We buy houses from owners who are behind on payments — a fast cash sale can close before the auction date. We are buyers, not counselors or lawyers; talk to a HUD-approved housing counselor (free) or an attorney about your other options.
Good people fall behind. The math doesn't care why — but we do.
A job that vanished. A medical bill that swallowed the savings. An adjustable rate that jumped just as the overtime dried up. Nobody who's a few payments behind got there through laziness — they got there because life sent the bill before the paycheck. So let's skip the shame entirely and deal with what actually matters: right now, at this early stage, a sale is simpler and cheaper than it will be at any later point. This page is about what that sale looks like.
Where you actually are: the four-stage map
Foreclosure in New York isn't a cliff — it's a long road with clear mile markers. Find yours:
- Stage 1: Missed payments. Late fees and servicer phone calls, but no legal process yet. A sale here is the simplest and cheapest it will ever be.
- Stage 2: The 90-day notice. Before filing anything in court, your lender must mail you a pre-foreclosure notice under RPAPL §1304 at least 90 days ahead. A concrete deadline — but still no lawsuit.
- Stage 3: The foreclosure filing. The lender sues and records a lis pendens at the county clerk — the public notice that formally puts the property into litigation.
- Stage 4: The long court process. Settlement conferences, motions, judgment, and eventually an auction date. In New York that road averages roughly five years — among the longest in the nation (per ATTOM foreclosure data, 2025–2026).
The part that matters most: you can sell at any stage. You hold title to your house until the moment it's sold at auction — but every stage deeper adds fees to your payoff and shrinks your leverage, which is why the earlier stages are where the money gets saved.
Why the "before" stage is worth so much
There's a hard line in this process: the day your lender files a foreclosure case in court. Before that filing, your arrears are basically the missed payments plus late fees. After it, the balance starts absorbing the lender's attorney fees, court costs, and inspection charges — bills you didn't create but must pay off before you see a dime of equity. Your credit report tells a similar story: a string of late payments heals far faster than an active foreclosure. And buyers behave differently too — a seller with no court deadline negotiates from strength; a seller with an auction on the calendar negotiates from fear.
Every month of waiting quietly converts your equity into someone else's fees. Acting in the before-stage isn't panic. It's arithmetic.
What we do — and what we don't
- We buy the house. A written cash offer within 24 hours, a closing date you choose, and the arrears cleared at closing out of the purchase price — before a filing, that means no court costs or lender's attorney fees on top. If your timeline and the house's condition can earn more on the open market, listing the house through our family's licensed brokerage is also a sale, and we'll tell you straight which one wins on your numbers.
- We don't advise on keeping it. Reinstatement, forbearance, and loan modification are conversations with your servicer, and a HUD-approved housing counselor will walk you through them for free; an attorney can tell you your rights. We are buyers, not counselors, and we never charge a fee — so if that is the conversation you need first, have it, and our number still stands.
What a cash sale looks like at this stage
One visit, no cleanup, no showings the neighbors can see. We hand you a written offer within 24 hours and walk you through exactly how we built it. At closing, our title company requests the payoff from your servicer — loan balance, arrears, and late fees all settle out of the purchase price, so you never have to come up with catch-up money yourself. You choose the closing date; some sellers want three weeks, others want the rest of the school year, and both are fine. What you get is the thing your lender's letters never offer: a certain outcome on a certain date.
If you're further along than a few missed payments
Maybe the letters stopped being letters and became legal papers — a 90-day notice, a summons, a case number. You still have real options, but the playbook changes and the clock matters more. We've written a full guide for that stage: selling your house during foreclosure in New York. Read it, and if there's a court date anywhere in your paperwork, call us sooner rather than later — and talk to a foreclosure defense attorney about your rights; that advice is worth having no matter what you decide.
When missed payments are a symptom, not the disease
Half the time, the mortgage slipped because something bigger did. A divorce turned one household budget into two. An inherited house came with a payment nobody planned for. A rental's tenants stopped paying and the note stopped being covered. We buy through every one of those tangles — occupied, mid-dispute, mid-probate — because after nearly four decades in this business, complicated is just what houses are.
A neighbor, not a call center
Our family has been in Bronx/Westchester real estate since 1987, and we buy throughout Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester, and Rockland County. That means the person walking your house has stood in so many like it, knows what your block actually sells for, and will still be here next year — which is exactly why we can't afford to treat anyone unfairly.
Do one thing today
Open the lender's letters — all of them — and find your latest statement. Then call or text us. In ten minutes you'll have a written cash number and a closing date to weigh against whatever your counselor or lender offers. Even if we never buy your house, you'll hang up with a real figure. That alone is worth the call.