Buying or refinancing a manufactured home in Kingman usually starts with one question: is the home in a community in town, or on a parcel out in Golden Valley or the open country around the city? The first is financed as a home on rented space. The second brings the land, the water source, the septic system and the road into the loan, and that is where most of the work in a Kingman file happens.
Kingman is also where Mohave County keeps its records. The Assessor, the Treasurer and the Recorder all work from 700 W. Beale Street, so the title, tax and affixture questions on any home in the county come back to offices here. Santiago Financial, Inc. finances both setups anywhere in Arizona. The Arizona hub page explains how ADOT MVD titles and the Affidavit of Affixture work in general; this page covers what is specific to Kingman.
In town or on a parcel: two different files
In a land-lease community inside the city, you own the home and rent the space it sits on. The home is financed on its own as personal property through a home-only or chattel loan, and the space rent is paid every month on top of the loan payment. The community reviews you as a resident, and that review is separate from loan approval.
On a parcel you own or are buying, the home and land can often be financed together as real property through land-and-home financing, provided the home is permanently attached and an Affidavit of Affixture has been recorded. If the affidavit was never recorded, the home still has an MVD title for each section and is personal property, even on land the seller owns. Settle which one you are looking at before you compare loans.
What a Golden Valley or county parcel adds to the loan
Golden Valley is a census-designated place, not a city, so Mohave County handles its permits, and the same is true of the rural country north and east of Kingman. Four things about a parcel shape both the loan and the inspection.
What to look up on a Kingman-area parcel before you make an offer
| Local factor | What to find out | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Water | A utility, a registered well, or hauled water to a storage tank? | ADWR’s well registry for a well; the seller’s hauling arrangement otherwise |
| Septic | A county permit, and the seller’s Notice of Transfer with a transfer inspection? | Mohave County Development Services, septic and well permitting |
| Access | County-maintained or private road, and who grades it? | The county, the seller and any road agreement in the title report |
| Placement | Already installed, or a new or relocated home to be set on the lot? | Mohave County’s manufactured-home permit page |
Arizona registers wells through the Department of Water Resources, and a registered well carries a 55- number you can look up before you make an offer. Mohave County’s septic and well page explains the Notice of Transfer and transfer inspection a seller files when a property with a septic system changes hands.
For a home that will be placed on a parcel, the county’s manufactured home permit page lists what the application needs and notes that an approved septic system is required for any project with plumbing.
Programs differ in what they accept for water, septic and access, so a home on hauled water or a private road is a question to ask before you make an offer, not after. Tell the specialist how the home gets its water and who maintains the road at the first conversation, and ask whether financing is available for that setup.
Title, taxes and county records
Arizona titles manufactured homes through ADOT MVD, generally one title per section. The Mohave County Assessor keeps a home that still has its MVD titles on the personal-property roll, and the home’s owner and the land’s owner can be two different people. Once an Affidavit of Affixture is recorded with the Mohave County Recorder, the home and the parcel are assessed together and get one tax notice.
Two things about taxes matter at the point of sale. Arizona law makes it unlawful to sell or move a mobile home with delinquent property taxes (A.R.S. 42-19155), so ask the seller for the Treasurer’s statement that taxes are current. And a home that is being moved onto or off a parcel needs a 504 tax clearance from the Assessor first. Affidavit of Affixture in Arizona explains how the record changes the loan.
High desert: cooler summers, freezing winter nights
Kingman’s airport sits at about 3,400 feet, and that shows in the numbers. In NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 climate normals for the airport station, the average July high is about 99°F, the average January low is about 31°F, and the year brings about eight inches of rain. Down the hill in Bullhead City the average July high is near 111°F.
So cooling is still a real line in the budget, but winter is the season that catches buyers of older homes. Check the furnace and the skirting, find out whether the water lines under the home are insulated or heat-taped, and ask the seller for a year of utility bills. The data plate inside the home lists the thermal, roof-load and wind zones it was built for.
For any parcel near a wash, look the address up in the Mohave County Flood Control District’s flood map viewer.
Nearby areas
We also have pages for Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City on the river, where the heat and the seasonal questions are different. Golden Valley and the rural parcels between the three cities are covered here.
Every application is reviewed individually, and all financing is subject to credit approval. County and state procedures change, so confirm them with the offices linked above; this page is general information, not legal or tax advice.