What happens to a listing when the system fails
The frustrating part is the gap between the problem and the reaction to it. A cesspool is a solvable piece of work, done by contractors who do it every week, and yet it clears a room of retail buyers faster than almost anything else.
That is because nobody in a conventional sale can size it. The seller does not know, the buyer does not know, the agent does not know, and the only way to find out is for somebody to spend money. So the deal stalls over the cesspool, and stalled deals rarely restart.
What we take on when the system has failed
The useful thing we bring to a failed cesspool is proportion. Homeowners get handed a figure by the first company they phone, assume that is the figure, and make a decision about their house on the strength of it.
We do this constantly. We can look at the age of the house, the lot, where the system sits and what the ground is like in that part of Nassau County, and form a realistic view of what the cesspool actually needs. Sometimes it is smaller than you were told. Tell us what happened and we will tell you plainly what usually comes next.
Why local knowledge changes the number
A four-bedroom on Sunnyside Lane. A three-bedroom on Montauk Court. A house on Lewis Avenue. All of them in Westbury, all bought by us.
Westbury is roughly 15,864 people in Nassau County, ZIP 11590, and the housing stock is mostly cape cod, colonial, ranch. Around Post Avenue and Jericho Turnpike, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Westbury 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 Westbury Union Free School District does to a resale price.
Replacing the cesspool first is usually the expensive order
The order most people reach for is: fix the cesspool, then sell. Everybody has that instinct and it is frequently the costly route.
Once the excavator is in the yard, whatever the ground turns out to hold becomes yours to deal with, mid-sale, with a buyer waiting on you. Sellers go that way and find the job growing while they stand there watching it. Selling with the cesspool as it is moves that risk to us, which is most of the reason to do it this way.
What replacing a waste system actually involves
People assume a failed cesspool means one specific job at one specific price. It does not. Two houses on the same Westbury street can need quite different work depending on the lot, the water table and what was installed originally.
So treat the first number you are quoted carefully, in both directions. A contractor who has actually been out and looked at the cesspool, plus the county health department for what is required, will get you nearer the truth than anybody working from a phone call.
How we arrive at a number on a house with a failed cesspool
On a house with a failed cesspool, the number comes from three things: what it will be worth when the work is finished, what the work will cost, and a cushion in case we are wrong on either. That is all there is to it. There is no formula we are keeping from you.
- What it is worth repaired. Not the Westbury median of $801,000 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 Westbury the stock is largely cape cod and colonial, and on houses that age the mechanicals are usually the expensive part rather than the cosmetics.
- How long we will hold it. The median Westbury house goes under contract in about 41 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. Some of what a house needs only shows once the work starts. We price that in, and it is a big part of the gap between a cash offer and a retail sale.
Why this works for us when it would not for you
This is the part cash buyers tend to gloss over. We run millions of dollars of construction a year. That buys materials at contractor pricing and keeps our own crews working through the year, so the same renovation costs us roughly half what it would cost you to hire it out.
That is the business in one line. It is also why renovating before a sale rarely pays: you would buy the same roof and boiler at retail and hope to get it back at resale, which usually does not happen. We do not make our money by paying you less. We make it by building for less.
If the number does not work for you, tell us so. We would rather have that conversation than pressure anyone. We will look at where you are and give you an honest read on your options, including ones that do not involve selling to us. Plenty of sellers are better off with an agent, and we will say so if you are one of them.
No lender, no repair conditions, no sign-off to wait on
A failed cesspool is a privacy problem too, which people rarely mention out loud. A listing means a sign on the lawn in Westbury, strangers walking through on weekends, and a yard that is visibly torn up or visibly unusable.
There is none of that with us. One visit, a written number, a closing date you choose, and no explaining the cesspool to anybody on the street.
What you do not pay when you sell a house with a failed cesspool
These are the costs of putting a house with a failed cesspool on the market through an agent. None of them apply when you sell to us.
- Agent commission
- $40,050 at 5% of the Westbury median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $16,020 on a $801,000 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
- Charged by the truckload, and done before the first showing none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities for the 86 to 101 days of finding a buyer and waiting on their mortgage none
Disclosure, and what to ask your attorney
The next step is short. Tell us what the cesspool has been doing, we come and look once, and you have a written number within a day.
No inspection, no pump-out, no repair, no cleanout, and no sign on the lawn in Westbury. If we think you would come out ahead replacing the cesspool and listing the house properly, we will say so and point you at the contractor we use ourselves.
Common questions
Do I have to fix the cesspool before you buy a Westbury house?
Not at all. No repair, no replacement, no pump-out, no inspection. The condition of the cesspool is priced into the offer, and the offer does not move afterward.
What does a new cesspool or septic system cost?
It turns on the lot, the location and what the county health department requires at your address, so any cesspool figure quoted from a web page is a guess. A sanitary contractor who has walked the property will give you a real answer.
The cesspool backed up but the house is still livable. Is that a failure?
Sometimes a backup is a blockage and sometimes it is the cesspool reaching the end of its life, and telling those apart takes somebody who has opened it up. Either way we buy, and either way it is worth knowing which one you have.
A buyer walked away over the cesspool. Does that hurt my chances with you?
Not at all, and it is how a great many people arrive here. A retail buyer walking over a failed cesspool tells us something about that buyer, not about your house.
Do you buy houses on septic as well as cesspools?
Yes. A great deal of Nassau County is on cesspools or septic rather than sewers, and we buy across all of it. Whatever is in your yard, it does not have to be working for us to buy the house.