Mobile Home Mortgage Lethbridge
Well-made mobile homes are indistinguishable from single family homes. However, the fact that they’re made at a factory and transported to site before installation affects the mortgage used to pay for them. For example, the mobile home is typically transported to site and then permanently affixed to a foundation on site. This means that many people first buy the land, often with a mortgage and add a mobile home to the mortgage.
Mobile home mortgages include a number of conditions that you don’t see with conventional Lethbridge mortgages. One is that the mobile home must be permanently affixed to the property. That requirement is intended to protect the lender, since they don’t want to loan you 200,000 dollars for a home and land when you can move the greater asset at a later date. Lenders will send out an inspector to verify that the mobile home is attached to anchors on the ground or welded to pilings. Then the inspector will record the CSA number and determine the remaining “economic life” of the mobile home.
A second requirement is that the mobile home will last longer than the mortgage will. Mobile homes tend to depreciate, whereas brick and mortar homes tend to appreciate. This makes mobile homes more like campers than conventional houses. If the mobile home is expected to last 20 years, the longest possible mortgage term must be 20 years or shorter than that. Brand new mobile homes can last up to forty years, if they’re properly maintained. However, the remaining life depends on the maintenance it receives and the conditions it is exposed to. Have any used mobile home thoroughly inspected, because one may be eligible for a ten year mortgage and the other a twenty year mortgage. That will have a major impact on your monthly payment.
Because mobile homes can be delivered to any site, they end up in a variety of locations. You could have one installed on a bare land condo lot, land that you already own, or land that you have a mortgage for. Once you install the mobile home, you might be able to refinance the land and mobile home loans into a single, lower interest loan. What if you’re buying land in a condo association? The condo fees will be factored into the debt servicing ratio to determine how much you can afford to borrow. This is also true if you’re buying a pre-existing mobile home in a condominium development. Note that mortgage lenders use different criteria in determining how much you can afford to borrow, so let Whalen Mortgages Lethbridge shop around for the best mortgage rates.
What if you already own your mobile home and the land under it? Consult with a Lethbridge mortgage broker like Whalen Mortgages Lethbridge to learn about how you can borrow against your mobile home’s equity to pay for repairs or consolidate your debt. Alternatively, you may be able to borrow against the equity in land you already own to help pay for the mobile home you want to install on the property.
Call Lethbridge Whalen Mortgages today to get started 587-315-0907.