Real Estate - Real Estate Investment

Mobile homes are often classified as pre or post 1976 built homes. In 1976 the Housing and Urban Development agency released a standard for quality control in mobile homes. It covered things like type of plumbing, wind resistance, fire proofing and a number of other standards that ensured that the quality was uniform throughout the mobile home industry. Consequently mobile homes post 1976 are often called manufactured homes, to indicate that they have gone through a stringent building process under regulated conditions.

Getting refinance (and original mortgages) is a lot easier if your property is a manufactured home. This is because the lending institutions know that the property is built to a certain standard and they can assess it’s value easier. They feel there is less risk with a manufactured home whereas a pre 1976 home could be built to any standard and is harder to value.

Although it is easier to refinance a manufactured home, you still need a good credit score to proceed. You would need a credit score of 640 and up. The higher the better.

Most lenders will lend up to 80% of the value of the manufactured home, although if you look around you can find lenders that go up to 95%. The repayment rate on a 95% refinance mortgage will be high though.

Other factors that influence the rate of a mobile home refinance mortgage are the size of the home and whether it is with land or is on rented land.