Yes, we're moving, but not far

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It's just economic reality.  A used manufactured home by itself has almost no value - the cost & risk of moving it to another lot is prohibitive and nobody finances used manufacturer homes anyway. So without including the land under it, the collateral has little value and the risk for the bank is just too great. Back when loan departments were more personal, they would have simply arranged the lien to include both the land and the home, but nobody seems to write custom contracts like that any more. I suspect if you wanted to build a new fixed house on the site they would have a standard home construction contract to do that, but mobile home financing is more like a car loan than a home mortgage.

Have you tried to get a loan on the property itself? Then use that to pay down the home purchase? Two loans, but maybe the total payment is the same.
 
Ed, we have no thought of doing what I described, it was a hypothetical situation.  In Texas, at least, there are several different types of mortgages for manufactured homes.  One is called land in lieu where the land, owned by the house buyer, is used as the down payment and the mortgage is for the full purchase price of the house.  That is what we're looking for.  The other is where the house and lot are purchased together, like a conventional home mortgage.  Only manufactured home lenders do the land in lieu it seems, the banks either don't understand them or aren't interested in offering them although their risk is the same.  They will write a loan like that for a conventional house.  Once the house is in place, we have the option of "marrying" the house and land as one property, otherwise they are treated separately for taxing purposes.  Yes, it does seem complicated, and there are pluses and minuses for each situation, depending on the individuals involved.
 
    Gary, i think the days of substandard mobiles are well behind us.  In Canada, at least, the new modular homes are extremely well built and are treated the same or better than contractor built.  Financial institutions readily provide identical financing for modular or manufacturer homes.
    The old used ones do continue to carry the problems of the past and are treated on an individual basis, and need to be appraised for financing.  However, we placed minimum standards on mobile homes several years before any US state so regulated, and that did help clean up some of the problem to which you refer.

Ed
 
Three Cheers for  Chuck and Marie!  Now who has buyers of land that accommodating?  Wow.  There is always exciting news on RVForum. 

Ned and Lorna, May your dream home come true  one way or the other!

BB
 
Financial institutions readily provide identical financing for modular or manufacturer homes.
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Not true, at least in Texas.  Credit unions will write loans for modular homes but not for manufactured homes.
 
Gary, i think the days of substandard mobiles are well behind us.
Click to expand...

I don't think I said anything about substandard, Ed. And the US and the various states have had building codes for manufactured homes for a long, long time, plus those codes/standards have been upgraded at least a couple times in the past decade. But the policies of US lenders are different for manufactured homes than for site built, both because they are movable and because they are more susceptible to storm damage.

By the way, I live in a double wide myself, one built in 1979. It is installed on my own land (in Florida) and legally considered a fixed home because it is tied down on a fixed site, but I couldn't get a home mortgage or even a home equity loan anywhere.  I suspect the lender mentality is that I could still put the axles back on, get it hitched up to a big truck and move it away!  And no lender is in the mood to loosen up on their policies and prejudices after the bath they took in recent years.  It doesn't have to be fair - it just is.
 
The big downside to manufactured (and modular) homes is they do not appreciate.  This was something we learned just this past winter.  They depreciate much like RVs.  The value in a manufactured home installation is primarily in the land.
 
Might as well invest in new tires for the motorhome . . . and the extras. If we were younger, we could go the SKP waiting list route.
 
Bob, we plan on new rear tires before we head south this fall.  Front tires were replaced in Feb. 2012.
 
One time a couple wandered into a town and asked where the SKP's were. Nobody knew about the escape from a local jail!!! ;D ;D
 
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