Relocating From the Hudson Valley? Sell Fast & Close Remotely

Leaving the Lower Hudson Valley With a House Still to Sell

Relocation sales around here usually follow one of two patterns. In the first, a start date or a set of orders fixes the move and the house has to be sold around it. In the second, the family has already gone, and a house in Yonkers, New City or Brewster sits empty while someone pays for it from another state. Both can be handled. What makes them expensive is the gap between moving day and closing day, and in this corner of New York that gap costs real money because of what a house here costs to hold.

This page walks through how a New York closing works when you are not there in person, which taxes come off the price, what an empty house costs month to month, how an employer's relocation program compares with selling directly, and a few points for military households on orders. For the local picture first, we have separate pages on selling in Westchester County, Rockland County and Putnam County.

A New York Closing Does Not Need You in the Room

New York is an attorney state. Your lawyer, not a realtor or a title clerk, reviews the contract, negotiates with the buyer's attorney, orders the payoff letter from your lender, prepares the deed and the tax forms, and represents you at the table. Since your attorney is doing that work either way, your physical presence is optional. What does have to happen is that your signature on the deed and a handful of closing affidavits is properly witnessed and acknowledged. From out of state there are three common ways to do it.

Option 1: A New York statutory short-form power of attorney

You name someone you trust, often your attorney or a relative who still lives nearby, as your agent to sign on your behalf. New York overhauled its power of attorney law effective June 13, 2021 to make these documents easier to use. The old separate gifts rider was folded into the main form, a document that substantially complies with the statutory wording is no longer thrown out over minor deviations, and banks and title insurers now have a set window to accept a properly executed one or say why they will not. An unreasonable refusal can be taken to court.

Two details matter for a house sale. The current form has to be signed in front of a notary and two witnesses, and the notary may serve as one of the two. And because your agent will be signing a deed, the power of attorney gets recorded with the county clerk alongside it, so the original has to be clean and complete. Send a draft to the title company before you sign it. They would much rather raise a concern in the first week than on closing day.

Option 2: Remote online notarization

Since January 31, 2023, New York has permitted remote online notarization under Executive Law §135-c. You sign electronically during a live, recorded video session with a New York notary who has registered with the Department of State as an electronic notary. The notary must be physically in New York; you can be in another state. It avoids handing anyone else the authority to sign for you. Whether it can be used on your particular file is the title insurer's call, so have your attorney confirm that early.

Option 3: A notary where you live now

The traditional route still works. Your attorney couriers the signing package to you, you sign before a notary in your new town, and the originals go back overnight. An acknowledgment taken outside New York has to be in a form the county clerk will accept for recording, which can mean specific wording or a certificate of conformity. Your attorney will prepare documents set up for the state you are in. Build a few extra days into the schedule for the round trip.

Whichever route you choose, the money arrives the same way: your net proceeds are wired from the closing to your bank account, wherever you now bank.

The Taxes That Come Off a Westchester, Rockland or Putnam Sale

• New York State transfer tax. $2 for every $500 of the price, or 0.4%. Custom puts it on the seller, and your attorney files the TP-584 return for it together with the deed.
• City transfer taxes. Yonkers, Mount Vernon and Peekskill each levy their own city tax as well. The rates are set locally and do change: Mount Vernon's rose to 1.5% of the price above $50,000 for deeds dated February 1, 2026 or later, so confirm the current figure before you sign. Our seller closing-cost breakdown for Westchester lists the current rates with a worked example.
• The mansion tax. Homes that sell for a million dollars or more carry an extra 1% charge. The buyer owes it, not you, although a buyer close to that line will negotiate with it in mind.
• Form IT-2663 for sellers who are no longer New York residents. A seller who has become a nonresident owes New York an estimated income tax payment out of the closing, and the county clerk will not record the deed without this form. If the house was your principal residence and the sale qualifies for the federal home-sale exclusion, the form lets you claim an exemption from that payment. Relocating sellers are often caught out by this one, so mention your move date to your attorney as soon as you know it.

On a sale to Simply Sold RE, the transfer taxes and closing costs are ours to pay, and our offer is not reduced to cover them. Your mortgage payoff and any liens are cleared from the proceeds, exactly as they would be with any other buyer.

What an Empty House Costs You Here

Sellers usually compare sale prices. The figure that decides many relocation sales is what the house costs for every month it stays unsold.

Property taxes

Westchester and Rockland property taxes rank among the highest in the United States, and Putnam is not far behind. In most towns the bill is split in two: town and county taxes on one bill, school taxes, usually the largest share, on another. Your receiver of taxes can tell you when the next installment is due. If you still own the house on that date, you pay it; at closing the attorneys apportion the year's taxes so you are credited for any period you paid for beyond the closing date. Our guide to Westchester property taxes that have outgrown the house explains why the bills run so high.

Insurance on a vacant house

A standard homeowner's policy is written for a house someone lives in. Most include a vacancy clause that narrows coverage once the home has been empty for a stated period, commonly 30 or 60 days, after which losses such as vandalism, broken glass or water from a burst pipe may not be covered. Tell your insurer when you move out. You may need a vacancy endorsement or a separate vacant-dwelling policy, and either one generally costs more than the coverage you had while living there.

Winterizing and looking after it from a distance

A house left empty from November through March needs more than a lower thermostat. Plenty of older homes in the region heat with oil, and a tank that runs dry in January can mean frozen pipes within a day or two. Have a plumber winterize it: shut off and drain the supply lines, put antifreeze in the traps, and settle whether to keep a minimum heat setting. Someone also has to clear the walk and driveway after snow, stop the mail piling up, and look in after storms. If an inspector, insurer or utility needs access, you need a local contact who can open the door.

Write the monthly total down: mortgage, a monthly share of both tax bills, the vacancy coverage, utilities, heating fuel, snow and lawn service. Then multiply it by the months a listing realistically takes in your town, from setting the price through the buyer's mortgage commitment to the closing. That product belongs in any comparison between a listing and a direct sale, even when the direct sale's price is lower.

An Employer Relocation Package or a Direct Sale?

If your employer is paying for the move, read the home-sale section of the package before you talk to any buyer, including us. Relocation management companies run these programs on the employer's behalf, and the home-sale benefit usually takes one of three shapes:

• Guaranteed buyout. The relocation company has the house appraised, typically by two or more appraisers, and offers to buy it at a figure derived from those appraisals. You can accept and move on, or list first and fall back on the guaranteed figure if no buyer appears.
• Buyer value option (also called an amended value sale). You find a buyer through a listing, the relocation company buys the house from you at that buyer's price, then resells it to the buyer. Employers favour this structure partly for tax reasons, and it often comes with the commission and closing costs paid.
• Lump sum. The employer pays a set amount toward the move, and how you sell the house is entirely up to you.

The fine print is what counts. Some packages pay home-sale benefits only if the sale goes through the program; others let you sell to anyone. If yours covers commission and closing costs only inside the program, a direct offer has to beat the program's net, not its headline number. We will put a written offer in your hands that you can set beside the relocation company's figure. If the program nets you more, take it. If you are on a lump sum, or the guaranteed figure came in low, a direct sale can close on a date you choose with no showings at all.

Timing the Sale Around the Move

With a direct sale, you put the closing date where the move needs it. Some sellers close before they leave and use the proceeds as the down payment in the new city. Others sign the contract now and set the closing for the week after the moving truck pulls away. If you need to close first but stay on for a few weeks, that can be written into the contract as a post-closing occupancy period; our page on selling now and moving out later explains how New York attorneys structure it.

If the house is already empty, speed usually matters most. The sooner the deed changes hands, the sooner the tax installments, the vacancy coverage and the snow contract stop being your responsibility. Nothing needs repairing or clearing out beforehand. Take what you want to keep; whatever is left can stay with the house.

Orders to a New Duty Station

The region has its share of military households, from families tied to West Point, across the river from Garrison, to Guard members at Camp Smith in Cortlandt Manor and at Stewart Air National Guard Base a short drive up the Hudson. A permanent change of station comes with a report date, and the sale has to fit around it. Three points are worth knowing:

• VA loans. A VA mortgage is paid off from the sale proceeds like any other. Once the loan is repaid and the house has been sold, you can generally have your entitlement restored for your next purchase.
• The two-out-of-five-year rule. The federal home-sale exclusion normally requires that you lived in the house for two of the five years before the sale. Members of the uniformed services on qualified official extended duty can elect to suspend that five-year period for up to ten years, which helps when orders took you away before you could sell.
• Free legal review. Your installation's legal assistance office can prepare a power of attorney and look over a sale contract before you sign.

Tell us your report date and we will plan the closing backward from it.

What Out-of-Town Sellers Have Said

Two of our Google reviewers sold without being on site for the closing:

We are rated 4.9 from 75 Google reviews; you can read the rest on our reviews page.