Short sale or cash sale on your Hicksville house: the one test
A short sale and a cash sale are not two options you pick between on preference. One number decides it. If your Hicksville house is worth more than the mortgage payoff, you have equity, and an ordinary cash sale protects it. If the payoff is higher than the house is worth, no buyer can pay enough to clear the debt, and a short sale is the route, because only the lender can agree to accept less than it is owed.
Get the written payoff from your servicer first. Until you have that figure, nobody can honestly tell you which of the two you are looking at.
What your lender wants before approving a short sale
Expect adjournments, requests for documents you already sent, and a valuation ordered by the servicer that you will never see. That is the ordinary texture of a short sale rather than a sign yours is going badly.
A short sale also usually runs alongside a foreclosure that does not pause politely while the file is reviewed, which is why starting a short sale early matters so much. Begun late, the short sale and the sale date end up racing each other.
Why local knowledge changes the number
The Hicksville median has barely moved year over year as of 2026-10, at 3%. Flat is the hardest market to price a fixer into, because there is no upward drift to cover a mistake and no urgency pushing buyers to overlook a problem. A $751,865 median puts Hicksville in the band where buyers are stretching to afford the house and have nothing left for the roof. That is precisely the buyer who walks away from a property needing work, and it is why condition matters more here than the price alone suggests. The median house here goes under contract in about 33 days, which is quick for Long Island. It is also a figure that only applies to property in showable condition.
Hicksville is roughly 43,869 people in Nassau County, ZIP 11801, and the housing stock is mostly cape cod, ranch, hi-ranch. Around Broadway and Old Country Road, most of it is old enough that the mechanicals are on their second or third life. The Hicksville 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 Nassau County for 15+ years. We know what the Hicksville 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.
Where we fit, on either route
We do not turn underwater sellers away. We have worked a great many short sales across Nassau and Suffolk, and we will work yours with you if that is what the numbers call for.
That means we make the offer, we help assemble the short sale package, we deal with the servicer's negotiator, and we stay in it through the adjournments. A short sale is slower and less certain than a cash sale and we will say so at the start. But an underwater owner with an experienced short sale buyer alongside them is in a far better position than one calling around for somebody willing to try.
Why the short sale clock matters when a sale date exists
The short sale timeline is the most underestimated part of this. Owners hear that a short sale is an alternative to foreclosure and assume that means it is quick. It is a genuine alternative, and it is not quick.
So weigh the clock alongside everything else. A cash sale closes on a date you know in advance. A short sale can be the better route when you are underwater, and it still ends when the servicer decides it ends rather than when you do.
How selling a house in a short sale in Hicksville works
- 1
You tell us about the house
An address in 11801 and a rough idea of condition. Two minutes on the phone or the form. We do not need photographs, a clean house, or anything fixed first.
- 2
A quick look in person
We visit once and it rarely takes more than half an hour. On the cape cod or ranch houses that make up most of Hicksville, we check the roof, the boiler and the electric before anything cosmetic.
- 3
You get a number in writing
Within 24 hours, as a written figure rather than a range or a "starting around". Take it to a Nassau County agent for a second opinion if you want to. On a house already in showable condition, listing may well beat us, and we would rather you knew that.
- 4
The date is up to you
Close quickly, or set a date months ahead to fit probate, a tenant or your own move. Either way there is no 78 to 93 days of a Hicksville listing looking for a buyer and waiting on a mortgage approval.
What a short sale leaves behind, and what a cash sale does not
A cash sale where the mortgage is paid in full closes the matter cleanly. A short sale is different, because the lender is accepting less than it is owed, and what happens to the shortfall afterward is not automatic.
Some short sale approvals waive the deficiency and some reserve the right to pursue it, and forgiven debt can carry tax consequences. We are not going to state either as settled fact for your situation. Ask an attorney about the deficiency language in the short sale approval letter, and ask a CPA about the tax side, before you sign anything.
What you do not pay when you sell a house in a short sale
These are the costs of putting a house in a short sale on the market through an agent. None of them apply when you sell to us.
- Agent commission
- $37,593 at 5% of the Hicksville median none
- Seller closing costs
- About $15,037 on a $751,865 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
- Dumpsters or haulers by the load, ahead of any viewing none
- Carrying costs while it waits
- Taxes, insurance and utilities for the 78 to 93 days of finding a buyer and waiting on their mortgage none
Get the number on your Hicksville house, then decide
Everything on this page comes down to two numbers: what the house is worth and what the payoff is. Get the second one in writing from the servicer, and we will put the first one in writing for you at no cost.
If the gap favors you, a cash sale is simple and quick. If it goes the other way, we will talk you through what a short sale involves and whether yours looks like one worth starting. You are not obliged to sell to us to have that conversation, and plenty of people do not.
Common questions
Do you handle short sales in Hicksville?
Yes. We have worked a great many short sales across Nassau and Suffolk over the years. A short sale is slower and lender-driven, so we will be honest up front about what yours looks like, but being underwater is not a reason we send anyone away.
How do I find out what I owe on the mortgage?
Call the servicer and ask for a payoff quote in writing, good through a date far enough out to be useful. Do not work from the balance on your monthly statement, because it leaves out the arrears and fees that the short sale question actually turns on.
Can I do a short sale on a Hicksville house if foreclosure has already been filed?
Often yes. A filed foreclosure does not close off a short sale, it adds a clock. Servicers have discretion to adjourn a sale date when a credible contract is in front of them, though nobody can guarantee it. Get an attorney involved alongside us.
Which is better for me, a short sale or a cash sale?
Whichever one your numbers permit. A cash sale is better in almost every respect except that it requires equity. If you are underwater, a short sale is not a worse choice, it is the available route, and it can still beat letting a foreclosure run its course.
Will I walk away with money from a short sale?
Usually not, since the lender is already accepting less than it is owed. Some short sale approvals include a relocation allowance and some do not, and that is the servicer's call rather than ours. Ask an attorney to review the approval letter before you sign it.