Chattel Loan Denials, Other Loan Options, and the Need to Exhaust all Possibilities

What do you do for a customer who can’t qualify for chattel financing?  They’ve picked out the home; they’ve been approved by the park, but every major chattel lender has turned them down – Why?  Maybe the customer doesn’t have a large enough down payment. Maybe the customer’s credit scores are below 640 with a short credit history.  Maybe the customer’s income cannot work within the relatively more stringent world of chattel loan income requirements. What do you do? If you’re a retailer or builder, do you just let the customer walk away with broken dreams of a new home for their family?  If you’re a Realtor, do you advise the customer to work on their credit, pay off debts, put together gifts from family members, etc.? I think that there may be another option.Here’s a great example for a customer in Benton County, Oregon who wants to purchase a manufactured home in a community for $165,000 – With decent credit, on a chattel loan, the customer would probably be paying a 7-8% interest rate over 20 years and be required to put down at least 5%.  For our example, we will use 7.5% as our interest rate and 5% as our down payment. Lot rent could be conservatively estimated at around $500/month. The customer’s total monthly housing obligations would look something like this:Chattel Loan Principal and interest                      $1285.00Taxes                                                    $65.00Insurance                                            $70.00Lot Rent                                              $500.00Total                                                $1920.00 онлайн займы с 18 лет срочно Let’s say that the customer earns a gross income of $5000 and they have other monthly credit obligations (car loan and student loan) of $700/month.  A lender would calculate the customer’s income ratio to be 38(housing debt ratio)/52(total debt ratio). Except for subprime lenders, these ratios are too high for a chattel loan. What happens to this customer?  Can they still get a new manufactured home? Here’s where it gets interesting:Would it be possible to build the same home on private property or locate an existing home for relatively the same monthly payment and down payment?  Yes, I believe it is. Real property loans (insured by Fannie, Freddie, FHA, and VA) offer the benefits of longer terms and lower interest rates. Down payment requirements on these loans typically range from 0-5%.  For our example, let’s assume that the customer is using an FHA loan to either build a new manufactured home or purchase an existing manufactured home on real property for $250,000. They will be putting 3.5% down on a 30-year loan at 5.75%.  On a monthly basis, the customer’s payments would look a little something like this: FHA LoanPrincipal and interest:                    $1433.00Taxes:                                                       $250.00Insurance:                                              $100.00Mortgage Insurance:                     $160.00Total:                                                         $1943.00 Using the same formula for debt-to-income that we used on our chattel loan example, the customer would now have income ratios of 39/53 – This loan would almost certainly be approved as an FHA deal.Don’t get me wrong, I wholly acknowledge the importance of chattel loans and I completely understand why a customer would prefer to live in a community vs. a home on private land.  At ManufacturedHome.loan we have positioned ourselves to offer all types of manufactured home loans, including multiple chattel, real property, and construction products. Let’s not let customers fall through the cracks; let’s pursue all options before telling a customer we can’t fulfill their dream of a new home.  We want to be your ultimate resource for manufactured home financing and we encourage anyone to reach out to us at any time with questions or concerns. Jed LowmanManufactureHome.Loan