About Ron Bauer Expertise Whether you have great credit or think you are the most credit challenged person on the planet I can help you with mortgage related questions about purchasing a home, investment property, refinancing, or doing some debt consolidation. I also specialize in helping those needing credit repair or creative financing when purchasing a home. Additionally I work with many second home and investment property buyers in a variety of States. My clientele is mainly west coast (California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Arizona...), but I lend in all 50 States and will do my best to answer any question you may have on any conventional, FHA or VA loans...
Experience Experience:
Sr. Residential Mortgage Lender of a National Bank specializing in "residential" mortgages including FHA/VA loans and investment property strategies. We process, underwrite, and fund in house for most of the big named companies and then some...
Question My husband and I recently talked to a real estate agent in Hanford Ca about purchasing (asking price 285,000.00) 2.5 acres of land in the country with a mobile home (built in 1980)on it. The agent said we would need at least 80,000.00 to put down because of the trailers depreciation. I don't understand that. Does that sound right to you or do you think he is giving us false information? Any help would be greatly appreciated
Answer Deanna,
Thank you for contacting me with your question.
The all important question is how it appears on title. Is it truly a mobile home or is it a manufactured home. Realtors are not always familiar with mobile or manufactured homes as it is a very small percentage of their business most of the time. Always talk to a Mortgage lender when it comes to what you can and cannot do with financing. It is also a good idea to get pre qualified before shopping so you have all your options in front of you for a given price range that you are shopping in.
Manufactured homes have a HUD tag located on the outside of the structure identifying the manufacturer. They are also built differently than a mobile home / trailer.
If it is truly a mobile home I would suggest talking with a lender who specializes in financing for land… In this case the land is going to be worth 99% of the value and possibly the sale of land may take place with the mobile home as no considerable value in the sale. I can’t imagine a 26 year mobile home being worth all that much in consideration of the land. Definitely not $80K!
You may also want to talk with an Appraiser or have your lender talk to one to get an estimated value on the property to see if the price in within the ball park.
If the home is classified as “manufactured” then it is a different ball game and most residential mortgage lenders can provide financing for them, but still you would then need 10-20% down.
In any case if someone says "you have to put money down because of depreciative value" my thoughts are that they are trying to sell it for more than it can appraise for. You can only borrow what a property is worth and if for some reason it was purchase for more than appraised value than you as the borrower would have to bring in that difference.
As a residential mortgage lender, and like most, I cannot finance mobile homes. Land is also a specialty that unfortunately I cannot offer a lot of advice on.
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