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The town that was invented to run Delaware County
Media didn’t grow out of a mill or a crossroads. In March 1850, Pennsylvania incorporated the borough and moved the Delaware County seat here from Chester on the same day — then built the town to fit the job. The county bought four farms totaling 480 acres, plotted a street grid around a brand-new courthouse, and sold the lots at public auction. Even the name most likely marks its spot at the geographic middle of the county.
A century and three-quarters later, the 0.8-square-mile borough of about 6,000 people calls itself Everybody’s Hometown, became the first fair-trade town in the United States in 2006, and still has trolley tracks running down the middle of State Street, past a 1908 armory that now holds a Trader Joe’s. But the courthouse is still the point: every deed in Delaware County gets recorded on Front Street, and every estate in the county is probated here. If you own a house in Media, you live in the county’s paperwork capital — which cuts both ways when it’s time to sell.
The borough U&O inspection — and the state law that keeps it from stopping you
Media Borough requires a use-and-occupancy inspection whenever a property changes ownership or occupants. You schedule it through Code Enforcement (610-566-5210, ext. 249), and the borough issues a Certificate of Occupancy once the house complies with its codes — the requirement traces to Ordinance 914 and Chapter 187 of the borough code. In a town where so much of the housing stock predates World War I, that inspection produces findings more often than not.
What many Media sellers don’t know: a Pennsylvania law called the Municipal Code and Ordinance Compliance Act — tightened by Act 133 in 2016 and extended by Act 93 in 2024 — says the borough cannot use that inspection to block your settlement. After a point-of-sale inspection, the municipality must issue one of three certificates: a clear one; a temporary one, which lets the new owner move in and gives them 12 months to fix minor violations; or a temporary access certificate for houses with serious safety problems — which still lets the sale close. The borough can’t demand escrow as a condition, either.
The practical difference is who absorbs the findings list. A financed buyer’s lender and agent tend to reopen negotiations over it. When we buy, the certificate comes with the deal as-is — the repairs become our problem after closing, not your condition of sale.
Three tax bills, and every one of them went up for 2026
A Media homeowner gets three real-estate tax bills a year: the county and borough bills in February, and the Rose Tree Media School District bill in July. For 2026: Delaware County raised its millage to 4.609 mills — roughly a 19% increase — the school district is at 16.4915 mills, and the borough adds 2.00 mills. Call it just over 23 mills, about $2,310 a year for every $100,000 of assessed value, with the school district taking roughly seven of every ten dollars. Those assessed values come from the countywide reassessment a court ordered into effect in 2021.
If you’re paying that on a house nobody lives in — an estate working its way through probate, a rental sitting empty — the calendar itself is expensive. One consolation at closing: Media’s realty transfer tax is the standard 2%, half to the state and half local. Cross the borough line into Upper Providence Township and the local share alone is 2%, for 3% total.
Estate houses: sell in the town where the estate is settled
Media’s housing stock is old in a specific way. A WPA guidebook noted in 1940 that nearly all the borough’s houses had gone up since the Civil War — Victorian singles and twins from the decades when Media was a resort town of summer hotels. Houses like that get held by one family for forty or fifty years, which is why so many Media sales begin with a death in the family.
The one mercy: the Register of Wills and Orphans’ Court that handle every Delaware County estate sit right here on Front Street. An executor can open the estate, get letters, and sell the house without leaving town — and without renovating a 120-year-old house first. We buy estate houses as-is: keep the keepsakes, leave everything else, and see how a probate sale works plus the money side of selling an inherited house — the inheritance-tax and stepped-up-basis rules there are Pennsylvania-wide.
What a cash sale in Media actually looks like
One walkthrough, a written cash offer, and a closing date you choose. There’s no lender financing contingency and no appraisal to wait on, which makes the closing far more dependable than a financed sale — here’s the step-by-step. You pay no agent commissions and no fees to us, and we typically cover the standard seller-side closing costs specified in our agreement. Mortgage payoffs, liens, taxes, and agreed prorations still come out of the proceeds at closing.
Clean title can close in a few weeks; complicated title — an unprobated estate, an old municipal lien — takes longer, and we work those problems with you instead of walking away. If you’d rather weigh your options first, start with cash offer vs. listing with an agent or the complete guide to selling a house fast.
Get your Media cash offer
Tell us about the house — borough or surrounding township — and we’ll give you a real number and a straight explanation of how we got there. No obligation, and the offer is free information even if you end up listing instead. Fill out the form below or call, and we’ll take it from here.
Media Seller FAQ
Is my house actually in Media Borough?
Maybe not. ZIP 19063 covers about 23 square miles and 35,000-plus people; the borough itself is 0.8 square miles and about 6,000. A “Media, PA” mailing address often sits in Upper Providence, Nether Providence, or Middletown Township — different U&O rules, different millage, different transfer tax. Your county tax bill says which one you’re in. We buy on both sides of the line, so the answer changes the paperwork, not the offer.
Do I have to fix U&O violations before I can sell?
No. Under Pennsylvania’s Municipal Code and Ordinance Compliance Act, once the point-of-sale inspection is done the borough must issue a certificate — clear, temporary with 12 months to correct minor violations, or temporary access where there are serious safety problems — and the settlement can go forward. When you sell to us, the findings list transfers with the house and the repairs are handled after closing on our side.
How fast can I close?
Once title is clear, a few weeks is realistic. The U&O inspection and the title company’s payoff letters are usually the pacing items in Media, so we get both moving on day one. You pick the date — and if you need extra time to move out, we build it into the agreement instead of rushing you.
What does selling to you cost me?
Nothing out of pocket: no agent commissions, and no fees charged by us. At settlement the usual items come out of the proceeds — your mortgage payoff, any liens, the seller’s share of the 2% transfer tax, and prorated taxes. The number we put in writing is the number we close on unless the title search turns up something new, and if it does, we explain it before you sign anything.
Do you buy outside the borough?
Yes — throughout Delaware County: Upper Providence, Nether Providence, Middletown, Springfield, Brookhaven, Aston, Glenolden, and Chester. If the house is in the wider 19063 area rather than the borough proper, the offer works exactly the same way; only the municipal paperwork changes.