Nassau County · Suffolk County · Queens · Brooklyn
Joseph prices from recent sales, weighs every offer's terms, and, when the facts are in front of him, raises contract and title questions early.
The Difference That Matters
New York does not require a seller to hire an attorney, but on Long Island and in New York City it is standard practice: after you accept an offer, your attorney and the buyer's attorney negotiate and sign the contract. Joseph does not replace your attorney. He is your agent, and when the facts are in front of him, the contract and title questions worth raising tend to come up before you accept, while there is still room to act on them.
Start With a Free ValuationHow It Works
Six steps from first meeting to closing, and what Joseph does at each.
You set the goals: price, timing, and what the move has to achieve. If there is a lien, an estate, a divorce, tenants or an existing contract, Joseph knows which questions to raise with you and your attorney before you list.
Goals · timing · open questionsYour asking price is set from recent comparable sales, the homes you will compete with, and how long homes are taking to sell near you. Joseph shows you the range and the trade-offs; the asking price is your decision.
Comparable sales · competition · paceAfter more than a decade of renovating and flipping homes, Joseph walks yours and tells you which repairs actually change the number. Photography, a measured floor plan and a 3D tour are coordinated for you.
Repairs · staging · photos · floor plan · 3D tourYour home goes on the MLS, which feeds Zillow, Realtor.com and other home-search sites, plus targeted online ads and email to the brokerage's buyer network.
MLS · home-search sites · ads · emailOffers are compared on their full terms: whether the buyer is pre-approved, the down payment, the mortgage contingency, inspection terms and the closing date. A higher price on weaker financing is not always the stronger offer, and Joseph walks you through the difference.
Pre-approval · down payment · contingenciesOn Long Island and in New York City the buyer usually inspects before contracts are signed; the appraisal, the buyer's mortgage commitment and the title report follow. Joseph tracks each one and raises any issue with you and your attorney as soon as he learns of it.
Inspection · appraisal · mortgage commitment · titleNo Obligation
Recent sales from the MLS give you a value range in about a minute. Joseph then checks it against current inventory and the things about your home the numbers can't see.
Why The First Number Matters
Across the 11,952 homes for sale in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn today, the pattern is the same everywhere we measure it. Of the homes on the market less than a month, 6.5% have reduced their asking price. Of those that have been sitting three months or more, 56.6% have.
A price reduction is usually not a market that moved underneath a seller. It is an asking price that was wrong on the first day, corrected late — after the weeks when a listing draws the most attention it will ever get have already been spent.
What the two groups got
Over the last twelve settled months across the four counties, the 24,445 homes that sold without ever reducing achieved 100.2% of their asking price in a median of 24 days. The 7,807 that did reduce achieved 91.6% of what they first asked, after 90 days.
Read that as a description, not a penalty. Homes that never reduced and homes that did are different homes, priced differently from the first day — the gap describes the two groups, it is not what a reduction costs. The point is the one before it: the homes that never had to cut were the ones priced correctly at the start.
Measured from the OneKey MLS feed across Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn, updated daily. A home counts as reduced when its current asking price is below the price it was first listed at. Time on the market is the MLS's own day count for each listing.
What Keeping It Quiet Costs
Some sellers ask that their home be kept off the public internet. Across Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn, those listings did not sell more often — in every county measured.
| County | Listed publicly | Withheld from the internet |
|---|---|---|
| Nassau | 27.7% 5,336 of 19,289 | 48.2% 67 of 139 |
| Suffolk | 26.3% 6,374 of 24,201 | 47.8% 75 of 157 |
| Queens | 49.9% 10,543 of 21,147 | 62.9% 441 of 701 |
| Brooklyn | 61.2% 2,420 of 3,953 | 75.4% 89 of 118 |
The size of the gap differs by county and this measures an association, not a cause — a seller who withholds a listing may differ in other ways too. Withheld listings are a small share of the market, so counts are shown beside every figure.
Data courtesy of OneKey® MLS as distributed by MLS GRID, October 5, 2025 – October 5, 2026.
How We Present Your Home
How your home is presented can affect buyer interest and competition, and with them the sale price. Here's what's included in every listing.
Joseph walks your home with you and gives you a room-by-room plan before photography.
High-resolution interior and exterior photos, shot and edited for the listing: the first thing buyers see online.
Layout, room dimensions and flow, so buyers who book a showing already know the space fits.
Buyers can walk through your home online before they schedule a showing.
Targeted Facebook, Instagram and Google ads to buyers searching your area, plus email to the brokerage's buyer network.
Listed on the Multiple Listing Service, which feeds Zillow, Realtor.com and other home-search sites.
Seller Education
Short guides answered from recent local sales and the official tax rates.
Common Questions
Taxes and fees at closing, with the official rates: what sellers pay at closing in New York.
Over the 12 months to September 10, 2026, homes went to contract in a median of 28 days in Nassau County, 26 in Suffolk County and 51 in Queens (OneKey® MLS closed sales, all home types, whole county). How long yours takes depends mostly on its price against the competition and its condition. Closing follows on the date set in the contract and depends largely on the buyer's mortgage.
Commissions are negotiable. Yours is agreed in writing in the listing agreement before your home is listed, and I go through it at our first meeting. You will also pay transfer tax and your own attorney's fee at closing; the official rates are on what sellers pay at closing.
Not always. How a home shows affects how quickly it sells and what buyers offer, but what is worth doing depends on the house. I walk it with you and tell you which changes are worth making, and I coordinate the photography, floor plan and 3D tour.
Yes. Estate sales bring in executor authority, court timing, title questions and agreement among beneficiaries. I raise those questions before the home is listed and work with the estate's attorney, who advises the executor on the legal points. I act as the estate's broker only.
A home can be sold with tenants in place or delivered vacant, and the lease decides much of that: its end date, notice terms and any rights the tenant holds. I raise those with you and your attorney early so the plan fits the lease; your attorney advises on the legal steps.
The buyer's lender generally lends on the lower of the price and the appraised value, so the gap has to be covered: the buyer adds cash, the price is renegotiated, or, depending on the contract's mortgage contingency, the buyer may be able to cancel. Which applies depends on your contract, which is why I look at financing terms when comparing offers.
Nassau County, Suffolk County, Queens and Brooklyn — every community in all four.
Joseph DeVito is a New York Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker and a New York attorney. He does not act as both broker and attorney on the same transaction: here he acts as a real estate broker only, and he is not your attorney. Real estate services provided through Keller Williams Realty Greater Nassau are not legal representation. Everything on this site is general information for educational purposes only. It is not legal advice, it creates no attorney-client relationship, and it should not be relied on as legal advice — for advice about your own situation, consult your own attorney.
Recent MLS sales give you a value range in about a minute. Joseph tells you whether to trust it — and what to do about it.
Joseph DeVito · Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker & Real Estate Attorney · Keller Williams Realty Greater Nassau
Serving Nassau County, Suffolk County, Queens & Brooklyn
