The Manufactured Housing Forums

I was working with a broker and he offered me two different loans, one was a USDA Rural Development loan and the other was a conventional. I have an excellent credit record, good scores, good income, and low debt. On both loans I wanted to pay 20% down, use about $9,000.00 equity I have in the land, and a 30 year fixed mortgage. I wanted to pay 20% down to keep my monthly payments low and not have to pay PMI for the conventional loan. Total amount will be $125,000 with a loan of about $100,000.00.

For a number of reasons, we decided on the conventional loan even though the interest would be 7% instead of 6.5% for the USDA loan. I received all the paperwork last Wednesday and was in the process of signing it and getting my financial records to send back to the broker. Then on Thursday I found out we have to start all over.

It seems that because of banking and mortgage industry crisis (another lender went bankrupt Wednesday) he does not have any lenders offering conventional loans for manufactured homes at a reasonable rate. (I'm sure Friday's news is going to make things worse) So, it is back to square one for us and we will start the process for the USDA loan. That should work for us as there is a 2% of the loan amount charge for the mortgage guarantee.

The whole thing has raised my anxiety level a little because if lenders are reluctant to loan money for the purchase of a home, how will that affect the selling of my current (stick built) home? Fortunately, the Tulsa area has a stable real estate market and the suburb I live in is booming. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I know this will probably hurt the MH industry as lenders are going to tighten up and loans for folks with less than perfect credit will have an tougher time getting a loan. All I can say to anyone looking to buy a MH is buy Mr. Grisson's book and read it three times. The book and this site have been a huge help to me and special thanks to Murray for his taking time to answer everyone's questions.

I'll let you know how things work out.

Sounds like your house might be in the right place to make this move smoothly...I hope so..jUST REMEBER THE SALE OF YOUR HOUSE IS MOSTLY IN THE PRESENTATION..First impressions are everything..Make your house so appealing that you will question your wisdom in selling..A good real estate pro should be able to give you quality advice..

You are very right about the lending climate....IndyMac a 44 BILLION dollar asset bank was closed this week..Over the years scores of my customers have used them for their mortgage...They were specialists in designer mortgages..They did thousands of "no minimum payment mortgages"..All the mortgage holder had to do was pay at least $50/ month with the interest adding to the principle every month..The payment coupon had 3 payments listed..One was the required minimum ($50) one was as if the loan was amortized over 30 years and the other was as if amortized over 15 years..The mortgage holder them sent which ever they wanted..A clause was in the mortgage that re-figured the minimum payment after the principle totaled 115% of the original amount..Then payments would be figured as a 28 year mortgage of the balance currently due...Ever wonder how Walmart clerks could buy $500,000 homes like most in CA?...$50 per month for the first 2 or 3 years then $3800 for the next 28 years...With the deflation in housing prices in the last 2 years, these homeowners have not been able to bail out and IndyMac got them back...I just wonder what they were thinking when they designed these odd loans!!!!!
I had only 1 customer opt for one of these..he had substantial money coming in about 20 months, enough to payoff the home..

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR PROJECT"