Adams County is Gettysburg, the boroughs strung along Route 30 and Route 94 toward Hanover, and orchard country in between. It is a smaller market than York, about 104,000 people at the 2020 Census, and the rules a seller runs into are the same Pennsylvania rules with the county’s own offices and dates attached: a two percent transfer tax, the Adams County Register of Wills, a Tax Claim Bureau that holds its upset sale each September, and a Gettysburg rental license that gets re-inspected every time a rental changes hands. We buy Adams County houses for cash, as is, in all of it.
Transfer tax and the Adams County Recorder of Deeds
The Commonwealth’s one percent realty transfer tax applies in Adams County exactly as it does in York. No Adams County municipality appears on the title industry’s list of local rates above the standard one percent, so the working total is two percent of the price, collected by the Adams County Recorder of Deeds when the deed is recorded. Custom is a 50/50 split, and in our purchases the seller half is settled inside the closing statement rather than from your pocket.
Estates: the Register of Wills on Baltimore Street
The Adams County Register of Wills sits at 117 Baltimore Street, Room 102, Gettysburg, PA 17325 (717-337-9826), with the Clerk of Orphans’ Court in Room 103 (717-337-9806). The Register opens the estate and issues the short certificate the executor needs to sign a deed. Pennsylvania inheritance tax applies: zero for a spouse, 4.5 percent for children and lineal heirs, 12 percent for siblings, 15 percent for others, with a five percent discount if paid within three months and the return due within nine. A transfer by the estate’s fiduciary is exempt from the Seller Disclosure Law form, though known defects still have to be disclosed.
Tax Claim Bureau: the September upset sale
The Adams County Tax Claim Bureau (Courthouse, Room 202) holds its upset sale in September; the 2026 sale was September 25 at 525 Boyd’s School Road, with the list published the last Friday in July and bidder pre-registration closing ten days before the sale. Properties that do not sell go to a judicial sale, which in 2026 ran online on Bid4Assets in January. If you own a house that is two years behind, a cash closing before the July list is the clean way out, and the delinquent taxes are paid from the proceeds.
Gettysburg and Littlestown rental rules
Gettysburg Borough’s Regulated Rental Unit Occupancy program charges a $40 annual license fee and an $80 per unit inspection at the start of the program, every three years after that, and on any change of ownership, with a $100 reinspection fee if the unit fails. That change of ownership inspection is the piece landlords miss: selling a Gettysburg rental triggers it for the new owner. When the new owner is us, we schedule it and you do not.
Littlestown Borough runs a rental registry under Chapter 348 of its code and requires occupant changes to be reported within ten business days. New Oxford and McSherrystown had no rental ordinance we could locate at the time of writing; confirm with the borough office before assuming either way.
Hanover sits on the county line
Hanover Borough is York County, but McSherrystown, Conewago Township, and the west side of the Hanover market are Adams County, and the same crews and the same buyers work both sides. If your house is in Hanover proper, the rules on our York County page apply, including the borough’s $35 per unit rental registration under Ordinance 2371.
Adams County seller questions
- Do you buy houses in Gettysburg PA for cash?
- Yes. Gettysburg, the boroughs along Route 30 and Route 94, and the townships between. We buy as is, with contents in place, and the borough’s change of ownership rental inspection becomes our job after closing if the house is a rental.
- Can I sell an inherited house in Adams County before the estate closes?
- Usually, yes. Once the Register of Wills issues the short certificate, the executor or administrator can sign an agreement of sale and a deed. The inheritance tax return and the estate accounting continue on their own schedule, and the sale proceeds are what typically pay the tax.
- What if my Adams County house is on the upset sale list?
- Call before the sale date. A cash closing pays the delinquent taxes from the proceeds and takes the parcel off the list. After the sale, your options narrow to redemption rules that Pennsylvania does not offer for most upset sale purchases, so timing matters.
Get a written cash offer on your Adams County house.
Gettysburg, Littlestown, New Oxford, McSherrystown, East Berlin, or anywhere in the county. Address and situation in, written number out, usually within a day.
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