There are only three reasons that a borrower should want to refinance a mobile home loan: to obtain a lower monthly payment, to obtain a shorter term on the loan, or to cash out or consolidate debt on the mobile home. A borrower should not simply base a refinancing decision on a lower interest rate alone, as it may not necessarily result in obtaining one of these three listed goals when all factors of the loan are considered. A borrower must choose the purpose of the refinance based on these three possible outcomes. Although rare, it is possible to achieve all three at once.
Make Sure You Qualify for Refinancing
Generally, beyond the typical good credit rating and income requirements, there are no special qualification standards for a personal property loan on a mobile home. However, personal property loans usually have a much higher interest rate than mortgages. Thus, a mortgage may be the better option. If the borrower decides to refinance his or her mobile home loan as a mortgage, there are three requirements to qualify beyond normal credit and income standards. First, the mobile home must be sitting on a permanent foundation that the Department of Housing and Urban Development deems qualified. Two, the mobile home owner must own the land that the home is on (with a few exceptions for leased land). And three, the mobile home has to be titled as real estate and not personal property.
Refinancing May Not Make Sense if Selling Soon
If a borrower plans to sell the mobile home soon, a refinancing may not be a good idea because the fees involved in refinancing may not outweigh the benefits of a refinancing in the short term. A mobile home loan professional can help borrowers calculate the net savings of a refinancing, even if the sale of the home is imminent.