Why buyers and lenders both balk
Two things have to survive for a listed sale to close: the buyer's nerve and the buyer's lender. A failed cesspool takes out both at once.
The buyer is picturing the yard dug up and a bill nobody will commit to in advance. The lender is looking at a property that cannot practically be occupied until the waste system works. Either one alone is enough to end a contract, and the house goes back on the Amityville market with more days on it and a cesspool in its history.
How we help Amityville owners with a failed cesspool
We buy houses with failed cesspools regularly, which means we already know who does this work properly and roughly what it runs. That is the practical difference between us and a buyer meeting the problem for the first time.
We have sanitary contractors and engineers we have used for years, and we bring them in on our own account after closing rather than asking you to arrange anything. And if it turns out that replacing the cesspool and listing the house on the open market would leave you better off, we will tell you so and give you the name of the contractor we would call.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A five-bedroom on Sunshine Lane. A house on Washington Avenue. Both in Amityville, bought and paid for by us.
Amityville is roughly 9,500 people in Suffolk County, ZIP 11701, and the housing stock is mostly colonial, victorian, cape cod. Around Broadway and the Triangle, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Amityville 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 Amityville 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.
You do not need to replace it before you sell
There is a version of this where you borrow against the house, pay for a new system, and then find that the buyer who walked over the cesspool was not coming back and the next one wants something else fixed as well. We see it, and it is a hard thing to watch.
You do not have to repair the cesspool, pump it, inspect it or dig anything up to sell to us. The condition of the system is priced into the offer once, up front, and the offer does not move afterward.
The county health department, and why it matters here
Rules around waste systems on Long Island have changed over the years and continue to, and what applies at your address depends on the lot, the location and what is already in the ground.
The county health department is the authority on what a replacement cesspool or septic system at your address has to be, and a sanitary contractor will know what that means in practice. There are sometimes programs that help with the cost, which is worth asking about while you have them on the phone. If you would rather not run that errand at all, sell the house with the cesspool as it is and it stops being yours.
How we arrive at a number on a house with a failed cesspool
For a house with a failed cesspool, the starting point is the price once it is fully repaired. We subtract what the repairs cost and then a margin for being wrong about the price or the repairs. No algorithm and no trade secret: that is how the number is built.
- What it is worth repaired. Not the Amityville median of $611,250 on its own, but what houses like yours on your street actually closed at recently.
- What the work costs. Roof, boiler, electric, the kitchen and bath. In Amityville the stock is largely colonial and victorian, and on houses that age the mechanicals are usually the expensive part rather than the cosmetics.
- How long we will hold it. The median Amityville house goes under contract in about 35 days once it is showable, then waits 45 to 60 days more on the buyer's lender. Ours has to get to showable first, and we carry taxes and insurance across the whole of it.
- What we are wrong about. Every renovation turns up something nobody could see on the walk-through. We build that risk into the price, and it explains a good part of why cash offers come in below retail.
Where our margin actually comes from
Plainly, because buyers are often vague here: we run millions of dollars of construction a year. At that volume we pay contractor prices for materials and keep steady crews working twelve months a year, so a given renovation costs us roughly half of what a homeowner pays for the same job.
That is where our margin is. It is also why fixing the house up yourself first rarely pays off. You would be paying retail for the work and counting on the sale price to cover it, and it usually does not. We earn our money on the construction side, not on the price we pay you.
If the figure does not work, say so; we would rather know than try to talk you round. We will look at what is going on and tell you honestly which options make sense, including the ones without us. Listing with an agent is the better route for plenty of sellers, and we will tell you if it is yours.
Why cash matters when the cesspool has failed
On a financed sale, somebody has to make the cesspool right before the money moves, and that somebody is almost always the seller. Plenty of people agree to it because they think there is no alternative.
There is. We buy with the failed system in place, at our cost, and we close on the date you pick. Nothing about the cesspool has to be resolved beforehand, because there is no underwriter sitting behind us asking for it.
What you do not pay when you sell a house with a failed cesspool
Listing a house with a failed cesspool the usual way brings each of these costs with it. Selling to us brings none of them.
- Agent commission
- $30,563 at 5% of the Amityville median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $12,225 on a $611,250 sale. We can cover these. none
- Repairs to make it listable
- Whatever the house needs, paid up front none
- Cleanout and removal
- Per truckload, before anyone views it 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
Telling us everything, and what you owe a buyer
We would rather hear the whole history of the cesspool at the start. The backups, the pump-outs, the company that came out twice, the quote sitting on the kitchen counter that you have been avoiding for a month.
None of that changes whether we buy a house with a failed cesspool in it. On the disclosure question, ask your attorney what New York requires of you rather than taking our word or anyone else's. We are buyers rather than lawyers, and this is one worth getting right.
Common questions
Do I have to fix the cesspool before you buy an Amityville house?
No. We buy with the cesspool exactly as it is. The repair or replacement is our project after closing, not something you arrange first.
What does a new cesspool or septic system cost?
That varies widely, and a single honest number for it does not exist. Get a contractor out, and ask the county health department what a replacement at your address has to be. If you would rather skip the whole exercise, sell the house with the cesspool as it is.
The cesspool backed up but the house is still livable. Is that a failure?
Not necessarily. A single backup can be a simple blockage. Repeated backups, standing water in the yard, or a smell that keeps returning point toward the cesspool itself. We will give you our honest read on the system when we look at the Amityville property.
A buyer walked away over the cesspool. Does that hurt my chances with you?
No. Most Amityville owners who call us about a cesspool have already lost at least one contract to it. It is the usual route to this conversation rather than a mark against the property.
Do you buy houses on septic as well as cesspools?
Yes. Cesspools, septic systems, older arrangements nobody has a clean name for, and houses where the system was never quite right to begin with. The condition of it does not stop us.