Where our experience helps most
Practically, a hoarder house in Plainview 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.
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 three-bedroom on Gerhard Road. A three-bedroom on Knickerbocker Road North. A two-bedroom on Manetto Hill Road. All of them in Plainview, all bought by us.
Plainview is roughly 27,100 people in Nassau County, ZIP 11803, and the housing stock is mostly ranch, split-level, hi-ranch. Around Old Country Road and Manetto Hill Road, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. We know which of these streets take water, where the older systems fail first, and what the Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District does to a resale price.
What we assess in a hoarder house, past the contents
The structure underneath, not the contents. Whether floors and joists have held under the weight, whether water has been getting in behind the accumulation, the condition of the heating and electrical, and whether the hoarder house needs pest or sanitation work.
The volume of belongings is a predictable cost to us. The condition of the building is what actually moves the number, and we can usually read a hoarder house well enough from one walk-through without moving anything.
Handling it discreetly
No sign on the lawn, no listing photographs, no strangers walking through on a Sunday in Plainview. 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
Listing a hoarder house the usual way brings each of these costs with it. Selling to us brings none of them.
- Agent commission
- $48,500 at 5% of the Plainview median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $19,400 on a $970,000 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- Whatever the house needs, paid up front none
- Cleanout and removal
- Paid per load, before a single buyer walks through none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities through the 73 to 88 days a listing takes to sell and close none
When the timing is not yours to decide
Then they are not ready, and pushing makes it worse. A hoarder house almost always involves somebody who is not ready to let go of it, and no amount of pressure from a buyer improves that.
We will give the family a number so it exists when the time comes. We do not call back repeatedly, and you should be wary of any buyer who does, because hoarder house leads get resold and recycled around this industry.
What the two paths cost in Plainview
These are the two routes open to you with a hoarder house, priced against what Plainview houses actually sell for.
Work it against Plainview's own numbers. The median sale here is $970,000. A 5% commission on that is $48,500, and seller closing costs of about 2% add roughly $19,400. Those are costs we can cover on our side. That is $67,900 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 Plainview the median house takes about 28 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 73 to 88 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 | $970,000 (Plainview median) | Our written offer |
| Commission | −$48,500 | None |
| Seller closing costs | −$19,400 | We can cover them |
| Repairs before listing | Out of pocket | None |
| Cleanout | Yours | Ours |
| Showings | Until it sells | One visit |
| Listed to signed contract | 28 days (Plainview 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 | 73 to 88 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 | $902,100 | The number we put in writing |
Assumptions: 5% commission and about 2% seller closing costs on the listing side, and both move from deal to deal. Repairs and the cost of holding the house are not deducted, since they vary by property. A well-kept house with a good agent can come out ahead of a cash sale, and if that describes yours we will say it.
The cost of clearing it yourself
The reason families stall on a hoarder house for years is usually not denial. It is that the first step is expensive, physically hard, and emotionally worse, and nobody wants to be the one who throws away a parent's belongings.
Selling to us removes that step completely. We do the clearing, after closing, when the hoarder house belongs to us and the family does not have to watch it happen.
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 Plainview 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 Plainview 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.