Selling a house in Montgomery, from the team on Factory Street
Velocity House Buyers works out of 9 Factory St, in the Village of Montgomery. When you call about a house here, or anywhere else in the Town of Montgomery, you are talking to people who drive past it on the way to lunch. That makes the visit easy to schedule. It does not make us softer on price than the house deserves, and we would rather say that up front.
Our own street has a story
Factory Street got its name honestly. In 1880 Crabtree & Patchett opened a worsted yarn mill here on the bank of the Wallkill, using the river for power, and it stayed a major employer well into the twentieth century. The restored mill is now City Winery. We mention it because it says something about the village as a whole: very little here was built recently, and a lot of it has been reworked more than once.
The village began as Ward’s Bridge. James Ward bought a grist mill on the Wallkill in 1744 and put a bridge across the river to reach it; a settlement grew up on the south bank, and after the Revolution a surveyor named James Clinton laid out the rectangular grid that still shapes Clinton, Union and Bridge Streets. Montgomery incorporated as a village in 1810. According to the village’s own history, the oldest houses are Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival and Italianate; Colonial Revival and Craftsman homes followed between the wars; ranches and some multi-family buildings came after 1945, further from the center.
The wider Town of Montgomery wraps around the village and also takes in the villages of Walden and Maybrook. The 2020 Census counted 23,322 people in the town, and Census survey estimates put roughly two-thirds of its homes in the hands of owner-occupants. So in Montgomery the seller is usually someone selling the house they actually live in, or the one a parent lived in for forty years.
What we look at in a Montgomery house
Age is the big variable. In a nineteenth-century house near the village green, the questions are structural and electrical: how the old foundation has held up, whether any knob-and-tube wiring is still live behind the plaster, what the chimney liner looks like, and how many layers of roofing are up there. Federal-law disclosure rules also apply to homes built before 1978, so a buyer will ask what you know about lead paint; you can simply tell us what you know.
Mid-century ranches raise different issues. Original electrical panels, a buried or basement oil tank, galvanized supply pipes and a tired septic field are the usual suspects. If the property runs on a private well, water quality and flow matter too.
None of that has to be fixed before you call. We price the repairs into our offer and handle them after closing. What helps is candor: tell us about the wet corner of the basement and the number holds up through the contract.
Where you might be on the map
- Inside the village: older homes on small lots, close to the Wallkill, Clinton Street and Village Hall.
- Walden and Maybrook: separate villages, but still inside the town, with their own village governments.
- Out in the town: larger lots, newer construction, farmland edges, and more wells and septic systems.
We buy in all three. The paperwork changes a little depending on which taxing districts your parcel sits in, and your attorney will sort that out in the title work.
The tax calendar and the offices in Goshen
For homes in the Valley Central School District, the Town of Montgomery’s Receiver of Taxes at 110 Bracken Road collects the school tax. For 2026, bills went out by August 28 and could be paid without penalty from September 1 to September 30; October 1 through November 2 carried a 2% penalty, and after that the county Commissioner of Finance in Goshen took over collection. If a sale is coming up and the bill is sitting unpaid on the counter, don’t panic. Taxes owed are a lien that the title company finds and the closing pays from your proceeds, and the attorneys apportion the current year’s taxes between buyer and seller.
Two county offices matter for most Montgomery sales. The deed is recorded with the Orange County Clerk at 255 Main Street in Goshen. When the owner has passed away, the executor or administrator gets authority from the Orange County Surrogate’s Court at 30 Park Place, also in Goshen, before anyone can sign a deed. We are glad to sign a contract while that court process is still moving and set the closing for when the papers are ready.
Attorneys, not just paperwork. In New York each side normally hires its own real estate attorney, and the seller’s attorney usually drafts the contract. You also owe the buyer a Property Condition Disclosure Statement on most residential sales; the old $500-credit shortcut ended on March 20, 2024. Our how-it-works page covers the full sequence.
Why our neighbors call
Some calls are about timing. A job offer in another state, a move closer to grandchildren, a closing on a new house that is already scheduled. Others are about the house itself: a roof that needs replacing before any lender will touch it, a kitchen nobody has updated since the 1970s, a basement that takes on water every spring. And some are about circumstances, like an estate shared by three siblings who live in three different places, or a two-family where the downstairs tenant stopped paying months ago.
What we offer in every one of those cases is the same short list. A walk-through instead of a parade of showings. A written number, normally within a day of seeing the property, with the reasoning behind it. No commission. A closing handled by attorneys and a title company, in as little as about seven days when title is clean, or on whatever later date suits you. If your house is in good shape and you have time to wait, a listing agent may well get you more, and we will tell you that rather than talk you out of it.
Because Greg and Brett are local, the follow-up is local too. If the title search turns up an old contractor’s lien or a mortgage that was paid but never formally satisfied, we deal with it from down the street, not from a call center. You can read about the two of them on our about page.
Questions from Montgomery homeowners
Is Velocity House Buyers actually based in Montgomery?
Yes. Our office is at 9 Factory St, Montgomery, NY 12549, in the village, and the phone number is (845) 367-4898. Greg Helbeck started the company in 2017, and he or Brett Gennarelli will usually be the one who walks through your house.
Do you buy in Walden and Maybrook, or only in the village?
Both, along with the rest of the Town of Montgomery. Walden and Maybrook are their own villages inside the town, so a few local details differ, but the way we buy is the same: a visit, a written offer, and an attorney-led closing.
The school tax bill came in September and I have not paid it. Can I still sell?
Yes. Unpaid property taxes are a lien that shows up in the title search, and they are paid out of your sale proceeds at closing. The attorneys also split the current year’s taxes between you and the buyer. Just let us know the bill is outstanding so nothing surprises anyone.
My house is one of the old ones near the village center. Is that a problem?
Not for us. Older village homes often have original wiring, aging foundations or several layers of roofing, and we price that work into the offer rather than asking you to fix it. Tell us what you know about the house and we will explain how it affects the number.
Do I need my own lawyer to sell to you?
In New York it is customary for each side to have a real estate attorney, and we recommend you hire one. The choice of attorney is yours. Your lawyer reviews or drafts the contract and represents you at closing.
Nearby towns and next steps
Montgomery sits in the middle of our Orange County territory. These pages cover the neighbors and the details of a sale.