Where our construction experience helps with your repairs
A house that needs repairs sits in the gap between what a buyer's lender will finance and what an owner can afford to fix. That gap is where we work, and we have worked it on Long Island for years.
We buy in any condition. We do not ask for repairs to be made first, we do not ask for the house to be cleaned, and we will not use an inspection to renegotiate afterward. If the repairs turn out to be modest enough that listing would serve you better, we will tell you that too.
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 three-bedroom on Pleasure Avenue. A three-bedroom on West 5th Street. A two-bedroom on Terry Road. All of them in Ronkonkoma, all bought by us.
Ronkonkoma is roughly 18,955 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11779, and the housing stock is mostly ranch, cape cod, hi-ranch. Around Lake Ronkonkoma and Long Island MacArthur Airport, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Ronkonkoma stop pulls buyers who commute, which supports the good houses and does very little for the ones that need a roof. We know which of these streets take water, where the older systems fail first, and what the Connetquot Central School District does to a resale price.
What the repairs really cost once you count the carry
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 Ronkonkoma 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.
How we can profit on repairs a Ronkonkoma owner would lose money on
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 Ronkonkoma works
- 1
Start with the basics
Where the house is (11779) and a rough sense of its condition is all we need to begin. Call or use the form. Nothing needs fixing or clearing out beforehand.
- 2
We come and look at it
One visit, one person, usually under half an hour. On a ranch or cape cod of the age most of Ronkonkoma was built, we are mainly looking at the roof, the boiler and the electric rather than the kitchen.
- 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 pick the closing date
Fast if you need fast, or months out if you are waiting on probate, a tenant, or somewhere to move to. Either way you skip the 67 to 82 days a listed Ronkonkoma house spends finding a buyer and then waiting on that buyer's mortgage.
Lender repairs versus pretty repairs
The repairs that matter to a sale are the ones an appraiser or an underwriter will flag. Everything else is a negotiation about taste.
Walk your list with us and we will tell you which is which. What we will not tell you is that every repair pays for itself, because it does not. A homeowner paying retail for repairs and recovering them at market rarely comes out ahead, and anybody promising otherwise has work to sell you.
The kind of houses Ronkonkoma actually has
Ronkonkoma is largely ranch, cape cod, hi-ranch stock, much of it built long enough ago that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. Boilers, wiring, roofs, and one bathroom last touched decades ago.
That is ordinary here, and none of it is a reason for us to walk away. Houses of that age come with repairs attached. We have bought plenty of them in Suffolk County and we price the repairs rather than react to them.
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
- $32,050 at 5% of the Ronkonkoma median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $12,820 on a $641,000 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- Whatever the house needs, paid up front none
- Cleanout and removal
- Dumpsters or haulers by the load, ahead of any viewing none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities through the 67 to 82 days a listing takes to sell and close none
What to do before you commit to repairs on a Ronkonkoma house
The order matters. Owners who price the repairs first and the house second often find they have already spent money the sale will never return.
We will give you a written number on a Ronkonkoma house as it stands, plus our read on what the repairs would genuinely cost and whether this market would pay for them. No obligation attached, and no call the following week asking whether you have decided.
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 Ronkonkoma 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 Ronkonkoma 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.