We Buy Houses in Philadelphia, PA - Sell Your Row Home As Is

No. The City of Philadelphia is coterminous to Philadelphia County, meaning the City and County share the same boundaries. The Pennsylvania Constitution abolished all county offices in Philadelphia and gave the city every function of county government, and it states that all laws applicable to the County of Philadelphia apply to the City of Philadelphia.

No. The Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer file for Pennsylvania county subdivisions lists a single record inside county 42101, Philadelphia city. A Philadelphia address sits in the city and in the county at the same time.

The City's hazard mitigation plan records that Philadelphia sits in the southeastern region of Pennsylvania, bordered by Bucks County to its north, Montgomery County to its west, Delaware County to its south, and New Jersey to its east, with the Delaware River separating the two.

The Philadelphia City Planning Commission aggregated Philadelphia neighborhoods into 18 planning analysis sections, and the current comprehensive plan, Philadelphia 2035, contains 18 District Plans giving recommendations for each section of the city. Those districts overlap with 21 police districts, 11 fire battalion districts and 48 ZIP codes.

The City records that Philadelphia's housing units are largely single unit attached homes, commonly referred to as row homes, and that this style of housing contributes to the population density and distribution in the city. A row home is bought as is in the same way as any other house here.

Yes. Census QuickFacts publishes the same July 1, 2025 population estimate of 1,574,281 for both the Philadelphia city and Philadelphia County geographies, along with the same 2020-2024 owner-occupied housing unit rate of 51.8% and the same 2020-2024 median value of owner-occupied housing units of $243,100.

Sale advice written for Pennsylvania assumes a county government sitting above a set of separate boroughs and townships. Philadelphia does not work that way, and starting from the wrong picture wastes time. The City of Philadelphia is coterminous to Philadelphia County, meaning the City and County of Philadelphia share the same boundaries. One government keeps the deed, sets the assessment, issues the permits and bills the water.

The arrangement is constitutional rather than informal. Article IX, Section 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution states that in Philadelphia all county offices are abolished, that the city shall perform all functions of county government within its area, and that all laws applicable to the County of Philadelphia apply to the City of Philadelphia. The City's own department histories date the consolidation of the City and county to 1854.

The practical effect is simple. When a form, a lender or a title company asks you for the county, the answer is Philadelphia, and it is the same office you were already dealing with. You do not need to look for a separate county recorder, a separate county assessor or a separate county treasurer, because the City performs each of those functions itself.

A county page elsewhere can list the separate towns inside the county line. Philadelphia has none to list. The Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer file of Pennsylvania county subdivisions contains exactly one record whose identifier begins with the Philadelphia County code, Philadelphia city, and it reports the same land area, water area and internal point as the county record itself, 134.325 square miles of land.

So the pages here are organized by neighborhood, which is how the city actually describes itself. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission aggregated Philadelphia neighborhoods into 18 planning analysis sections, and the City publishes those districts by name through its own enterprise mapping site, including Upper Northwest, Lower Northeast, West and River Wards. The City also publishes a neighborhoods layer and a ZIP code layer that can be checked against a single address point.

That gives a seller a way to check a claim rather than take it on faith. If a page says a house sits in a particular neighborhood, in a particular planning district and in a particular ZIP code, all three of those statements are published by the City and can be queried for one address. Use that instead of a mailing label when you are deciding which page describes your property.

The City records that Philadelphia's housing units are largely single unit attached homes, commonly referred to as row homes, and that this style contributes to the population density and distribution across the city. Attached construction changes what a condition description has to pin down: which part of the building a defect sits in, and which elevation it is on, rather than one summary covering the whole house.

None of that makes a house unsellable in its current condition. It does mean a description should be specific about where a problem sits. Water staining on a top-floor ceiling is a different conversation from water staining on a first-floor wall. A rear addition with a flat roof is a different conversation from a main roof. Write down what you have observed, where you observed it, and when you first noticed it.

Say plainly which of your observations you have verified and which you are inferring, because the two carry different weight once somebody else is reading the notes. If you already hold contractor estimates, share their dates and their scope, and say whether the price covers removing what sits underneath a finish or only replacing the finish itself. You do not need to buy a renovation plan to begin a conversation about an as-is sale.

Census QuickFacts reports 764,829 housing units in Philadelphia County as of July 1, 2025, 679,428 households for 2020-2024, an owner-occupied housing unit rate of 51.8% for 2020-2024, and a median value of owner-occupied housing units of $243,100 for the same period. The same table reports a population density of 11,936.9 people per square mile for 2020.

Those are citywide figures, and the same source publishes identical values under the Philadelphia city geography and the Philadelphia County geography, which is the consolidation showing up in the data. They describe a stock of housing. They are not a valuation of your house, and no page should present a median as an offer. Ask what assumptions sit behind any number put in front of you, including ours.

A useful way to hold them is as context for the questions you ask next. A median tells you what the middle of a very large set looks like. Your house has a specific condition, a specific title history and a specific occupancy situation, and those are what an offer is built from. Bring the specifics; let the published figures stay in the background where they belong.

Before you talk price, it is worth working through the City's own tools so the conversation starts from a shared record. The Office of Property Assessment's Property App shows a property's ownership, sales history, value and physical characteristics. Atlas, the City's public map tool, gets the history of permits, licenses and inspections at any address and covers real estate information including property values, zoning and document archives.

Note one limitation before you start: the Property Search no longer allows searches by owner name, for privacy reasons. Search by address, by city block, or by OPA account number instead. If what you find does not match your own documents, that mismatch is information rather than an obstacle, and it is better raised at the beginning of a review than during a settlement week.

Keep your own notes separate from the public record instead of editing one to match the other. The record may describe a garage while your notes explain that its door no longer operates. Your file may hold an invoice for work that no online entry reflects. List those differences plainly so the buyer and the closing professional can look into them, and so nothing is discovered late by surprise.

Have the property address ready, plus a way to reach you, a short account of condition and the timing you would prefer. If you know the OPA account number, keep it with your notes. If more than one person is named on the deed, say so at the start rather than at the end. None of this needs to be formal or complete before you call.

Decide in advance what will stay with the house and what will not, and write it down rather than leaving it to assumption on either side. If an item matters to you, it needs to be named in the agreement and not in a conversation. If you will need access after settlement to finish collecting, raise that before signing.

Then ask for the offer in writing and read all of it. What you actually receive is the price less the obligations specific to your transaction, and your closing professional is the one who can list those. Give yourself time to involve your own advisers where the decision calls for them.

It is worth being explicit about the division of work, so that no part of it rests on an unstated assumption about who is handling what. We review the property, we make an offer, and we set out the terms in writing. We do not search title, we do not certify what is owed, and we do not give you legal or tax advice about your own position.

The people who do those things are the ones the City itself names. Title insurance companies perform title searches. A certified professional should prepare a deed, and the City points to a real estate lawyer, a title company or another real estate professional. Questions about liens and judgments go to the Judgments and Liens Index Office rather than to the deed room. None of those roles are ones we occupy.

That leaves you with one job that nobody can do for you: deciding whether the terms in front of you suit your circumstances. Take the time that decision needs. Ask for the document, read it away from the conversation, and show it to an adviser of your own choosing if the amount involved or the situation warrants it. A buyer who objects to that is telling you something useful.