Where We Lend Hard Money
JDM Capital is a hard money lender making fix and flip and fix and hold loans in Philadelphia and seven surrounding counties: Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester in Pennsylvania, and Camden, Gloucester and Burlington in New Jersey. That is 339 municipalities, and we lend in all of them. Not selected towns, not selected ZIP codes. Staying inside one metro is the whole reason we can underwrite in house and close in as little as 7 days.
How lending differs across the footprint
Three things change from one municipality to the next, and all three change your numbers.
- The transfer tax rate. Most of suburban Pennsylvania is 2.0%. Philadelphia is 4.578%, which is more than double. The City of Coatesville is 3.5% and Upper Providence Township in Delaware County is 3.0%. On a $400,000 purchase the gap between the cheapest and the priciest of those is over $10,000.
- Who pays it. In Pennsylvania the transfer tax is customarily split between buyer and seller by agreement, so you feel it going in. New Jersey puts the Realty Transfer Fee on the seller at every price, so it hits your exit instead. A Pennsylvania resident selling New Jersey property also has a minimum of 2% of the gross sale price withheld at the closing table toward New Jersey income tax.
- Where you file for permits. Philadelphia has one department for the whole city. Everywhere else in the footprint you file with the individual municipality, which means 338 different offices, hours and processing times.
| Area | Municipalities | Cities | Boroughs | Townships | Realty transfer tax | Where permits are filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4.578% | City of Philadelphia L and I |
| Bucks, PA | 54 | 0 | 23 | 31 | 2.0% | Each municipality |
| Montgomery, PA | 62 | 0 | 24 | 38 | 2.0% | Each municipality |
| Delaware, PA | 49 | 1 | 27 | 21 | 2.0%, four exceptions | Each municipality |
| Chester, PA | 73 | 1 | 15 | 57 | 2.0%, two exceptions | Each municipality |
| Camden, NJ | 36 | 2 | 26 | 8 | NJ fee, seller paid | Municipal construction office |
| Gloucester, NJ | 24 | 1 | 10 | 13 | NJ fee, seller paid | Municipal construction office |
| Burlington, NJ | 40 | 3 | 6 | 31 | NJ fee, seller paid | Municipal construction office |
Scroll the table sideways to see all of it.
Philadelphia realty transfer tax is 4.578%, a 3.578% city portion plus the 1% Commonwealth portion, effective July 1, 2025 (City of Philadelphia). Suburban Pennsylvania is 2.0%, 1% state and 1% local, and the local portion can vary by municipality, so confirm yours before you rely on it (Bucks County). New Jersey charges a graduated Realty Transfer Fee paid by the seller (NJ Division of Taxation).
Three things about this footprint that catch people out
Bucks and Montgomery counties contain no cities at all
Every one of the 54 municipalities in Bucks County is a borough or a township. Same in Montgomery County, across all 62. If you are searching for the city your property is in, you will not find one. What you need for a permit is the borough or the township. In Bucks the pairs are a genuine trap. Bristol Borough and Bristol Township are two separate governments, and so are Doylestown, Newtown and New Britain, each of which exists as both a borough and a township. Filing with the wrong one costs you a week.
Half the place names people use are not municipalities
The name on the listing is often not the government you file with. Some of the most common:
- King of Prussia is a census designated place inside Upper Merion Township.
- Gladwyne, Villanova, Bryn Mawr, Wynnewood, Bala Cynwyd, Penn Valley, Merion Station and Ardmore are communities inside Lower Merion Township.
- Havertown sits inside Haverford Township.
- Newtown Square is the post office name for Newtown Township in Delaware County.
- Levittown is not a municipality at all. It spans Bristol Township, Falls Township, Middletown Township and Tullytown Borough, so two houses on the same street can answer to different governments.
In South Jersey the same problem shows up through ZIP codes. Blackwood is in Gloucester Township, which is in Camden County, not Gloucester County. Washington Township in Gloucester County has no ZIP code of its own name at all, so its residents get mail as Blackwood, Glassboro, Grenloch, Pitman, Sicklerville or Sewell. Sewell is a census designated place in Mantua Township, but the ZIP also reaches into Washington Township. Your title company will care about this even if nobody else does.
Suburban Pennsylvania is 2.0%, except in six municipalities where it is not
The standard Pennsylvania structure is 1% to the Commonwealth plus 1% shared between the municipality and the school district. Most people stop there, and most of the time they are right. But six municipalities in our footprint are confirmed to charge more locally, and on a resale the difference is real money:
| Municipality | County | Total transfer tax |
|---|---|---|
| City of Coatesville | Chester | 3.5% |
| Upper Providence Township | Delaware | 3.0% |
| Chester City | Delaware | 2.5% |
| Radnor Township | Delaware | 2.5% |
| Upper Darby Township | Delaware | 2.5% |
| Tredyffrin Township | Chester | 2.5% |
| Everywhere else in Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester | 2.0% |
Two of these will catch you out specifically. Coatesville raised its rate to 3.5% effective January 1, 2026, so any schedule published before that is wrong. And a Villanova or Bryn Mawr address can sit in Radnor Township, Delaware County at 2.5% rather than Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County at 2.0%, because those postal names straddle the county line. On a $1.5 million Main Line resale that is a $7,500 difference decided by which side of a boundary the deed falls on.
Delaware County rates per the Delaware County Recorder of Deeds, which publishes those four as its complete list of exceptions. Coatesville per City Code section 203-32 as amended by Ordinance No. 1599-2025, adopted October 27, 2025 and effective January 1, 2026. Tredyffrin per Tredyffrin Township Finance. There is no single published schedule of local transfer tax rates for all 73 Chester County municipalities, so we cannot promise this list is exhaustive there. Confirm your municipality with your title company before closing.
Above $1 million, New Jersey now charges the seller
Effective July 10, 2025, New Jersey shifted its supplemental fee on residential property over $1 million from the buyer to the seller, and made it graduated: 1% above $1,000,000, 2% above $2,000,000, 2.5% above $2,500,000, 3% above $3,000,000 and 3.5% above $3,500,000. If you are flipping into a resale over a million dollars in Camden, Gloucester or Burlington County, that is a cost that landed on your side of the table in July 2025 and did not exist there before.
There is a second New Jersey cost that catches out of state investors and it is larger than most expect. A non resident seller must make an estimated Gross Income Tax payment at closing of the greater of the gain times New Jersey's top rate, or 2% of the gross sale price. That is a floor on the price, not on the profit. Sell a $400,000 South Jersey flip through an out of state entity and roughly $8,000 goes to Trenton at recording whether or not you made a dollar, recoverable only by filing a New Jersey return.
Non resident withholding per NJ Division of Taxation Technical Bulletin TB-57(R) and the non resident sellers guidance, under N.J.S.A. 54A:8-8 through 8-10, forms GIT/REP-1, GIT/REP-3 and GIT/REP-4. Confirmed with New Jersey Realtors. Note that the NJ Division of Taxation still describes the 1% supplemental fee as purchaser paid in the controlling interest context, which is a different kind of transfer. Get your own counsel to confirm which applies to your deal before you price it.
What each area actually looks like
Every area below has its own page with municipal price data, permit practice and local closing costs. The short version is here, and the link under each one goes to the detail.
Hard money loans in Philadelphia
One consolidated city and county, and the deepest supply of rehab candidates in the footprint. The city median was $236,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025 on Kevin Gillen's index at Drexel, with ten year appreciation of 89.9%. The blocks moving fastest are the ones bordering already gentrified neighborhoods: against a citywide median assessment increase of 3%, Kensington rose 15.3%, Mantua 15% and Kingsessing 12%. Chestnut Hill is the priciest neighborhood at a $930,000 median sale price in 2025, up 23.8%. Permits run through City L and I, a zoning permit is typically required before the building permit, and review is quoted at 15 business days for one and two family alterations and 20 for other work. See hard money lender in Philadelphia.
Hard money loans in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
54 municipalities, 23 boroughs and 31 townships, no cities. The county median listing price was $546,000 in May 2026, but the range inside the county is enormous: New Hope was $1,572,500, Newtown $1,095,000 and Doylestown $795,800, while Lower Bucks carries a much deeper supply of postwar tract housing and twins around Levittown, Bristol Township and Morrisville. Upper Bucks runs to farmhouse and older village stock through Quakertown, Perkasie and the Rockhills. All five of the county's top 2025 sales cleared $4 million. See hard money lenders in Bucks County.
Hard money loans in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
62 municipalities, 24 boroughs and 38 townships, and no cities. Norristown runs under a home rule charter. This is where the high end of the whole footprint sits: Lower Merion Township contains Gladwyne, Villanova, Bryn Mawr, Wynnewood, Bala Cynwyd, Penn Valley, Merion Station and Ardmore, and the Villanova and Gladwyne ZIP codes posted 2025 medians of $1,637,500 and $1,522,500, though the Villanova ZIP straddles Delaware County. At the other end the county has substantial older borough stock in Pottstown, Lansdale and Norristown. See hard money lenders in Montgomery County.
Hard money loans in Delaware County, Pennsylvania
49 municipalities, and the only city is Chester. This is the densest rowhome and twin market outside Philadelphia itself, and it carries the widest price spread of any county we cover: Radnor Township at a $1,192,500 median in 2025 against the City of Chester at $138,500, a factor of 8.6. Upper Darby Township is the single busiest market in the whole footprint at 795 sales. Watch the name collisions here: Chester City, Chester Township and Chester Heights Borough are three different municipalities, and Chester County is a different county entirely. Full municipal price table on the hard money lenders in Delaware County.
Hard money loans in Chester County, Pennsylvania
73 municipalities, more than any other area in the footprint, and 57 of them are townships. That matters practically, because permit authority is more fragmented here than anywhere else we lend, and many townships share a base name with a directional prefix. On 2025 medians with solid sale counts the range runs from Easttown Township at $1,100,000 down to the City of Coatesville at $190,000, with Tredyffrin Township the highest volume market at 403 sales. Coatesville is the only city, and as of January 1, 2026 it is also the most expensive place in the county to transfer a deed. Full municipal price table on the hard money lenders in Chester County.
Hard money loans in Camden County, New Jersey
36 municipalities. It was 37 until Pine Valley merged into Pine Hill on January 1, 2022, so any list you find showing 37 is out of date. Two cities, Camden and Gloucester City, and an unusually high 26 boroughs. Cherry Hill Township alone contains eight census designated places, which is why a Cherry Hill address tells you less than you would expect. The older river and streetcar boroughs, Collingswood, Haddonfield, Haddon Heights, Audubon and Merchantville, are a different rehab market from the postwar townships inland. See hard money lenders in Camden County NJ.
Hard money loans in Gloucester County, New Jersey
24 municipalities, the smallest count in the footprint, with Woodbury as the only city. This is the county where mailing addresses and municipalities diverge most, so read the place name section above before you order title. Deptford, Washington and Monroe Townships carry most of the postwar volume, while Woodbury, Pitman, Glassboro and Swedesboro have the older borough stock. See hard money lenders in Gloucester County NJ.
Hard money loans in Burlington County, New Jersey
40 municipalities and geographically the largest county in New Jersey, running from the Delaware River well into the Pine Barrens. Three cities, and two naming traps worth committing to memory: Burlington City and Burlington Township are separate municipalities with separate offices, and so are Bordentown City and Bordentown Township. Two more pieces of local history that still confuse records searches: Mount Holly Township was named Northampton Township until 1931, and Willingboro Township was briefly Levittown Township, from 1959 to 1963. See hard money lenders in Burlington County NJ.
Prices in this section: Bucks from Realtor.com median listing prices for May 2026; Chester and Montgomery from Zillow Home Value Index, Chester as of May 2026 and the Montgomery ZIP figures from 2024 data, so treat the Montgomery numbers as directional; Delaware County from Zillow Home Value Index; Philadelphia city price levels from the Drexel Lindy Institute, and neighborhood assessment changes from Philadelphia Inquirer analysis published July 8, 2026. Prices move; call us for a current read on a specific block.
Why we do not lend outside this footprint
Because the things that make us useful stop being true. We can skip the appraisal because we already know what a finished rowhome sells for in Point Breeze and what a farmhouse rehab sells for in Solebury. We can close in 7 days because nobody outside the building has to be consulted. We can look at a deal another lender passed on because we have seen that block. None of that survives being spread across twelve states.
The trade off is real and it is worth stating plainly: if your deal is in Lancaster, or Allentown, or North Jersey, we are not the right call. Inside these eight areas, we will look at anything.
Where we lend, answered
Which counties does JDM Capital lend in?
Philadelphia, plus Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester counties in Pennsylvania, and Camden, Gloucester and Burlington counties in New Jersey. That is 339 municipalities and we lend in every one of them.
Do you really lend in all 339 municipalities?
Yes, with no excluded towns and no excluded ZIP codes. The municipality lists on each county page are the complete rosters, checked against each county's own government records, and the site build fails if a single municipality is missing from its page. That check exists because an unnamed town is a town we look like we do not serve.
What is the transfer tax across your footprint?
In most of suburban Pennsylvania it is 2.0%, being 1% to the Commonwealth and 1% local. Philadelphia is 4.578%. Six suburban municipalities charge more: the City of Coatesville at 3.5%, Upper Providence Township at 3.0%, and Radnor Township, Upper Darby Township, the City of Chester and Tredyffrin Township at 2.5%. New Jersey works differently and charges the seller.
Who pays the transfer cost in New Jersey?
The seller. New Jersey's Realty Transfer Fee is imposed on the grantor, which is the reverse of how Pennsylvania deals usually get negotiated, and since July 2025 the supplemental fee on sales above $1,000,000 falls on the seller too. A non resident seller also has at least 2% of the gross sale price withheld at closing.
Where do I file for a permit?
With your municipality, in all 339 of them. Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code has no county tier, so each borough or township enforces it with its own staff or a certified third party agency. New Jersey works through a local enforcing agency, except in a handful of small municipalities where the state Department of Community Affairs does it instead.
Do you lend in Delaware, New York or the Lehigh Valley?
No. If your deal is in Lancaster, Allentown, North Jersey or out of state, we are not the right call. Staying inside one metro is what lets us skip the appraisal and close in as little as 7 days, and that stops being true the moment we spread out.
Which county is my town actually in?
It catches people out constantly here. Gloucester Township and Gloucester City are both in Camden County, not Gloucester County. Blackwood is in Camden County. Marlton is Evesham Township in Burlington County. Levittown spans four separate Bucks County municipalities. Each county page carries a table mapping the common postal names to the government that actually has jurisdiction.
Deal in any of the 339? Send it over.
Address, purchase price, rehab budget and your timeline is enough to get a real answer.