Mortgage Note Investing in New York

New York is among the slowest and most expensive judicial-foreclosure states in the country, and the timeline is the entire thesis. Homes that finished foreclosure in Q2 2026 had spent an average of 2,007 days — about five and a half years — in the process, the third-longest in the country against a national average of 563 days (ATTOM, 2026 midyear report). The law builds in the wait: a 90-day notice to the borrower before any action can be filed (RPAPL §1304), then a mandatory settlement conference once the case is served (CPLR 3408), and every step after that runs through the court. Underwrite to a multi-year hold, not a few quarters.

Cost compounds the wait. Legal and court expenses run high — on the order of $6,000 on an average file — so price both the carry and the spend before you bid. The one offsetting reward is finality: there is no post-sale redemption, so once the court process closes, the title is clean and can't be bought back out from under you.

Deficiency judgments are available, so recourse beyond the collateral is possible where the borrower is collectable. New York is a tax-deed state with no redemption on tax sales and runs a one-year tax-lien process, so monitor property-tax status. Note buyers are license-exempt. New York rewards only one thing: patience priced in from the start.