Rental management in Greater Philadelphia

The collar counties are where most Pennsylvania owners actually live, and they are the part of the state least well served by rental advice, because nothing about them looks like a holiday market. Delaware, Bucks, Montgomery and Chester counties let for practical reasons: somebody has business here, or family, or a hospital appointment.

That is a better market than it sounds. Practical demand is steadier than leisure demand, the guests are easier, and the stays are longer. What it is not is the market a national guide describes.

What kind of letting is this?

Longer stays, weekday-weighted, and driven by the Philadelphia orbit rather than by anything local. Guests are usually trading city prices for suburban ones and know exactly why they chose you.

Two things follow. First, the listing has to be concrete about transport, parking and journey times, because those are the terms of the trade the guest is making. Second, the changeover load is low, which pushes the sensible management answer toward the lighter tiers.

The towns, one by one

Each of these has its own municipality, its own rules and its own reason people book there. The link under each takes you to the town-level company comparison on our management pick's site.

Chester

Delaware County's riverfront city carries a soccer stadium, a university and a working port frontage, which between them produce match nights, term-time visitors and contract work.

Bookings here cluster around events rather than seasons, and a listing that names the walk to the stadium and the parking arrangement will out-earn one that talks about the river. Compare management companies in Chester.

Worth checking here: whether your parcel is inside the city of Chester or one of the surrounding Delaware County townships, because the two answer to different codes.

Levittown

The postwar Bucks County development sits between two employment centres and two state lines' worth of commuting, with Philadelphia south-west and Trenton just across the Delaware.

Demand is practical and long: contractors, relocating families and people between houses. Minimum stays of a week or more suit the stock better than a two-night turnover pattern. Compare management companies in Levittown.

Worth checking here: which of the four Bucks County municipalities Levittown spans your address actually sits in — the name is a development, not a borough.

Pottstown

A Schuylkill River town at the northern edge of Montgomery County, close enough to the Philadelphia orbit to catch its overflow and far enough out to price differently.

The river trail and the surrounding countryside bring weekend visitors; the industrial and healthcare employers bring weekday ones. Neither group alone fills a calendar. Compare management companies in Pottstown.

Worth checking here: the borough's rental registration position, and whether the zoning district permits transient occupancy at your address.

Phoenixville

A former iron town in Chester County whose main street has been genuinely revived, which makes it one of the few places in the collar counties people visit on purpose.

That gives it something most commuter towns lack: a reason for a leisure booking. Walkability to the restaurants and the theatre is the thing worth saying in the first line of a listing. Compare management companies in Phoenixville.

Worth checking here: parking rules on your street during evenings and weekends, since walkability to the centre is the thing you are selling.

Montgomeryville

The retail crossroads where Route 202 meets Route 309, surrounded by corporate offices and the kind of employers who fly people in for a week at a time.

There is no tourism here and there does not need to be. Parking, a desk and a kitchen are worth more than any amount of styling, and stays skew long. Compare management companies in Montgomeryville.

Worth checking here: which township you are in — Montgomeryville is a community inside Montgomery Township, not a municipality of its own.

Roslyn

A small Abington Township community on the northern edge of Philadelphia, close to the regional rail and to the hospitals along the Old York Road corridor.

Guests are usually visiting somebody or something specific nearby. Check the township's rules rather than the city's — the postal address misleads people constantly. Compare management companies in Roslyn.

Worth checking here: Abington Township's rules rather than Philadelphia's, whatever the postal address suggests.

What should a Greater Philadelphia owner buy?

Software if you are local, the partner tier if you are not. Full service is priced for concentrated changeover, and there is none of that here.

Run the test honestly: count your changeovers in a typical month. Under six, and a full-service percentage is buying capacity that will sit idle. The exception is an owner living out of state, where somebody has to hold the keys regardless of how light the work is.

Mistakes owners make in the collar counties

• Asking the city about a township property because the postal address says Philadelphia.
• Marketing to tourists in a market that books for practical reasons.
• Being vague about the station and the parking, which are the two facts the guest is choosing on.
• Buying full service for a property that turns over four times a month.

Is a collar-county property worth letting at all?

Yes, if you treat it as a service business rather than a holiday one. The guests are visiting a hospital, a courthouse or an employer, they book longer than leisure guests and they complain less. What they will not tolerate is vagueness about parking, transport and what the neighbourhood is actually like at night.

Do the same Pennsylvania rules apply across this region?

The tax rules do; the permission rules do not. The Commonwealth's 6% hotel occupancy tax on stays under 30 days applies identically in every town above. Whether you may let at all is decided municipality by municipality, and the boundary is often a road.

Where do I read the tax rule in full?

On our Pennsylvania hotel occupancy tax page, which covers Act 109 of 2018, the two licences, and the single most common compliance gap in the state — the first direct booking. The town directory lists every other place we cover, and our management ranking scores eighteen companies against the criteria on this site.