Alsip issues a transfer stamp and keeps registers for vacant buildings and for rentals, so an unoccupied house or a tenant means a filing before the deed moves.
Fair Value Investments is a private real-estate investor buying for our own account. We are not a broker, lender, attorney, or government agency, and we charge no fee to make an offer.
| Requirement | In Alsip | What that means, and where we read it |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-sale inspectionDoes the town inspect the house before it changes hands? | Not confirmed | We could not confirm this for Alsip. Ask Alsip's building and code department whether anyone inspects a house before it changes hands. |
| Transfer stampDoes the town sell a stamp the deed cannot be recorded without? | Required | Alsip charges a real estate transfer tax and the village clerk sells the stamps, so the deed for your sale has to carry them on its face before it is delivered or recorded. The village code puts the obligation to pay on the seller, unless the seller is exempt by operation of state law, in which case it shifts to the buyer. Source |
| Final water bill or account clearanceDoes the town want its own accounts settled first? | Not confirmed | We could not confirm this for Alsip. Ask Alsip's building and code department what the water and utility accounts need before a closing. |
| Vacant building registrationDoes an empty house have to be registered? | Required | If the house is standing empty, the owner is required to file a registration statement for it with the building commissioner, pay an annual registration fee that is not prorated, and file a vacant building plan. The code also puts securing and signage duties on the owner while the building sits. Source |
| Rental licence or registrationDoes a tenant in the house bring its own paperwork? | Required | Alsip licenses landlords. If there is a tenant in the property, the operating licence and the crime-free housing obligations that go with it are part of what a buyer takes on, and an unlicensed rental is a live problem at the village counter rather than a paperwork footnote. Source |
Every "Required" and "Not required" above links the page we read it on, checked 2026-09-23. Fees, deadlines and the exact wording live on those pages and change without notice, so we do not reprint them here. For Alsip itself, start with Alsip's building and code department.
Alsip is a village with its own code book and its own counter, and the three things it asks for at a sale are things you handle locally rather than downtown. Cook County sets the taxes and holds the records. The village sets the transfer stamp, decides how an empty building is treated, and decides who is allowed to rent out a house inside its borders. For assessment purposes the property sits in Worth Township, which is the county's business, not the village's.
None of this makes a worn-out house unsellable here. It does mean the closing has a village step in it, and that step is easiest when somebody looks at it early instead of the week the deal is supposed to fund. A roof that leaks, a furnace that quit, a basement that took water, a garage that is past saving: those are condition questions between you and a buyer. The transfer stamp, the vacant registration and the landlord licence are village questions, and the village does not care how the sale is priced.
If there is already an open code case on the property, the file lives with Alsip's building and code department, and the buildings and building regulations chapter is where the authority for it comes from. Anyone purchasing the house is taking the file with it, so it is better to say out loud what has been cited than to hope it stays quiet. We deal with open cases regularly and have written more about how that works on our code violations page.
Alsip imposes a tax on the privilege of transferring title to, or beneficial interest in, property inside the village. The code puts the primary incidence of that tax and the obligation to pay it on the seller, grantor or transferrer. The one exception written into the ordinance is where the transferrer is exempt solely by operation of state law, and in that case the obligation moves to the transferee.
Mechanically, the tax is paid by buying stamps from the village clerk, and the person liable has to affix them to the face of the deed. The tax is due on the earlier of delivery of the deed or its recording, which is another way of saying the stamp has to exist before the transaction is finished, not after. A title company that is paying attention will not let a deed go out without it, and a deed that reaches the county without the village stamp on its face is a problem you have to come back and fix.
The practical version for a seller: get the stamp question in front of the village clerk well before the closing date, and find out what the village wants to see from you in order to issue it. The text of the ordinance is in the village's real estate transfer tax section.
Alsip registers vacant buildings. The owner of a vacant building is required to file a registration statement for it with the building commissioner after the building becomes vacant, and the registration carries an annual fee that the code says is not prorated. Registration is not the end of it. The code also requires a vacant building plan, and it places securing and signage duties on the owner for as long as the building stands empty.
What this means at a sale is simple. If the house has been sitting and was never registered, the village is entitled to notice that it has been sitting, and the obligation belongs to the owner of record. That is you, until the deed moves. The registration requirement is set out in the vacant buildings article.
A vacant house also tends to collect the other kinds of trouble on its own. Unpaid property taxes are the common one, and taxes that have already gone through the county's annual sale are a county matter rather than a village one. If that is where you are, our tax distress page explains what the record looks like and which office holds the redemption side of it.
Chapter 12 of the village code contains an article on landlord licensing, and it requires a licence to operate rental structures. The article covers notice of failure to licence, issuance or denial of a licence, revocation or denial, and a set of crime-free housing obligations that attach to whoever is operating the rental.
For a seller, there are two separate questions. First, whether the property is currently licensed, because an unlicensed rental is something the village already has a process for. Second, whether the tenant is staying, because a buyer taking a tenanted building in Alsip is stepping into the licensing regime, not around it. Say plainly what the occupancy is: month to month, a written lease, someone who has fallen behind, a relative living there. A buyer who is told the truth up front prices it. A buyer who finds out at the walkthrough reprices it. The licensing requirement is in the landlord licensing article.
For the village half, the Alsip building and code department is the office to start with. Transfer stamps come from the village clerk. Vacant building registrations go to the building commissioner. The landlord licence is a village licence. One phone call to the building and code department will tell you which of these three actually applies to your address.
For the county half, Cook County Treasurer's Office issues the tax bills and runs the annual tax sale. Redeeming taxes that have already been sold is handled through Cook County Clerk's Office, and that same office now holds recorded deeds and liens after the Recorder of Deeds function folded into it. Court matters for this county are heard in the Circuit Court of Cook County, with the county seat in Chicago. We keep a general Cook County page covering how those county pieces fit together, and it applies the same way in neighbouring villages such as Evergreen Park.
We purchase houses in Alsip for cash, for our own account, in whatever condition they are in. We are a buyer and nothing else. We are not a service, not an agency, and not connected to the village or the county.
Here is the shape of it. We look at the house as it stands, including the parts that are broken. We make an offer or we tell you we are not the right buyer. If you accept, the title company handles the closing and pays what is owed on the property out of the sale proceeds at the table, which is the ordinary way a closing works. We take on the condition, and we handle the village items that fall to a new owner.
A cash offer on a house that needs work is usually below what the same house would list for after it had been repaired, cleaned and staged. That difference is the trade. You are not paying for the repairs, not carrying the house while the work is done, and not wondering whether a financed buyer's lender will balk at the furnace. If that trade does not look right to you, take our number to an agent or to your attorney and compare it against what a listing would net after repairs, carrying costs and commission. We would rather you check than wonder.
The village code puts the primary incidence of the transfer tax, and the obligation to pay it, on the seller or grantor. The one stated exception is where the transferrer is exempt solely by operation of state law, in which case the obligation shifts to the buyer. The stamps are bought from the village clerk and have to be affixed to the face of the deed, and the tax comes due on the earlier of delivery or recording of that deed.
It is not something to hide from the village. Alsip requires the owner of a vacant building to file a registration statement with the building commissioner after the building becomes vacant, to pay an annual registration fee that is not prorated, and to file a vacant building plan, with securing and signage duties running alongside. The obligation belongs to the owner of record while the house is still in your name. Call the building and code department, find out where the property stands, and let a buyer know what you learn.
Yes, and a buyer who works in Alsip will expect a tenant to be part of the picture. What matters is that the village licenses landlords, so the buyer is taking on the licensing article and the crime-free housing obligations that go with operating a rental here. Tell us the occupancy situation honestly at the start. We also purchase tenanted and worn properties in nearby villages including Tinley Park.
No repairs, no fee, no obligation. See the number, then decide.