1013 Mount Tom Ln

A 1983 cabin on 5.88 wooded acres on Mount Tom above Pine Creek in Tioga County, 1,280 square feet with three bedrooms and one bath, listed at $169,900. The listing says the flooring is new throughout, that the setting is private and close to State Game Lands, and that it would suit a weekend retreat, hunting camp or year-round escape. The photos show it furnished, with a portable generator and a solar frame the listing never mentions, and a water source the listing calls a cistern where the county record says well. It sold for $140,000 in April 2023. The broker published twenty-two photos, which is fewer than we usually run; that is the whole gallery, not a shortfall on our side.

The land and setting

The listing gives 5.88 acres and lists the lot as wooded, out of town, with views and restrictive covenants. Tioga County records the same parcel at 256,133 square feet, 5.88 acres, in Shippen Township, as lot B-7 of the Mt Tom / Pine Creek subdivision, county use single family residential. The two agree.

The aerials show the cabin in a small clearing on a hardwood hillside, and the ridge views the remarks promise, across a valley of farms. The remarks say the property is close to State Game Lands.

Access is Mount Tom Lane. The listing has an HOA and restrictive covenants in its fields, and the county has the lot in a named subdivision, which together usually mean a private road maintained by a road association. Road surface, dues, and whether the lane is plowed are not listed.

The cabin

Built in 1983, 1,280 square feet on one and a half levels, cabin style, with metal and wood siding on a pillar, post and pier foundation under a metal roof. Three bedrooms and one full bath. The county record matches on the year, the size, the beds and baths and the pier foundation, and adds a renovation year of 1985.

Inside is knotty pine throughout, with plank flooring in the living room and kitchen that looks recent, which matches the remarks’ new flooring. Heating is propane and a wood stove; the photos show the stove in the corner of the living room and a propane wall heater by the door. Cooling is none.

The kitchen has oak cabinets, a range, a microwave and a refrigerator, with a pantry beside it. The bath has a toilet, a vanity and a shower behind a curtain.

Sleeping is a main-floor bedroom, a bunk room with built-in bunks, and a loft up an open stair with beds along both sides. Every room is furnished in the photos; the listing does not say what conveys.

Outside, a metal-sided shed holds a portable gasoline generator on wheels and a horizontal steel tank on a stand, and a frame of four solar panels stands beside it, wired to the shed. The listing lists no electric service, no generator, no solar and no outbuildings.

The facts

What to know before you call

The listing says cistern, the county says well. A cistern is a tank you fill, by rain catchment or by hauling, and a well is a source. The listing’s water field reads Cistern; the county’s utility record reads Well; the photos show a horizontal steel tank on a stand in the shed and no well head. Which it is decides whether the cabin has water of its own. Ask what the tank is, where the water comes from, whether there has ever been a well drilled, and whether the subdivision has a shared source that this lot draws on.

The power is a generator and four panels, and the listing does not say so. No electric service is listed anywhere. The photos show a portable gasoline generator on wheels in the shed and a frame of four small panels wired to it. The remarks call it a possible year-round escape. Ask whether there is utility power to the lot, whether the generator and panels convey, what they run, and what a winter week looks like on them.

Two structures the listing does not list. The metal shed and the solar frame appear in the photos; the listing names no outbuildings and lists parking as none. Ask whether the shed was permitted and whether it is on the assessment.

An HOA and restrictive covenants on a hunting camp. The listing’s fields say Has HOA: Yes and Restrictive Covenants, and the county puts the lot in the Mt Tom / Pine Creek subdivision. On a hillside lane that usually means a road association and a set of rules on what you can build, park or hunt. Ask for the dues, the covenants and the road agreement, and specifically whether Mount Tom Lane is plowed, because a lane that is not plowed makes a year-round escape a seasonal one.

The taxes moved twice, and Pennsylvania does not reset them at sale. The county shows about $1,700 a year through 2023, then $3,007 in 2024, then $1,673 in 2025 and 2026. Under the change, the assessment went from $62,440 to $113,460, which is what a county-wide reassessment looks like, and the bill then settled back as millage was adjusted. Pennsylvania has no sale-triggered reassessment; the bill follows the county’s roll and the millage rates. Ask the Tioga County assessment office what the 2024 figure was and whether an appeal is open.

Clean and Green is unlikely here, and worth one question. Act 319 preferential assessment carries a rollback of up to seven years of back taxes with interest when land leaves the program. This parcel is 5.88 acres, under the usual 10 acre minimum, and the county classes it residential, so enrollment is unlikely. Ask the assessment office anyway, because the answer is a phone call and the penalty is not.

The price is 21 percent over the 2023 sale. It sold for $140,000 in April 2023 after listing at $150,000, and sat on the market from June 2021 to June 2022 at $149,900 without selling. The remarks credit new flooring throughout, and the photos show it. Ask what else was done since 2023.

Everything in the photos is furnished, and nothing says it conveys. Couches, beds, the oak table, mounts on the walls, a gun cabinet by the stairs. The listing has no furnishings field. Ask what stays.

Sewer is a mound septic with no paperwork listed. A mound system is what gets built where the soil will not perc. Ask for the permit and the last inspection.

Twenty-two photos. That is the broker’s full gallery, and it covers the cabin inside and out, the shed, the panels, the firepit and the parcel from the air. What it does not show is a well head, a road sign or the lane itself.

Five days on the market. Listed September 2, 2026 with no price change yet.

You can see everything else we have listed on the properties page. At a similar price we have a knotty pine cabin on 2.5 acres near Grayling, Michigan and a 1920 log cabin with Wolf Creek in the front yard in Narrows, Virginia.

To ask about this one, call Mountain Valley Realty on 570-723-8484, ask for Kimberly Morral, and reference MLS 31728146. Tell them where you saw it.