By Eric Berman, REALTOR® | The Eric Berman Team at Compass
TL;DR:
Overpricing and bad photography get all the attention, and they matter. But the errors that actually cost Long Island sellers money are more specific and less discussed: not checking permits before listing, waiting to engage an attorney in a state where attorneys run the transaction, cancelling homeowner's insurance after moving out, and treating an accepted offer as binding when in New York it isn't. Most of these cost nothing to avoid. All of them surface weeks into a transaction, at the point when a seller has the least room to respond.
Not Calling the Building Department
This is the most expensive avoidable mistake on Long Island and most sellers have never considered it.
After contracts are signed, the buyer's attorney orders municipal searches. Whatever the governing town or village has on file comes back in writing — an unclosed permit from 2011, a finished basement never permitted, a certificate of occupancy that no longer matches the house.
The timing is what makes it costly. By then the buyer has a mortgage commitment clock running and the seller has committed to a closing date. Resolving the issue means an application, an inspection, whatever corrective work follows, and a sign-off — on the municipality's schedule. The same item found eight weeks before listing is an errand with a fee attached.
Which office to call depends on where the property sits, and that's its own trap. Levittown is entirely within the Town of Hempstead — one number. Port Washington and Manhasset span multiple incorporated villages plus town-governed areas, each with separate records, so the first task is determining which authority even holds the file. Bayside falls under the New York City Department of Buildings, where records are publicly searchable.
The call is free and takes fifteen minutes. The full picture of how permit issues resolve covers what each type costs.
Waiting to Hire the Attorney
New York is an attorney state. Contract drafting and negotiation are legal work reserved to licensed counsel, and the attorney coordinates the title search and payoff and runs the closing.
Most sellers retain one after an offer is accepted. That's the mistake. An attorney engaged one to two weeks before listing can run an early title review — surfacing an old undischarged mortgage, a mechanic's lien, a boundary question — while there's still time to resolve it quietly. They can coordinate the disclosure form properly rather than under deadline, and have the contract framework substantially prepared before an offer arrives.
The practical payoff is speed at the moment it matters. A seller who can reach signed contracts within days of accepting an offer closes the window in which buyers reconsider. A seller who needs two weeks to get counsel up to speed hands the buyer two weeks to think about it. The case for engaging early applies to every Long Island sale regardless of town.
Assuming an Accepted Offer Is a Deal
In New York, accepting an offer binds nobody. The transaction becomes real when both attorneys have negotiated the contract and both parties sign — typically one to two weeks later.
Sellers who don't know this make two errors. They stop taking calls, cancel remaining showings, and treat other interested buyers as irrelevant, when those buyers remain genuinely available during the gap. And they're blindsided when a buyer withdraws during it, which happens.
The correct posture is to move fast toward signed contracts while keeping other interest warm until the ink is dry. That isn't bad faith — it's an accurate reading of where things actually stand, and it's the same window in which the buyer holds an identical option.
Cancelling the Insurance
Sellers who move out before closing frequently cancel their homeowner's policy or let it lapse. This is a serious mistake and it comes from a reasonable instinct — the house is empty, why pay for it.
Two problems. Risk allocation between contract and closing is governed by New York's Uniform Vendor and Purchaser Risk Act and by whatever the contract's riders provide. In broad terms a seller still holding title and possession generally bears the risk, meaning a fire or a burst pipe in that window is the seller's problem. Without coverage, entirely.
Vacancy provisions are the second issue. Most standard policies limit or exclude coverage once a property has been unoccupied beyond a stated period, which varies by carrier. A seller who moved out three months ago may already have a gap they don't know about.
The instruction is simple: call the carrier, explain the situation, and ask what the policy provides and whether a vacancy endorsement is needed. Keep coverage in force through closing. And ask the attorney what the contract says about risk. Sellers managing this from a distance will find what's involved in selling from out of state covers the related logistics.
Talking Directly to the Buyer
This one is always well-intentioned and consistently damaging.
Once attorneys are involved, communication runs through them for a reason. A seller who chats with the buyer at a walkthrough, or responds directly to a question about the roof, creates statements that nobody drafted and that can't be taken back. Casual remarks about a condition, a past repair, or what the seller "thinks" about something can contradict the disclosure form or create expectations the contract doesn't support.
It also undercuts the attorney's position. Terms being negotiated through counsel get resolved informally at the front door, and the attorney learns about it afterward.
The same applies to the buyer's agent. Friendly is fine. Substantive is for the attorneys.
Doing Work After Contracts Are Signed
A seller decides to fix something as a courtesy, or completes a project that was already underway, and doesn't mention it.
Three problems follow. Work performed after signing may require a permit, which creates a new municipal issue mid-transaction. It may need to be disclosed, and the disclosure form has already been delivered. And if it isn't done to the buyer's expectations, it becomes a dispute at the walkthrough rather than a gesture.
Anything beyond routine maintenance should go through the attorney first. This applies equally to repairs agreed in an inspection negotiation — those get documented in a rider, with scope and standard specified, rather than handled on a handshake. The framework for handling inspection requests covers how those get papered.
Guessing on the Disclosure Form
The Property Condition Disclosure Statement has been mandatory since the March 20, 2024 amendment — 56 questions, with the prior five hundred dollar credit alternative eliminated.
Sellers approach it as a test they need to pass, and the pressure produces the actual mistake: over-answering. Estimating a roof's age they don't know. Speculating about whether a stain means a leak. Asserting there's never been water in a basement they've owned for two years.
The form asks what the seller knows. It imposes no duty to investigate, inspect, or test. "Unknown" is a permitted and appropriate answer, and a seller who uses it honestly has complied. A guess is a statement that can be disputed later; an honest non-answer carries no such exposure.
The seven flood-related questions added in the amendment deserve particular attention along the North Shore and in any AE or VE zone. The full treatment of what the form asks covers how to answer it.
The Familiar Ones, Briefly
These get covered everywhere, and they're covered properly elsewhere on this site.
Overpricing is the most common error and it fails in a specific way — a home priced above its comp set is filtered out of buyer searches rather than rejected, so it's never seen. The pricing framework covers how to avoid it and what the first three weeks reveal.
Over-improving before listing costs more than it returns. The improvements that actually pay are a shorter list than most sellers expect.
Ignoring the compensation decision. Since August 17, 2024, buyer-agent compensation is negotiated per offer rather than posted, and it's now frequently the largest single term after price. Sellers who don't decide their position before offers arrive negotiate it under pressure.
Restricting showings. A home that's hard to see is a home that gets seen less. Simple, and true.
A Worked Example
Consider a composite case — a Nassau County seller who did most things right and lost six weeks to two of the mistakes above.
She priced correctly, prepared the house well, and had good photography. She accepted an offer at $912,000 on day eleven. Then she retained an attorney, which took a week to arrange, and the title review turned up a satisfied 2003 mortgage never formally discharged — three weeks to clear.
Meanwhile the municipal search found an unclosed 2014 permit for a rear deck. Another five weeks, running partly in parallel.
She had also moved out and cancelled her homeowner's policy, which her attorney caught before anything happened. She reinstated with a vacancy endorsement.
The sale closed, roughly six weeks later than planned, and the buyer used the delay to request a modest credit. Two phone calls before listing — one to an attorney, one to the building department — would have prevented all of it.
Where to Start
Call the building department that governs the property and ask what's on file. Engage a real estate attorney one to two weeks before listing and ask for an early title review. Keep insurance in force and confirm vacancy coverage if the home will be empty. Decide the compensation question before offers arrive. Complete the disclosure form honestly, using "Unknown" where it applies. Route substantive communication through counsel once attorneys are engaged. And don't treat an accepted offer as final until contracts are signed.
Sellers wanting a current read on where their home sits can start with a quiet look at present value.
The Honest Bottom Line
The expensive mistakes on Long Island aren't the ones sellers worry about. Nobody loses a deal over paint color. They lose weeks over a permit nobody checked, an attorney hired too late, a policy cancelled early, or a sentence said at the front door that should have gone through counsel.
What those share is timing. Each one is free or nearly free to avoid beforehand and difficult to fix once a transaction is running, because by then the seller is working on somebody else's schedule.
Two phone calls before listing — the building department and an attorney — prevent most of it. Sellers wanting to think through what applies to their situation, with no pressure attached, are welcome to start that conversation whenever it suits them.
This is general information, not legal or insurance advice. Contract terms, risk allocation, disclosure obligations, and policy coverage all turn on specific facts. Consult a licensed New York real estate attorney and your insurance carrier about your circumstances.
FAQs
What is the most expensive mistake Long Island sellers make?
Not checking permits before listing. The buyer's attorney orders municipal searches after contracts are signed, and whatever the town or village has on file surfaces then — an unclosed permit, an unpermitted addition, a certificate of occupancy that doesn't match the house. By that point a mortgage commitment clock is running and the seller has committed to a closing date, so resolution happens on the municipality's schedule under pressure. The same item found eight weeks before listing is an errand. The call costs nothing.
Should I cancel my homeowner's insurance after moving out?
No. Two risks. Between contract and closing, New York allocates risk of loss through the Uniform Vendor and Purchaser Risk Act and the contract's riders — in broad terms a seller still holding title and possession generally bears it, meaning a fire or burst pipe in that window is the seller's problem. Separately, most standard policies limit or exclude coverage once a property has been unoccupied beyond a stated period. Call the carrier, ask what the policy provides, and ask about a vacancy endorsement.
Is an accepted offer binding in New York?
No. The transaction becomes binding when both attorneys have negotiated the contract and both parties sign, typically one to two weeks after acceptance. Sellers who don't know this cancel showings, stop taking calls, and treat other interested buyers as gone — when those buyers remain genuinely available during the gap. The right approach is to move quickly toward signed contracts while keeping other interest warm until the ink is dry. The buyer holds the identical option during that window.
Can I talk to the buyer directly during the sale?
Friendly conversation is fine; substantive conversation should go through the attorneys. A remark at a walkthrough about the roof, a past repair, or what the seller thinks about a condition creates a statement nobody drafted, which can contradict the disclosure form or create expectations the contract doesn't support. It also undercuts counsel — terms being negotiated formally get resolved informally at the front door, and the attorney finds out afterward. The same applies to conversations with the buyer's agent.
What if I don't know the answer to a disclosure question?
"Unknown" is a permitted and appropriate answer. The Property Condition Disclosure Statement asks what the seller actually knows and imposes no duty to investigate, inspect, or test. The common mistake is over-answering out of anxiety — estimating a roof's age, speculating about a stain, asserting a basement has never taken water. A guess is a statement that can be disputed later; an honest non-answer carries no exposure at all. Where a seller does know something, it gets disclosed.
By Eric Berman, REALTOR® | The Eric Berman Team at Compass
Eric Berman | Long Island & Queens Associate Broker | Compass
1468 Northern Blvd, Manhasset, NY 11030
(917) 225-8596 | eric@ericbermanre.com | theericbermanteam.com
