Selling a House As Is in PA: Save $9,310 in 2026
In Pennsylvania, as is means no repairs, not no disclosure. Here is what the law still requires, the transfer tax math, and what a listing costs.
Contents
Selling a house as is in PA means you won’t make repairs or give repair credits. It does not cancel your duty to disclose known defects. I’ll cover what the clause changes and what Pennsylvania law requires. The money comes next: when a cash offer wins, and how to save $9,310 on a 2026 sale at the state median.
What selling a house as is in PA actually means
In a Pennsylvania agreement of sale, “as is” is a repair position. You are telling the buyer you won’t fix what the inspection finds, and you won’t pay them to fix it either. That is the whole clause. It is not a waiver, and it is not a shield.
Most as-is guides skip the part that matters. Pennsylvania’s mandated disclosure form, at 49 Pa. Code § 35.335a, already has the buyer acknowledging that “unless stated otherwise in the sales contract, the buyer is purchasing this property in its present condition.”1 The same form says it “is the buyer’s responsibility to satisfy himself or herself as to the condition of the property.”1
Read that again. The Commonwealth already hands every seller a present-condition sale by default. An as-is clause restates it inside the contract. What it changes is your posture when the inspection report lands: you can say no to the repair list. What it never changes is your duty to tell the buyer about the problems you know about.
So selling a house as is in PA is a repair position, not a legal one.
I’ve watched sellers pay an attorney to draft an as-is addendum they already owned, then treat it like a moat. The moat isn’t there. If the roof leaks and you knew, the clause won’t save you, and the fee you paid for it is gone. I made the national version of this argument in my guide to selling a house as is. Pennsylvania’s forms make the point sharper.
Your disclosure duty survives an as-is sale
Pennsylvania’s Seller Disclosure Law lives at 68 Pa.C.S. Chapter 73. Section 7303 says any seller who transfers real property “shall disclose to the buyer any material defects with the property known to the seller” on a statement that meets the statute.2 A signed, dated copy has to reach the buyer “prior to the signing of an agreement of transfer.”2 Selling a house as is in PA does not move that deadline by a day.
The form itself is blunt. “A seller must disclose to a buyer all known material defects about property being sold that are not readily observable.”1 Then the line that ends the shield theory: “This statement does not relieve the seller of the obligation to disclose a material defect that may not be addressed on this form.”1
What counts as a material defect? The form defines it as a problem “that would have a significant adverse impact on the value of the residential real property or that involves an unreasonable risk to people on the land.”1 Then a carve-out that helps you. A system “near, at or beyond the end of its normal useful life is not by itself a material defect.”1 An old furnace is not a defect. A furnace you know is cracked is.
Two more sections matter to an as-is seller. Section 7308 says you are not required to investigate or hire anyone to complete the form, but you “shall not fail to disclose a known material defect.”2 Section 7307 says that if something you disclosed becomes inaccurate before settlement, you notify the buyer.2 A pipe bursts after you sign the form? You update it. You don’t sit on it.
Now the part that turns the form from exposure into protection. Section 7314 says a buyer has no cause of action under the chapter for “material defects to the property disclosed to the buyer prior to the signing.”2 A defect you wrote down is a defect the buyer accepted. A defect you hid is the one that comes back, and section 7311 gives the buyer actual damages plus two years after settlement to file.2
I’d rather you over-disclose and lose one nervous buyer than under-disclose and meet the next one in court. The nervous buyer costs you a few weeks. The lawsuit costs you the equity you were trying to keep. Fill the form out, date it, keep a copy, and deliver it before anyone signs.
When the cash offer beats listing
An as-is listing narrows your buyer pool. I’m going to say that without hedging, because most flat fee pages won’t.
A financed buyer’s lender and appraiser can attach conditions to a house with active defects. A failed roof, structural movement, or an unpermitted addition can mean the buyer who wants the house can’t get a loan on it. That deal dies late, after you’ve taken the house off the market. You start over or you take less.
So there are houses where the investor’s cash offer is the better outcome, even though HomeRise makes nothing on it. I would take the cash if the roof has failed and I can’t float the payments through a 60-day listing. Same answer for structural movement I can’t put right before a lender sees it. And if I’d already moved and couldn’t carry two places, I’d sign the investor’s contract and not apologize. Those are real cases, and the pros and cons of an as-is FSBO sale cut both ways.
This article is written for the other house. Ordinary wear, known defects you can write down, and enough time for buyers to find it. For that seller, selling a house as is in PA on the open market beats every cash offer I’ve seen. The investor’s discount is the one number nobody puts in writing until you’ve already said yes.
What listing as is costs at the $330,000 median
The Pennsylvania Association of Realtors put the July 2026 median sales price at $330,000, down 3% from June’s all-time high of $340,000 and up 4.7% from a year earlier.4 That is the number I use, not the national one. For scale, NAR’s July median for the whole country was $434,100.5 A Pennsylvania seller works with a smaller number and has less room to give away.
At $330,000, a 3% listing-side commission is $9,900 and a 2.5% commission is $8,250. The HomeRise Essentials plan is $95 to list plus $495 at closing, charged only if the home sells, so $590 in total. The gap is $9,310 against 3% and $7,660 against 2.5%.
| Option | Cost | Kept vs. 3% |
|---|---|---|
| 3% listing agent | $9,900 | $0 |
| 2.5% listing agent | $8,250 | $1,650 |
| Flat fee, $95 + $495 | $590 | $9,310 |
That gap is the listing side only. A buyer’s agent fee, if you offer one, is a separate line and still yours to decide. A flat fee MLS listing puts an as-is house in front of the same agents and buyers a full-commission listing reaches. It is the same feed. In Pittsburgh that feed is West Penn Multi-List, the Pittsburgh-area MLS.11 The Pittsburgh flat fee MLS page covers what a listing includes there, and the Pennsylvania page covers the rest of the state.
I’d list as is on the MLS before I took a cash haircut on a house that can still be financed. The for sale by owner route means you run the showings and the negotiation, and some sellers hate that. Fine. But the commission gap is a published number, and the investor’s discount is not. Keep the one you can see.
Pittsburgh transfer tax, recording, and the deed
Transfer tax is the line that can move more than the commission. Pennsylvania charges 1% of the value transferred, and the Department of Revenue says “both grantor and grantee are held jointly and severally liable for payment of the tax.”6 The law does not assign it to either side. It is negotiable, and it belongs on your net sheet before you pick a price.
Allegheny County collects the state’s 1% along with the local share, and it says the combined rate “ranges from 2%-5% of the total consideration.”7 The City of Pittsburgh has applied the full 5% to residential deeds since February 1, 2020.7 Its rate table breaks that into 3% for the city and 1% for the Pittsburgh School District, plus the Commonwealth’s 1%.8
| Municipality | Local rate | Total rate | On $330,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pittsburgh | 4% | 5% | $16,500 |
| Penn Hills | 2% | 3% | $9,900 |
| Mt. Lebanon | 1.5% | 2.5% | $8,250 |
| Bethel Park | 1.5% | 2.5% | $8,250 |
| Dormont | 1% | 2% | $6,600 |
| Ross Township | 1% | 2% | $6,600 |
The same $330,000 house owes $16,500 in transfer tax inside the city and $6,600 in Dormont. That $9,900 swing is the whole 3% listing commission, and a municipal line decides it. Split 50/50, the Pittsburgh seller’s half is $8,250 and the Dormont seller’s half is $3,300. I would not set a list price until I knew which side of that line the house sits on. Guess wrong and you erase the commission you just saved.
Then the paperwork the as-is clause does nothing about. The completed disclosure statement has to reach the buyer before the agreement of sale is signed.3 You still need a deed. In Allegheny County, recording it costs $200 under the fee schedule effective January 1, 2026, paid by money order, business check, or cash.9 The office does not take personal checks or cards.9 Transfer tax goes on a separate check from the recording fee.7 Selling a house as is in PA doesn’t change one line of this.
Allegheny also requires a Certificate of Residence with every deed, or the same information inside the deed itself. That means a typed tax mailing address and owner mailing address, with zip codes, and a P.O. Box if that is where the mail actually goes.10 I’ve seen a deed bounce over a bad mailing address, and it cost that seller a closing date. The rest of the paperwork for selling a house by owner is whatever the agreement and the title company ask for. Those two get missed.
As is tells the buyer what you won’t fix. The disclosure form tells them what you know. Only one of those protects you.
So the order is short. Fill out the disclosure statement first, and write down every defect you know about. Find out which municipality the house is in and put the transfer tax on the net sheet. Then decide. If the house can be financed, list it on West Penn Multi-List for $95 and keep the $9,310. If it can’t, take the cash and don’t apologize. That’s the whole playbook for selling a house as is in PA.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does selling a house as is in PA get you out of the seller’s disclosure statement?
No, it does not. Section 7303 of the Seller Disclosure Law still requires you to disclose every known material defect on the state form and deliver it before the agreement of sale is signed. Selling a house as is in PA changes your repair position and nothing else.
Can I sell a house as is in Pennsylvania without a real estate agent?
Yes. Nothing in the disclosure law requires a listing agent, so selling a house as is in PA by owner is legal. You still produce the disclosure statement and the deed, and a flat fee MLS listing gets the house onto West Penn Multi-List without hiring one.
What does selling a house as is in PA actually change in the agreement of sale?
It changes your repair posture: you will not make repairs or give repair credits after the inspection. It does not change your duty to disclose known material defects. Pennsylvania’s mandated form already has the buyer purchasing the property in its present condition unless the contract says otherwise.
How much transfer tax will I pay selling a house in Pittsburgh?
Inside the City of Pittsburgh the combined rate is 5%: 3% city, 1% Pittsburgh School District, and 1% Commonwealth. On a $330,000 sale that is $16,500. Grantor and grantee are jointly and severally liable, so who pays what is negotiated in the agreement of sale.
If I sold as is, do I have to fix what the buyer’s home inspection finds?
No, and that is the one real benefit of selling a house as is in PA. The buyer may still inspect at their own expense, and they may still walk. A financed buyer’s lender can still attach conditions, so a defect that blocks a loan is worth knowing about before you list.
Can a buyer sue me after selling a house as is in PA?
Only over a defect you knew about and did not disclose. Section 7314 bars a claim for defects disclosed before signing, and section 7311 limits damages to the buyer’s actual losses, with a two-year window after settlement to file. A completed, dated disclosure statement is your defense.
Sources
- 49 Pa. Code § 35.335a, Seller’s Property Disclosure Statement
- 68 Pa.C.S. Chapter 73, Seller Disclosures (Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law)
- 49 Pa. Code § 35.284a, Disclosures of material defects
- Pennsylvania Association of Realtors, Pennsylvania Home Sales Show Seasonal Decline in July, August 21, 2026
- National Association of REALTORS, Existing-Home Sales Report, August 11, 2026
- Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Realty Transfer Tax
- Allegheny County, Realty Transfer Taxes
- Allegheny County, Local Realty Transfer Tax Rates
- Allegheny County Division of Real Estate, Recording Fees effective January 1, 2026 (PDF)
- Allegheny County, Certificate of Residence
- West Penn Multi-List, Inc.
