========Philadelphia’s City Council is weighing a proposed 1% tax on construction to raise millions of dollars for affordable-housing programs, marking the latest push by a U.S. city to address rising residential costs.The council could pass the new tax this week, setting up a possible showdown with Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney, whose administration warns the levy would hurt the city’s competitiveness as it vies to land Amazon.com Inc.’s second headquarters.Though Philadelphia has the highest poverty rate among the 10 largest U.S. cities, housing values have risen sharply in areas close to Center City, driven by an influx of professionals.

Long story short I open escrow with WFG next day they had a pre lim for me and sure enough that mortgage was no longer on there and it was only the back tax's  .. in Wa you cant transfer title without paying back tax's and excise.. 

Besides not being totally honest if you do in fact do any renovations, repairs or painting covered by EPA's RRP regs, if the EPA gets their act together and levies any of the huge fines that they can impose, that's a lot of $$$ out the window!

@Justin Reyes This is dependant upon how aggressive you are, and whether you have the skill and abilities to recoup your excise tax.

along with municipal bonds  county levi's say for parks etc etc.

Asking price: $399k.Purchase Price: $389k (concessions came off the price rather than as a closing credit that would have reduced my closing costs but saved the seller almost $1,000 in commission, excise tax and capital gains).Appraised Value $450k (appraiser verbally said $500k but limited his exposure on paper!)

LEVY FILE: Cost between $75.00 and $150.00This file provides information on each LEVY assessed against Secured Taxparcels (PTS ) in the County.

@David Faulkner  some may act that way I know many truly wealthy and they were it well.. multiple homes multiple ferraris .. jets ... all sorts of trappings of wealth.. can't paint a brush and say all mega rich run around like paupers.and not all rich are are drowing in debt.. one of my business partners who sold his garbage company to waste management for 65 million... owns every thing in cash... homes in Napa valley  Tahoe  big hunting ranches travels the world.. he does wear levi's and drive a Chevy tahoe.. but one look at wifes jewelry and you get the drift.Another of my business partner owns a few hundred unit apartment in PDX all paid for... 2 million dollar home in Honolulu .. member of Wailii  condo at Nauru tower that is vacant most the time I get to use it when I visit.. drives a Tesla I talked him into buying.. so just can't paint the picture of everyone who has a bunch of toys is drowning in debt that simply is not true.

@Levi T.

The buyer may get a slightly reduced price off the top by not bringing their own agent, but they can end up paying more in closing costs, or miss their inspection deadline/fail to negotiate any repairs, or pay the most recent mill levy for property taxes instead of last years amount (which could cost them a lot more because taxes went up a lot recently with the most recent assessment), etc.