Sell Your House in Union Township, NJ for Cash

Who Sells a House in Union

Roughly seven homes in ten across the township are lived in by their owners, a far higher share than in Elizabeth next door. One adult in six here is 65 or older. Put those together and a typical Union sale looks like this: a couple who raised children in a cape or colonial off Morris Avenue or Stuyvesant Avenue and now want something smaller, a family settling a parent's estate, or an owner who has fallen behind on a tax bill that has climbed for years. Some houses are in move-in shape. Others have a 1960s kitchen, a damp basement and a roof with few years left.

• 59,728people counted in the township in 2020; 63,675 estimated for July 2025
• 71.5%of occupied homes are owner-occupied (ACS 2020–2024)
• $451,300median value of an owner-occupied home (ACS 2020–2024)
• $2,064median gross rent each month (ACS 2020–2024)

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

That median is a township-wide midpoint, not a price for your street. Each Union house is priced from comparable nearby sales, then subtract only what the repairs will genuinely cost. You see the number before anyone spends a dollar, and it does not shrink after a later inspection.

Union's Certificate of Continued Occupancy

Before a house in the township changes hands, the Building Department issues a residential resale certificate, formally a certificate of continued occupancy, or CCO. The township's written procedure is specific, and it is worth knowing before you sign any contract:

• Apply ten business days ahead. The request has to be in at least two working weeks before the inspection date, through the township's online CCO application.
• Fee: $175 for the inspection. If a re-inspection is needed, each one costs another $80, and you call the Housing Inspector for a new date instead of filing again.
• What gets checked: the placement of smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms, and whether every open construction permit on the house has been closed with its final inspections.
• Timing: inspections run between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekdays, and the owner or a representative must be there for the whole window. The certificate follows two full business days after final approval.
• Shelf life: three months from issue, and it lapses sooner if ownership or occupancy changes. It cannot be transferred.

Two details catch sellers out. Battery smoke alarms installed since January 2019 must be ten-year sealed units, and a two-family house needs an extra alarm at the highest point of each shared stairwell. The bigger trap is the open permit: a deck, a finished basement or a water heater swapped years ago whose final inspection never happened will hold the certificate until it is closed out. Because this inspection covers the alarms, it also serves as the state smoke and carbon monoxide certificate for a one- or two-family home.

When we buy, our side files the application, meets the inspector during that midday window and handles any alarm fixes or permit close-outs the visit turns up. If you have already moved away, you do not need to come back for it.

Taxes in Union: A Very High Rate on Very Old Values

Look at a Union tax bill and the 2025 general rate of 23.323 per $100 of assessed value looks impossible. It makes sense once you know that assessments here were set long ago and sit far below today's market. The state's effective rate, which converts the bill to a share of true value, was 2.270 in 2025, close to the middle of the county. Divide one by the other and the township's assessments work out to roughly a tenth of market value; the township's own published ratio history shows the figure sliding from about 32% in 2000 to about 17% by 2016.

For a seller, the takeaway is not to judge your house by its assessed value.

Missed quarters and any tax sale certificate come off the sale price at closing, paid straight to the collector by the title company. Since July 2024 an owner whose certificate holder moves to foreclose can demand a public sale so that equity above the debt is returned. Our tax lien guide for New Jersey explains the steps.

Sewer Charges, Water and the Final Bills

Because the township's sewer utility is billed through the same Tax Office as property tax, an unpaid sewer charge shows up on the municipal lien search the title company orders. It is paid at closing the same way. Water is billed separately by the utility that serves your street, and a final meter reading is requested a few days before closing so the last bill lands in your name only up to that day.

Vacant Houses Cost Money in Union

Union takes empty buildings seriously. Under Ordinance 5440, an owner must register a vacant property with the Construction Code Official within 14 calendar days of it becoming vacant or of taking ownership. Registration costs $600, and the annual renewals climb steeply: $1,500 for the first, $3,000 for the second and $5,000 for every year after. A vacant house also needs liability coverage of $300,000 or more, and fines run $100 to $2,000 per violation.

That schedule is why an inherited house that sits empty while relatives decide what to do can quietly turn expensive. If the house is already vacant, a quick sale stops the renewals; if it is about to become vacant, selling before the family moves the last things out can avoid the registration altogether. The estate side is covered in our New Jersey inherited house guide.

Rentals and Tenants

Landlords in the township register rental property with the Building Department through an online form. If you own a rented two-family or a single house with a tenant, we can buy it occupied. New Jersey law keeps the lease in force under a new owner, and the tenant's deposit and the interest on it move to the buyer at closing. See the rental property guide.

A Township With Revolutionary Roots

The old Connecticut Farms section was a Revolutionary War battleground, and the township has marked eleven historic sites, among them Connecticut Farms Presbyterian Church on Stuyvesant Avenue, Liberty Hall on Morris Avenue and the Caldwell Parsonage on Caldwell Avenue. Those markers do not put restrictions on a private home sale; they are simply part of why older houses near Union Center and along the main avenues carry so much character, and sometimes so much deferred upkeep.

How a Sale to Us Works in Union

1. Day one

   Address and a short call

   Tell us about the house, any open permits you know of and whether anyone still lives there.

2. Within a day of the visit

   A written figure

   One walk-through, then one number in writing with every cost and who pays it listed.

3. Ten business days or more

   The CCO and title work

   We file the township application, attend the inspection and clear what it finds while the title company runs its searches.

4. Your chosen date

   Closing

   At a title company or attorney's office, or signed remotely before a notary, with taxes and sewer charges paid from the proceeds.

Union borders Elizabeth and Hillside, and it sits in the middle of Union County, where we buy in all 21 towns.