FHA MESS!! PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

[B. Gilliam]

FYI : Here is link for some great info that dealer and inspector/engineer should know.
http://www.huduser.org/publications/des ... found.html

[James]

Discuss a NON-FHA, Land-In-Lieu finance product from any national or regional MH lender. Ask the dealer to "buy down" the rate to something you can live with for a year or so. When your landscaping matures and the home is great looking next year, shop for a conventional re-fi, if you still need it. You probably need to do something better than vinyl skirting, however.

[homecenter]

Where are you in Mississippi? I am a Mississippi dealer and can possibly give you some names or contacts of someone who can help you and the dealer get this mess straightened out.

[B. Foster]

Dealers, Lenders, Inspectors and Engineers are all scrambling to catch up after FHA decided to start insuring loans for manufactured housing. A couple of facts...
The installer is supposed to follow the HUD Guidelines for Permanent Foundations for Manufactured Housing OR an engineer can design and approve an alternate foundation. So the engineer was willing to allow the home to be set up without either a full foundation or concrete runners. In Mississippi, the design the engineer gave you is adequate, and since he recommended it, he would sign off on it...so you don't need the runners!

As for the skirting issue, I am currently engaged in doing research into this requirement ....the Atlanta regional HUD office (which has jurisdiction over Mississippi) has recently mandated that skirting must be brick, masonry, or concrete. None of the other regional offices have this requirement. And frankly, they don't enforce this requirement in ALL of the states under their jurisdiction (Florida is exempt). After extensive research in all the HUD information available, I have found nothing that says that vinyl (or steel or hardiplank or natural stone, etc.) is NOT allowed....the requirement is "skirting must be of durable material (i.e. brick, masony, or concrete)". I am of the opinion that someone in the Atlanta office is taking the "for example" samples as being the only materials allowed...which, of course, is ridiculous.

So....I know for a fact you do not need runners if you have an engineer that says you do not need them, and is willing to provide the stamped inspection....and the skirting issue is still up in the air. I do know that if you can finance through Countrywide Home Loans out of Mandeville, Louisiana (yes, they are licensed in Mississippi), you do not have to have the fee inspector's inspection, which would avoid the skirting issue entirely.

Hope this has been some help. I'll return for an update to the skirting issue after I've done battle with Atlanta.

[Kathy Lee]

Who ever you are Help. I am in Louisiana (realtor) Trying to get the correct guidelines for FHA Mobile has been a joke. Where in print are these guide lines for FHA mobile.............................................................................
Everyone I speak to gives me different answers.

[Stan Goff]

The Dealer always is the end means for all problems.Pretty soon there will be no dealer around to blame for everything that goes wrong during these transactions.Every single entity makes out like a bandit with little or no liability it all trickles down to the hard working dealer trying to help families into homes who would probably have no other choice.The dealer creates jobs for financial institutions who hide behind there desk when things go astray,the factory well they just build the house and if theres something defected the poor dealer gets dragged into with little or no chance of defense as insurance companys just settle making it impossible to keep insurance. Oh yes are there people who actually lie when something goes wrong in there life to get out of paying a mortgage..noooo.Guess what we get charged with fraud and the great financial friend wants us to buy the loan back..Non recourse.How about all the changes in rules and regs to keep up with like theres time when your salesperson,finance coordinater, overseeing contractors making sure they show up.Paying them in a timely fashion like next day of completion hands out while you wait and wait and wait for yours if theres any left when appraisers(if you can find one who will do it because our friends we pay per floor have scared them to death -no liability) septic,excavaters,plumbing, fee inspectors,engineers,brokers,ect,ect, ect, eat all the profit and you as a dealer have spent over 90 days if your very proficient.The bottom line is no one except your dealer takes responsibility so Thank them for trying...

[rmurray]

Well we are in housing...Most dealers present themselves as professional in the sales process...We are asking consumers to commit nearly 1/3 of all their income for the next 30 years...This trust is enough to requie us to be ultimately responsible......Of cause there is a lot of non-recourse after the 1st payment paper out there...Banks lend on the information they have...If we beach that trust we should be responsible to take the loses back from the bank..It IS the dealers responsibility to know finance and local regulations...This is part of what he is getting paid for..

Every million dollar plus business has cash flow problems from time to time..good business managers plan and anticipate them and make efforts to make them less painful...Our business IS tough..that is why the rewards can be large..