Upper Makefield asks for no inspection and no certificate when a house sells. What it asks for instead is a paper trail: septic tanks pumped every three years with the report filed inside fifteen days, annual pumping and inspection reports in the Dolington and Taylorsville areas, and floodplain awareness along the Delaware. In a township where the average sale involves acreage, a well, and a seven-figure price, the file is the inspection.
The Upper Makefield picture
Washington Crossing, Dolington, and the River Road corridor hold stone farmhouses, custom builds, and estate lots in Council Rock schools. Inventory is scarce, buyers are often cash-heavy arrivals from New York and Princeton, and they buy documentation as much as granite: septic records, well tests, surveys, and permit history decide negotiations here.
The septic clock
The township’s on-lot rules require every septic tank pumped by a licensed hauler at least every three years, with the pumper report filed with Planning and Zoning within fifteen days. In the designated Dolington and Taylorsville areas, pumping and resident inspection reports are annual.
The river and the paperwork
- Flood zones price per property. Parts of the River Road corridor carry FEMA designations, and premiums are quoted per-house. An elevation certificate and policy history presented at listing keep the lender’s math from surprising anyone.
- New-construction disclosure is the one ordinance. Ordinance 238 requires sellers of new construction, lots, and subdivisions to disclose relevant information to buyers; resales of existing homes have no township step.
- Even the sign needs a permit. The township requires realtors to carry a $90 annual sign permit, off-premise signs are prohibited, and signs come down within ten days of settlement, a small detail that says how closely things are read here.
The Pennsylvania money
Upper Makefield sits at the standard 2% total realty transfer tax, customarily split, so the seller’s half on a $1,200,000 sale is $12,000. Pennsylvania withholds nothing at settlement, and at this township’s price points the federal exclusion, $250,000 single and $500,000 married, often does not cover the full gain for longtime owners, which makes a basis file, purchase records plus improvement receipts, worth assembling before listing. The home-sale tax guide walks through the math.
Getting started
The Upper Makefield order: a free valuation, the septic file assembled and brought current, the well tested, and the flood picture documented before the first showing. Downriver, the Lower Makefield and Yardley guide covers the township to the south, the Newtown guide the borough next door, and the Bucks County downsizing guide maps where sellers here land next.