Swarthmore is the college town Delaware County shows off: a leafy campus at the center, a walkable town square with its own co-op, and a stock of foursquares, Tudors, and Victorians that rarely stays on the market long. The borough’s resale process is as tidy as its sidewalks, a $100 per unit use and occupancy inspection with published standards, but it carries two details that surprise sellers: the MLS sheet must be attached to the application, and the inspection standards include the ground above your sewer lateral.
The Swarthmore seller picture
Buyers are faculty and staff, Media/Wawa line commuters, and families paying for the Wallingford-Swarthmore schools. The stock is overwhelmingly pre-1940, which means the inspection items are the classic century-house set: handrails, detectors, electrical covers, and exterior wear. Sellers here skew long-tenured, and the houses that clear the U&O in one visit are the ones whose owners read the published standards first, which the borough makes unusually easy to do.
The U&O: $100, MLS sheet attached
The use and occupancy application sets the mechanics:
- Fee: $100 per unit for each inspection or reinspection, per Resolution 12-2024. Note the structure: unlike towns that bundle a free reinspection, every visit here costs $100, so passing the first time has real value.
- The MLS sheet: a copy of the listing must be attached to the application, so the filing happens at listing, not before.
- Scheduling: inspections are booked by phone with the borough office.
- The standards: published for single and two family dwellings, which makes the walk-through rehearsable room by room.
The sewer lateral rule nobody expects
Resolution 2018-08 wrote the borough’s inspection standards, and the one that catches sellers is underground: the ground above the sanitary sewer lateral, the full run from the foundation to the connection at the main, must be free of sinkholes and potholes. If depressions are present, the seller has to prove the lateral is not exchanging water with the surrounding soil, typically by video inspection. The resolution also expects whoever attends the inspection to point out where the lateral runs.
The Pennsylvania money
The realty transfer tax runs 2% total in the borough, customarily split, so the seller’s half on a $550,000 sale is $5,500. Pennsylvania has no exit withholding, and the federal exclusion shelters up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 for couples, which matters here because long-tenured Swarthmore sellers often have gains that approach the married threshold. The home-sale tax guide and the cost-to-sell guide run the full numbers.
Where downsizers here go
Swarthmore downsizers who want to stay near the town center look at the borough’s small condo stock, then widen to the elevator buildings around Media, the one-floor options in Springfield and Ridley, and the wider map in the Delaware County downsizing guide. The sequencing guide settles which move comes first.
Getting started
The Swarthmore order: a free valuation that respects what restored prewar stock brings this close to the campus, the lateral located and the yard walked before anyone applies, the published standards checked room by room, and the U&O application filed with the MLS sheet the week the listing goes live. The complete downsizing guide covers everything after the sale.