Regardless of how they are made, US Mobile Home Pros, also known as manufactured homes, are just the same with regular homes or stick-built homes. However, there are challenges that mobile homeowners are more prone to compare to others especially when they are trying to sell their mobile home and it involves an issue with the non-ownership of the land that it is standing on. This article provides an overview of the challenges of selling a mobile home that is personal property.
What is personal property and real property?
Personal property is movable property – meaning it isn’t to attach to land and can be moved to a different area. Personal property can either be tangible and intangible. Examples of tangible personal property are vehicles and furniture while stocks and bonds are considered intangible personal property.
On the other hand, real property is simply put as immovable property. Furthermore, real property is the land owned by an individual and the structures or buildings attached to it.
Stick-built homes are real property since they are built on the land that they are sitting on and most of the homes and lands are owned by the same individual.
In most cases, mobile homes are considered personal property. If your manufactured home sits on land that you own, then you’re lucky – all you have to do is put it up on the market. You can either sell it with or without the land, however, the latter might give you a hard time finding a buyer. Personal property mobile homes are more complicated to sell due to many factors. One is because mobile homes are usually located in a mobile home park.
How do you sell a personal property mobile home?
Now onto the real question – can you sell a mobile home as personal property? The answer here is yes. However, the process is much more complicated not to mention the process of getting a “chattel” or personal property mortgage and the higher interest that comes with it.
When you finally decided to pursue selling your mobile home, what you have to do first is talk to the landlord of the mobile home park. It is important to inform him or her that you are about to sell your home. A landlord has the “right to first refusal” which means that he or she can buy the mobile home given that he or she matches your offer. So before getting into trouble of finding a different buyer, you must ask first your landlord about this. This can help ease and shorten the process of selling your home.
On the other hand, if you ever find an individual buyer that isn’t going to move your mobile home anywhere and decides to reside on it, you should know that the landlord has the power to reject that buyer if they decide not to comply with the park’s rules and regulations. The involvement of the mobile park owner complicates the process a bit but it doesn’t make the sale of your mobile home impossible.
If you are getting frustrated, do not worry because there seems to be an easier way to selling your personal property mobile home. There are private companies who buy mobile homes in any condition. Most of these companies purchase only the mobile home so you do not have to worry about it not being real property. Some companies cater to all the states so if you ever thought, “I should sell my Michigan mobile home,” then you no need to fret because there are mobile home buyers you can reach out to.
