Sell Your Garfield House for Cash

A Crowded, Renter-Heavy City

Garfield sits on just over two square miles of land, and in 2020 the Census Bureau counted more than 15,000 people for every one of those square miles. Owners live in fewer than half of the city's homes. Households run close to three people on average, and most residents stay put: nearly 93 out of every 100 lived at the same address a year earlier.

• 33,353residents estimated for July 2025 (32,655 in the 2020 census)
• 44.7%of occupied homes lived in by their owners (ACS 2020–2024)
• $475,500median value of an owner-occupied home (ACS 2020–2024)
• $1,688median gross monthly rent (ACS 2020–2024)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Garfield city, New Jersey.

Almost half of Garfield's residents were born outside the United States, and about two-thirds use a language besides English in their own homes. If a son, daughter or friend should sit in on our calls to make sure nothing gets lost, bring them in from the first conversation. The medians above describe the city as a whole; a house with a tired kitchen, a basement that leaks or a tenant upstairs is priced on its own facts after we see it.

Two Certificates Before Any Garfield Closing

The city's building department issues a certificate of occupancy for a resale, and the Garfield Fire Prevention Bureau carries out the inspections for both that certificate and the separate smoke and carbon monoxide certification. You can start the paperwork online through the building department's citizen portal, or by email. Either way the city wants the address being sold, the names of the buyer and the seller, each one's home address, phone number and email. When the buyer is a company, Garfield asks for a real person's home address and phone, and says a business, attorney or real estate office address will not do. An estate sale also needs a copy of the letters issued by the Surrogate.

Source: City of Garfield, "How to Obtain a Certificate of Occupancy for Resale." Each fee is a separate check or money order.

The clock starts on the day the city receives a complete application, and the city tells sellers plainly not to set a closing date until the certificate is in hand. Ignoring the ordinance can cost up to $2,000. On the fire side, the inspector looks for ten-year sealed-battery smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms within ten feet of every bedroom, alarms at the top and bottom of any shared stairwell, and access to the attic and basement on the day of the visit. Hard-wired alarms have to stay hard-wired.

When you sell to us, we gather the buyer information the city asks for, book both inspections, meet the inspector, and replace or add any alarm that does not pass. If the visit turns up a broader repair, we decide with you whether we handle it before closing, and the written price reflects that choice.

Selling a Rented Two-Family or Apartment House

Garfield has its own rule for rental units. Under City Ordinance 2213, an owner or tenant files a Dwelling Certificate with the fire bureau, listing how many people (children included) live in each unit, whenever the occupancy changes, whether that happens through a sale or a new lease. A unit inspected within the previous eleven months is spared a repeat. The certificate costs $60 per apartment, which already includes the smoke detector certification, and a failed visit means another $60 for the reinspection. Two practical points from the city's instruction sheet: the completed application has to be at the property when the inspector arrives, and inspectors do not collect payment in the field.

Rental units built before 1978 are also subject to the state's lead-based paint inspection law, which Garfield adopted as Ordinance 242-13, Article IV. The city charges $220 for its own visual assessment, or an owner can hire a lead evaluator certified by the state Department of Community Affairs and pay the city a $50 administrative fee. The fire bureau begins those inspections when it receives a dwelling or occupancy application, so an older rental being sold may get both at once.

None of that means you have to empty the building. Tenants keep their leases when the property changes hands, and New Jersey requires the security deposits, with interest, to move to the new owner. We buy occupied Garfield buildings, take over the landlord paperwork, and file the next dwelling certificate in our name. Our guide to selling a tenant-occupied property in New Jersey goes through the state rules.

Taxes, Sewer Charges and Automatic Payments

Garfield bills property taxes in four installments, Feb. 1, May 1, Aug. 1 and Nov. 1, and allows ten days of grace on each. The collector's office follows the state rule that a postmark is not proof of payment: the money must arrive by the tenth. After that, interest is charged at 8% a year on the first $1,500 past due and at 18% on the remainder. The state's 2025 tables put Garfield's general tax rate at 3.479 and its effective rate at 1.956 per $100 of value.

Sewer service is billed separately, once a year. The bill goes out at the end of January with four stubs matching the tax quarters, and you can pay one quarter at a time or all four together. Many owners pay both bills by automatic debit through the tax office. If you are one of them, tell the office when the house is sold so the withdrawals stop; we remind sellers of this before closing day. Any tax or sewer balance still open at settlement is paid from the sale price by the title company. If a tax sale certificate already sits on the property, our page on tax liens in New Jersey explains how redemption works.

City Water, Service Lines and Help With Arrears

Garfield has a municipal water department of its own. Part of the supply comes from city wells, treated with chlorine and passed through an air stripper to remove volatile compounds, and part is bought already treated from the Passaic Valley Water Commission, which also handles meter questions at 973-340-4300. Responsibility for the pipe is split: the owner covers the line from the house out to the curb box, and the city covers the stretch from the curb box to the main. The department has published a lead service line inventory and map, worth checking before you list.

If water or sewer bills have piled up, the state's Low Income Household Water Assistance Program may pay the arrears and, according to the city, can sometimes help with tax liens that came from unpaid water and sewer charges. Applications run through waterassistance.nj.gov or NJ211.

Groundwater and Flood Disclosures

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists the Garfield Groundwater Contamination site, made up of the former E.C. Electroplating property at 125 Clark Street and a chromium plume in the groundwater around it. In its October 2023 update, EPA described installing wells there to inject a substance that breaks the contamination down. If you have received EPA notices or had testing done at your home, say so on your disclosure. Living near a cleanup area does not stop us from putting a price in writing.

Every New Jersey seller now also completes the state flood risk disclosure, covering known flooding, insurance claims and the property's flood zone. Answer it from what you know; a wet basement or past water damage shapes our number, it does not end the conversation.

How a Garfield Sale With Us Unfolds

• Call or send the address, along with who lives there, how many units, and anything the city has sent you.
• We visit once and put a single figure in writing, usually within 24 hours.
• Once you sign, we open the resale CO and smoke/CO applications, and the dwelling certificate if tenants stay.
• The title company pays the mortgage, taxes, sewer balance and any liens out of the price, and you sign at a title office or with a mobile notary.

Garfield is one of the seventy municipalities of Bergen County. We also buy houses in Clifton and Passaic.