I am looking at a listing for a new house in Philadelphia, P.A. which states that some major plumbing repairs are needed. If I purchase the house a can I perform the plumbing work myself or do I have to hire a license contractor.
"Major plumbing repairs" is a rather ambigious statment. What exactly are the major repairs needed? Also who is mandateing the repairs and for what reason? Is HUD the one requireing the repairs in order to approve you to borrow the money to buy the house? Or is the city involved?
Let's speculate that the major repair is a new water heater. If it was OK with HUD you could buy the house and agree to sign off on any issue after the sale withholding enough funds in escrow to insure compliance.
Now let's assume that the drain pipe has failed between the house and the sewer, and they require a plumber to do the work. A really big part of the job is digging the trench required to fix the pipe, and to my way of thinking it does not require a permit to dig a hole, so you can save yourself mega bucks by digging the hole your self and just have the plumber do the pipe connections.
One thing I forsee as a problem is city permits if you are not yet the owner. Often an owner can obtain a permit to do his own work, but if the work needs to be completed prior to the sale then you as the buyer can't get the permit.