Buying a House in Delaware? 6 Things to Check First
Part of our Delaware Retirement and Second Home Guides
By Christine Davis, Associate Broker, Active Adults Realty, Lewes. Recorded October 25, 2026. Rules and figures checked October 28, 2026.
Prefer to read? The full guide is written out below.
Six things are worth checking before you buy a home in Delaware, and none of them is about which town. Who runs your closing. What the house itself has to do. What the community fee actually covers when you are away. Whether you are on public water and sewer or a well and septic. What the realty transfer tax does at settlement. And a credit that gets missed. Every one of them has an answer you can get in writing before you make an offer.
What changes when you are making every decision yourself?
Almost nothing about the house changes. What changes is that there is no second set of eyes to catch what you missed, usually on a Saturday, usually while the kitchen has your full attention. The fix is not to be smarter. The fix is a list, and making the people whose job it is do their part of it.
If you are buying: you are looking for a house whose bills, rules and upkeep you can carry yourself. That is a question about the property, and every question below can be checked.
If you are selling: your buyer may be one person reading every page. The listings that do well put the answers where that buyer can find them: the fee, what the fee covers, water, sewer and the age of the systems.
Who runs your closing in Delaware?
A licensed Delaware attorney. It is not a custom and it is not optional. The Delaware Supreme Court held that the work of a real estate closing is the practice of law, so an attorney has to conduct the closing, supervise the money and prepare or review the documents that affect title. In many states you can settle with a title company and never sit across from a lawyer. Here you cannot.
That attorney is the one person at the table whose job is to explain the documents to you, and you choose who it is. You are not required to use the builder's attorney or the one the other side suggests. Ask who they are, ask what they charge, and ask them a question before you hire them. You are hiring, so interview.
If you are buying: pick your attorney early, before you are under contract, not in the last week while you are also booking movers.
If you are selling: the same applies on your side. A seller who already has an attorney lined up is a seller whose deal does not stall in the last ten days.
What should you ask the house while you are standing in it?
Walk the house and ask it practical questions, out loud, instead of assuming:
- Is the laundry on the same floor as the bedroom you will sleep in?
- Is there a full bathroom on the main level, or only a half bath?
- How many steps from the car to the door with your hands full, and is there a rail?
- Where is the main water shutoff, and could you find it in the dark?
- Where is the electrical panel?
One-level homes are common here and stairs with a view suit plenty of buyers too. That is your call. The point is to answer these while you are in the house.
If you are buying: walk it twice, once with the agent and once slowly with your phone, photographing the panel, the shutoff and the water heater.
If you are selling: label the shutoff, leave the manuals in a drawer, and put the age of the roof, water heater and HVAC in writing. It costs nothing and removes the objections that make a careful buyer hesitate.
What does the community fee actually cover when you are away?
Most homes for sale here now sit inside a community with an association and a fee. The question is not only what the fee costs. It is what the fee does on a Tuesday in January when you are not there. Fees vary widely and so does what they cover: some include lawn care, some the roads, some snow removal, and some little beyond the common areas.
Ask for the scope in writing for that specific community, and ask plainly: who mows the lawn, who clears the driveway and at what depth of snow, is it the association, a contractor you hire, or you? Then ask what happens if it does not get done.
If you are buying: if locking the door and leaving for three weeks matters to you, that is a service question with a written answer. Get it before you commit.
If you are selling: if your association handles the lawn and the snow, say so in plain words in the listing. Many listings give the fee and never say what it buys.
For fee ranges by community, see our guide to HOA fees in Delaware active adult communities.
Is the home on public water and sewer, or a well and septic?
This is the most Delaware question on the list. Plenty of homes in all three counties are on public water and sewer, and plenty are not, especially outside town limits. A home may have a private well, a septic system, or both. That is normal here, and it is different from a monthly utility bill: when a well pump or a septic system fails, the repair is yours.
- Find out what the home is on. Ask directly and get the answer in the written seller's disclosure, not from memory at an open house.
- If there is a septic system, look up its record. Delaware septic inspection reports are kept by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and can be searched on the DNREC website by address, owner name or parcel number.
We are real estate agents, not inspectors or engineers. Hire the inspector. What we can tell you is which questions to hand the inspector, because the inspector answers what you ask.
If you are buying: ask what the home is on, get it in writing, look up the septic record if there is one, and budget for systems you now own outright.
If you are selling: public water and sewer is a selling point most listings never mention. If you are on well and septic, have the records ready.
What does it cost to get to the settlement table?
Please read first: Active Adults Realty is a real estate brokerage. We are not accountants, tax advisors or attorneys, and nothing on this page is legal, tax or financial advice. The figures below are published state rules as of October 28, 2026. Confirm your own numbers with your settlement attorney and your tax advisor.
Delaware charges a realty transfer tax when a home changes hands, normally split between the buyer and the seller. It is a real line at settlement and it surprises people moving from states where it is smaller. Our guide Delaware realty transfer tax: who pays the 4 percent covers the rates by county and who pays what.
There is also a credit that gets missed. Delaware gives a first-time home buyer a reduction of one half of one percent in the rate the buyer pays, capped at $2,000 and applying to the first $400,000 of value. To qualify you must never have held a direct legal interest in residential real estate, anywhere, and must intend to live in the home as your principal residence within 90 days of closing. Most people moving here have owned before, so it will not apply. If you have rented for a long time, ask your settlement attorney.
If you are buying: get a written estimate of closing costs early and ask specifically about the transfer tax and whether any credit applies.
If you are selling: your share of the transfer tax comes out of your proceeds, so it belongs in your math before you set a price.
What is the one thing to take away?
Christine moved to Rehoboth Beach in 1999 after eight years in the Air Force. What she underestimated was not the house. It was how much of buying is logistics, and how much easier the logistics get when the people whose job it is do their part. The attorney explains the documents, the inspector inspects, the association tells you in writing what it does. You are allowed to ask every one of those questions twice.
Can we check one of these for a specific home?
Tell us one community or town you are looking at, and which of the six is on your mind, and we will get you the honest answer for that place, including the parts that are not flattering. New Castle, Kent or Sussex. It costs you nothing.
Active Adults Realty
1504 Savannah Road, Lewes, DE 19958
302-549-5164
Office: 302-424-1890
Contact us
Sources: Delaware Supreme Court, In re Mid-Atlantic Settlement Services, 755 A.2d 389 (Del. 2000), on the requirement that a Delaware attorney conduct a real estate closing. DNREC Division of Water, septic system inspection reports. Delaware Division of Revenue, First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit (0.5 percent reduction in the rate paid by the buyer, $2,000 maximum, first $400,000, never held a direct legal interest in residential real estate, principal residence within 90 days), read October 28, 2026. Nothing on this page is legal, tax or financial advice. Equal Housing Opportunity.