Malvern is a walkable borough with a Paoli/Thorndale Line station and a township next door that shares its zip code. The rulebooks could not be more different: Malvern Borough inspects every home sale and wants its $125 before the inspector arrives, while Willistown Township tells sellers in its own FAQ that no certificate is required at all. Which one applies to you comes down to the parcel, not the postmark.
Two rulebooks, one address
The borough is barely more than a square mile; the Malvern mailing address covers many times that. Sellers in the borough follow the U&O process below. Sellers in Willistown, and in the East Whiteland and Charlestown corners of the zip code, skip the municipal step entirely. Confirm your municipality on the county parcel record first, because ordering the wrong paperwork wastes weeks.
The Malvern Borough process
The borough FAQ requires a certificate of occupancy for all home sales, and the residential U&O application sets the terms:
- 01Apply and pay first. $125, which includes the initial inspection and one reinspection. The application is explicit that fees are not accepted at the time of inspection, no exceptions, so the check goes in before anything gets scheduled.
- 02Inspection to the 2015 IPMC. Life-safety and maintenance items: alarms, railings, stairs, exterior condition, plumbing and heat.
- 03Reinspection if needed. The first follow-up is covered; each visit after that is $75. Fixing the obvious items before the first visit keeps you at $125 total.
The Willistown side
Willistown’s FAQ answers the resale question in one line: no certificate of occupancy is required for the sale of a residential property. The township’s horse-country lots, Radnor Hunt estates, and the newer carriage-home communities all close on the standard Pennsylvania paper trail. The practical work shifts entirely to the buyer’s inspection, and on larger Willistown properties that means wells, septic systems, and outbuildings get the scrutiny a borough inspector never would have given them.
The Pennsylvania money
Both municipalities sit at the standard 2% total realty transfer tax, customarily split, so the seller’s half on a $700,000 sale is $7,000. Pennsylvania withholds nothing at settlement. Long-tenured owners on the Willistown side in particular should run the federal exclusion math, $250,000 single, $500,000 married, because decades of Chester County appreciation clears those thresholds routinely. The home-sale tax guide and the cost-to-sell guide carry the detail.
Where downsizers here go
The borough itself is the destination for many Willistown downsizers, a walkable main street and train access without the acreage. Others look at the townhouse stock in Easttown and East Goshen, including Hershey’s Mill, or the continuing care campuses along Routes 30 and 352. The Chester County downsizing guide maps the full set, and the sequencing guide handles the order of operations.
Getting started
First, confirm the parcel: borough or township. Then a free valuation that prices your side of the line correctly, the Malvern application filed early if it applies, and the house walked against the IPMC basics before anyone official sees it. The complete downsizing guide covers everything after that.