Glen Mills and Chadds Ford share the Route 1 corridor, the Brandywine views, and a buyer pool heavy with downsizers, and they disagree completely about what a seller owes the township. Concord wants six original forms, a sewer lateral inspection by its own department, and an appointment to hand it all in. Chadds Ford wants nothing beyond the paperwork any Pennsylvania sale requires.
The Route 1 corridor picture
Concord Township, which covers most Glen Mills addresses, has spent two decades filling in with 55+ communities and carriage homes alongside its estate lots, all in Garnet Valley schools. Chadds Ford is smaller and quieter, Unionville-Chadds Ford schools, historic districts, wells and septic on many parcels. Both trade at a premium, and both reward sellers who handle the municipal step, or confirm there is none, before the sign goes up.
Concord: six original forms
The township’s resale certification page lists the packet, all originals, returned together with payment:
- The application itself, under Chapter 90 of the township code.
- The sewer document: a public sewer lateral inspection report, performed by the Concord Township Sewer Department under Ordinance 338, or the on-site septic questionnaire for private systems.
- Three affidavits: visible address numbers, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and swimming pool and spa safety.
- The sewer rental fee certification for properties on public sewer or connecting to it.
The Chadds Ford side
Chadds Ford’s permit list ties certificates of use and occupancy to building projects, not home sales, so a resale closes without a township inspection. The scrutiny moves to the systems and the districts: wells and septic run through the Delaware County Health Department, buyers test both, and exterior work on homes in the township’s historic districts goes through architectural review, which is worth knowing before a pre-listing facelift. Sellers in HOA communities also owe the state-required association resale certificate, ordered from the HOA, not the township.
The Pennsylvania money
Both townships sit at the standard 2% total realty transfer tax, customarily split, so the seller’s half on an $800,000 sale is $8,000. Pennsylvania withholds nothing at settlement, and long-tenured owners here routinely clear the federal exclusion, $250,000 single, $500,000 married, making improvement records worth assembling. The home-sale tax guide and the cost-to-sell guide carry the detail.
Getting started
The corridor order: a free valuation, the Concord packet assembled and the sewer question answered the week you list, or the Chadds Ford well and septic records organized, and the 55+ landing spot researched in parallel, because inventory there moves. The Delaware County downsizing guide maps the options, neighbors in Chester Heights run their own process, and the sequencing guide settles the question every Glen Mills downsizer asks first.