The Manufactured Housing Forums

Any suggestions relative to good reputable lenders and thoughts on getting prequalified several months in advance to purchasing ?


Thanks
Tom

This will depend if you are Land/Home or going into a Park. If you are L/H just about any local bank in your area is a possibility. If you are going into a Community the selection is much less and the process much more strigent. There are a few smaller lenders not known to general public, but the for the most part there are only about 5 or 6 national lenders who will do a Park deal or "Chattel". The largest are; Chase Manhattan, Origin Financial, Vanderbilt Mortgage, 21st Mortgage(Sister company to VM), and Triad Financial. There are a gazillion service companies out there but they send most of their deals to these lenders.
The most important question you can ask a dealer, is who they use and do they use them directly, if a service company is involved you will pay alot of unnecessary fees. Most of these lenders have directs departments where you can call them directly. Hope this helps.

Also on getting pre-qualified, that is really a misnomer. A lender will gladly issue an "approval" letter, however that is really only a pre-approval as they must verify everything that you stated on the credit application. I have seen a lender recind many an "approval" after income docs were submitted. To make a long explanation a little shorter, if you are truly interested in purchasing a manufactured home, take the time to research and get to know a dealer, and then complete a credit application and try to give as much information as possible up fron with documentation. If you are "approved" that letter is usually only good for 60-90 days. Anything past that you will have to apply all over again with the lender not being under any obligation to honor the previous. No one really is ever approved until their loan is ready to be funded.