Manufactured home loans

Mortgage or chattel loan?

If you own the land, or are buying it with the home, it’s usually worth retitling the home as real property to reach mortgage terms.

What lenders require.

For a conventional loan through Fannie Mae, the home must

• Be built to the HUD code, with a HUD data plate or certification label (or a verification letter replacing them).
• Be at least 12 feet wide, with at least 400 square feet of finished living area.
• Sit on a permanent foundation suited to the soil and local codes, with the hitch, wheels and axles removed.
• Never have been installed at another site, apart from the dealer’s lot.
• Be classified as real property together with the land, as one unit without an accessory unit.

Occupancy

Fannie Mae finances main homes, single- or multi-width, and multi-width second homes; not rentals.

MH Advantage

Homes built to higher design standards, such as a pitched roof, garage or porch, can be appraised more like site-built homes.

FHA

FHA’s standard mortgage covers manufactured homes on a permanent foundation classified as real estate, from 3.5% down.

Appraisal

Appraisers use other manufactured home sales as comparables, so values depend on local sales.

Making the home real property, state by state.

California

With a building permit for a foundation installation, the local agency records a document with the county once the certificate of occupancy is issued, and the state registration is cancelled.

Arizona

The owner files an affidavit of affixture with the county recorder for a home permanently affixed to their land.

Florida

The owner records the original title, the land’s legal description and a sworn statement with the clerk of court, and the state retires the vehicle title.

Ohio

For a home taxed as real property, the title is surrendered to the county auditor, and the title record is made inactive.

Lenders often handle this at closing, or the title company completes it. If you already own the home, I check its title status first.

If the home is in a park or on leased land.

Chattel loans

Specialty lenders finance the home alone, with shorter terms and higher rates than a mortgage.

FHA Title I

Insured loans for a home, a lot, or both, including on a leased lot with an initial lease of at least three years and 180 days’ notice before it can end.

Conventional

Fannie Mae allows leased land only in a condo or PUD it has approved.

Resident-owned parks

In California, owners in a park converted to resident ownership can use that ownership to retitle the home as real property.

Which loan fits?

See FHA, VA and USDA loans for each program’s rules. For land with a home, see rural and acreage loans.

How we get started.

1. Tell me about the home

   Year built, size, foundation, whether it’s been moved, and the land.

2. I check the title and foundation

   Real property or chattel, and what’s needed to qualify.

3. Compare loans

   FHA, VA, USDA, conventional and chattel options, side by side.

4. Close

   Including any retitling or foundation certification.

Manufactured home loans, answered plainly.