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 circulation environments. Some manufactured homes are set in a pit to give an attractive low profile curb appeal, much like a site built home. Others are installed above ground and some even on full basement. On the subset types, there’s not a lot of room for the configuration of the female form to navigate easily from one end of the home to the other. While trying to do the military crawl underneath, my bottom inevitably pops up and then when I try to balance out, my head often jerks up and whamm—straight into the I-beam. My male co-workers find this particularly funny and when they hear my yelps as my body parts bang and clang against metal, I hear uncontrollable laughter. Fortunately YouTube has yet to find me underneath the dank and dirty world that is the manufactured home contractor’s domain. Believe me, we see it all, spiders, snakes, rats, centipedes, scorpions, dead carcasses (cats, rats, bunnies, and yes even a coyotes) not to mention standing water, sewer leaks, falling insulation, splitting marriage lines, overextended screw jacks, shifting or compromised supports. I have yet to find any buried treasure but we frequently find several cases of empty beer cans which may be the reason many of the homes we work on seem to be set up off kilter right from the beginning. (more…)

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 home improvements, and more. You can receive free information about reverse mortgages by calling AARP at: 1-800-209-8085, toll-free. Since your home is probably your largest single investment, it’s smart to know more about reverse mortgages, and decide if one is right for you! (more…)

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 realizes that seniors have chosen to congregate in the manufactured home park setting as a retirement oasis, offering the amenities of security, recreation and a sense of community. The concentration of an active senior population in a close-knit living atmosphere naturally lends itself well to word-of-mouth advertising for the Reverse Mortgage industry. And now with the recent passage of H.R. 3221 , the housing stimulus bill signed into law on by President Bush, you can count on the numbers of manufactured home loans increasing. (more…)

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 the spreading the news about Reverse Mortgage benefits. However, the manufactured home loan presents a new set of criteria for the loan officer and loan processor as well as the borrower so be prepared ahead of time. (more…)

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 the manufactured home’s foundation. For many this becomes a crisis when the foundation fails to meet the HUD guidelines. To resolve the situation and proceed with the loan, the lender will then require an engineered upgrade, repair or a retrofit on the foundation in order to meet the HUD guidelines. (more…)

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, one in the Senate and one in the house and many think it is still slow in coming, if ever. The reason this impacts many manufactured home owners is that many homes that will be newly cleared to qualify for FHA-insured loans are located in manufactured home parks and communities. Also since a large number of parks are predominately senior communities, the FHA-insured Reverse Mortgage product holds increasing appeal to them in their retirement years. A Reverse Mortgage is a loan against a home that is not payable until the homeowner dies, sells the home or permanently moves out. Reverse Mortgages allow homeowners age 62 and older to turn the equity in their home into cash without having to move or make a monthly mortgage payment. One of its benefits to the retiree is there is no minimum credit or income requirement to qualify for a reverse mortgage—just the appraisal value of the home. Since the majority of the reverse mortgage loans are FHA insured, this bill directly impacts a large number of manufactured home owners that live in parks. (more…)

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 other words, there is a lack of continuity between what the manufacturer sends out the door and the dealer and installer delivers and sets up on the home site. While the HUD Code of 1976 established that manufactured homes had to be factory designed and engineered to federal law standards with specific electrical, heating, plumging and thermal standards as well as performance requirements for structural design, construction, fire resistance, energy efficiency and transportation from the factory to the site , the installation standards were left to the local and state jurisdictional authorities. Interestingly, in some states installation requirements are rigorous while others, lax to non-existent. (more…)

One of the most frustrating things for manufactured home owners in the last few years has been the changing emphasis on type of foundations on their understructures in order to qualify for loans. Frustrating because as of a few years ago this was not a requirement so many homeowners either bought a home or refinanced a home without the “foundation” restriction and now either they are selling or refinancing and they are finding a different lending environment. It catches many by surprise! (more…)

Many high quality manufactured home developments were first developed as rental or lease communities and later through the resident or homeowner association efforts or through owner determination, the development was converted to resident ownership. One of the most popular methods of park conversion was through a condominium plan. (more…)

Many mobile home parks and manufactured home communities began as rental parks where space rent was dictated by location, size, date of purchase and cost of living increases. It has become increasingly popular for residents to desire a greater control over their living situation and costs associated with their residences, thus converting the park to resident ownership has become a rising trend. (more…)