Transaction Coordination · Pennsylvania
Transaction Coordinator in Forest County, PA.
Precision Leverage Solutions coordinates real estate transactions in Forest County for Keller Williams agents, from ratified contract through settlement. Realty transfer tax here is 2.0%, deeds record through the Forest County Recorder of Deeds, and we handle the county and municipal steps that decide whether your file closes on time. Billed per file, no retainer.
At a glanceForest County, PA
Figures from the sections below. Confirm with the issuing office before relying on one for a live file.
What we handle on a Forest County file
Forest County lists nine municipalities on its own site, eight townships and the single borough of Tionesta, all inside one school district. The step that controls a Forest County closing is the Uniform Parcel Identifier: since January 1, 2018 almost every instrument touching real estate, mortgages included, needs a UPI from the county before the Recorder will take it, and the county allows itself three business days once the paperwork is complete. Much of what sells here is a camp or a cabin rather than a year-round house, so the file also has to deal with recreational cabin notices, on-lot sewage, and seasonal utility accounts. The Recorder publishes cash or check as its accepted forms of payment. Once your deal is ratified, PLS builds and manages the file in KW Command, tracks every deadline and contingency, routes documents for signature, and coordinates with lender, title, attorneys, and the co-op agent. See the full transaction coordination service for the complete scope, and the Pennsylvania overview for statewide notes.
Realty transfer tax in Forest County: 2.0%
Forest County is uniform at 2 percent: 1% to the Commonwealth, 0.5% to the municipality, and 0.5% to the school district. The PA DCED 2026 tax register shows 0.5% municipal and 0.5% for the Forest Area School District in all nine municipalities. When an exemption or a value other than the stated consideration is claimed, the deed travels with the REV-183 Realty Transfer Tax Statement of Value, and the Recorder's schedule lists $1.00 for an Affidavit or Statement of Value. The same schedule notes that a right of way under $100.00 carries no tax.
Recording a deed in Forest County
The Forest County Recorder of Deeds sits at 526 Elm Street, #2, Tionesta, PA 16353, 814-755-3526. The current recording fee is $74.75 for a deed, on the fee schedule currently posted on the Recorder's page (checked October 2026). This is the current posted figure; the page does not print an effective date, so confirm by phone before cutting a check on a file that has sat. A mortgage is also $74.75, a confirmatory deed or a correction or re-recorded instrument is $76.75, a satisfaction piece is $61.75, and an easement is $59.75. Every document adds $2.00 for each page over four and $0.50 for each name over four. An Affidavit or Statement of Value is $1.00. The office is on the first floor of the courthouse, open 8:00 to 4:00 Monday through Friday, and publishes cash or check as its accepted forms of payment. Deed indices from January 1, 1983 and deed images from January 1, 1997 are online through INFOCON County Access.
- Statement of Value
- UPI certification
When each one applies is explained in the requirements below.
A Uniform Parcel Identifier comes first. Forest County's UPI page says a $20.00 UPI fee is required on most real estate transactions, paid by a separate check payable to Forest County, while recording fees go on a check payable to Forest County Recorder of Deeds. The document has to carry a metes and bounds description that matches the previous deed, the county map number, and the 911 street address (or the word vacant), and the signed UPI application has to come in with it. If any item is missing the UPI request is denied, and the county assigns the number within three business days after everything is in, then forwards the document to the Recorder. Documents and UPI applications are taken 8:00 to 3:00; anything after 3:00 is processed the next business day.
Recording fees and transfer tax rates for every county we coordinate in are collected side by side on our recording fee and transfer tax reference.
What actually holds up a closing here
Every deed and mortgage needs a UPI, and the county takes up to three business days
Forest County established its Uniform Parcel Identifier system effective January 1, 2018, and the UPI application states that any deed, mortgage, or instrument affecting an interest in real estate must obtain a UPI prior to recording. The fee is $20.00 per UPI, by check payable to Forest County. The county's list of documents that need one is long: deeds including quitclaim, fiduciary and corrective deeds, installment land contracts, easements, rights of way, leases and memoranda of lease, options and rights of first refusal, mortgages and their assignments, releases and subordinations, holding tank agreements, and recreational cabin affidavits. The description must show metes and bounds matching the previous deed, include the map number, and give the 911 street address only, with no city, state, or ZIP. UPI numbers are assigned within three business days after all documentation and fees are in, and submissions are accepted 8:00 to 3:00, Monday through Friday. The county asks filers to email everything to upi@forestcountypa.gov for pre-approval first, which is the way to keep those three days from landing on closing week. The UPI desk is 814-755-3663, at 526 Elm Street, Box 1, Tionesta.
Camps sold as recreational cabins need the UCC notice in the agreement and the deed
Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code regulations exclude a recreational cabin from the code when the owner files Department of Labor and Industry form UCC-13, or qualifying proof of insurance, with the municipality and the cabin has a smoke detector, a fire extinguisher, and carbon monoxide detectors (34 Pa. Code 403.1(b)(11)). Section 403.1(c) then attaches a condition to every later sale: upon transfer of ownership, written notice must be provided in the sales agreement and the deed that the cabin is exempt from the act, may not be in conformance with the Uniform Construction Code, and is not subject to municipal regulation, and failure to give that notice renders the sale void at the purchaser's option. The statute behind the regulation, section 104(b.1) of the Pennsylvania Construction Code Act, words the same remedy as voidable at the option of the purchaser, so treat a missing notice as giving the buyer the right to undo the sale. This matters in Forest County because camps are a large share of the inventory: the county lists Recreational Cabin Affidavits among the documents that need a UPI, and Jenks Township posts the UCC-13 affidavit with its permit forms. Ask the seller at listing whether the camp was built or altered under the cabin exclusion, pull the recorded affidavit, and get the three-part notice into both the agreement of sale and the deed draft.
A deed for part of a parcel needs a recorded subdivision plan before the UPI issues
The Forest County UPI application asks whether the instrument conveys the entire parcel, and if the answer is no, an approved subdivision plan must be recorded first and its plan or map number written on the application. The form states that if a deed conveys only a portion of an existing assessed parcel, the ordinance requires an approved subdivision plan survey map number to accompany the submission, and that failure to meet the requirements results in denial of the UPI. The Recorder charges $12.00 to record a subdivision plan or a survey map. The county Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance, its 2024 amendment, the fee schedule, and the minor subdivision application are posted by the Conservation District and Planning Department, 526 Elm Street, Box 4, Tionesta, 814-755-3450. On any sale that carves off a lot, adds land to a neighbor, or uses a new description, start with Planning before the deed is drafted.
Mineral and oil and gas instruments follow their own rules at the Recorder
Forest County's UPI page states that mineral deeds do not require a UPI but do require a valid parcel description showing metes and bounds, while easements are the reverse: they do require a UPI but not a metes and bounds description. The Recorder's fee schedule keeps a separate oil and gas section: an oil and gas deed is $74.75, an oil and gas lease, memorandum, agreement, or extension is $18.50, and an assignment, amendment, release, ratification, or assignment of royalty interest is $20.50. When a sale reserves or conveys subsurface rights by a separate instrument, tell the title company early which document is which, because the two travel through the UPI desk differently and are priced differently.
Harmony Township runs a sewage management program with a three-year pumping rule
Harmony Township adopted a Sewage Management Program on June 8, 2015 by Ordinance No. 02-15, and it applies to every building served by an on-lot system, whether for permanent or seasonal use. The program requires a septic tank to be pumped at least every three years, or sooner once solids reach 75 percent of capacity, and requires a holding tank to be pumped when its warning device shows 75 percent of capacity or every five years, whichever comes first. The township's sewage management ordinance requires owners of systems that need periodic pumping to submit pumping receipts to the Township, lets an authorized agent enter and inspect any on-lot system, and bars roof drains, cellar drains, and sump pumps from discharging into the system. The Township also posts the state fact sheet on Act 537 sales contract disclosures, which says a contract for a lot with no community sewage system available, or one served by a holding tank, must carry the required advisory language or it is not enforceable by the seller against the buyer. On a West Hickory or Harmony Township listing, ask for pumping receipts and any inspection report at the start. The Township office is 814-463-7522.
Tionesta and Marienville: tenant forms, seasonal utility accounts, and lien letters
Tionesta Borough Ordinance 273, approved December 17, 2013, requires the landlord of any residential rental unit in the Borough to file a tenant registration form with the Borough, at no fee, with a fine of $100.00 to $300.00 plus attorney fees and costs for each offense. The two Borough sources give different deadlines: the ordinance text calls for the form on or before the 15th day of the last month of each calendar quarter (March, June, September, and December), while the Borough's tenant registration page says the completed form is due on or before November 30 of each year at 631 Elm Street. An investor buying a rental in the Borough inherits that filing, so ask the Borough office which schedule it is enforcing. On the Borough's posted 2025 rates, water, sewer, and trash are billed every two months, sewer is $35.32 per equivalent dwelling unit per month, and an owner away for at least 120 days can have service suspended and pay $40.00 to turn it back on, so get a final reading requested on a seasonal property. In Marienville, the Jenks Township contacts and permits page lists a lien letter request at $15, payable to Jenks Township, directly under its tax collector listing, and the Township's application for a new connection to its municipal sewer line carries a $2,000.00 tap fee and requires 48 hours notice to the Township before the final connection so the lateral can be inspected. The Tionesta Borough office is 814-755-3502 and Jenks Township is 814-927-2233.
Act 29 contact form for buyers who will not live in the property
Pennsylvania Act 29 of 2026 (HB 858, approved July 20, 2026, adding 68 Pa.C.S. Chapter 25) took effect September 18, 2026 and requires each county chief assessor to keep a contact information list for real property that is not owned and occupied by an individual as a principal residence and domicile. A purchaser of covered property must give the county assessment office the owner name, address, telephone number, and email address within 30 days of purchase, a business or limited liability company must also name a person with the authority and ability to remedy a property maintenance problem or municipal code violation, and later changes must be reported within 30 days. The Act authorizes a county fine of up to $500 for intentionally or knowingly giving false information or failing to update it. Counties are rolling out their own forms at different speeds, so on any Forest County purchase where the buyer will not occupy the property as a principal residence, ask the Assessment Office for its current form and where to send it.
Pricing
Transaction coordination in Pennsylvania is billed per file, not as a monthly retainer. Contract to close is $400 per transaction, and the full rate card including dual agency, transaction licensee, unrepresented party (FSBO or URB), and listing management is published on our pricing page. No fixed overhead, no minimum volume.
Where these figures come from
The county-level figures on this page come from the official sources listed below. Municipal fees and deadlines come from each municipality's own published schedules and ordinances, which are revised more often than they are archived. We publish what we could verify and leave out what we could not. Fees and ordinances change; if you are relying on a figure here for a live file, confirm it with the issuing office, and tell us if you find a discrepancy so we can correct the page.
- Forest County Recorder of Deeds, office information and fee schedule
- Forest County Uniform Parcel Identifier (UPI) application process
- Forest County UPI application form, revised September 17, 2026
- Forest County municipalities
- Forest County Conservation District and Planning Department
- 34 Pa. Code 403.1, Uniform Construction Code scope, recreational cabin exclusion
- Pennsylvania Construction Code Act (Act 45 of 1999), section 104(b.1), continuity of recreational cabin exclusion
- Jenks Township contacts and permits
- Jenks Township application for sewer connection
- Harmony Township Act 537 Sewage Management Program page
- Harmony Township Sewage Management Program, Ord. No. 02-15
- Harmony Township Sewage Management Ordinance
- PA DEP fact sheet, Act 537 sales contract disclosure requirements (posted by Harmony Township)
- Tionesta Borough tenant registration form page
- Tionesta Borough Ordinance No. 273
- Tionesta Borough sewer information and rates
- Tionesta Borough code enforcement
- PA DCED Municipal Statistics, 2026 tax register
- PA Department of Revenue, Realty Transfer Tax
- Pennsylvania General Assembly, House Bill 858 (Act 29 of 2026, 68 Pa.C.S. Chapter 25)
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FAQ
Forest County questions.
Do you provide transaction coordination in Forest County, PA?
Yes. Precision Leverage Solutions works exclusively with Keller Williams agents and coordinates transactions throughout Forest County and the rest of Pennsylvania, from the ratified contract through settlement. We also serve KW agents in New Jersey and Delaware. Pricing is per file with no retainer.
What is the realty transfer tax in Forest County?
Forest County is uniform at 2 percent: 1% to the Commonwealth, 0.5% to the municipality, and 0.5% to the school district. The PA DCED 2026 tax register shows 0.5% municipal and 0.5% for the Forest Area School District in all nine municipalities. When an exemption or a value other than the stated consideration is claimed, the deed travels with the REV-183 Realty Transfer Tax Statement of Value, and the Recorder's schedule lists $1.00 for an Affidavit or Statement of Value. The same schedule notes that a right of way under $100.00 carries no tax.
How much does it cost to record a deed in Forest County?
$74.75 for a deed, on the fee schedule currently posted on the Recorder's page (checked October 2026), through the Forest County Recorder of Deeds. This is the current posted figure; the page does not print an effective date, so confirm by phone before cutting a check on a file that has sat. A mortgage is also $74.75, a confirmatory deed or a correction or re-recorded instrument is $76.75, a satisfaction piece is $61.75, and an easement is $59.75. Every document adds $2.00 for each page over four and $0.50 for each name over four. An Affidavit or Statement of Value is $1.00. The office is on the first floor of the courthouse, open 8:00 to 4:00 Monday through Friday, and publishes cash or check as its accepted forms of payment. Deed indices from January 1, 1983 and deed images from January 1, 1997 are online through INFOCON County Access.
How much does a transaction coordinator cost in Forest County?
Contract-to-close coordination is $400 per transaction in Pennsylvania. Dual agency, transaction licensee service, unrepresented party coordination (FSBO or URB), multi-unit transactions, and listing management are each priced separately and published in full on our pricing page. There are no monthly fees, retainers, or minimum volume requirements.
What has to happen before a deed can be recorded in Forest County?
Forest County established its Uniform Parcel Identifier system effective January 1, 2018, and the UPI application states that any deed, mortgage, or instrument affecting an interest in real estate must obtain a UPI prior to recording. The fee is $20.00 per UPI, by check payable to Forest County. The county's list of documents that need one is long: deeds including quitclaim, fiduciary and corrective deeds, installment land contracts, easements, rights of way, leases and memoranda of lease, options and rights of first refusal, mortgages and their assignments, releases and subordinations, holding tank agreements, and recreational cabin affidavits. The description must show metes and bounds matching the previous deed, include the map number, and give the 911 street address only, with no city, state, or ZIP. UPI numbers are assigned within three business days after all documentation and fees are in, and submissions are accepted 8:00 to 3:00, Monday through Friday. The county asks filers to email everything to upi@forestcountypa.gov for pre-approval first, which is the way to keep those three days from landing on closing week. The UPI desk is 814-755-3663, at 526 Elm Street, Box 1, Tionesta.
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