Lansdowne is Delaware County’s architecture showpiece, a National Register historic district, a restored art deco theater, and blocks of Victorians and foursquares that would cost triple across the city line. The borough’s resale process is correspondingly thorough: a use and occupancy certificate required before any deed records, an application due 30 days ahead with your MLS sheet stapled to it, and a published inspection scope detailed enough to rehearse against.
The Lansdowne seller picture
Buyers are old-house people, first-time buyers chasing Center City access on the Media/Wawa line, and families trading apartment life for a wraparound porch. The stock is largely pre-1940, which is the charm and the checklist: knob-era electrical service, aging water heaters, and generations of detectors are exactly what the borough’s published scope reviews. Sellers who treat the inspection list as a pre-listing punch list tend to clear it in one visit.
The U&O: $100, 30 days, MLS sheet attached
Chapter 157 of the borough code requires the certificate before title transfers, and the property transfer permit application sets the mechanics:
- Fee: $100 per dwelling unit, so a duplex is $200, due with the application.
- Timing: the application goes to the borough at least 30 days before settlement, and it must be complete, with a copy of the MLS listing attached, or it is rejected.
- The fast lane: $75 more buys an inspection within 24 hours.
- Rental flag: the form asks whether the property will be a rental, which requires a current rental license, a separate track worth settling before the U&O is filed.
The published scope and the three easy failures
The borough’s published procedure walks the whole inspection: room conditions, exterior, the electric service cable and open panel, water heater venting, sidewalks and curbs, and smoke detectors in every sleeping area, with any detector ten years or older replaced on the spot. Three items catch the most sellers because they hide in plain sight: double-cylinder deadbolts on egress doors, which the fire marshal prohibits outright; missing covers on outlets, switches, and basement junction boxes; and sump pumps plumbed anywhere except directly outside onto grass.
The Pennsylvania money
Pennsylvania’s realty transfer tax runs 2% in the borough, customarily split, so the seller’s half on a $300,000 sale is $3,000. There is no exit withholding in Pennsylvania, and the federal exclusion shelters up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 for couples, for longtime owners. The home-sale tax guide and the cost-to-sell guide carry the full arithmetic.
Where downsizers here go
Lansdowne downsizers trading the Victorian for one floor look to the condos of Springfield and Haverford Township, the elevator buildings around Media, and the broader options in the Delaware County downsizing guide. The sequencing guide settles which move comes first.
Getting started
The Lansdowne order: a free valuation that respects what restored historic stock brings here now, the U&O application with the MLS sheet filed the week the house lists, the published scope walked with a handyman beforehand, and the $75 expedite held in reserve for calendar emergencies only. The complete downsizing guide covers everything after the closing.