We Buy Houses in Union County, NJ

A Small County With Very Different Towns

Union County covers only about a hundred square miles, yet it holds some of the busiest ground in the state. Elizabeth sits against Newark Bay and the airport, with the port, the Turnpike and the rail lines running through it. Linden, Rahway and Roselle carry the older industrial corridor south. Union Township, Hillside and Kenilworth fill the middle. Out west, Westfield, Summit, New Providence and Berkeley Heights climb toward the Watchung ridge, and Plainfield anchors the far corner.

That spread shows up in who is selling. In Elizabeth only about one home in four is lived in by its owner, so a large share of sellers there are landlords or heirs. Countywide, owners occupy more than half the homes, and many sales start with a long-time owner who wants out of a big house or a family settling an estate. Our process is the same for all of them: you share the address, we visit once, and a written price follows. Accept it and a title company or attorney closes on the date you name; refuse it and that is the end of it.

• 575,345residents counted in 2020; 601,863 estimated for July 2025
• 57.4%of homes are occupied by their owners (ACS 2020–2024)
• $529,200median value of an owner-occupied home (ACS 2020–2024)
• $1,730median gross monthly rent (ACS 2020–2024)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, Union County, New Jersey.

Where We Buy in Union County

All 21 municipalities, and every kind of residential property in them: single-family houses, two- to four-unit buildings, condos, townhouses and buildable lots.

• Elizabeth
• Berkeley Heights
• Clark
• Cranford
• Fanwood
• Garwood
• Hillside
• Kenilworth
• Linden
• Mountainside
• New Providence
• Plainfield
• Rahway
• Roselle
• Roselle Park
• Scotch Plains
• Springfield
• Summit
• Union
• Westfield
• Winfield

Each town runs its own building department, fire official and tax office, so the paperwork for a sale in Cranford is not the paperwork for a sale in Elizabeth. The county handles the pieces that are shared: deeds, probate, assessment appeals and foreclosure auctions.

The County Offices Behind a Sale

Most of the county's land and estate business happens at the courthouse complex on Broad Street in Elizabeth, with a second county building on North Avenue East in Westfield. You will not need to visit either one to sell to us, but this is where the documents go.

Property Tax Rates Across Union County

New Jersey publishes two rates for every taxing district. Your bill is built from the general rate times your assessed value. The effective rate corrects for how close each town's assessments sit to market value, so it is the number to use when comparing towns. Several Union County towns have not revalued in a long time, which is why some general rates look enormous next to modest effective rates. The 2025 figures, per $100 of value:

Source: New Jersey Division of Taxation, 2025 General Tax Rates, Union County. Winfield's published effective rate is far outside the range of every other town, so treat that row with caution.

By effective rate, Roselle, Rahway and Roselle Park carried the heaviest load in 2025, while Summit and Mountainside carried the lightest. For an owner who has fallen behind, that difference is real money: the arrears and the interest on them grow fastest where the rate is highest. Unpaid tax still never blocks a sale. The collector certifies the balance, settlement deducts it from your sale money, and if the town has already sold a tax sale certificate, that certificate is redeemed through the collector at closing. Since July 2024, owners facing foreclosure of a tax certificate also have a written right to demand a public sale so that any equity above the debt comes back to them. Our guide to tax liens in New Jersey walks through it.

Foreclosure and the Union County Sheriff

New Jersey lenders cannot foreclose without going to the Superior Court. A case nobody answers is processed by the state Office of Foreclosure; once an owner files an answer, a General Equity judge takes it. In Union County the steps run like this:

1. 30 to 180 days before suit

   The written warning

   Your lender must send a notice of intention by certified or registered mail, stating what it would take to cure the default and by when.

2. After you are served

   Thirty-five days to respond

   Answer the complaint and the case is contested; let the deadline pass and it moves ahead uncontested.

3. Early in the case

   Mediation for owner-occupants

   If you live in the one- to four-family home, you can ask the court for free foreclosure mediation, working with a housing counselor.

4. Judgment, then writ

   Wednesday auctions

   The Union County Sheriff holds foreclosure sales on Wednesdays at 2:00 PM, normally at the Warinanco Ice Skating Center, 1 Park Drive in Roselle, with check-in from 1:00 PM. Each property is posted on the sheriff's site four Mondays ahead. Sales are often adjourned or settled at the last minute, which is why the sheriff suggests calling the sale line late that morning.

5. Ten days after the auction

   Redemption window

   In most cases the former owner can still redeem within ten days of the sale. Money beyond what the lender is owed belongs to the owner, who has to claim it from the court.

For the rest of 2026 the sheriff's calendar shows sales on October 7 and 21, November 4 and 18, and December 2 and 16. Dates do change, so always confirm with the sheriff. A newer state program, the Community Wealth Preservation Program, has applied to these auctions since January 12, 2024: after an August 2025 court ruling, the sheriff limits it to defendants, next of kin and tenants, who can claim the property by matching the winning bid if they register and qualify. It is worth asking a lawyer about if a relative wants to keep the house.

More on the statewide process, including short sales and deeds in lieu, is on our page about selling a house in foreclosure in New Jersey.

Estates and the Union County Surrogate

After an owner dies, a will is admitted to probate, or an administrator is appointed when there is no will, at the Surrogate's office in the Elizabeth courthouse. Appointments can be booked online, and the Surrogate also sees people at the Westfield county building. Only the executor or administrator named in those letters has the power to deed the house on the estate's behalf.

No New Jersey estate tax applies when the owner died in 2018 or later. The separate inheritance tax still exists, and what it costs turns on who the heirs are. Spouses and partners, children, stepchildren, grandchildren and parents are Class A and owe nothing. Siblings and sons- or daughters-in-law are Class C, taxed above a $25,000 exemption; other heirs are Class D at 15% or 16%. The tax attaches to the property, so the title company asks for a waiver before closing, and an L-9 affidavit generally serves when the heirs are all Class A. We can buy with the furniture still inside, so the family does not have to empty the house first. See our page on selling an inherited house.

Selling a Building With Tenants

In the eastern half of the county, especially Elizabeth, Plainfield and Linden, many houses for sale are two- and three-family buildings with people living in them. New Jersey's Anti-Eviction Act lists the grounds on which a residential tenant can be removed, and a sale of the building is not one of them. Leases continue under the new owner. The owner-occupancy exception, which allows a seller in a building of up to three units to deliver a unit vacant after two months' notice, works only when the buyer intends to live there, and that is not us.

So we purchase occupied, keep the existing leases, and take over the security deposits and the interest they have earned at closing. The tenants receive written notice of the new owner by registered or certified mail. Unpaid rent and open code complaints should come up on the first call; they do not stop a sale, though they do shape the price. Landlords can read further on selling a rental property in New Jersey.

Town Inspections Before the Deed Moves

Under state law, a house with one or two dwelling units cannot change owners until the town fire official signs off on its smoke and carbon monoxide alarms; where a town runs its own resale inspection, that inspection can count instead. Union County towns vary a lot on top of that. Elizabeth, for one, requires a Certificate of Occupancy for Resale from its Bureau of Zoning before any building changes hands, and since a June 2024 ordinance that certificate checks for paid vacant-property fees, closed construction permits and, for older rentals, lead-safe paperwork. Other towns ask for less, or for something different. We confirm the rules with the town as soon as an offer is signed and handle whatever the inspector lists.

Costs That Come With Any Sale

Recording a deed in New Jersey triggers the state realty transfer fee, which the statute assigns to the seller and which is figured in steps for every $500 of price. A reduced schedule exists for owner-occupants of one- and two-family homes who are at least 62, blind, or disabled. On sales of $1 million or more, the graduated percent fee has also been charged to sellers since July 10, 2025, starting at 1% of the whole price. That reaches some homes in Summit, Westfield and Mountainside. Every seller also completes the state's flood risk disclosure, and the same goes for a sale to us. The offer we hand you itemizes each of these charges and says which side carries it, so the number you weigh is what you keep.

What Selling to Us Looks Like in Union County

• Put the street address in the bar up top, or ring us, and describe the condition, who lives there and your timing.
• We walk through once and give you a written number, usually the next day.
• Your mortgage, any judgments, overdue taxes or a tax sale certificate are paid off from the price at closing.
• We request the alarm certificate and any town resale certificate and take care of the items they raise.
• You sign at a title office or attorney's office in New Jersey, or remotely with a notary, on your date.