Part II of a Three Part Series
In Series Number One, we reviewed the merits of the Good Faith Estimate and its value to the borrower for transparent disclosure of facts and figures. In the Part Two, we need to address the “service” aspect of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.
When you apply for a home [...]
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REAL ESTATE SETTLEMENT PROCEDURES ACT (RESPA): Know Your Loan Ingredients!
The Manufactured Home Foundation and the Engineer’s Certification
To Cert or Not to Cert? Our Opinion—Not So Fast
I am a female manufactured home contractor specializing in manufactured home foundation repair. It’s not the most glamorous job in the world and mainly consists of crawling underneath the darkside of people’s homes, often in claustrophobic tight conditions and in poor air [...]
Financing and the Manufactured Home
Finding the right lender
Fair or unfair to manufactured home borrowers, most lenders view manufactured homes with derision. We’ve all heard the term —trailer trash—well that’s how most lenders continue to characterize the manufactured home loan. Without owning the land, the manufactured home is pigeon-holed into a high percentage rate personal property loan. [...]
Manufactured Home Loans: Facts for the Borrower
Most lenders view the manufactured home loan as a “nuisance” loan. No matter what kind of manufactured home you have (even if it has tile roof and drywall interior), you’re going to be lumped into the “trailer” category in the mind of the loan officer. This is just a “loser loan” [...]
Reverse Mortgages are Becoming Popular in America
Reverse Mortgages are becoming popular in America. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) created one of the first. HUD’s Reverse Mortgage is a federally-insured private loan, and it’s a safe plan that can give older Americans greater financial security. Many seniors use it to supplement social security, meet unexpected medical expenses, make [...]
Jump in, The Water is Fine!
Have you been sticking your nose up at the manufactured home borrower? Like it or not, with the increasing popularity of the Reverse Mortgage loan product for the mature borrower, loan officers and processors are dealing with more and more manufactured homes in their portfolios. It makes sense when one [...]
FHA Engineer’s Inspection and Certification
With the increasing popularity of the Reverse Mortgage loan product for those homeowners 62 and older, loan processors are dealing more and more with manufactured homes in their portfolios. Many seniors have chosen the manufactured home communities as a retirement refuge and the community and recreational atmosphere lend itself well to word-of-mouth referrals and [...]
Manufactured Homes and FHA-Insured Loans
What’s Holding Up your Home May also be Holding up your Loan
Know Your Foundation!
Homeowners that live in manufactured homes often face confusion and frustration at the worst possible time —at the 11th hour when they go to buy/sell or refinance their home and the lender pops up with a final condition: an engineer’s certification of [...]
What’s the deal on the FHA Modernization Bill?
What’s the deal on the FHA Modernization Bill or the FHA Expanding Homeownership Bill that is supposed to help manufactured home owners?
Speculated to have been packaged, sealed and signed by the President during the first quarter of 2008, the long-awaited, long promised FHA Expanding Homeownership/Modernization bill is still being tossed around in two different versions, [...]
HUD Code Manufactured Homes
One of the problems with manufactured housing and its perceived reliability in the mind of the consmer to withstand different weather and terrain conditions has been the disconnect between how the code requires the home to be designed and engineered in the factory and how the home is installed in the field. In [...]
