Selling and Buying a mobile home is a lot easier if you are prepared.
- Make sure the home has never been moved. If you do not know how to check this, an experienced agent will be able to help you with that!
- Have your foundation inspected to see if it is up to CURRENT FHA requirements. An experienced agent will know how you can get it inspected for FREE!
- Repair or replace skirting where necessary.
- Repair or add railing if necessary. In some cases -- add a back porch!
- Check to see how you home is registered. If it is listed as personal property, complete the paperwork to claim it as real property immediately! Again, if you need help with this, call your agent!
If your home does not meet FHA lending requirements, the odds of your home selling any time soon are SLIM! The buyer will likely have to pay cash or finance through a local bank that will require 20% down and a much higher interest rate.
If your foundation needs a retrofit, the key is to know BEFORE you have an offer. NOT to find out just before closing. You may not have considered the cost when you negotiated to the sales price that you agreed to. It’s better to know in advance.
Using a lender that is experienced in mobile home loans is KEY to a successful closing. An experienced lender will have everything done, and just a few days before closing they will order the retrofit, completed just in time to close.
BUYERS: Do not let a lender tell you that doing it this way is BACKWARDS. I had one tell me this just last week. I explained that we would have the work done as soon as he had received the appraisal and survey and they both had been approved by the underwriter. I was told that this was @$$-backwards. Yes, Really!
Then, guess what, that same lender was not able to approve the buyer.
SOMEONE would have been STUCK paying for that work.
Money saving tips:
Have the foundation inspected before or immediately after listing your property. If you wait till after an offer. The lender will charge to have it inspected and again to have it reinspected if repairs were necessary.
Make repairs BEFORE they are required. Not only will you get better offers on you home, but you cannot get an FHA loan without them. If the appraiser does not approve the condition of the home he will make a list of required repairs. This alone has blown deals. Even if you can agree on who pays for the repairs, it takes time to get the repairs done and then you have to allow additional time for the appraiser to reinspect (at an additional charge!)
I know! You’re probably thinking....
But I am the seller. Those extra re-inspection fees will be the buyer’s responsibility, why should I care?
or
It is their LENDER required repairs. If they want the loan, they should pay for the repairs.
That’s are good questions. Here’s the answers:
Anything that delays a closing can also blow a deal. People are funny (buyers and sellers). Some people freak out over any little bump in the road. Do you want to sell your house or not? Trust me, mobiles are harder to sell than a stick built home. Anything that you can do to anticipate a problem and then take care of it BEFORE you have an offer is the best way to sell your mobile home!
Buyer’s are well informed. They can find out all kinds of information on the Internet and they KNOW that you will have a difficult time selling your mobile home if it cannot be FHA financed. If you will not make the repairs, some other seller will gladly do it. They know that. Besides... you will get much better offers if the home is in good repair.
There are lots of agents that do not want to list mobile homes because of all of their special needs.
I love listing ANY home as long as the seller understands and will do what is necessary to get their home sold!
After all...
I’sn’t that the goal?
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