Manufactured Home Appraisals

Manufactured homes are often far less expensive than traditional site-built residences. They are especially appealing to newly formed families and retirees wishing to downsize. They are only supposed to be relocated once. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose a location before buying a manufactured home. There are two options available to you: leasing a lot in a community of manufactured homes or purchasing or renting a piece of land.

Triangle Appraisal Group (TAG) can provide you with the necessary assistance and guidance should you consider investing in manufactured homes. They have local and regional experience in the real estate market and specialize in the assessment of unique homes such as manufactured homes.

Overview of Manufactured Homes

Prefabricated housing known as manufactured housing, or mobile homes as they are more generally called in the United States, are mostly put together in factories before being shipped to the location of use. Federal law (Code of Federal Regulations, 24 CFR 3280) governs the definition of the phrase in the United States: “Manufactured homes are constructed as dwelling units of at least 320 square feet (30 m2) in size with a permanent chassis to ensure the home’s initial and ongoing transportability.”  The distinction between “manufactured housing” and other kinds of prefabricated dwellings, including modular homes, is the requirement to have a wheeled chassis permanently attached.

 

Today, manufactured homes are capable of being as permanent as on-site construction. You also don’t have to give up space or utility if you live in a manufactured home. The average home purchased is about 1,400 square feet, with some floor plans exceeding 3,000 square feet.

Rent for the use of the land as well as fees for common amenities, services, and utilities must be paid if you choose to live in a manufactured home community. When selecting the type of home you can afford, take those expenses into account. If you wish to put your mobile home on your own land, make sure to check with the local authorities about manufactured house zoning regulations. You should also look into the municipal regulations for septic, electrical, and building licenses.

How To Value Your Manufactured Homes

There are several reasons why you would want to know what the value is of your manufactured home, such as applying for a home equity loan or wanting to sell your home. The assessors will consider recent market trends, the sale, and rental prices of comparable houses in the neighborhood, and the cost of any modifications or repairs made to the manufactured house. They will also consider regular expenses such as utilities, taxes, and insurance. Should you want to determine the value of your manufactured home, there are several factors that you should consider:

Identify the user

In addition to the USPAP Standards, several lenders have their own appraisal requirements for manufactured homes. Ensure that you have identified appraisers that would be able to assist you based on the size of your manufactured home.

Is the manufactured home permanently fixed?

Determine whether the manufactured home is permanently affixed to its plot of land. A house is considered real property if it is attached to land. The USPAP appraisal criteria will then be implemented.

Make use of the Sales Approach.

Use the standardized appraisal form URAR 1004 to complete the appraisal. Each appraiser is free to choose a legitimate appraisal technique to use under USPAP. The sales approach is an appropriate strategy for manufactured homes.

The minimal dimensions of a

manufactured home must total about 400 square feet, according to several lenders. This could be a problem for you should you wish to apply for financing.

Research the Market

Investigate the market for the sales prices of similar manufactured houses that have recently sold in your area.

Make Adjustments

Adjust your baseline value to account for the size and unique qualities of your subject property. You can anticipate a similar level of construction as all contemporary manufactured homes have a marking stating that they were built in accordance with the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s safety requirements. When calculating the dimensions of your home, proceed with caution.

Process of Manufactured Home Appraisal

If the appraiser knows what to look for, it’s not too difficult to value manufactured homes. The appraiser must conduct a standard property inspection. Certain conditions must be completed if the mobile house is located on acreage with its own well and septic system to qualify for FHA financing. To confirm that the well is at least 100 feet away from the drain field, the appraiser must also obtain a sketch of the drain field and its position. In circumstances when manufactured home sales are limited, the appraiser may use site-built home sales if necessary. Additionally, an appraiser could occasionally be able to use a larger area or choose from less recent home transactions. These decisions must always be explained in the appraisal report.

The NADA Prefabricated Housing Appraisal Guide is an important source of information for appraisers on manufactured housing. This document provides an average retail book value for a manufactured home and shows generic manufactured home depreciation replacement prices based on categories of factory construction.

What to Expect After an Appraisal of Your Manufactured Home?

Following the completion of the data collection, the appraiser will write a report and base their final assessment of the home’s value on their findings. The appraiser then delivers this report to the mortgage lender, which expedites the home-buying process.

Why Choose Us?

There are difficulties in valuing contemporary manufactured homes. As an example:

• Due to manufactured houses that are not titled as real estate or that lack contemporary amenities, energy-efficient construction methods, and other improvements, some communities may lack comparable properties.
• Manufactured homes are typically found in rural locations, thus appraisers in urban or suburban markets might not be familiar with them.
• There might not be many comparable properties with recent sales histories in the markets that appraisers cover.

Our staff of appraisers at TAG are located across the country and has expertise in all types of appraisals, including those for manufactured homes.

To make sure we have all the details required to carry out your appraisal inspection correctly, our team collaborates with your mortgage lender. We are here to ensure that your manufactured house appraisal process proceeds without any problems or delays.

TAG –  An Alliance You Can Trust

At TAG, we understand that most people may live their entire lives without ever needing an evaluation. If you do require an appraisal, we want it to be a pleasant process. Contact us today!