How Do I Sell a Manufactured Home That Sits on My Own Land?

A manufactured home on a few acres outside Deer Park, Chattaroy, Nine Mile Falls, Benton City, or Eltopia can be a very good sale. It can also stall three weeks before closing because nobody checked the title. Most of what goes wrong in these sales is paperwork, and most of it can be sorted out before a buyer sees the place.

One note first. If the home sits on a rented lot in a manufactured home park, the sale runs differently, with the park and the lot lease in the middle of it. This article is about homes on land you own.

Titled like a vehicle, or part of the land

In Washington a manufactured home can be owned two ways. It can be personal property, with a certificate of title from the Department of Licensing, the same way a pickup is. Or its title can be eliminated, which ties the home to the land so the two are recorded together as real property. Chapter 65.20 of the Revised Code of Washington sets out how that works.

Plenty of owners aren’t sure which they have, especially if the place was bought years ago or came through an estate. Some quick ways to tell:

• A Department of Licensing title for the home, tucked in a file or a safe deposit box, means it is almost certainly still titled.
• Your property tax statement can hint at it. A titled home is sometimes billed on a separate account from the land. One combined account points toward real property, though it isn’t proof.
• A title company can pull the recorded documents and tell you for certain. You will want that report before you list anyway.

Why a buyer’s lender will ask about it

Most home loans are made against real estate. A home that still carries a vehicle-style title is, on paper, a separate piece of personal property parked on the land, and many lenders won’t make an ordinary mortgage on that. So when a financed buyer shows up, one of the first conditions is often that the title be eliminated before closing.

The process runs through two offices. The auditor in the county where the land sits records the paperwork in the real property records, and the Department of Licensing cancels the title. Anyone holding a lien on the home has to be part of it, so if there is still a loan against the home itself, expect that lender to be involved.

It isn’t difficult, but it takes time that a closing date may not have. Starting before you list is easier than starting after a buyer’s lender asks. Confirm the current forms and steps with the Department of Licensing and your county auditor, and tell the title company that will close the sale what you are doing.

The June 15, 1976 line

June 15, 1976 is the day federal HUD construction standards for manufactured homes took effect. Homes built after it carry a HUD label. Homes built before it are, in the legal sense, mobile homes, and many lenders won’t finance them at all, however well they have been kept.

Two things tell you which side of the line you are on. The HUD certification label is a small metal plate on the outside of each section, usually at one end. The data plate is a paper sheet inside, often in a kitchen cabinet, a bedroom closet, or near the electrical panel, and it lists the date of manufacture, the maker, and the serial number. Photograph both clearly. If a label has gone missing, a label verification letter can be ordered from the organization that keeps HUD’s label records, and lenders and appraisers generally accept one.

If your home predates 1976, be realistic about who can buy it. The pool shrinks to people paying cash and people who want the land, the well, the septic, and the shop more than the house. It will still sell. Expect fewer buyers and a price that reflects it.

Porches, additions, and L&I

A covered porch, an added room, a carport tied into the roofline, a new electrical panel: in Washington, alterations to a manufactured home itself generally fall under the Department of Labor and Industries, which issues alteration permits and puts its own insignia on approved work. Lenders and appraisers know to look for it, and a buyer’s inspector may ask.

Which office covers what depends on how the work was built and whether it is attached to the home. A freestanding metal shop usually goes through the county building department. A porch bolted to the home may belong to L&I. Ask both before you assume.

If you already know something was added without a permit, L&I offers what it calls a Homeowner Requested Inspection for work that is already done. Hearing an inspector’s view now, with time to fix what they flag, beats hearing it from a buyer’s lender two weeks before closing.

At the county treasurer’s counter

Before a manufactured home changes hands, the county treasurer generally wants every tax owed on it paid in full. When a titled home is sold, Spokane County’s treasurer uses a real estate excise tax affidavit written specifically for mobile and manufactured homes. Benton and Franklin counties work under the same state rules, but forms and office steps can differ, so call the treasurer where your property sits. If the home and land close together through escrow, the escrow officer usually prepares the affidavits and pays the taxes from your proceeds.

Everything else on the acreage

On acreage, a buyer is also buying the well, the septic system, the driveway, and whatever arrangement keeps the road open in January. Pull together what you have:

• The well report if you can find it, and a recent water test.
• The septic permit and the last pumping or inspection record. Washington’s septic rules for property transfers are changing, and the article on septic inspections when you sell covers what to expect.
• Any survey, recorded easements, and a road maintenance agreement if you share a private road.
• Permits for the shop, the barn, and other outbuildings.

In the ponderosa country north of Spokane, buyers and their insurers also ask about wildfire. Cleared space around the home and outbuildings is worth showing in the listing photos, and a buyer’s insurer can say early what it will require.

Who ends up buying

A newer, HUD-labeled home on a permanent foundation, with the title eliminated and the permits in order, can sell to a buyer using an ordinary home loan. Some government-backed programs, including rural ones, also finance homes like this, each with its own foundation and condition rules. That is the widest pool of buyers you can reach, and it usually brings the best price. It also brings an appraisal and a lender’s list of conditions, and both take time.

A home that is still titled, built before 1976, or carrying an unpermitted addition narrows the pool, and cash buyers become a larger share of the people who can realistically close. A cash offer request puts the property in front of independent investors who buy without a lender, so the title and the porch permit matter less to them, though the offer will reflect both. The fair comparison is between that written offer and what a listing would bring after the paperwork is fixed, minus the time and cost of fixing it.

If the home has been a rental, the tenant adds one more layer, and the article on selling a rental with tenants in it walks through it. Everything here is general. Your county auditor, treasurer, the Department of Licensing, L&I, and a lender are the ones to confirm the specifics for your property.