Today’s buyer of a new or existing manufactured home may choose from a wide array of financing options. Some financial institutions offer a virtual menu of lending programs. The house can be financed as personal property, on leased land, in a manufactured home community or on a privately-owned site. Buyers who desire to acquire land in conjunction with the home can finance the land and home together. When properly financed, the purchase of a manufactured home will build equity for the homeowner.

Most buyers arrange financing for manufactured homes through the retailer from whom they buy their home. These retailers often maintain business relationships with a number of lending institutions – large national lenders as well as local institutions – and can assist in the preparation and submission of a credit application. Customers also may shop independently for financing with a lender of their choice.
 

Many manufactured homes are financed as personal property. In cases where the home and land are financed together, the home is often secured as personal property and the land as real property. A growing number of buyers are opting to put their manufactured home on land they buy or already own. Traditional manufactured home personal-property lenders have created land-and-home financing programs designed to accommodate this trend.

Another growing trend for homebuyers is to finance their home and land together as real property using conventional mortgage financing obtained through a traditional mortgage lender. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the major secondary market sources for mortgage loans in the U.S., accept real estate mortgage loans with 20-and 30-year terms secured by manufactured homes.