clear it ourselves.
Take the things that matter to somebody. Leave the rest exactly where it sits. That is not us being accommodating, it is how we prefer to buy these, because it lets us see what we are actually buying.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A four-bedroom on State Street. In Valley Stream, bought and paid for by us.
Valley Stream is roughly 40,634 people in Nassau County, ZIP 11580, and the housing stock is mostly cape cod, colonial, tudor. Around Green Acres Mall and Sunrise Highway, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Valley Stream 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 Nassau County for 15+ years. We know what the Valley Stream Central High 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.
What we are actually assessing in a hoarder house
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 a Valley Stream hoarder house sale private
No sign on the lawn, no listing photographs, no strangers walking through on a Sunday in Valley Stream. One visit, and the cleanout happens after closing when the hoarder house is ours.
For most families that privacy is the larger part of what they want, and it is the part a listing cannot give them. Selling a hoarder house quietly is simply the normal way we do this, not a favor anybody has to ask for.
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
- $38,750 at 5% of the Valley Stream median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $15,500 on a $775,000 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- Everything a buyer would flag, paid for before you list none
- Cleanout and removal
- Dumpsters or haulers by the load, ahead of any viewing none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities across the 78 to 93 days it takes to find a buyer and then wait on their lender none
If the owner is not ready to sell their Valley Stream 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 Valley Stream
These are the two routes open to you with a hoarder house, priced against what Valley Stream houses actually sell for.
Work it against Valley Stream's own numbers. The median sale here is $775,000. A 5% commission on that is $38,750, and seller closing costs of about 2% add roughly $15,500. Those are costs we can cover on our side. That is $54,250 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 Valley Stream the median house takes about 33 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 78 to 93 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 | $775,000 (Valley Stream median) | Our written offer |
| Commission | −$38,750 | None |
| Seller closing costs | −$15,500 | We can cover them |
| Repairs before listing | Out of pocket | None |
| Cleanout | Yours | Ours |
| Showings | Until it sells | One visit |
| Listed to signed contract | 33 days (Valley Stream 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 | 78 to 93 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 | $720,750 | The number we put in writing |
For the listing side we have used a 5% commission and about 2% in seller closing costs; your real figures may differ. Repairs and carrying costs are left out because they depend on the house. If yours is in good shape, a good agent may well get you more than we would, and we will tell you if so.
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?
Not if you tell us first. Photographs, documents, jewelry and keepsakes turn up constantly in a hoarder house cleanout, and we set those aside rather than bin them when we know to look.
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 Valley Stream 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 Valley Stream house. Can you still make an offer?
Yes, and we can set a closing date far enough out to arrange somewhere for them to go. We will not contact the owner directly unless the family asks us to.