East Greenwich and Greenwich Township sit a few exits apart on Route 295 and both inspect every home sale. The differences are procedural and worth knowing cold: $45 in exact cash or check with a two-hour morning inspection window in East Greenwich, and $60 in Gibbstown where the application is not complete until you call to schedule.
The 295 pair
East Greenwich, which is Mickleton and Clarksboro, has spent two decades as a Kingsway-schools growth township: newer colonials, cul-de-sacs, and steady buyer demand. Greenwich Township is Gibbstown, the riverfront town that industry built, where housing stays affordable and blocks stay walkable. Different markets, same requirement: a municipal certificate of occupancy before the keys change hands.
East Greenwich: the morning window
The township’s construction department requires a CO inspection for all changes of occupancy at $45, exact cash or check only. Inspections run Monday through Thursday in an 8 to 10 AM window based on availability, against a township-approved checklist the office will give you ahead of time. The rhythm matters more than the rules: a missed morning window or a failed checklist item costs days, so collect the checklist at application and walk it before the inspector does.
Gibbstown: the call that completes the file
Greenwich Township’s CO application prices the residential inspection at $60 with $25 reinspections, and states in capital letters that the application is not complete until the owner or realtor contacts the inspections office to schedule. Per the construction code office, inspections run Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 AM to 2 PM, and the dwelling may not be occupied until the housing inspector issues the certificate.
- Name your township correctly. New Jersey has several Greenwich Townships; this is the Gloucester County one, seated in Gibbstown. Title companies occasionally chase the wrong clerk.
- Vacancy is on the form. The Gibbstown application asks whether the dwelling is vacant and inventories rooms, garage, fence, and outbuildings, so answer accurately; the inspector walks what you list.
- Rentals have their own track. Both townships run landlord registration separately, and East Greenwich adds lead paint inspections for pre-1978 rentals. A tenanted sale needs both files current.
The New Jersey money
The seller pays New Jersey’s realty transfer fee on a graduated scale, about $3,340 on a $425,000 East Greenwich sale and about $2,180 on a $310,000 Gibbstown sale, with a partial exemption for sellers 62 and older. Sellers leaving the state prepay income tax through the exit-tax withholding; sellers staying in New Jersey do not. The home-sale tax guide and the cost-to-sell guide carry the detail.
Getting started
The 295 order: a free valuation, the CO application filed and the inspection scheduled two weeks out, the checklist walked in advance, and exact change in hand for East Greenwich. Nearby, the Woolwich and Swedesboro guide covers the next township south, the West Deptford guide covers the next one north, and the sequencing guide settles what to do first.