The Manufactured Housing Forums

Can anyone tell me what the advantage is to surrendering the title on a double wide and having it figured as 'real property'? I may not be using the right terms.

From a lender stand point the home would no longer have independent ownership documents..Ownership could not be transferred without the deed of the property being so.....

Some states have homestead laws that could lower the taxes on the package....This is the only benefit I can see for the homeowner...Florida originally had a large homestead law but inexpensive manufactured home tags...Years ago many folks changed only to find the overall taxes were higher...They did not have the option to change back....Talk to your tax assessor before you change and make sure you will benefit...

If you are in Florida go to this web page http://www.myflorida.com/dor/property/ for Florida Department of Revenue information regarding property taxes and a section on MH's (the link is on the left side of the page about half way down). You will find that in Florida if you own the property the MH sits on then you will be required by the state to pay real property tax on the land and MH combined.
If you reside full time in Florida then you can claim homestead exemption and save about $500 of the tax bite but it is still high. If you lease the land then you will pay a smaller tax on the MH as personal property.

If your income is below a certain threshold (increases each year) about $23,000 this year then you can get other property tax exemptions in certain counties and cities in Florida. Be sure to read http://www.myflorida.com/dor/property/FLsrhx.pdf for this information. There are other property tax exemptions in Florida for those with disabilities so as rmurray said be sure to check with your tax assessor.

If you have a mortgage, the rates on home/land are quite a bit lower than home-only (chattel loans). If you were to sell the home by itself later, you would likely have to re-title it with your state's DMV. We had to do this; it was a royal pain.

Thank you. I will check with my tax office. I do have a loan which is land-home and am planning on bricking the bottom in in the next few years.

We did have the title eliminated. The title company that we closed with did it for us and they filed the paperwork with the state..............so what does that mean for us now?

So my question is now we are trying to refinance, do we still tell lenders that we have a manufactured home on a permanent foundation or do we not even go into that? I have wondered this for a long time?

It only means you were able to take advantage of the low rate and long term of a real estate mortgage....The process is required to meet the loans requirements...It also means you have no ownership papers to sell the home independent of the land....

From a lender stand point you have a manufactured home on permanent foundation..You might as well tell them early in the process they will find out anyway...