Manufactured and Mobile Home Financing: What's Different
Financing a manufactured home differs in some fundamental ways from financing a traditional site-built home, largely driven by a distinction that isn't always obvious to first-time buyers of this kind of home: whether the home is classified as real property or personal property under the law. The real property vs. personal property distinction If a manufactured home is permanently affixed to land the owner also owns (or is purchasing together with it), and the title is converted accordingly, it can generally be financed with a traditional mortgage. If the home isn't permanently affixed to owned land, or the title remains classified as personal property (common when the home sits on leased land, such as in some manufactured home communities), it's typically financed instead with a chattel loan — a loan specifically for personal property, similar in concept to an auto loan. Why chattel loans work differently Chattel loans generally carry higher interest rates and shor...