We Buy Houses & Buildings in Bulls Head, Staten Island

Housing Stock

What Bulls Head Is Built From

Bulls Head takes its name from an eighteenth-century tavern at the Victory Boulevard and Richmond Avenue crossroads whose sign showed a bull’s head. During the American Revolution it served as a Loyalist gathering place, and it burned down in 1871. The area was also known as Phoenixville. For most of its history it was farmland, and it stayed that way into the early 1960s.

The Staten Island Expressway and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge changed that. Once the bridge opened in 1964, farms gave way to subdivisions, and families from Brooklyn and Queens moved in. Today Bulls Head is a neighborhood of detached houses, two-families and later attached homes, with shopping centers and storefronts concentrated on Victory Boulevard and Richmond Avenue.

Common Property Types

• Detached one-family houses from the 1960s through the 1990s
• Two-family and mother-daughter homes
• Semi-detached and attached houses from later development
• Small mixed-use buildings and storefronts on the main corridors
• Older early-1900s houses in the Meiers Corners section
• Vacant lots and oversized parcels

Almost all of it is one- to three-family housing, generally taxed by the city as Class 1 property. Houses with one owner for decades often need roofs, boilers, electrical upgrades or kitchen and bath work, and many have finished basements or additions that were never legalized. We buy them as they are.

What We Look At

When we review a Bulls Head house, we check the certificate of occupancy or building records, any open permits or violations with the Department of Buildings, the lot size against current zoning, and whether the property sits in a flood zone. We also ask about the roof, heating system, oil tank and plumbing. None of these has to be fixed before you sell to us. They simply shape the written offer, and we explain how.

Zoning

Zoning Context in Bulls Head

All of Staten Island is covered by the Lower Density Growth Management Area rules, which require more off-street parking, deeper yards and larger minimum lot sizes than most of the city and restrict subdivision. Residential blocks in Bulls Head are mapped for low-density housing, while Victory Boulevard and Richmond Avenue carry commercial districts and overlays.

Land along the western edge, toward Freshkills Park and the West Shore, can involve wetlands review and flood mapping, and lots near the expressway may have access or shape constraints. The December 2024 City of Yes for Housing Opportunity amendments made citywide changes to accessory units, parking and housing above stores in some commercial areas, but the final version limited backyard units in many lower-density districts and left most Staten Island parking rules largely in place. What a given lot allows depends on its district and size. Confirm with a zoning professional or attorney.

Regulated Buildings

Tenants & Rent Regulation in Bulls Head

Bulls Head has very few rent-stabilized buildings. Stabilization generally applies to buildings of six or more units built before 1974, and this neighborhood is mostly one- and two-family houses built after the bridge opened. A tenant in a Bulls Head two-family is usually a market-rate tenant. A small number of older apartment buildings near the main corridors may be regulated, so check registration history if you own one.

Since the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, eviction, deposit and fee rules have tightened for nearly all residential tenancies. We buy with tenants in place and take over at closing. Owners of regulated buildings can read our rent-stabilized building page.

Where We Buy

Where We Buy in Bulls Head

We buy throughout Bulls Head and in Meiers Corners to the east.

Bulls Head

The neighborhood radiates from the Victory Boulevard and Richmond Avenue crossroads where the old tavern stood. Victory Boulevard, originally the Richmond Turnpike, was laid out in the early nineteenth century as a toll road across the Island, and Richmond Avenue is now the Island’s main north-south shopping corridor. Willowbrook Road also runs through the area. The side streets between these roads are lined with houses built mostly after the early 1960s.

Willowbrook Park’s wooded land borders the neighborhood to the east and Freshkills Park lies to the southwest. Bulls Head is well served by buses: the S62 and S92 run along Victory Boulevard, the S44, S59 and S94 serve Richmond Avenue, the S89 runs to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail in Bayonne, and express buses run to Manhattan. Our Lady of Pity parish and P.S. 60 are neighborhood anchors.

• The crossroads — Victory Boulevard and Richmond Avenue, with shopping centers, storefronts and the oldest commercial lots
• Richmond Avenue blocks — houses and two-families on the side streets running toward New Springville
• Willowbrook Road — residential blocks running toward the Willowbrook Park edge
• Expressway edge — houses and lots along the Staten Island Expressway on the north side
• Freshkills edge — the western and southwestern blocks toward Freshkills Park and the West Shore

Meiers Corners

Meiers Corners is the older crossroads farther east along Victory Boulevard, past Willowbrook, where Victory Boulevard, Bradley Avenue, Jewett Avenue and Watchogue Road meet. It is sometimes confused with Westerleigh, which lies generally north of Victory Boulevard; Meiers Corners is the area south of that line, rising toward the plateau some call Manor Heights. The name traces to the Meier family, whose Martling-Cozine House stood near Watchogue Road and Bradley Avenue until it was demolished in 1981.

Because it grew earlier, Meiers Corners has more early twentieth-century houses and small apartment buildings than Bulls Head proper, along with a commercial strip on Victory Boulevard. Susan E. Wagner High School, opened in 1968, is nearby. The S57, S61, S62, S91, S92 and S93 serve the area. We buy older houses here with original systems, two-families, and mixed-use buildings on the boulevard.

Why Owners Sell

Why Bulls Head Owners Sell to Us

• An inherited house that the family wants to settle privately
• Owners or heirs living in New Jersey, Pennsylvania or Florida
• A two-family with a tenant or relative who is staying
• A dated house that would need significant work before listing
• Unpermitted basements or additions that worry financed buyers
• A storefront building with vacancies or aging leases
• Owners downsizing who want one move and no repairs

Inherited Property

Selling an Inherited Home in Bulls Head

Bulls Head is a neighborhood of first-generation owners. Families who bought new in the 1960s and 1970s are now passing houses to children and grandchildren, many of whom have moved away or own homes of their own.

The Richmond County Surrogate’s Court

Staten Island estates are handled at the Richmond County Surrogate’s Court, 18 Richmond Terrace, St. George. If the owner left a will, the named executor applies for letters testamentary. If not, a relative usually applies for letters of administration. Once issued, those letters generally give the fiduciary authority to sell, subject to any limits in the will or court order.

You can start with us before the court process is done. We can see the house, provide a written offer and, through the estate’s attorney, often sign a contract that closes once the fiduciary has authority. Your attorney should confirm the steps for your estate.

• Siblings who disagree about selling or price
• Out-of-state heirs; we can arrange access and walkthroughs
• A vacant house adding taxes, insurance and utility costs every month
• A tenant in one unit of a two-family
• A house full of belongings that needs work

Read our Staten Island inherited property guide for more. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Potential

Where the Value Is in Bulls Head

Bulls Head’s location is its main asset: quick access to the Staten Island Expressway and Goethals Bridge, shopping on Richmond Avenue and Victory Boulevard, bus links to New Jersey and Manhattan, and two large parks nearby. Two-families are popular because the rental unit helps carry the cost of ownership.

For a developer, the value is in specifics: a dated two-family that can be renovated, a corner property on a commercial corridor, or a larger lot. We look at the house and the land and price both.

Commercial property on Victory Boulevard and Richmond Avenue is a separate story. Traffic, parking and the mix of tenants matter more than the building itself, and an older storefront with vacancies can still be worth a good deal to a buyer who plans to re-tenant or rebuild it.

Your Options

Your Options for Selling Bulls Head Property

List With a Broker

An updated, vacant house in Bulls Head can sell well on the open market, and listing may net more. Expect repairs, showings, inspections and a buyer’s mortgage contingency. Tenants, estates and unpermitted work narrow the pool of buyers.

Renovate or Develop Yourself

With capital and time, you can renovate, legalize a unit or redevelop a lot. Staten Island’s zoning rules and permit process add time and cost, and carrying costs continue throughout.

Sell Directly to Red Hook Development

We buy as-is, with tenants and estate paperwork in progress. You get a written offer, there is no obligation, and you choose the closing date. Compare our offer with a listing first if you wish. See what we buy or tell us about your property.

How It Works

How Selling to Us Works

• Tell us about the property. We respond within one business day.
• We review it. Zoning, lot, tenancy, permits and condition. We can arrange access for out-of-state owners.
• You get a written offer. As-is, with clear terms.
• Attorneys handle the contract. Including any estate requirements.
• You choose the closing date. We take over any tenancy at closing.

Market Context

The Bulls Head Market

Bulls Head is a steady, owner-occupied market. Most sales come from life events: estates, downsizing, relocation and landlords ready to stop managing a second unit. Commercial property on the corridors trades on its own terms, driven by tenants and traffic. Because so many houses were built in the same era, a lot of them reach the point of needing roofs, boilers and kitchens at the same time, which is often what prompts a family to sell.

We do not publish price claims or promise numbers before seeing a property. We offer a private, straightforward alternative to listing, and we are glad to talk even if you decide to list.