What the offer is buying
Cash buyers and referral platforms market to estates because an executor is busy, often lives elsewhere, and wants the home off the list. The offer buys speed: the inherited house sold fast, no showings, no repairs. What it costs is the gap between the number in the letter and what the home would bring on the open market, and that gap is the whole reason the letter was sent.
The executor's duty
The executor has the final say on how the home is sold. The flip side is that a sale well below market can be challenged by the heirs as a breach of fiduciary duty. A written comparison with recorded sales, kept in the estate's file, is the simplest protection there is, and it is free.
How to check it in ten minutes
- Open the recorded sales lookup. Pick the co-op complex, or the street and ZIP for a house.
- Enter today's date and look at the sales in the last six to twelve months. These are recorded prices from NYC's own records, not estimates.
- Put the offer next to them. If it sits under the lowest comparable, that is the cost of speed, in dollars.
- If you want it in writing, ask for the comparison. It comes with every sale listed and no obligation to list the home.
Sometimes a fast sale is the right call for an estate. The point is to make it knowing the number, not guessing it.
Start here
Bayside only: 11360, 11361 and 11364. Text, call or email. The first conversation and the value letter cost nothing.
Helpful to have ready
- The property address, and the building and apartment for a co-op
- The date of death
- Whether the court has issued letters yet
- Your role: executor, administrator, heir, CPA or attorney
At the first real conversation you receive New York's required agency disclosure and housing discrimination disclosure forms.
Sources
- Sales counts and prices: NYC Department of Finance ACRIS records (NYC Open Data) matched to tax lots in NYC PLUTO, ZIP codes 11360, 11361 and 11364, compiled by Settle Bayside. A sale is a deed or co-op transfer tax filing of $25,000 or more. An estate sale is one where the recorded seller is an estate, executor or administrator; a few sales with abbreviated seller names may be missed, so estate counts are a floor.