Eddystone is a one-square-mile borough on the Delaware River, rowhomes and twins built for the Baldwin Locomotive workforce, a regional rail stop, and entry-level prices that keep buyer demand steady. The borough requires one thing before the deed moves: a certificate of occupancy, $100 per unit, with an inspection whose calendar the code itself dictates.
The Eddystone seller picture
Sellers here are often settling an estate or leaving a home held for decades, and buyers are first-timers and investors working the most affordable end of Delaware County. Houses are priced in reach of FHA budgets, which means appraisals and buyer-side repair requests do more work here than in the county’s higher brackets. The municipal side, by contrast, is a single certificate.
The certificate process
- 01File the application with the nonrefundable $100 per unit fee, payable to the Borough of Eddystone. For an owner-occupied single family home, that is $100 total. The borough application covers sales, new construction, and rentals; a sale checks the resale box.
- 02Arrange the inspection. Once the application and fees are processed, you schedule the walk-through with the borough’s agent. Weekday inspections run 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. under Chapter 97.
- 03Pass, fix, or reinspect. No certificate issues if the property fails to conform to borough ordinances and the state construction code, and reinspection fees are set by council resolution.
The calendar the code builds in
Chapter 97 is unusually specific about timing. Inspection appointments are confirmed by letter, certified mail with return receipt for the first notice, and no inspection may be scheduled sooner than 14 days from the date of the notice. Miss the appointment, or fail to respond within 48 hours of a requested inspection, and the code authorizes a fine on top of the reinspection.
The Pennsylvania money
Eddystone sits at the standard 2% total realty transfer tax, customarily split, so the seller’s half on a $200,000 sale is $2,000. Pennsylvania withholds nothing at settlement, and at Eddystone price points the federal exclusion, $250,000 single or $500,000 married, covers nearly every longtime owner outright. The home-sale tax guide and the cost-to-sell guide carry the detail, and estate sellers should read the guide to selling a parent’s house.
Getting started
The Eddystone order: a free valuation that reads the borough’s block-by-block pricing correctly, the certificate application filed with the $100 the week you list, and the house walked for the obvious code items before the borough sees it. Neighbors in Ridley Township and the wider county picture in the Delaware County downsizing guide fill out the map, and the complete downsizing guide covers the rest.