Four boroughs share the Langhorne mailing address and Neshaminy schools, and almost nothing else. Langhorne Borough wants four certifications with its $100 inspection. Langhorne Manor adds termite paperwork and bans exposed asbestos. Penndel requires a radon test unless the buyer signs away the right to one. Hulmeville asks for nothing. The deciding factor is the borough line, and plenty of sellers do not know which side of it they live on until the title work says so.
The four-borough picture
These are walkable, older boroughs wedged between Middletown Township’s Langhorne sprawl and Route 1: historic blocks in Langhorne Borough, quiet streets in the Manor, starter homes in Penndel, and a few hundred houses in Hulmeville along the Neshaminy Creek. The housing stock is pre-war more often than not, which is why the certifications below exist and why buyers here expect them.
Langhorne Borough: four certifications
The borough’s $100 inspection comes with heater, chimney, electric, and fire certifications for any sale. The checklist favors function: windows that stay open on their own, thumb latches instead of key deadbolts on exit doors, covered outlets, and handrails at three or more risers.
Langhorne Manor and Penndel: the long lists
- Langhorne Manor: $150 and thorough. The borough wants chimney, termite, sewer, and heater certifications, an emergency heater switch at the top of the basement stairs, old cesspools filled in, and no exposed asbestos anywhere.
- Penndel: the radon borough. The $80 inspection travels with a sewer lateral inspection, $35 sewer and $35 trash certifications, chimney, heater, and termite paperwork, and radon testing unless the buyer waives it in writing, with the waiver filed at the zoning office.
- Hulmeville: nothing at resale. The borough runs no residential resale inspection; the fire marshal only visits rentals.
The Pennsylvania money
All four boroughs sit at the standard 2% total realty transfer tax, customarily split, so the seller’s half on a $400,000 sale is $4,000. Pennsylvania withholds nothing at settlement, and the federal exclusion, $250,000 single and $500,000 married, covers most owner-occupants here entirely. The home-sale tax guide and the cost-to-sell guide carry the detail.
Getting started
The Langhorne order: a free valuation, the borough confirmed against the deed before anything is scheduled, and the certifications ordered at listing, since chimney and electrical contractors book out. Surrounding the boroughs, the Middletown Township guide covers the township that wraps around all four, and the Bucks County downsizing guide maps where sellers here land next.