Passing Community Resident Approval: A Manufactured Home Buyer's Guide
Buying a manufactured home in a community takes two approvals. Your lender decides whether to finance the home, and the community decides whether to accept you as a resident on its land. They are separate reviews by separate parties, and the purchase cannot close without both.
The community’s review is usually called resident approval or park approval. It applies whenever the home sits on a rented space, no matter who is selling: a dealer, an owner working with an agent, or a private seller. The buyers it catches out are the ones who leave the community’s application until the last week.
Two approvals answer two different questions
The two reviews run at the same time, but they are not looking at the same thing.
Lender approval compared with community approval
| Question | Lender approval | Community approval |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | The lender whose program fits your file | The community’s owner or management |
| What is being decided | Whether to finance this home for this buyer | Whether to accept this buyer as a resident |
| What is reviewed | Your credit, income and debts, plus the home, its value and its title | Your application, measured against the community’s own criteria and rules |
| What you send | The loan application and the documents on the lender’s list | The community’s resident application and whatever it asks for |
| What you end up with | A loan approval, usually with conditions to clear | Acceptance as a resident and a rental agreement for the space |
Passing one does not mean you have passed the other. A buyer can hold a loan approval and still be waiting on the community, or the other way round.
Santiago Financial, Inc. works with you on the loan side. Every loan application is reviewed individually and all financing is subject to credit approval. The community’s decision belongs to the community alone.
What communities usually ask for
Every community sets its own process, so the only reliable list is the one the office hands you. Most ask for some version of the following.
When you pick up the application, ask two more things: what the community’s criteria are, and what its review involves once your application is complete. A community is mainly looking at whether you can pay the space rent and will live by its rules. That is why it is worth reading the rules that most often change a buyer’s plans before you apply, not after.
State law also has a say in how a community reviews a buyer. In California, the Mobilehome Residency Law covers management’s approval of a buyer whose home will stay in the park. HCD, the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, links to the law from its page on your rights as a mobilehome park resident.
In Arizona, park tenancies fall under the Arizona Mobile Home Parks Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which is Title 33, Chapter 11 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. This article is general information, not legal advice.
How the two approvals fit together
The loan follows the stages described in how the loan process works. The community’s review sits alongside it, like this.
A community purchase with both approvals moving together
- Get pre-qualified A specialist gives you an early read on what price range may be realistic. Pre-qualification is not final approval, but it tells you which homes to look at.
- Ask the office for its packet when you find a home Request the resident application, the rules and the current space rent in writing before you make an offer.
- Submit both applications Your loan documents go to your loan processor. The resident application goes to the community office. Neither one waits for the other.
- Let the two sides confirm the details The lender typically confirms the space rent and your approval with the community, so tell the office which lender you are working with.
- Answer requests from either side as they arrive A file that is waiting on one document does not move.
- Close once both are in place Loan documents are signed and the sale completes after the lender’s conditions are cleared and the community has accepted you.
When the two decisions do not arrive together
It is normal for one side to finish first. What you do next depends on which one it is.
- The loan is approved and the community has not decided. Ask the office whether anything is missing from your application, and tell your loan processor what you hear.
- The community has accepted you and the loan still has conditions. This is ordinary. A loan approval comes with a list of documents and steps to complete, and the purchase closes when the list is cleared.
- The community declines. Ask for the reason in writing. A missing document or an incomplete application can sometimes be corrected. A lender cannot overrule the community’s decision.
Space rent is part of both reviews
Both reviewers care about the space rent, for different reasons. The community wants to see that you can pay it. The lender counts it as part of your monthly housing cost, next to the loan payment, insurance and taxes.
So settle the figure early. Get the rent for that specific space in writing, find out what it includes, and work out the full monthly cost before you apply to either side. How space rent affects what you can afford shows how to add it up and compare two communities.
If you have found a home in a community, talk with a specialist before you make an offer, so the loan application and the community’s application can start together.
