Exclusive | Bidding wars for Long Island homes are so brutal, even all-cash buyers are getting burned

Frank DiMaio had the cash, a signed contract and $230,000 sitting in escrow.He still lost the house he wanted to buy.The orthopedic surgeon, who recently hung up his scalpel after four decades, spent much of this year trying to swap the Old Brookville estate he and his wife have called home for about 25 years for something smaller on Long Island’s North Shore.

Instead, the couple got a front-row seat to the most cutthroat housing scrum in the country.“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” DiMaio told The Post.He’s got plenty of company.Redfin has crowned Nassau and Suffolk counties the strongest seller’s market in America again and again, most recently clocking roughly 36% fewer sellers than buyers.

Across most of the country, the pendulum has swung the other way, with 39 of the nation’s 50 biggest metros now favoring house hunters.On Long Island, nobody seems to have gotten the memo.The DiMaios thought they’d scored this summer when the sellers of a luxury townhouse in Woodbury accepted their $2.3 million bid on a $2.4 million listing.They signed on a Tuesday and wired the deposit first thing Wednesday.

By Thursday afternoon, the deal had evaporated.“By the time 4 o’clock came, we were told they’re not signing the contract,” DiMaio said.“They got another offer … and they never gave us an opportunity to match the price.”To rub salt in the wound, the couple’s deposit stayed tied up while Wall Street rallied. “And by the way, that money that was in escrow, the $230,000, we didn’t get it back for 10 days,” he said.

“I could have made money on that money.”Their agent, Joe Scavo of Douglas Elliman, said last-minute reversals have become part of the game. “In the 25th hour, the seller’s attorney just emailed us and said they were going with a different offer,” Scavo recalled.The other side of the ledger told the story just as loudly.Once the DiMaios allowed Scavo to show their Old Brookville spread before it e...