Selling a mobile home with land

A manufactured home starts life with a certificate of title, like a vehicle. When the home is permanently placed on land the owner controls, that title can be retired so the home becomes part of the real property and conveys with the deed.

If it has been retired, you are selling real estate. If it has not, you are selling a home and a piece of land in what amounts to two transactions. Buyers care about this a great deal, and it is worth confirming before you list a price.

Year, size and whether it is single or double wide. How it is anchored and skirted. Septic, well or city water. Power service. Roof and floor condition, especially soft spots. Whether the land is deeded to you or rented.

Older manufactured homes are difficult to finance conventionally, which pushes them toward cash buyers by default. That is not a knock on the property. It just explains who the buyers are.

A home on a rented lot is a different asset with a different buyer pool, and the park's rules on transfers and lot rent become part of the deal.