Manufactured Home Financing Planning and Options Can Save a Bundle 

• Manufactured homes can be financed as personal property, on leased land, in a manufactured home community or on land that you own.
• If you decide to buy land for your home, the land and the home can be financed together.

Most buyers let the dealer handle the financing for them. The dealer will have relationships with lenders that understand manufactured home finance. Generally the dealer can guide you in the right direction.

You may choose to shop local lenders and get your own financing. There are some things to watch for though - Read the article at Consumers Union 'In Over Our Heads - Predatory and Fraud in Manufactured Housing' - It's great information and can be very helpful. I like to go through Lending Tree, because they serve up offers from many different lenders, and shop for the best deal, to fit your needs.

Most manufactured homes are financed using a personal property loan like a car or a boat, even when the home and the land are financed together. The home is often secured as personal property and the land as real property. Consumers who finance their home with a personal property loan (also known as a chattel mortgage) do not have foreclosure protection similar to those available for real property home mortgages.

When borrowers default on a personal property loan, the home can be repossessed like a car. Foreclosure laws offer more protection for the consumer. Although state law varies, the lender is usually required to give borrowers notice of an impending foreclosure and ample opportunity to make up the default and keep their home.

A growing number of people are opting to put their homes on land that they already own, or are buying. Traditional manufactured home lenders have created land and home financing programs to accommodate this trend.

Another growing trend is to finance your home and land together as Real Property using conventional mortgage financing obtained through a traditional mortgage lender.

Recent action by the federal government and federally backed financial institutions, such as Freddie Mac, have dramatically changed the landscape of the manufactured home loan industry. Today anyone that wants a manufactured home loan with a conventional mortgage must have a HUD compliant foundation.

Find out how much home you can afford - using HUD's Affordability Calculator, It will give you a great starting place to determine how much you can afford and how much money you will need. It will give you a comparison between VA, FHA and Conventional financing.

If you don't have a down payment, you might want to check this out - Down Payment Assistance offers down payment assistance programs for first time home buyer's as well as for those that have purchased previously. Manufactured home finance is really no different than any other kind - you just have to research and find ways to get it done.

Manufactured Home Finance for new homes: Typical terms for a new manufactured home loan will range from 5% to 10% down, with terms of 15 to 30 years, depending on your credit history.

Manufactured Home Finance for previously owned homes: Typically require 5% to 10% down, with a term of 20 years.