The clearest answer the research supports is a ratio rather than a single price. In the sample compiled for this report, builders acquired 13 of 16 pre-1981 homes surveyed in 11968, and the average older home changed hands at 23.3 percent of the price of a new build on a comparable lot (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Applied to a documented case, where new construction sold for 4,500,000 dollars, the older home on the comparable lot sold for roughly 1,049,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). New construction on standard lots in the ZIP code has sold in the 3,500,000 to 8,000,000 dollar range, so builder payments for the older houses that precede those projects move with lot position, ocean proximity, and size rather than with the condition of the house standing on the land (Redfin, 2026).
Key Findings
- Builders acquired 13 of the 16 pre-1981 homes in the sample for 11968, a builder demand rate of 81.2 percent (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- The average older home in the sample sold at 23.3 percent of the new build price on a comparable lot, illustrated by a sale near 1,049,000 dollars against a 4,500,000 dollar new build (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- New construction on standard lots in 11968 has sold between 3,500,000 and 8,000,000 dollars depending on village location, ocean proximity, and lot size (Redfin, 2026).
- A simplified residual illustration in the research places land value near 2,000,000 to 2,300,000 dollars on a 4,500,000 dollar new build sale, before site preparation costs of 40,000 to 60,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
- Recorded deeds in the buyer entity name, checkable through county records, are the public evidence of what a builder actually paid at closing (Suffolk County Clerk, 2026).
How does the sample translate into prices builders have actually paid?
The sample is small by design, because it covers one housing stock in one ZIP code: pre-1981 homes in 11968, in the village and on the surrounding town streets inside the ZIP code (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Sixteen homes were sampled and 13 were acquired by builders, which is why the report treats builder demand as the dominant force for this housing stock rather than as one buyer type among many (Frontier Capitals, 2026). When a buyer pool behaves that way, the prices paid stop tracking the finishes inside the older house and start tracking what the finished replacement home can sell for on that lot.
The 23.3 percent ratio is the working bridge between the two markets (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A seller who knows that new construction nearby has sold at 4,500,000 dollars can place a first estimate on what builders have been paying for comparable older homes by applying that share, which produced the figure of roughly 1,049,000 dollars in the worked example in the research (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The same logic scales with the documented new construction range of 3,500,000 to 8,000,000 dollars, although the research presents the range as a guide to how wide the spread runs rather than as a pricing formula for any single parcel (Redfin, 2026). Readers working through a first estimate for their own property will find the companion analysis of how much a builder will pay for an older house in Southampton useful alongside this one.
The residual illustration explains why builders can pay those amounts and still proceed. On a 4,500,000 dollar new build sale, the research subtracts roughly 1,600,000 dollars in hard and soft construction costs and a builder margin near 20 percent, leaving a residual land value in the neighborhood of 2,000,000 to 2,300,000 dollars, before site preparation costs of 40,000 to 60,000 dollars (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The illustration is labeled in the research as simplified, and it should be read that way, but it shows the order of the calculation a builder runs before naming a price for an older home. The house itself contributes little to that arithmetic when the plan is a replacement build, which is why payments cluster around land logic rather than around bedroom counts or kitchen finishes.
National context supports reading these payments as part of a wider pattern rather than a local anomaly. Investors purchased 17 percent of homes in the United States in the third quarter of 2025, and the typical pending sale environment included roughly 15 percent of pending sales falling out of contract (Redfin, 2025). Southampton differs from the national picture in scale and in the size of the checks involved, yet the underlying point is shared: buyers purchasing for redevelopment evaluate the lot and the exit price first, and the existing structure second.
Which public records confirm what a builder paid?
A builder payment becomes a verifiable fact at the recording stage. Recorded deeds in the buyer entity name can be checked in county records, and the research treats that check as a standard verification step for any seller weighing a direct offer (Suffolk County Clerk, 2026). A deed shows the parties and the consideration recorded for the transfer, which lets a homeowner compare a claimed purchase history against the public record instead of relying on a buyer account of past deals. Sellers who want to confirm that a buyer has genuinely closed on similar Southampton properties can start with that record rather than with marketing material.
Parcel and assessment records add the second layer of evidence. The county tax service agency maintains parcel and assessment records for Southampton properties, and those records help a seller confirm lot identity, assessed values, and the parcel history attached to an address (Suffolk County Real Property Tax Service Agency, 2026). Assessed values are not sale prices, and this report does not treat them as substitutes for deeds, but they anchor a parcel in the official record and expose inconsistencies in a buyer story about lot size or ownership.
The town assessor records complete the picture on dimensions and zoning. Parcel dimensions, zoning, and assessed land value records are held by the town assessor, and those entries matter because builder pricing turns on what a lot can hold (Town of Southampton Assessor, 2026). Two older homes with similar interiors can support very different payments where one parcel is materially larger or carries subdivision potential, a possibility the research notes for parcels that run far larger than the 10,890 square foot sample minimum (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Checking the assessor record before negotiating gives the seller the same lot facts the builder is already using.
Market listings and valuation platforms supply context around those official records. Sold listings and new construction results for the ZIP code are tracked in market data for 11968 (Redfin, 2026), and home values and recent sales for the same ZIP code appear in a second market source (Zillow, 2026). Town level context, including the demographic and housing profile published in QuickFacts for the town, frames why demand concentrates here (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025). None of these sources replaces a recorded deed, yet together they let a seller test whether a builder account of recent payments sits inside the documented range or outside it.
Why do two similar older houses draw different builder payments?
The research is direct on this point: value in Southampton changes block by block, so any radius based automated estimate averages two different markets into one number (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Ocean and village proximity is the first driver of the residual value a builder can support, lot size is the second, and the Manhattan second home bid is the third (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A 1960s cottage on a quiet village street and a similar cottage south of the highway near the ocean may share a floor plan and a construction year, and still sit in different pricing worlds because the finished home on each lot sells into a different demand pool.
That block by block structure explains the width of the documented new construction range. Sales between 3,500,000 and 8,000,000 dollars on standard lots reflect village versus south of the highway location, ocean proximity, and lot size working together (Redfin, 2026). Builder payments for teardown properties follow the same gradient, because the payment is derived from the expected finished sale. The question of whether a given older house clears the teardown threshold at all is examined in the analysis of whether an older Southampton house is worth more as a teardown, and the two questions are best read together.
Timing also shapes what gets paid. The typical sold home nationally spent 46 days on market in the 2026 update, with a median of 51 days recorded in late 2025 (Redfin, 2026; Redfin, 2025). Southampton adds a seasonal layer on top of those baselines, since the resale market clears overwhelmingly between Memorial Day and Labor Day (Frontier Capitals, 2026). A builder buying outside that window is pricing land for a project timeline rather than competing with summer retail buyers, and payments reflect that difference. Sellers comparing offers across seasons should therefore compare them against the same window and the same lot facts, not against a headline price from a different part of the year.
One further cost sits between a headline payment and the money a seller keeps. New York charges a real estate transfer tax of 2 dollars per 500 dollars of consideration, and the state publishes guidance on that tax and on the graduated mansion tax (New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, 2026). The tax is modest next to commission costs, but it belongs in any honest comparison of what a builder paid and what the seller netted, a comparison developed further in the breakdown of how much it costs to sell a house in Southampton.
How does selling directly to a builder change what the seller keeps?
For a teardown property, the listed route charges the seller for marketing a house the eventual buyer does not intend to keep. The direct route removes several of those charges at once. On privacy, a direct sale involves zero showings and zero open houses, and in Southampton a for sale sign functions as a public event on the village social circuit, so keeping the process private until the deed records has a value beyond convenience (Frontier Capitals, 2026). On timing, a direct buyer typically closes in 7 to 21 days on the seller chosen date, or months out with the seller remaining under a short leaseback, where a listed older home can take a full selling season or longer (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
Of all the individual savings, none is bigger than the commission that never gets charged. Typical total commission runs 5 to 6 percent, which on a 2,000,000 dollar sale is 100,000 to 120,000 dollars that a direct sale does not pay (National Association of Realtors, 2025). Seller side closing costs of 1 to 2 percent come on top of that in a listed sale, and commissions plus closing costs commonly take 120,000 to 160,000 dollars combined on the same 2,000,000 dollar sale (National Association of Realtors, 2025). A direct sale structured without those charges means the price the builder pays and the amount the seller keeps sit much closer together than they do after a listed closing.
The final benefit concerns condition. A listed sale of a 60 year old cottage routinely produces repair credits and post inspection price reductions, and a direct as is sale removes the inspection driven renegotiation and the 10,000 to 30,000 dollar repair credits that commonly follow it (National Association of Realtors, 2025). For a house the buyer plans to replace, spending on repairs before the sale transfers money into a structure with no role in the buyer valuation, which is why the as is term appears in nearly every builder transaction in the sample (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
How can a seller verify that a builder buyer will close as promised?
Verification begins with candor about roles. Frontier Capitals is a wholesaler in the technical sense: it sources off market deals to builders and does not present itself as the builder who will redevelop the property. That disclosure matters because the seller is entitled to know whether the party across the table is the end buyer or a sourcing firm placing the property with one, and any firm unwilling to state its role plainly has answered an important question by avoiding it.
The research then sets out documentary checks any seller can run. Proof of funds should be in the buyer name and dated within the last 30 days, and a pre approval letter or a letter from a private lender does not meet that standard (Frontier Capitals, 2026). County files let a seller trace the deeds recorded under the buyer entity name and verify, from completed purchases rather than claims, how often that buyer has finished a deal (Suffolk County Clerk, 2026). The contract should contain no assignment clause, and earnest money of typically 1 percent or more, forfeited if the buyer walks away, signals a buyer with capital at risk (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The research is blunt about the opposite pattern: an assignment clause paired with a token deposit is the signature of a contract that was never meant to close.
Sellers can also test price claims against lot records before signing. Assessor records on dimensions and zoning show whether the lot supports the project the buyer describes (Town of Southampton Assessor, 2026), and assessment records confirm the parcel identity behind the offer (Suffolk County Real Property Tax Service Agency, 2026). A buyer whose numbers survive those checks, and who welcomes them, is behaving the way the documented closings in the sample were conducted. Sellers who want a private first conversation about a property can reach the firm through the contact page before sharing any documents.
Methodology and limitations
This report rests on the sample compiled for the Frontier Capitals study of 11968: 16 pre-1981 homes sampled in the ZIP code, of which 13 were acquired by builders, producing the 81.2 percent builder demand rate and the 23.3 percent average price ratio used throughout (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The sample is a sample, not a census of the ZIP code, and its figures describe the surveyed housing stock rather than every older home in Southampton. The residual land value figures come from a worked illustration that the research labels as simplified, so they explain builder arithmetic without promising a price for any individual parcel. Individual payments vary with block, lot size, and ocean proximity, and recorded deeds for a specific street remain the strongest evidence for that street.
Conclusion
Builders have recently paid for Southampton teardown properties at levels set by land value rather than by the worth of the standing house, with the sample average at 23.3 percent of the comparable new build price and 13 of 16 surveyed older homes going to builder buyers (Frontier Capitals, 2026). Recorded deeds, assessor records, and assessment records let any seller verify those payments and test a new offer against them before signing.
Homeowners weighing a direct sale can call 401-219-4207 or email [email protected] to discuss what builders have paid for comparable lots in 11968. Knowing the documented range first puts the seller in the position of evaluating an offer rather than guessing at one.
When a house has sheltered a family for decades, what does it mean to price the land honestly while respecting what the home itself has been worth to the people who lived in it?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average amount builders have paid for older homes in the sample?
The sample average is expressed as a ratio: the average older home sold at 23.3 percent of the new build price on a comparable lot (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The worked example in the research pairs a sale near 1,049,000 dollars with a 4,500,000 dollar new build on a comparable lot (Frontier Capitals, 2026).
How many sampled homes did builders actually buy?
Builders acquired 13 of the 16 pre-1981 homes sampled in 11968, a builder demand rate of 81.2 percent (Frontier Capitals, 2026). The sample covers homes in the village and on surrounding town streets inside the ZIP code.
Where can a seller confirm what a builder paid for a nearby property?
Recorded deeds in the buyer entity name are held in county records and can be checked by the public (Suffolk County Clerk, 2026). Parcel and assessment records from the county tax service agency provide supporting detail on the same property (Suffolk County Real Property Tax Service Agency, 2026).
Why does the same style of house sell to builders at different prices?
Value changes block by block in Southampton, with ocean and village proximity the first driver of residual value, lot size the second, and the Manhattan second home bid the third (Frontier Capitals, 2026). New construction on standard lots has sold from 3,500,000 to 8,000,000 dollars across those positions (Redfin, 2026).
What costs sit between a builder payment and the seller net amount?
A listed sale typically carries commission of 5 to 6 percent and seller closing costs of 1 to 2 percent, or 120,000 to 160,000 dollars combined on a 2,000,000 dollar sale (National Association of Realtors, 2025). New York also charges transfer tax of 2 dollars per 500 dollars of consideration (New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, 2026).
Sources
- Frontier Capitals, 2026. 189 neighborhood builder acquisition sample: 16 homes sampled in 11968, 13 acquired by builders, average older home price 23.3 percent of new build. Market data.
- Redfin, 2026. Recently sold homes and new construction, ZIP code 11968, Southampton NY. Market data.
- Zillow, 2026. Home values and recently sold, 11968. Market data.
- Suffolk County Clerk, 2026. Recorded deeds and parcel records, Southampton NY. Official record.
- Town of Southampton Assessor, 2026. Parcel dimensions, zoning, and assessed land value records. Official record.
- National Association of Realtors, 2025. Typical seller commission structures, Hamptons market. Industry report.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2025. QuickFacts: Southampton town, New York. Government data.
- Suffolk County Real Property Tax Service Agency, 2026. Parcel and assessment records, Southampton NY. Official record.
- Redfin, 2025. National market data, late 2025: median days on market 51; roughly 15 percent of pending sales fall out of contract; investors purchased 17 percent of U.S. homes in Q3 2025. Market data.
- New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, 2026. Real estate transfer tax and mansion tax guidance. Official record.