Graveyard view, highway out back? For homebuyers, no problem

In an industry that touts “location, location, location,” real estate agent Anna Beigelman had a listing that she worried might be a tough sell: Would buyers be interested in a house across the street from a cemetery? The answer, in this tight housing market, was a resounding "Yes."

“With the shortage of homes on the market, I didn’t know what kind of impact it would have,” said Beigelman, a licensed real estate broker associate and Realtor at Massapequa-based Exit Realty Premier. “We got many offers.”

“We had it staged, fully furnished with window treatments,” she added. “So it looked dynamite.”

The house, across from Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury, sold for cash at $640,000, below the $650,000 asking price, after getting a half-dozen offers, Beigelman said.

She found what might be a deal-breaker in a strong market proved anything but.

Tossing the checklist

While location remains a key element in real estate, the strong market has reinvigorated sales even for homes with a less-than-ideal location and other issues.

“People are willing to give up things they would normally want in a home, because the supply isn’t meeting demand,” said Ahdehroh Lambert-Mortimore, a licensed Realtor at New Hyde Park-based Fave Realty. “They’re going after them, disregarding things on their checklist.”

A backyard that backs onto land that has a ramp leading to an expressway? A site with a tiny lawn? No garage? No basement? No bathtub? No problem. More people are stepping up rather than walking away.

“Before, they probably would have waited until they saw what came on the market,” Lambert-Mortimore said. “Because there’s a shortage of homes, they’re scooping them up as quickly as they can. Everything doesn’t have to be checked off.”

The median price for homes sold in Nassau in April was $666,500, up 5.8% from a year ago, and $540,000 in Suffolk, up 12.6%, according to OneKey MLS. Lack of inventory for buyers drove prices higher, yielding fewer transactions. There were 942 closed sales in Nassau, down 25.6% from the previous April. In Suffolk, closings fell 14.5%, to 1,207.

“Anytime a location has anything unusual, a house takes longer to sell,” Beigelman said.

A highway out back

The Plainview house had a lot going for it, including four bedrooms, two bathrooms, an oversized lot of about 8,300 square feet and a yard that was nice and flat, but it had one glaring problem: It abuts land leading to a ramp of the Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway.

“It’s not like you’re looking at it, but you know it’s there,” Beigelman said of traffic. “It was more of a perception that it’s closer than it really is.”

The sellers got five offers and went to contract in a month, selling for $678,000, below the $689,000 asking price, said Beigelman, who brokered the sale. The house has an open layout, backup gas generator, walk-in closets and finished basement with an outside entrance.

“It was fast,” Beigelman said of the sale. “Right now with every house, you have a lot of New York City transplants looking.”

A school nearby

Living in a house on a block with a school nearby can be a mixed blessing: It can be convenient for families with school-age kids, but there's bus and car traffic and noise with which to contend.

“Some people saw it as a negative,” said Beigelman of a house in North Bellmore, on a block with an elementary school, that sold last summer above asking price. “If you have children in the school, you see it as a positive. The school had a playground. Some parents like that."

The 3,000-square-foot house with a basement including a full bedroom and bath sold for $960,000 cash, above the $940,000 asking price.

The fact that it was about 5 years old, with modern architecture, big rooms, high ceilings, an open layout and staging probably helped despite the bus traffic.

“There were a lot of offers,” Beigelman said, adding that house sold in about a week. “This is the market. We get multiple offers for every house.”

She added that despite the “buses, noise and traffic,” the house had a big plus: “It backed onto a nature preserve. A lot of people liked that,” she said. “The people who bought the house weren't going to use that school. Even though they didn’t need the school, they loved the house.”

A busy road

There's increased interest in properties on busy streets that might not otherwise have gotten as much attention, especially those set back on larger properties, said Vicki Martinez, a real estate agent for Marylou Swan Realty who is listing a corner three-bedroom Cape on a half acre on South Country Road in East Patchogue for $649,999, after reducing it from $660,000.

“It has a privacy hedge around it and it’s set back,” Martinez said. “From the main road, you only see the rooftop. Since it’s a large piece of property, you don’t really see the main road.”

The house includes a fireplace, storage shed, two-car garage, white gate, stone walkway as well as a deck on a property in a residential neighborhood that's on a main road leading to Bellport Village.

“I am finding clients are willing to expand their criteria a bit and are willing to look at a great house even if the street is a bit busy,” Martinez said.

A missing piece

Although locations can be obstacles, sometimes the issue is a key feature that's lacking.

A house in Roosevelt that Lambert-Mortimore was listing had a good layout, wood floors and nice backyard, but the basement was unfinished, something that in other times might have been a deal-breaker.

“If you have an unfinished basement, it’s a turnoff to many potential homeowners,” Lambert-Mortimore said. “A lot of people use it as an additional hangout room or bedroom. That takes away from the space of the house.”

Still, the offers flowed, although it’s expensive to finish a basement. “They saw it as enough space to have storage,” Lambert-Mortimore said of the prospective buyers. The house got an offer above the $510,000 asking price, but went for $485,000 based on a value set by an appraiser from a bank.

When Lambert-Mortimore's sister Nihamka Lambert-Mortimore was house-hunting, Ahdehroh showed her a house in Hempstead that was 950 square feet on a 4,500-square-foot property on a corner, but with the traffic factor.

But Nihamka, 37, who works in marketing for a beauty and personal care company, saw the positives as well as the cars driving by. “It’s one-story. I wasn’t looking for anything with a lot of steps,” she said. “It sits on a sizable property.”

And despite the fact that the house also lacked a basement and garage, the house was still a good fit for her, said Ahdehroh, who represented her sister in the transaction.

“It was completely renovated from top to bottom with tile flooring, an updated kitchen with new, stainless steel appliances and a large yard,” Ahdehroh said. “The house wasn’t that big, but it gave her everything she needed.”

“Outside, I can entertain and have family and friends over,” Nihamka said. “There is a sizable driveway so I can park my car and two others.” She'll add a shed for storage on the property.

A bonus is the home's location, minutes from Roosevelt Field mall and NYCB Live's Nassau Coliseum.

“I don’t feel like I’m missing out," she said.