FAQ

If you’re looking to get the most out of your “housing dollar,” you should consider a manufactured home. Depending on the region of the country, construction costs per square foot for a new manufactured home are up to 50 percent less than a comparable site-built home, excluding the cost of land. All manufactured homes are built to specifications and codes that require the highest standards in every aspect of construction.

A manufactured home is constructed entirely in a controlled factory environment, built to the federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, better known as the HUD Code. A site-built home is built “on-site” using traditional building techniques that meet either a local or state building code. Starting in 1976, the HUD Code established a stringent series of construction and safety standards that ensure that today’s manufactured homes are superior to “mobile homes,” the term used for factory-built homes produced prior to the HUD Code. Since then, manufactured homes are dramatically different in appearance and quality those built before 1976. Manufactured homes, like site-built homes, are now available in a variety of designs, floor plans and amenities. Today, they are often indistinguishable from site-built homes and are fully compatible with neighborhood architectural styles.

There are a variety of financing options when you buy a manufactured home. If you are buying the home and land together, some financial institutions offer traditional real estate mortgages with similar interest rates. Should you be purchasing the manufactured home separately from the land on which it will be located, the home will probably be financed as a personal property manufactured home loan, usually with a slightly higher interest rate and the down payment percentage due to the loan amounts being much lower than site built homes.