Where our experience with occupied property helps
The reason a tenant makes a house hard to sell is that most buyers need vacant possession and their lenders insist on it. We do not.
We buy subject to the existing tenancy and take the tenant situation on ourselves after closing. You do not serve notice, you do not start a proceeding, and you do not pay anybody to leave on our behalf. If the arrangement is undocumented, the rent is behind, or the lease ran out long ago, tell us plainly and we will price it. Those are the Babylon calls we get most.
You do not have to remove the tenant first
Most sale agreements hand the tenant problem straight back to the seller: deliver vacant possession by closing, or there is no closing. Ours does not.
Whatever the tenant does between now and the closing date is our concern rather than yours. You are not being asked to evict anyone, negotiate with anyone, or spend money persuading somebody to go. We buy occupied, and occupancy becomes ours at closing.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A three-bedroom estate sale on Cortland Street. A house on 14th Street. Both in Babylon, bought and paid for by us.
Babylon is roughly 12,188 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11702, and the housing stock is mostly colonial, cape cod, victorian. Around Main Street and Deer Park Avenue, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Babylon 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 Babylon Union Free 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.
Selling a Babylon house with a tenant who has stopped paying
Holdover tenants are the version landlords find hardest, because the lease is over, the tenant is still there, and every ordinary buyer treats that as a deal-breaker.
We treat it as a number. Tell us where things stand, whether anything has been filed, and what has actually been paid recently. We have bought houses at every stage of that, and a difficult occupant has never been the reason we walked away from a seller.
Two-family houses and the unit holding up the sale
Investors buying multi-family with financing need cooperation from every tenant: access for the appraiser, estoppel letters, paperwork that reads cleanly. One tenant who will not answer the door is enough to collapse the whole thing.
We buy with our own funds, so an occupant who will not participate slows nothing down. We take the building with the tenants it has and sort out the rest after closing.
What the two paths cost in Babylon
These are the two routes open to you with a tenant-occupied house, priced against what Babylon houses actually sell for.
Work it against Babylon's own numbers. The median sale here is $751,000. A 5% commission on that is $37,550, and seller closing costs of about 2% add roughly $15,020. Those are costs we can cover on our side. That is $52,570 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 Babylon the median house takes about 34 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 79 to 94 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 | $751,000 (Babylon median) | Our written offer |
| Commission | −$37,550 | None |
| Seller closing costs | −$15,020 | We can cover them |
| Repairs before listing | Out of pocket | None |
| Cleanout | Yours | Ours |
| Showings | Until it sells | One visit |
| Listed to signed contract | 34 days (Babylon 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 | 79 to 94 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 | $698,430 | The number we put in writing |
The agent column uses a 5% commission and about 2% of seller closing costs, which are typical rather than fixed. It leaves out repairs and holding costs because no two houses are alike there. Where a house is in good condition, listing with a capable agent can beat our number, and we will be upfront if that is the case.
What we need from a Babylon landlord to make an offer
The practical list is short: who the tenants are, what they pay, what they owe, and what has been signed. If you have estoppel-level detail, good. If you have a shoebox, that is workable too.
We confirm the deposits at closing and take the transfer through the attorneys. From there the leases run with the house, and every tenant relationship becomes ours to manage rather than yours to lose sleep over.
What you do not pay when you sell a tenant-occupied house
Every line below is a cost of listing a tenant-occupied house the retail way that simply does not arise here.
- Agent commission
- $37,550 at 5% of the Babylon median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $15,020 on a $751,000 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 79 to 94 days finding a buyer and waiting for their loan none
When listing is the better move
The median house in Babylon sold for $751,000 and took about 34 days to go under contract, then another 45 to 60 days waiting on the buyer's mortgage. That is 79 to 94 days in total, for a house that was ready to show on day one. Those timelines assume a house that shows well from day one, and a tenant-occupied house rarely does.
If the tenants are cooperative, the leases are clean and you have months to spare, listing may well net you more, and we will tell you so. The case for selling to us is when the occupancy, rather than the house itself, is what stands in the way.
Common questions
Do you need to inspect the tenant-occupied units in Babylon?
Ideally yes, realistically often not, and we plan for that. Show us what the tenants will allow, tell us what you know about the rest, and we price the unseen units conservatively rather than walking away from the house.
What happens to the security deposits?
They transfer at closing, handled through the attorneys in the normal way. You do not need to refund or reconcile anything with the tenant beforehand.
Can you buy if the tenant is already in a court proceeding?
We buy Suffolk County houses with live tenant matters regularly. Tell us what has been filed and where it stands, and your attorney and ours will handle the sequencing between them.
Will the tenants find out the Babylon house is for sale?
Not from a sign or a listing, because there is neither. Most landlords tell their tenants when they choose to, and if the tenancy is tense it is worth a word with your attorney about how and when.
Do I have to give the tenants notice before selling?
That is a legal question worth five minutes with an attorney, because New York rules around tenants are specific. The selling side we can answer now: no tenant has to be given notice to leave in order for us to buy.