Is this a mobile home or a single family house?

Is this a mobile home or a single family house?

Rental Property Investor · Hummelstown, PA · Member since 2015 · 638 posts · 653 votes

I just bought a single family house in Central PA (Cumberland County, near Harrisburg).  The plan is to flip it.  Bought it for $95k off market, planning to put in about $43k and sell for $190k.

We walked through twice and the seller told us there was no basement and no crawl space.  Well, after we closed and brought our rehab team in, they discovered a small door in the back of the property (covered with siding, so it blends in).  The door opens up revealing a small crawl space.

Now here's where it gets weird.  In the crawl space, there's steel beams running across part of the structure, almost like it used to be a mobile home.  After seeing the structure under the property, it appears that a long time ago it was a mobile home, and since then there's been additions added on.  So PART of the house is on a block foundation.  The other part, with the steel beams, is resting on cinderblock piers, which are resting on poured concrete piers.  We couldn't see any of this initially because there's cinderblocks covered by siding around the perimeter of the house.

Note: the county classifies the house as "Single family detached".  I checked other properties that are definitely mobile/manufactured and they are classified as "Manufactured".

So, it's not a MOBILE home anymore... the house is quite stationary.  Our concern is the implications with selling.  Do we need to worry about an inspector flagging an issue, or worse, do we need to worry about the future buyer being able to finance a house that a lender might classify as still a mobile home? Would this/should this affect comps?

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San Antonio, TX · Member since 2009 · 3k+ posts · 1k+ votes
6y

@Kyle McCorkel As long as the foundation is permanent and the home is classified as "single family detached" by the county, I don't think you'll have an issue with a lender as long as the buyer is happy with the home. Hope that helps! 

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  • Specialist · Riverside, CA · Member since 2015 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    6y

    Financing usually hinges on whether or not it is on a permanent foundation, if it is not it isn't as expensive as you might think, however it almost sounds like it might be on a permanent foundation currently, but I can't say for sure.

  • Rental Property Investor · Hummelstown, PA · Member since 2015 · 638 posts · 653 votes
    6y
    Originally posted by @Aaron K.:

    Financing usually hinges on whether or not it is on a permanent foundation, if it is not it isn't as expensive as you might think, however it almost sounds like it might be on a permanent foundation currently, but I can't say for sure.

     Thanks! Yes, I would say that the foundation is permanent.  

  • Brenden MitchumBusiness Member
    Rental Property Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2019 · 1k+ posts · 872 votes
    6y

    Hey @Kyle McCorkel

    Clearly part of it is a mobile home or the seller would not have hid the "crawl space." So, it really just depends on if the appraiser catches it. Even if they do, they may not care if it's now been designated as a single family residence by the county.  The best you can do is just make sure it is as permanent as possible. Calling a few lenders may be a good move too so you can have an idea of how likely the buyer is to get financing.

    I've seen a few of these sneaky mobile home to permanent "single family" conversions here in Atlanta.  Best of luck and do let us know how it turns out!

  • Rental Property Investor · Hummelstown, PA · Member since 2015 · 638 posts · 653 votes
    6y

    @Brenden Mitchum

    I've been doing more research into the Cumberland County records, and the property is definitely a single family house in their records.  There's other houses in the area that look like they were also mobile homes a long time ago, and they sold as single family houses (for single family prices).  So I think I'm in the clear.

    The foundation is very permanent.  And from my experience with appraisers, they wouldn't notice the crawl space, and even if they did, they wouldn't know what they're looking at.

  • San Antonio, TX · Member since 2009 · 3k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    6y

    @Kyle McCorkel As long as the foundation is permanent and the home is classified as "single family detached" by the county, I don't think you'll have an issue with a lender as long as the buyer is happy with the home. Hope that helps! 

  • Brenden MitchumBusiness Member
    Rental Property Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2019 · 1k+ posts · 872 votes
    6y

    @Kyle McCorkel

    Yeah man fingers crossed but I'd agree that you shouldn't have any problems getting it to appraise as a SF.

    Good luck though and keep us posted!

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