Sell your Paramus house before you spend a dime getting it ready
Paramus is a borough of owner-occupied homes on residential streets tucked behind the stores and traffic of Routes 4 and 17. Many of those homes have had the same owner for a very long time. When it’s time to sell one that was never modernized, a cash buyer can save you the renovation, the open houses and the months of waiting.
Who would be buying your house
Velocity House Buyers is two people you can actually reach: Greg Helbeck and Brett Gennarelli. We work from Montgomery, New York, which means Paramus is a drive down from Orange County, not our hometown. We come anyway, because we don’t make offers on houses we haven’t walked through.
Our price follows on paper, as a cash offer, most often the day after the visit. Attorneys and a title company handle the closing, and you pick the date. No commission comes out of your proceeds, and you don’t need to empty the closets first.
A direct sale isn’t always the best route, though. If your house is updated and you aren’t in a hurry, listing it may get you a better result than selling to us, and we’ll tell you so on the phone.
The Paramus we buy in
The borough counted 26,698 residents in 2020. Census survey estimates put owner occupancy at around 83 percent and the average household near three people, a profile of families who bought, stayed and raised kids here. The borough itself describes four major shopping malls and three corporate parks lined up along Routes 4, 17 and the Garden State Parkway. Step a block off those highways and you are on quiet streets lined with single-family houses.
Bergen County also restricts many kinds of retail sales on Sundays under a state law that applies here, so Sunday in Paramus is a quieter day than the traffic on a Saturday would suggest.
Long ownership produces a recognizable kind of house. Original kitchens and bathrooms, oil heat or an aging boiler, a basement that gets wet after hard rain, a sunroom or dormer added years ago. Many retail buyers want move-in ready. We expect the opposite and price accordingly.
The resale certificate and old permits
Paramus requires a Certificate of Compliance from its Building Department before a home is sold. The borough suggests that sellers first stop in and confirm that every permit ever issued for the property has been closed out, and only then apply for the inspection.
That step trips people up. An addition finished in the 1980s, a deck, a finished basement, a replaced furnace: if a permit was opened and never finalized, it can hold up a sale. Sometimes the fix is paperwork. Sometimes it means an inspector wants to see work that is now behind drywall.
We have no problem buying a house with open permits or unapproved work. We price in the cost of resolving them, and your attorney and ours agree on how the borough’s requirements are handled before closing.
Costs that are different in New Jersey
Above $1 million. New Jersey adds a graduated fee in addition to the standard realty transfer fee when a home sells for more than $1 million: 1 percent up to $2 million, climbing in steps to 3.5 percent above $3.5 million. Since July 2025 the seller pays it, not the buyer. If your Paramus home could sell near that line, ask your attorney to run the numbers both ways.
If you’ve moved out of state. Owners who now live elsewhere generally prepay estimated New Jersey income tax out of the closing funds, unless one of the state’s exemptions fits, such as having lived in the house as a main home long enough to qualify under the federal rule. The forms are filed with the deed.
Attorney review. Contracts that agents draw up in New Jersey carry a three-business-day period for lawyers to review them. Ours isn’t one of those, but please have a New Jersey lawyer review it anyway.
Paramus sellers we usually hear from
Adult children settling a parent’s estate are near the top of the list. The house is full, it hasn’t been updated in decades, and the siblings live in three different states. Next come owners who are downsizing and don’t want the stress of fixing up a house they are leaving. Then there are sellers whose deal with a retail buyer collapsed after an inspection turned up an oil tank, a cracked foundation wall or permit problems. Each of those can be bought as it is.
If you’re weighing us against a listing, do the comparison honestly. Start with what a renovated house on your street might fetch, then subtract the commission, the repairs a buyer’s inspector will demand, the quarterly property tax bills and utilities you keep paying while it sits, and the risk of a mortgage buyer backing out late. Put that figure next to our written offer. Sometimes listing still wins, and you should list. Sometimes the gap is smaller than people expect, and certainty is worth a lot when an estate has to be divided or a new home is already lined up.
Questions from Paramus homeowners
Can you buy my Paramus house if there are open permits on it?
Yes. Open or never-finalized permits are common in homes that have been added onto over the years. We factor in what it will take to close them out, and the attorneys work out how the borough’s Certificate of Compliance is handled before the closing.
Who pays the so-called mansion tax now?
For sales over $1 million, New Jersey’s graduated fee has been the seller’s responsibility since July 2025, along with the regular realty transfer fee. Your attorney can tell you exactly what applies to your sale price.
I live in Florida now. Is there anything special about selling my Paramus house?
Possibly. Sellers living outside New Jersey generally prepay some state income tax from the sale proceeds, unless an exemption covers them. Your attorney will prepare the state forms that go with the deed.
Do I have to clean out my parents’ house before you buy it?
No. Take the photos, papers and keepsakes that matter. Everything else can stay; the cleanout is already in our budget.
Do you come to Paramus to see the house?
Yes. Greg or Brett makes the trip from Montgomery, New York, to walk through the property before we put an offer in writing.