We buy houses in York County, Pennsylvania.

York County runs from the row houses of the City of York out to Hanover, the boroughs along the Route 74 and I-83 corridors, and the farm townships toward the Susquehanna. Every one of those markets carries its own paperwork: a two percent transfer tax, a seller disclosure statute, borough rental licenses, and a Tax Claim Bureau calendar that puts real deadlines on houses with unpaid taxes. We buy York County houses for cash, as is, and we work inside all of it, so none of it is something you have to solve before you sell.

Realty transfer tax: one percent to the Commonwealth, one percent local

Pennsylvania charges a one percent realty transfer tax on the value of real estate conveyed by deed, and the Department of Revenue holds the grantor and grantee jointly liable for it. Most York County municipalities add their own one percent local transfer tax on top, split between the municipality and the school district, so the usual total in the county is two percent of the sale price. Custom in York County is a 50/50 split between buyer and seller, but that is a contract term, not a law, and it gets negotiated in every retail sale.

Both taxes are collected by the York County Recorder of Deeds at 28 East Market Street in York when the deed is recorded. When you sell to us, the seller side of the transfer tax is handled inside the closing statement by the title company, not written as a check from your pocket, and we tell you the exact figure in the written offer.

The Pennsylvania Seller Disclosure Law, and what a cash sale changes

The Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law, 68 Pa.C.S. Section 7301 through 7315, requires the seller of a residential property to give the buyer a completed property disclosure statement before an agreement of sale is signed. Selling as is does not waive it. As is means the buyer will not ask for repairs; you still have to disclose the material defects you know about, on the Commonwealth form, whether the buyer is a family on a mortgage or a cash buyer like us.

There is one exemption that matters in York County: transfers by a fiduciary in the course of administering a decedent’s estate, a guardianship, a conservatorship, or a trust are exempt from the form. An executor or administrator selling a parent’s house does not fill out the statement, though a defect the executor actually knows about still has to be disclosed. We buy from estates routinely and walk personal representatives through exactly which box applies.

What changes with us is the pressure. We are not going to use a disclosure to renegotiate. Tell us the roof leaks and the basement floods and that is priced into the number you see, and the number does not move at closing.

Inherited a York County house? The Register of Wills and Orphans’ Court

Estate administration in York County runs through the Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans’ Court at 45 North George Street, second floor, York, PA 17401 (717-771-9607). The Register opens the estate and issues the short certificate that lets an executor or administrator sign a deed. The Orphans’ Court Division of the Court of Common Pleas handles the disputes, the accountings, and the sales that need a judge’s approval.

Pennsylvania also charges an inheritance tax that Maryland does not: zero for a surviving spouse, 4.5 percent for children and other lineal heirs, 12 percent for siblings, and 15 percent for everyone else, with a five percent discount for paying within three months of death and the REV-1500 return due within nine months. Selling the house is usually what closes the estate, and it is usually what raises the cash to pay that bill. We buy houses still in administration, coordinate with the personal representative and the estate’s attorney on timing, and buy with the contents still in place. Our article on selling an inherited house in York County walks the whole sequence.

Behind on property taxes: the Tax Claim Bureau calendar

Unpaid county, municipal, and school taxes in York County end up with the York County Tax Claim Bureau, which sells delinquent parcels at an upset sale, usually in September, and at a judicial sale for anything that did not sell, usually the following spring. Both York County sales now run online through GovEase. In 2026 the judicial sale was held June 4 and the upset sale September 17, so a house on next year’s upset list has roughly a year of runway from the time the taxes go delinquent to the sale, and much less by the time the certified notices arrive.

A cash sale can close before the list is published or before the sale date, and the delinquent taxes get paid off from the proceeds at closing. That preserves the equity an upset sale would hand to a bidder. The timeline, with the notices you will receive along the way, is in our article on the York County tax sale timeline.

Renting it out? York City, Hanover, and Springettsbury each license landlords

The City of York licenses and inspects every tenant occupied residential unit under Article 1761 of its codified ordinances. The license and inspection fees are set by Council resolution rather than written into the ordinance, applications run through the city’s permits office, and an owner occupied unit is exempt while the owner lives there. Selling a licensed rental to us does not require you to bring the inspection current first.

Hanover Borough adopted Ordinance No. 2371, effective January 1, 2025, requiring annual registration of every rental unit at $35 per unit, with an owner who lives more than 40 miles outside the borough required to name a local agent. Penalties start at $100 and climb to $1,000 per offense. Springettsbury Township publishes its own permit and fee schedule for residential rentals; the township office (717-757-3521) confirms what applies to a specific parcel. Red Lion Borough requires rental registration under Chapter 11, Part 2 of its code and an annual smoke detector inspection.

We buy tenant occupied houses in all three, licensed or lapsed. The tenant, the lease, and the next inspection become ours at closing.

Foreclosure in Pennsylvania is judicial, and the sheriff sale is the deadline

Pennsylvania mortgage foreclosures go through the Court of Common Pleas. Before filing, the lender has to send the Act 91 notice, which gives you at least 30 days and tells you about the Homeowners’ Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program. After judgment, the York County Sheriff schedules the sale. A cash sale that closes before the sheriff sale date pays off the lender from the proceeds and leaves you the equity that a sale on the courthouse steps would not.