A VA loan for a manufactured home can offer military borrowers a low-cost, accessible path to homeownership. Manufactured homes are roughly half as expensive as traditional site-built homes on a per-square-foot basis, and VA loans typically offer competitive interest rates and loan terms.
However, only VA-approved lenders can provide VA loans for manufactured homes. In addition, the property must meet specific VA standards in order to qualify for a VA loan.
In most states, a manufactured home by itself is considered personal property — similar to a car or boat. To get a VA loan for a manufactured home, though, it must be permanently attached to land that you own and categorized as real property.
A VA loan can finance the purchase or refinance of both the home and the land, as well as the improvements necessary to meet VA manufactured home foundation requirements.
Here are three of the most common mortgage options that VA-approved lenders offer to help you buy or refinance manufactured homes:
There’s technically no such thing as a VA loan for a mobile home; the term VA-approved lenders use is manufactured home. Manufactured homes must follow regulations set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which spell out how manufactured homes must be built. Homes that don’t follow HUD’s guidelines are called mobile homes. They’re typically older — often built before 1976 — and aren’t eligible for government-backed loan programs.
The VA requirements for manufactured home loans aren’t the same as a loan for a traditional, site-built home. Here’s what to expect:
The VA requires a minimum 5% down payment for a manufactured home, compared with 0% down for a site-built home.
The VA doesn’t set a minimum credit score for any loan type, but lenders’ requirements may be more stringent than the 620 score they commonly require for a traditional home loan. Lenders consider manufactured homes a slightly riskier investment.
Don’t know your credit score? Get your free score on LendingTree Spring today.
VA-approved lenders may also expect you to carry less total debt compared to your income than they would for a site-built home. The metric they use to measure this is called your debt-to-income ratio. The VA recommends a maximum 41% DTI ratio, but be prepared for lenders to lower that ratio as a safeguard against risk.
Most borrowers must pay a VA funding fee between 1.4% and 1.65% of the loan amount. Borrowers with a qualifying disability may qualify for a VA funding fee exemption.
The easiest way to find out if you’re eligible for VA loan benefits — as well as how much of your benefit remains — is to look at your certificate of eligibility (COE). You can request a COE online using the Veterans Information Portal.
Each regional VA loan center has unique local requirements for the manufactured houses in its region, which address things like installation procedures, required utilities and weatherproofing measures. The home must also meet general VA minimum property requirements, which ensure that it’s safe and sanitary.
The home must meet HUD Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, and should have HUD tags. Homes manufactured before June 15, 1976, aren’t eligible.
The manufactured home must have at least 400 square feet of living space.
The title company handling your purchase or refinance must prove that your home is permanently affixed to the land and classified as real property to meet VA manufactured home guidelines. A document called an affidavit of affixture is often used to prove that the property is attached to land you own.
The manufactured home must be classified as real property, not personal property (also known as “chattel”).
VA financing for manufactured homes requires shorter payoff periods than the typical 30-year fixed-rate mortgage that’s popular for traditional homebuyers. The chart below shows the longest terms available for a VA mortgage, based on different scenarios.
| Manufactured home scenario: If you're purchasing … | Your maximum VA loan term is … |
|---|---|
| Single-wide manufactured home | 20 years and 32 days |
| Single-wide manufactured home and lot | 20 years and 32 days |
| Land for a home you already own | 15 years and 32 days |
| Double-wide manufactured home | 23 years and 32 days |
| Double-wide manufactured home plus land | 25 years and 32 days |
Whether you’re using an online rates comparison tool or calling loan officers directly, be sure to gather quotes specifically for manufactured home financing. Mortgage rates and fees for manufactured homes are usually more expensive, and if you don’t let lenders know upfront that you want to buy a manufactured home, you’ll likely get quotes for a single-family home.
Interest rates change daily, so comparing quotes from the same day is the only way to make an apples-to-apples comparison of your offers.
The shorter your loan term, the more expensive your payments are for the same loan amount. And since there’s no 30-year fixed-rate option available to finance a manufactured home with a VA loan, you’ll need to adjust your expectations to fit the available VA loan repayment terms.
Use a mortgage payment calculator to estimate your monthly payments before committing to a loan.
Once you review loan estimates and make your choice, ask for a rate lock. This guarantees that the interest rate you were quoted in the loan estimate will still be valid when your loan closes. Some lenders will automatically lock in the rate when they make you an offer. Check Page 1 of your loan estimate paperwork to see if this is the case.
It can be tough to find a lender who offers VA loans for manufactured homes. Lenders consider them a risky investment, in part because they depreciate far more quickly than site-built homes. If you aren’t able to find a VA-approved lender who will offer you a manufactured home loan, you may want to explore these alternatives.
See today’s VA loan rates and compare lender offers.
Any manufactured home built before June 15, 1976, won’t qualify for a VA loan, as it doesn’t conform to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) standards. Also known as the “HUD Code,” these rules are set out in the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, which serves as the federal building code for manufactured homes.
Mobile homes and manufactured homes are essentially the same thing: prefabricated houses built in a factory on a chassis that allows them to be transported to a site. However, according to the government, if it was built before June 15, 1976, it’s a mobile home. If it was built after that date, it’s considered a manufactured home and should conform to HUD standards. A modular home is different from these two home types, in that it doesn’t need to meet HUD standards and is instead built to the same building codes and standards as typical site-built homes.
A manufactured home must have a permanent foundation that meets state and local requirements, as well as certain building requirements. The VA also requires manufactured homes to be classified as real estate, though in most states manufactured homes are classified as personal or “chattel” property by default. The process for getting a home reclassified, which converts it from chattel property to real property, varies by state.
Yes, you have a wide array of options for refinancing a manufactured home:
Your VA options include a limited cash-out refinance, a standard VA cash-out refinance or a VA streamline refinance (also known as an IRRRL).
