Buying a manufactured home with land in Oklahoma

A practical path to owning in the country

Across a lot of Oklahoma, a manufactured home on a few acres is how families get a place of their own close to the school, the station or the farm. It can be a smart, affordable first home. It also comes with more paperwork than a house in town, because Oklahoma treats a manufactured home a little like a vehicle until you take steps to tie it to the land.

What OHFA allows

OHFA's Gold program, which carries the 4 Schools and Shield rates and the 3.5% assistance, allows multi-section manufactured homes. The program guides set tighter limits for these homes than for site-built houses:

OHFA's guides name multi-section homes, so a single-wide generally won't fit the Gold program. If you're looking at a single-wide, ask a lender what's possible before you fall for it.

REI Oklahoma's Home100 program also finances manufactured homes, with a 660 minimum score. Some tribal help is narrower: the Citizen Potawatomi Nation's mortgage buy-down, for example, excludes mobile and manufactured homes.

Title first: is it a vehicle or part of the land?

In Oklahoma, a manufactured home starts out with a certificate of title from Service Oklahoma, much like a truck. When the home is permanently attached to land owned by the same person, the owner can cancel that title so the home and land are treated as one piece of property.

Per Service Oklahoma's title cancellation packet, the process looks like this:

1. Have the Oklahoma certificate of title issued in your name.
2. Make sure Service Oklahoma shows no active lien. A lienholder has to release it first.
3. Take Form 756 to the county assessor, who certifies the parcel number, the landowner of record and the land description. You then have 60 days to finish.
4. File Form FL-756, a notice to the county assessor, with a copy of Form 756.
5. Pay a $5 fee to Service Oklahoma.

Service Oklahoma is plain about one rule: no title is canceled unless the landowner and the home owner are the same. It also warns that canceling the title may change how the home is taxed, so talk to the county assessor first. Once the title is canceled, the home can't be moved on its own axles unless the title is reinstated.

When you're buying, ask early: has the title already been canceled? If not, who holds it, and is there a lien? Your lender and title company will want those answers, and so will you. Each lender also has its own foundation and setup requirements, so your lender confirms what the home needs to qualify.

Owning the land opens other doors

• Homestead exemption. County assessors say a manufactured home qualifies if you own the land under it. Homes on rented lots or in parks don't. See the homestead guide.
• SoonerSafe shelter rebate. The state's safe room rebate lets mobile home owners apply only if they own the land too. With a manufactured home, a nearby shelter is worth putting near the top of the list. See the storm shelter guide.
• USDA financing. A lot of manufactured homes on land sit in areas USDA considers rural. See USDA loans in small-town Oklahoma.

The land itself: questions to ask

A city lot comes with utilities and a street. Rural acreage may not. Before you commit:

• Survey and boundaries. Know exactly what you're buying, especially on older family land that's been split.
• Water and septic. Is it a well or rural water? When was the septic system last checked? Lenders often want water tests or septic inspections.
• Access. Is there a recorded road or easement to the property?
• Flood risk. Several local down payment programs, including Oklahoma City's, Norman's and Lawton's, won't fund homes in a flood zone or floodplain.
• Insurance. Get a quote on the specific home early. Wind and hail coverage matters a lot here.

Insurance and storm safety go together here

Manufactured homes face the same wind and hail deductibles as site-built homes, and the Oklahoma Insurance Department's checklist says those deductibles usually run 1% of the dwelling amount and sometimes 2% to 5%. Get a quote on the exact home before your inspection period ends. Then think about where you'd go during a tornado warning. A shelter on the property, or a firm plan to get to one, belongs on the list next to the septic inspection.

A worked example

Here's an illustrative case. A school bus driver and her husband, a volunteer firefighter, find a double-wide on two acres outside Poteau in Le Flore County for $165,000. Both jobs can fit OHFA's special rates: 4 Schools covers employees of accredited schools, and Shield covers volunteer firefighters. Their middle score is 668, above the 660 floor for manufactured homes. Their household of three earns $76,000, under Le Flore County's Gold limit of $103,880. The home's title was canceled years ago by the prior owner, and the county records show it as part of the parcel.

On an FHA loan, OHFA's 3.5% would go toward their minimum down payment. If the address is in a USDA-eligible area, a USDA loan with OHFA's assistance could send that 3.5% toward closing costs instead, since USDA needs no down payment. A lender would run both.

Your next step

Manufactured homes reward buyers who ask questions early. Pull your credit to see where you stand against that 660 floor, find out the title status, and then check your eligibility for OHFA 4 Schools or Shield. An approved lender can tell you which loan type fits the home and the land.

Questions people ask

Keep reading

• Your first Oklahoma home and the homestead exemption
• What you'll pay at an Oklahoma closing table
• Hail, wind and the roof: insuring your first Oklahoma home
• Storm shelters and safe rooms for first-time Oklahoma buyers
• USDA home loans in small-town Oklahoma
• Oklahoma City or Tulsa: what changes for a first-time buyer
• Tribal homebuyer programs and Section 184 loans in Oklahoma
• How lenders count a school contract, summer work or overtime
• OHFA's 3.5% second mortgage: when you pay it back