Real Estate Attorneys in Central Pennsylvania

CGA Law Represents Property Owners, Realtors, Contractors, Architects, & Engineers in Real Estate Law

CGA Law Firm’s real estate attorneys practice in commercial real estate law, residential real estate law, title insurance, zoning and land use, real estate development, and commercial leasing. Our team provides clients in Pennsylvania with comprehensive knowledge and experience regarding transactions involving the acquisition, development, leasing, management, and disposition of commercial, industrial, and residential real estate, including the financing aspects of those transactions. 

Our assistance continues throughout the entire transaction, overseeing everything from negotiations to preparation of all necessary agreements and documents, including title insurance. 

Explore Our Real Estate Practice Areas

Real estate law affects almost every stage of owning, developing, and leasing property. The sections below give an overview of each area our real estate team handles, with a link to learn more about each one.

Commercial Real Estate Law

Our skilled and experienced real estate attorneys advise clients on transactions involving the acquisition, development, leasing, management, and disposition of commercial and industrial real estate, including the financing aspect of the transactions.

Residential Real Estate Law

Our real estate team provides legal representation to residential home buyers and sellers. Our experienced attorneys offer legal advice regarding the purchase and sale of single-family homes, townhomes, and condominiums. In addition, we handle many other real estate transactions, including new construction, mortgage refinances, leases, installment sales agreements, and for sale by owner (FSBO) agreements.

Real Estate Title Insurance

We also have our own title insurance company and title abstractor who can assist you regarding settlement and issuance of title insurance for residential and commercial real estate in Pennsylvania and Maryland. For a standard title insurance fee, the purchaser obtains an attorney who will represent their best interests and guide them through the entire transaction. Our attorneys with title insurance licenses include Jeffrey L. Rehmeyer II, Frank H. Countess, Larry Young, Sharon E. Myers, and Timothy J. Bupp.

Pennsylvania Zoning and Land Use

Zoning questions come up the moment a property owner wants to build, expand, or change how a property is used. Our attorneys handle zoning variances, special exceptions, conditional use applications, and appeals before local zoning hearing boards across York, Adams, and the surrounding counties.

Real Estate Development

From site acquisition through land development approval and closing on financing, our attorneys guide developers and builders through subdivision and land development requirements, development agreements, and impact fee questions under Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Planning Code.

Commercial Leasing

Whether you are a landlord or a tenant, the terms of a commercial lease shape a business relationship for years. Our attorneys draft, review, and negotiate leases for retail, office, and industrial space, and represent both landlords and tenants when disputes arise.

Landlord-Tenant Matters

Our landlord-tenant attorneys represent residential and commercial property owners and tenants in lease enforcement, evictions, and rental property disputes throughout South Central Pennsylvania.

Property Tax Assessment Appeals

When a commercial or residential property’s tax assessment does not reflect its actual value, our attorneys help clients pursue a real estate tax assessment appeal to correct the assessed value going forward.

Real Estate Closing Services in Central PA

Real estate closing services in central PA bring together every piece of a transaction, title work, loan documentation, deed preparation, and settlement, into a single coordinated process. As real estate attorneys handling both sides of the closing table, we work with buyers, sellers, lenders, and real estate agents to keep a transaction moving toward a scheduled closing date, flagging title or survey issues early enough to resolve them without delay.

Easements and Boundary Disputes

Not every real estate dispute involves a full transaction. Property lines that were surveyed decades ago, driveways shared between neighbors, and utility lines crossing private land all create the potential for disagreement long after a property changes hands. 

An easement gives one party the legal right to use a portion of another party’s land for a specific purpose, such as access to a landlocked parcel, a shared driveway, or underground utility lines, without transferring ownership of that land itself. Easements can be: 

• Created by a written agreement
• Established through long-term use under Pennsylvania’s rules for prescriptive easements
• Implied by the circumstances of how a property was originally divided

Boundary disputes typically surface when a new survey reveals that a fence, driveway, or structure does not match the property lines described in a deed, or when a neighbor’s use of land conflicts with what the record shows. These disagreements can affect a pending sale, a refinance, or simply a homeowner’s ability to build or landscape with confidence. 

Our attorneys review deeds, prior surveys, and recorded easements to determine what the record actually supports, and work toward a resolution that fits the situation, whether that means a negotiated boundary line agreement, a formal survey to settle the question, or, when necessary, a quiet title action asking a court to resolve competing claims.

Because easement and boundary questions often surface during a real estate transaction already in progress, catching them early can prevent a closing delay later. Our real estate team regularly resolves these issues both as standalone disputes and as part of a larger purchase, sale, or development matter.

CCRC and Specialized Real Estate Transactions

Some real estate transactions call for specific institutional experience. A CCRC real estate attorney, for example, advises continuing care retirement communities and similar senior living facilities on the real estate side of resident agreements, campus expansion, and facility financing, where the real estate work intersects closely with regulatory and health care considerations. Our attorneys bring this kind of specialized experience to transactions that do not fit a standard residential or commercial mold.

Real Estate Sales and Acquisitions

A real estate sales and acquisitions attorney represents buyers and sellers on both sides of a transaction, whether it involves a single residential property, a portfolio of investment properties, or a commercial parcel tied to a larger development plan. Our attorneys:

• Negotiate purchase agreements
• Review due diligence findings
• Coordinate closing logistics so that a sale proceeds on schedule and each party’s interests are protected in the final documents

Why Choose Our Central Pennsylvania Real Estate Law Firm?

As a real estate law firm serving central Pennsylvania since the late 1960s, our attorneys bring decades of combined experience across commercial, residential, zoning, development, leasing, and title matters. That breadth means a client working with one member of our real estate team has access to colleagues who handle the adjacent issues a transaction often raises, from a zoning question on a development site to a landlord-tenant dispute on an investment property.

Frequently Asked Questions

Serving Clients Across Central Pennsylvania and Maryland

Our real estate attorneys are based in York County, with additional offices in East Berlin, Hanover, Red Lion, and Gettysburg, giving clients throughout York and Adams Counties convenient access to our team. Because our attorneys are also licensed in Maryland, we regularly assist clients whose real estate holdings, businesses, or family circumstances span both states, whether that means a Maryland resident purchasing investment property in Pennsylvania or a Pennsylvania business expanding into a Maryland location.

How Our Real Estate Practice Areas Work Together

Real estate matters rarely stay confined to a single legal category, which is part of why we organize our real estate practice as a connected group of attorneys rather than isolated specialists. A developer working through a land development approval may also need zoning relief for part of a site, financing documentation for construction, and eventually a commercial lease with an anchor tenant before the project is complete. 

A homeowner selling a long-held property may run into a boundary question that surfaces during a title search, or a tax assessment that has not been updated to reflect a partial sale of the parcel. Because our attorneys handle these adjacent issues under one roof, clients are not left coordinating between separate firms or explaining the same background facts multiple times.

This connected structure also means that as new issues arise on a matter already in progress, whether a zoning appeal becomes necessary mid-development or a landlord-tenant dispute surfaces on an investment property already under our management, the attorney already familiar with the file can bring in the right colleague without starting the client relationship over.

Choosing a Real Estate Attorney in Central Pennsylvania

When evaluating real estate counsel, most clients are weighing a similar set of questions: does this firm handle my specific type of transaction regularly, does it have local relationships with the municipalities, title companies, and lenders involved, and can it handle related issues if they come up during the matter. Our combined experience across commercial and residential transactions, zoning and development, leasing, title insurance, and tax assessment appeals is built specifically to answer all three.

Meet With a Central Pennsylvania Real Estate Attorney

Whatever stage your real estate matter is at, from an early zoning question to a closing scheduled for next week, our team at CGA Law Firm is ready to help. Contact us to talk with a member of our real estate group.