Can you refinance a manufactured home in a park?

Yes. A home in a park or on leased land is almost always titled as personal property, so your options are a chattel loan refinance through a specialist like 21st Mortgage, Triad, or Cascade, or an FHA Title I refinance, which does not require you to own the land. Conventional mortgages and VA loans are off the table for a park home unless you later own the land and set the home on a permanent foundation.

What credit score do you need to refinance a manufactured home?

It depends on the program. FHA Title I has a floor of 500, though most lenders want 620. FHA Title II needs 580. Chattel loans start around 575 with specialists such as Cascade, but most want 620 or higher. Fannie Mae MH Advantage and Freddie Mac CHOICEHome typically see a 620 lender overlay. Conventional chattel loans usually want 640 to 660. For the lowest rate in any program, aim for 700 and above.

Do you need to own the land to refinance a manufactured home?

Only for some programs. FHA Title I and chattel loans do not require land ownership, which is why they work for park residents. FHA Title II, VA loans, Fannie Mae MH Advantage, Freddie Mac CHOICEHome, and most conventional mortgages all require that you own the land beneath the home and that the home is permanently affixed to it.

Are manufactured home refinance rates higher than regular mortgage rates?

Yes, and how much higher depends on the loan type. A real property manufactured home loan runs roughly 0.25% to 0.75% above a comparable conventional mortgage. A chattel loan runs far higher, commonly 2 to 5 percentage points above a traditional mortgage. The structural divide between personal property and real estate is the single biggest driver of the rate you are quoted.

Can you do a cash out refinance on a manufactured home?

Yes, with limits. FHA allows a cash out refinance on a manufactured home up to 80% of value. Freddie Mac CHOICEHome does not permit cash out at all. Conventional cash out is available once the home is confirmed as real property. Chattel cash out exists but varies by lender.

Can veterans use a VA loan to refinance a manufactured home?

Yes, but the requirements are strict. The home must sit on a permanent foundation that meets the HUD Permanent Foundations Guide, be titled as real estate, carry its HUD certification label, and measure at least 400 square feet for a single wide or 700 for a double wide. VA minimums are a floor, not a ceiling: individual lenders add overlays, so a home that meets every VA rule can still be declined by one lender and approved by the next.

How to Refinance a Manufactured Home: Loan Types and Rates (2026)

Yes, you can refinance a manufactured home. What you cannot do is skip the first question, which decides everything that follows: is the home titled as personal property or as real estate? A home titled as personal property, called chattel, is financed like a vehicle. A home permanently affixed to land you own and titled together with that land is financed like any house. That single distinction sets your loan options, your rate, and whether you need to own the ground underneath you.

Most of the pages that rank for this term belong to lenders, each pointing toward its own product. What follows is the whole field laid out by situation rather than by product menu, so you can see which doors are open before you call anyone.

Chattel or real estate: the fork that decides your options

A chattel loan is a personal property loan. The home holds a separate title from the land, the way a car holds a title separate from the driveway it sits on. This is the structure for a home in a park or on rented ground. It is regulated under state personal property law, not mortgage law.

A real property mortgage treats the home as part of the land. The home is permanently set on a foundation, the wheels and axles are gone, and the title to the home is merged with the title to the land into a single piece of real estate. From there it is subject to the same appraisal, disclosure, and foreclosure rules as a stick built house.

The gap between the two is wide. Chattel terms typically run 15 to 23 years against up to 30 for a mortgage, so the monthly payment is heavier even before rate enters the picture. Chattel rates sit well above mortgage rates. Repossession on a personal property loan moves faster, with fewer borrower protections than a formal foreclosure. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has found that chattel borrowers face higher denial rates and are less likely to refinance at all, and that fewer than 4% of chattel loan originations are refinances. A real property mortgage also lets you deduct mortgage interest and build equity as both the home and the land appreciate. A chattel home is taxed like a car and tends to depreciate.

There is a path the lender pages rarely spell out. If you currently hold a chattel loan but you own the land, you can often set the home on a permanent foundation, convert the title to real estate, and refinance out of chattel and into a conventional or government backed mortgage. That conversion is the difference between a 9% personal property loan and a 7% mortgage. For many owners it is the most valuable move on this page.

Refinancing options by loan type

Your title type and land situation narrow the field fast. This table covers every program a manufactured home owner is likely to qualify for, side by side.

Loan type	Own the land?	Min credit score	Max LTV	Best fit
Chattel loan refinance	No	575 to 620	up to 95%	Park and leased land residents
FHA Title I	No	500 floor, 620 typical	97.75% (no cash out)	Personal property or leased lot
FHA Title II	Yes	580	96.5%	Real property on a permanent foundation
VA loan	Yes (typically)	Lender set	Varies	Veterans and service members
Fannie Mae MH Advantage	Yes	620	97%	Newer homes meeting design standards
Freddie Mac CHOICEHome	Yes	620	95% (97% with affordable second)	Single or multi section homes built to site built standards
Conventional chattel	No	640 to 660	80 to 90%	Stronger credit, more equity

A few of these deserve a closer look. FHA Title I is the workhorse for homes that are not on owned land. It can cover the home only, the lot only, or both, and the lease on the lot has to run at least three years with 180 days of notice before any termination. FHA Title II is the opposite case: owned land, permanent foundation, home titled as real estate, built on or after the HUD code date.

MH Advantage and CHOICEHome are the conventional programs, and they are picky. Both want a home built to elevated standards with a specific certification label near the HUD data plate. CHOICEHome is available for single and multi section homes as of June 2026, and it does not allow cash out. These two reward newer, larger, better built homes with rates close to a regular conventional mortgage.

What it takes to qualify

Every manufactured home loan starts at the same gate: the home must have been built on or after June 15, 1976, the date the federal HUD code took effect. Anything older is a pre code mobile home and will not finance through these programs. The home needs its HUD certification label on the exterior and its HUD data plate inside. No label, no loan, and a missing label is slow and costly to replace.

For any real property loan, the requirements stack up from there:

Permanently affixed to a foundation that meets the HUD Permanent Foundations Guide for Manufactured Housing.
Wheels, axles, and towing hitch removed.
Titled as real estate, which often means a title conversion or de titling step filed with the county or state DMV.
You own the land beneath it.
At least 12 feet wide and 400 square feet, with higher floors for some programs: 600 square feet for MH Advantage, 700 for a VA double wide.

Credit floors run by program. FHA Title I sits at 500 on paper but 620 in practice. FHA Title II wants 580. The conventional programs want 620, and private conventional chattel pushes to 640 or 660. Most government backed loans cap debt to income around 43% and require the home to be your principal residence.

If your home is currently personal property but you own the land and it can sit on a permanent foundation, the title conversion is worth pricing out. It needs county paperwork and a foundation certification from a licensed engineer, and it opens the door to every real property program in the table above.

What the rates actually look like

A manufactured home costs more to finance than a site built house, and the premium depends entirely on which side of the title line you are on.

As of May 2026, the average 30 year fixed mortgage sat around 6.51%. A real property manufactured home loan runs roughly 0.25% to 0.75% above that, so call it the high 6s to low 7s for a well qualified borrower. A chattel loan is a different animal. It runs 2 to 5 percentage points higher than a traditional mortgage, with a 2026 spread of about 2.3 points on the low end. That turns a 6.5% mortgage into something closer to 9% on a personal property loan.

Put a number on it. A $150,000 chattel balance at 8.8% against the same balance at 6.5%, over a 23 year chattel term versus a 30 year mortgage, separates into tens of thousands of dollars in extra interest. The CFPB found the same pattern at the population level: when chattel borrowers do get approved, they pay more and refinance less.

Inside any single program, your credit score moves the rate more than anything else, followed by your loan to value ratio and your term. But the largest lever is structural. Converting a chattel home to real property, where you can, beats any rate shopping you do inside the chattel market.

The refinancing process, step by step

The sequence is the same whether you end up with a chattel loan or a mortgage. Only the paperwork weight changes.

Confirm the title. Pull your county assessor record or check the state DMV. Personal property or real estate? This answer sets the whole path.
Match yourself to programs. Run your title type, land ownership, home age, foundation, and credit score against the table above. That gives you a short list.
Price the conversion, if it applies. Own the land but hold a chattel title? Get a quote on a permanent foundation and title conversion before you assume you are stuck with personal property rates.
Gather documents. HUD certification label and data plate details, current title, the land deed if you own it, a foundation certification from a licensed engineer for VA or any conversion, plus income documents and credit reports.
Compare at least three lenders. Many mainstream banks will not touch a manufactured home, and chattel lenders are a separate group from conventional mortgage shops. Quotes vary widely.
Lock and appraise. Some FHA Streamline refinances skip the appraisal and most income documents for existing FHA borrowers. Most other programs appraise.
Close. Closing costs typically run 2% to 5% of the new loan: origination, title transfer, recording, and the rest.

A standard refinance closes in 30 to 60 days, in line with any mortgage. A chattel refinance can move faster because the property inspection load is lighter. An FHA Streamline for a current FHA borrower is the quickest route of all.

Lenders that actually refinance manufactured homes

Most banks decline manufactured homes outright, and the ones that lend tend to specialize by title type. Sort them the way the loans sort.

For a home that is personal property, in a park or on leased land, the field is a handful of specialists. 21st Mortgage has been the largest manufactured home lender by volume for years and both writes and services its own loans. Triad Financial Services has run manufactured home financing for more than 60 years. Cascade lends on chattel from a 575 minimum score, on balances from $35,000 to $275,000, with debt to income at 50% or below, and also handles VA. Vanderbilt Mortgage rounds out the group. For park residents, those four are effectively your whole market.

For a home on owned land that qualifies as real estate, the field opens up to government backed and conventional lenders. CrossCountry Mortgage and Rocket Mortgage both offer FHA and conventional manufactured home loans. Manufactured Nationwide lends in all 50 states and goes to 80% on an FHA cash out. New American Funding and eLEND both work this category as well.

If you are weighing a refinance against simply replacing an older home, it helps to compare manufactured and modular construction before committing, and to browse the manufacturer directory and current home listings to see what a newer, more financeable home actually costs. Texas owners in particular have a deep bench of specialist lenders and builders, which we cover in the guide to modular homes in Houston.

The honest verdict: if your home is on owned land and meets HUD code, get it titled as real estate and refinance into FHA Title II or a conventional program. If it is in a park, your real choices are the four chattel specialists and FHA Title I, and your job is to compare all of them rather than take the first quote. Either way, the loan you can get is decided by the home and the land long before any lender opens your file.