Illustrative scene: a Black woman in her seventies with silver locs climbing the long white wooden steps of her early-1800s brick town house on a brick-paved street in Olde Towne Portsmouth, Virginia

We Buy Houses in Portsmouth, VA

Sell your house fast for cash, as-is. A written offer within 24 hours of one call, and you pick the closing date.

Prefer to talk it through? Call (984) 489-8269

Selling Your Portsmouth House Fast for Cash: The Essentials

Selling your Portsmouth house starts with one phone call about how it's holding up.

We buy houses across Portsmouth, from Olde Towne and Park View to Churchland, and we send a written cash offer within 24 hours. There are no commissions, no repairs and no showings, and we cover standard closing costs. Your cash offer is based on what you tell us about the house. If your answers reflect its real condition, the price on the contract is the price at closing. You choose the closing date, in as little as 14 days, through a licensed Virginia settlement agent, and you can have your own attorney review everything.

At a glance

No repairs
No commissions or showings
We pay standard closing costs
Close in as little as 14 days

Selling in Portsmouth

A Portsmouth Cash Sale, From Call to Settlement

Illustrative scene: a white man in his seventies in a navy sweater on the phone in a wicker chair on the sun porch of his Portsmouth house, a one-page letter in hand

1. Call and Describe It
Tell us about your Portsmouth house, porch steps to basement, as it is today. You don’t repair anything first.
2. The Offer Lands in Writing
A written cash offer comes within 24 hours, with no commissions and no showings.
3. A Settlement Agent Finishes It
A licensed Virginia settlement agent handles the closing on the date you choose.
Get My Cash Offer →
Takes about a minute.
or call (984) 489-8269

Portsmouth Houses That Took On Water or Show Their Age

Hurricane Matthew soaked Portsmouth in October 2016: a rain gauge listed 4.1 miles south-southeast of Portsmouth collected 11.28 inches ³. If water got into the house or the crawl space then or in a storm since, you can sell it without drying it out or rebuilding first. Tell us what happened and what was replaced.

Portsmouth has old neighborhoods, too; Park View alone was laid out between 1888 and 1892, and most of its houses went up in the two decades after it joined the city in 1894 ⁴. If your house was built before 1978, federal law has you share what you know about lead-based paint, pass along any reports and give the buyer a lead hazard pamphlet ⁵. Nothing needs repainting before you call.

Illustrative scene: a Black couple in their seventies on the bottom porch step of their pale-blue clapboard house in Portsmouth, looking at shallow tidal water covering the street

Portsmouth: Sizing Up a Listing Against Our Cash Offer

A Portsmouth house in good condition, listed with an agent and given time, could bring a higher price than our cash offer. On the way there you'd pay the commission, take care of what the buyer's inspector writes up, and keep up the mortgage, insurance and utilities until settlement. The Portsmouth market figures show how long homes have been listed.

Work out a listing's likely net with the Portsmouth cost example, and put our written offer next to it. If the listing leaves you more and you can wait, list.

On a $295,000 sale

Example, not a quote.

Listing with an agent

Sale price: $295,000
Agent commission (5.5% here; it varies): −$16,225
Repairs before listing (example): −$12,000
Virginia grantor's tax (the seller's deed tax): −$295
Deed preparation and seller's settlement fees (example; firms vary): −$500
Three months of carrying costs (example): −$5,310
You'd walk away with: $260,670

Comparing a cash offer

In this example, listing would leave you about $260,670 before your mortgage payoff. Compare that with your cash offer, less any closing costs you'd still pay.

Your numbers depend on your house, your loan and your city or county. Want your real numbers? Enter your address above or call (984) 489-8269.

See every cost of selling in Virginia →

Portsmouth Listing Data for Sellers, September 2026

Listing figures for Portsmouth, VA.

Median asking price: $295,250; up 7% from a year earlier
Median days on market: 35 days; down 16% from a year earlier
Homes for sale: 288; down 10% from a year earlier

Homes listed in Portsmouth, VA sat a median 35 days on the market in September 2026, down from 42 a year earlier. The median asking price in Portsmouth, VA was $295,250 in September 2026, up 7% from a year earlier.

Portsmouth ZIP Codes With the Shortest Waits

Lowest median days on market among ZIP codes with 20 or more homes listed, September 2026.

23701 — 28 days
23702 — 31 days
23703 — 33 days
23707 — 35 days
23704 — 42 days

Source: Realtor.com Economic Research, September 2026. Asking prices of homes listed for sale, not sale prices.

Selling an Olde Towne Portsmouth House With a Raised Basement and Long Front Steps

Portsmouth was founded in 1752 by Col. William Crawford, who named it for the English naval city. Its Olde Towne Historic District covers more than twenty blocks in the northeastern corner of the city, overlooking the Elizabeth River and is the only large early townscape left in Hampton Roads. Many of its tall, narrow Federal and Greek Revival town houses have side halls, basements fully above ground and entrances reached by long flights of wooden steps ¹.

Olde Towne is one of five local historic districts, with Truxtun, Cradock, Port Norfolk and Park View. New development, rehabilitation or redevelopment in them needs a Certificate of Appropriateness before any other application can be filed, and depending on the project, City staff or the Historic Preservation Commission decides it ². That approval is for work on a house, not its sale. If those wooden steps, the porch or the above-ground basement need work you've put off, tell us; it's part of the condition your offer is based on.

Get a Cash Number for Your Portsmouth House

Enter your address to get started. One short call about your home’s condition, and your cash offer comes in writing.

Rather talk to a person? Call (984) 489-8269

See what a cash buyer would pay for your house →

Portsmouth Sales With Strings Attached

If one of these sounds like your situation, here's what Virginia law generally says about it, in plain terms. For advice on your own situation, talk to a Virginia attorney.

Facing foreclosureA trustee sells the house at auction. Here are the notice rules and the timeline.

A trustee selling a Portsmouth house can hold the auction at the house, in front of the Portsmouth Circuit Court building at 1345 Court Street ⁶, or somewhere else in the city ⁷. If it's your home, the trustee must send notice of the time, date and place by certified or registered mail at least 60 days ahead ⁸, and the sale is advertised in a newspaper, generally once a week for four weeks unless the deed of trust allows as little as two ⁹. Selling before then may still be possible; talk to a Virginia real estate attorney before you sign.

Inherited a houseWho handles the will, who inherits without one, and what the small-asset affidavit covers.

A Portsmouth estate is opened at the Portsmouth Circuit Court, 1345 Court Street, Suite 101, by appointment only; walk-ins aren't taken, and the probate line is 757-393-8671, ext. 5127. Bring the original will, a certified death certificate, the approximate value of assets held in the person's name alone, and the names and addresses of the heirs. The court suggests starting within 30 days of the death, and the fiduciary and recording fee is $1.33 per $1,000 of the estate ⁶. Tell us where the estate stands, and we'll plan settlement around it.

Behind on paymentsA servicer generally can't start foreclosure until you're more than 120 days behind.

Federal rules generally bar a mortgage servicer from starting foreclosure until you're more than 120 days behind ¹⁰. Once a Virginia trustee's sale is set, the 60-day notice clock is already running, so the time before that is the time to call your servicer about options, or to sell before a notice ever goes out.

Going through a divorceHow a Virginia court can divide a house in a divorce, and why selling can make it simpler.

In a Virginia divorce, the court decides which property is marital and which is separate, and property titled in both spouses' names is generally marital. To divide a jointly owned house, the court can give it to one spouse, let one buy out the other, or order it sold ¹¹. Selling it yourselves turns the house into money that's simpler to divide. Your divorce attorneys can tell you what your order requires before either of you signs a contract.

Selling a rental with tenantsYour tenants don't have to move out first. Bring the lease and the deposit records to the call.

The tenant doesn't have to move out before we make an offer. A month-to-month tenancy can generally be ended by written notice at least 30 days before the next rent due date, unless the lease sets a different period ¹². A security deposit can't be more than two months' rent, and it has to be accounted for when the tenancy ends ¹³. Tell us about the lease, the rent and the deposit on the call.

Moving away or downsizingLine the sale up with your move, and ask your next city or county about tax relief at 65.

The sale can line up with your move. If you're 65 or older and moving to another Virginia home, ask that city or county about real estate tax relief. Virginia lets each locality exempt or defer some or all of the tax on a home owned and lived in by someone 65 or older, on conditions the locality sets ¹⁴.

Portsmouth Neighborhoods We Buy In, River to Western Branch

Portsmouth's Park View neighborhood grew up around the Portsmouth Naval Hospital and took its name from the hospital's park ⁴. We buy houses in every part of the city, from Olde Towne and Port Norfolk to Cradock, Westhaven and Churchland. If your neighborhood isn't listed, call anyway.

Olde Towne and the Riverfront

Olde Towne
Port Norfolk
Park View
Downtown

Prentis Park and the Midtown Streets

Westhaven
Brighton
Highland Biltmore

Cradock, Truxtun and the South End

Cradock
Truxtun
Simonsdale
Academy Park

Churchland and the Western Branch Shore

Churchland
Hatton Point
Sterling Point
Green Lakes

Portsmouth ZIP Codes, Olde Towne to Churchland

23701
23702
23703
23704
23707

Portsmouth Owners Want to Know

Prefer to talk it through?

Call (984) 489-8269

How soon after I say yes could a Portsmouth settlement happen?

As soon as 14 days after you accept our written offer, if the paperwork is ready. The settlement agent checks the title, and your lender has seven business days after a written request to send the payoff statement ¹⁵. An estate or a tenant can push the date out, and a later one is fine.

What goes into your number for a Portsmouth house?

What you tell us on the phone: the age of the house, the roof, the porch and steps, the foundation or basement, any water that came in during Matthew or a high tide, the repairs you've put off and who lives there. If a line of the written offer isn't clear, ask us to explain it.

As-is or not, what must a Portsmouth seller tell a buyer?

Virginia's disclosure statement says the owner makes no representations about the condition and tells the buyer to inspect ¹⁶. Even so, you must disclose a pending building code violation affecting safe, sanitary living that the City has written to you about, or a zoning violation ¹⁷, and, if you know of them, two or more flood insurance claims of more than $1,000 paid in ten years ¹⁸.

I'm 65 or older. When are my Portsmouth real estate taxes due?

Portsmouth bills real estate tax and the stormwater management fee quarterly. The regular due dates are September 30, December 31, March 31 and June 30. The City lists later dates (October 5, January 5, April 5 and July 5) for senior citizen accounts; to find out which schedule applies to you, call the Treasurer's real estate division at 757-393-8651 ¹⁹. At settlement, the year's taxes are split as of the settlement date ²⁰.

My mother died in a nursing home outside Portsmouth. Which court handles her estate?

Her residence is presumed to be where she lived before she became a patient there, so if that was Portsmouth, the estate goes to the Portsmouth Circuit Court ⁶. A Virginia probate attorney can tell you who will have the power to sign the deed.

I work at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and I'm transferring. Can the sale fit my move?

In most cases. We can close as soon as 14 days after you accept our written offer, or later if that suits your move. The shipyard, the Navy's oldest, sits in Portsmouth even though it has never carried the city's name ²¹. Give us your report date and moving date, and we'll pick a settlement date that fits. If you'll be gone by then, the settlement agent can tell you what's possible.

Can I watch the water level near Churchland during a storm?

Yes. The City and the U.S. Geological Survey run a tide monitoring station on the Churchland Bridge that posts near real-time water levels online, and the City uses it to predict the timing and size of flooding along the river. For questions, call 757-393-8836 ²².

When You Are Ready to Sell in Portsmouth