Mobile Home Appraisals

[Hugh Hill]

I'm getting request all the time for mobile home appraisal. I've been turning them down.Any advice on Mobile home appraisals? What's the requirements? Distance? Sales? Mainly just curious if anyone on the forum has done mobile home appraisals.

Hugh

 

[Nancy in Friday Harbor]

Hugh,

You're going to have to define what you mean by "mobile home".
Are you talking about dwelling units/mobile homes built before June 1976?
Are you talking about RV's?

If you are talking about HUD code manufactured homes built since June 1976, there are lots of knowledgable people who participate regularly in this forum. But ya gotta use the right terminology, 'cuz we don't know what you're talking about with "mobile home".

Cheers,

Nancy

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

First, if constructed to HUD building code after June 15, 1976, they are NOT mobile homes, they are manufactured housing!!

May I suggest you read an article I wrote that is published at http://www.naifa.com

Click on January 2002 Appraisal E Gram
Scroll down to October 2001 Appraisal E Gram
Scroll down to "What is that--and now what do I do?"

And all your questions will be answered.

Fannie Mae has issued a complete new set of guidelines for everything that goes into effect June 30, 2002. You need to get a copy of that because it has some changes to what they require for homes that they will finance.

You can down load to your computer a copy at:

http://www.srappraisal.com/FNMA

Download the 4_12 file, the other files is the old property and appraisal chapter.

Also--what state are you in? The Appraisal Boards for Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Texas have some excellant articles on their web sites.

And you could also check some of the postings I have placed on this forum, just look for my name.

And do not use the expression mobile home again for a home constructed after June 15, 1976 to HUD building code!!! I don't care what your client or the owner or your zoning or your building department calls them. For financing there are some very specific terms that mean very specific items.

 

[Ben Vukicevich SRA]

Hugh,

Wait for JoAnn Meyer-Stratton, IFA,SRA to respond to your post. She is the "mobile home" guru on the forum, probably the entire known universe. For a visual education you could look at Bobby Bucks website. Of course, you're going to get taken to task by JoAnn for calling "them things" "mobile homes." I have been so corrected in the past by JoAnn.

I believe JoAnn has a manufactured home article somewhere on the web. I'm sure she will fill you in when she reads your post. Me, I'm the dedicated suburbanite. I never see those things.

Yeah, yeah, JoAnn, I know they're not called mobile homes if built after 1976. Hey, they're movable, so they're mobile, right???

Ben

 

[Ben Vukicevich SRA]

Hugh,

Whoops.

JoAnn beat me to the punch while I was writing my post.

I'm getting good, though. I can read JoAnn's mind all the way from NJ.

I told you, you would get "gripped-up" for calling them mobile homes.

But she knows her stuff. Listen to her.

Ben

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Ben:
They are not any more mobile than that 4,000 square foot painted concrete block house with a tile roof that was just moved 200 miles from where the freeway is going to be built!! And then there is that historical home orignally built in 1895 in Phoenix, three stories tall and moved a mile. I saw a special several months ago where a three story 50,000 square foot industrical building was moved five miles back east. So why worry about manufactured housing being moved?? And yes, I do start to get out the bar of Ivory soap that I use for washing out mouths when ever some one says mobile home.

 

[Richard Carlsen]

In my state (Michigan) if mobile homes are permanently sited and have taken on the characteristics of real estate, you appraise them just like any other piece of real estate. Read Jo Ann's article and make sure you fully understand the difference between HUD Code and pre-HUD Code mobiles.

Not doing them is missing out on some good business.

 

[Brad Pack]

The following link will take you directly to Jo Ann's article:
http://www.naifa.com/gram/2001oct/stratton-oct01.html

 

[Jo Ann Meyer Stratton]

Depending on the laws in your state and subject's actual location, an appraisal of a HUD code manufactured home can be completed subject to what ever laws or requirements your area requires for it to be taxed as real property. Here in Arizona we have an affidavit of affixture that enables the home to be taxed as real property--regardless of the physical set up. So then it becomes the lender's decision on what do they consider "permanent". A typical installation in Arizona is steel jacks on concrete pads (because at the lower elevations the frost line is the top of the grass) with vinyl skirting for a perimeter enclosure. If being financed FHA, then a perimeter enclosure of concrete blocks, masonry or pretreated wood is required and also anchors attached to concrete footings below the ground. Fannie Mae only requires the anchors if the locality requires them. So anchors just screwed into the ground or with nails across the anchors driven into the ground are acceptable to Fannie Mae. After a manufactured home or mobile home is installed on a site in Arizona, a representative of the Division of Manufactured Housing does an inspection and once they have approved of the installation, the rest is whatever the lender requires.

So if you decide to go ahead with appraisals of factory built housing, become very familiar and knowledgable about what your state, cities, counties require and how their procedures for taxing as real property. And be very carefull about created sales, AKA land/home packages.

 

[slacker]

Where’s Austin when you need him?

I had a statistics Professor in college that used a regression model to explain that Mobile Home parks actually cause tornadoes.

http://www.appraiseillinois.com