Prepare When Comparing Lenders

Lending on manufactured homes is a very specialized area of mortgages and lending institutions.  So often there are stories of homeowners or potential buyers starting a process with a lender because of a great sales pitch, pay for an appraisal only for the lender to say, "sorry, we don't lend on manufactured homes and didn't realize it was a manu" even though the consumer provided all the information upfront. That leads to a lot of time wasted and sometimes money lost. So first and foremost, make sure the lender doesn't just do a manufactured mortgage, but it's something they specialize is and know every detail of how to complete these unique loans.

A lot of websites and mail marketing that consumers receive, lenders advertise the lowest rate they are allowed to legally offer just to get the consumer to make a phone call or have a conversation. Then the consumer's circumstances are slightly different so the rate ends up being much higher. Interest rate is certainly going to impact how much the monthly payment is and how much interest is paid over time, but be careful getting started with lenders that just advertise much lower rates than everyone else. 

Getting the lowest rate you qualify for is certainly an important goal, but lenders that specialize in manufactured mortgages and home loans have to legally try to make that happen anyways. What is the better outcome, going with a lender that can give a 5.75%, but will take 4-5 months to close the loan, have a lot of extra expenses because of their errors and take too much time to close the loan or the lender that is at 5.875%, with a payment $11 a month higher, but the process was much more efficient and cost effective. Some people would only focus on the slightly higher payment, so make sure you think about what's best for you when getting a manufactured mortgage. 

The mortgage lender providing loans on a manufactured mortgage may have experience doing loans like this, but does the loan originator (also known as loan officer)? Like any career, people have to start from somewhere and have to make mistakes and learn lessons to get better.  A mortgage is one of the biggest financial decisions in your life, so do you want it to be trusted to someone with 1 year of experience? Probably not.  It would be similar to having a serious medical condition and settling for an intern to complete a serious medical procedure.

Ask questions about how long the loan officer has been in the industry, how long with the current company and how long they have worked on manufactured home mortgage. Ask them how well they understand the process of doing the manufactured mortgage and what they know about the home being affixed to the property, engineer's certification, permanent foundation guidelines, the importance of the date of June 15, 1976 where manufactured homes began to be in compliance with federal home construction and safety standards and HUD labels. This person will be incredibly important, so make sure they are knowledgeable and are able to efficiently get you to the finish line. 

If you need some tips about topics and questions you should ask, check how we think you should prepare to talk. If you're ready, feel free to fill out basic information at the top of this page and we will put you in contact with some experts on a manufactured mortgage.