Frequently Asked Questions

The HUD Code is the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, codified at 24 CFR Part 3280 and administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is a federal construction standard that pre-empts state and local building codes for manufactured homes, and it covers body and frame design, strength and durability, transportability, fire resistance, energy efficiency, and the plumbing, heating and electrical systems. It took effect on 15 June 1976.

A mobile home is a factory-built home produced before 15 June 1976, when the HUD Code took effect; those homes were built to varying voluntary or state standards and are harder to finance, insure and relocate today. A manufactured home is one built on or after that date to the HUD Code, on a permanent steel chassis. A modular home is factory-built but constructed to state and local building codes rather than the HUD Code, inspected in the factory by a state-approved third party, and has no permanent chassis. The distinction determines how the home is permitted, financed and insured.

The HUD certification label is a small red metal plate fixed to the exterior of each transportable section, usually toward the rear of the section. It carries a unique label number, and a two-section home has two of them. The data plate is a paper document fixed inside the home, most commonly inside a kitchen cabinet, on a bedroom closet door, or near the electrical panel. It lists the manufacturer, model, serial number, date of manufacture, the appliances shipped with the home, the design approval agency, and the wind zone, roof load zone and thermal zone the home was built for. Both should be verified on delivery and kept for the life of the home.

They are the three design conditions a manufactured home is built to, and all three appear on the data plate. Wind Zone I is the baseline; Zones II and III carry progressively higher design wind loads and apply to hurricane-prone coastal regions. Roof load zones reflect expected snow loads. Thermal zones set the minimum insulation values for the home. The zones a home was built to must be appropriate for where it is sited, which is a compliance question to resolve before purchase rather than after delivery.

Usually it is slightly larger than the finished floor area. Advertised square footage is normally the nominal figure: the transport width multiplied by the transport length, both measured over the eaves and including the towing hitch. A home advertised at 16 by 76 feet therefore has a little less usable floor area than 1,216 square feet. Ask for the floor plan dimensions if you are planning furniture or accessibility clearances precisely.

Prices vary by size, specification and market. The 10 floor plans listed on this site range from $38,900 to $139,900 and from 784 to 1,920 nominal square feet. Those figures are for the home itself. Land, site preparation, foundation work, transport and set-up are separate costs driven by your location, access and local code, and they are quoted against a specific site.

A single-wide, more accurately a single-section home, is built and transported as one unit, commonly 14 to 18 feet wide and 60 to 80 feet long. A double-wide is a multi-section home built as two sections of similar width, transported separately and joined on site along the mating line, also called the marriage line. That mating wall is structural and has its own pier requirements in the installation drawings. A 28-foot-wide home is therefore two 14-foot sections and two permitted moves, not one 28-foot load.

Manufactured home floor plans are typically offered with a range of factory options: cabinetry, countertops, flooring, appliance packages, exterior siding and, on some plans, layout variations. Options have to be specified before the home is built, because changes made after production are site work rather than factory work and cost considerably more. Email info@laramobilehomes.com to discuss what is available on a specific plan.

It depends largely on how the home is titled and where it sits. A home titled as personal property, on rented land, tends to depreciate in the way a vehicle does. A home converted to real property, on a permanent foundation and on land the owner holds, is appraised together with that land and behaves much more like conventional residential real estate. Condition, age, the HUD Code date, and local market demand all matter as well.

Often, but never assume it. Zoning decides it: the parcel must be in a district that permits manufactured housing, and you must satisfy setbacks, flood zone requirements and any local rules on minimum width, roof pitch or exterior finish, which some jurisdictions use to restrict manufactured homes. Recorded deed restrictions and HOA covenants can prohibit them independently of zoning. Some jurisdictions also restrict the placement of older homes by age. Confirm with your local planning and building department, in writing, before you buy either the home or the land.

In broad terms: legal and physical access for an oversize transport rig; a level, compacted pad clear of topsoil and organic material; footings sized to the soil bearing capacity and placed below the local frost line; finished grading that carries surface water away from the home; and utilities — a potable water supply, a sewer connection or a permitted septic system, and an electrical service point. Septic systems normally require a soil percolation test and their own permit, which is frequently the longest lead item in the whole project.

Almost certainly. A placement or building permit is typical, along with separate electrical and plumbing permits and a septic permit where there is no sewer. Installation itself is regulated: the federal Model Manufactured Home Installation Standards are at 24 CFR Part 3285 and the installation programs at 24 CFR Part 3286, with each state either running a HUD-approved program, usually including installer licensing, or falling under the federal default program. Local inspections normally close the job out.

A pier-and-anchor installation supports the home on piers, usually dry-stacked concrete block on poured footings under the steel chassis beams and the mating line, with ground anchors and steel tie-down straps resisting wind uplift and lateral movement. A permanent foundation is an engineered perimeter wall, crawl space or basement on footings below the frost line, designed to affix the home permanently to the site; HUD publishes criteria for these in its Permanent Foundations Guide for Manufactured Housing, and lenders often require an engineer to certify compliance with it.

Because the standard legal load width on US highways is 8 feet 6 inches and manufactured home sections are typically 14 to 18 feet wide. Every move is an oversize load needing a permit from each state on the route, sometimes from counties and municipalities too. Permits specify dimensions, route and date window, and commonly attach conditions such as daylight-only travel, restrictions in high winds, metropolitan curfews, and holiday or weekend limits.

Usually, and how many depends on width, length and the rules of each state crossed. As a general pattern, loads beyond roughly 12 feet wide begin to require a pilot vehicle, wider loads require more, and police escorts are mandated on some specific roads. Because the requirement is set per state, a single cross-country move can have different escort arrangements on different legs.

A firm approach that will carry a loaded truck and toter without sinking, adequate width and turning radius at the entrance and at every corner leading in, vertical clearance from tree branches and overhead utility lines, and enough working area around the pad to manoeuvre and position each section. Soft ground after sustained rain is one of the most common reasons a delivery is rescheduled.

Sometimes, and it is a different job from delivering a new home. The home must be disconnected from utilities, stripped of skirting, and re-fitted with axles, tires and a hitch, and it must be structurally sound enough to withstand the loads of a move, which is a genuine question for homes that have been in place for decades. Titling and any lien have to be resolved first, and some jurisdictions restrict where older homes may be relocated.

Setting a manufactured home covers site preparation and footings, placing and levelling the home on its pier or foundation system, joining the sections of a multi-section home at the mating line and completing the ridge beam connection, making the utility crossover connections between halves, installing anchoring and tie-downs sized to the wind zone and soil, connecting water, drainage and electrical service, and finishing with skirting, steps and landings before final inspection.

A multi-section home leaves the plant as separate halves, so the heating and cooling duct, the water supply and drain lines and the electrical feed between the halves are connected only during set-up, in the crawl space beneath the finished floor. A duct crossover left unsupported, uninsulated or unsealed produces poor airflow to one half of the home and high heating bills in the first winter, so it is worth inspecting the crossovers before the skirting is closed in.

Yes. Skirting encloses the crawl space and is normally required to include ventilation openings and at least one access opening large enough to service the plumbing, ducts and anchoring beneath the home. A ground-cover vapour retarder under the home is commonly required as well, to limit moisture rising from the soil. Steps and landings at every exterior door are separate items and are usually a local code requirement.

A manufactured home that keeps its vehicle-style title is legally personal property, and is financed with a chattel or home-only loan. Chattel loans typically carry shorter terms and higher interest rates than mortgages. To be financed as real property, the home generally has to sit on land the borrower owns, be placed on a permanent foundation, and have its title retired under the applicable state procedure, after which conventional, FHA Title II or VA mortgage products can apply. FHA Title I is designed for home-only or home-and-lot lending where the real property route is not available.

Beyond the usual credit and income underwriting, manufactured home lending looks closely at the property itself: whether the home is titled as personal or real property, the date of manufacture and whether it predates 15 June 1976, the presence of the HUD certification label and data plate, the foundation type and whether an engineer has certified it, and whether the borrower owns or rents the land. Requirements differ substantially between loan programs, so it is worth confirming them before choosing a foundation type.

Materially, yes. Foundation type is one of the factors that determines whether a home can be treated as real property, and therefore which loan products apply to it. That makes the foundation decision a financing decision as much as an engineering one, and the cheapest option at set-up can be the more expensive one over the life of the loan. Settle it before the home is placed.

Generally yes. Manufactured homes are usually covered by a dedicated manufactured or mobile home policy rather than a standard homeowners form, reflecting the different construction and the transport risk. Coverage while a home is in transit is normally handled separately from the policy that covers it once sited, so it is worth confirming who carries the risk during the move.

Insurers commonly weigh the date of manufacture and whether the home predates the 1976 HUD Code, the wind zone the home was built to against the wind exposure where it sits, whether anchoring and tie-downs are installed and can be certified, the foundation type, the age and condition of the roof, and the state of the electrical, plumbing and heating systems. Homes built before June 1976 are significantly harder to insure, and some carriers will not write them at all.