Why are manufactured homes hard to sell?

Nobody Can Get a Normal Loan on These Things

Regular 30-year mortgages at 6–8%? Dream on.

Most buyers are stuck with chattel loans running 12–18% (sometimes higher) on 15–20 year terms. That’s 6–10 points above what a stick-built house gets. A $180k loan feels like a $350k house payment. Even the “good” FHA Title II loans still cost 1.5–3 points more and demand perfect conditions: owned land, title purged, permanent foundation, built after 1976. Almost nobody lines up all those stars.

The Park Manager Is Basically the Final Boss

If your home is in a park (and 70–80% around Portland are), the manager gets veto power over every buyer.

They run their own credit, criminal, and income checks—often stricter than the lender’s—and can reject people for two dogs, a kid with a traffic ticket, or just because it’s Tuesday. Buyer spends weeks in escrow, drops $500 on inspection, then the park says “nope.” Deal dead, you’re back to zero.

Most Parks Aren’t Even Approved for Financing Anyway

Even if the buyer is perfect and willing to stomach insane interest, the park itself has to be FHA-approved for real loans.

Portland metro has almost 200 parks. Fewer than fifteen are on the approved list. The rest are cash-only in 2025, and cash buyers are scarcer than ever.

The Other Stuff That Piles On

Appraisers can’t find comps, so loans die at appraisal nine times out of ten. Lot rent is $1,000–$1,400 and climbing 10% a year—buyers do the math and bail. Purging the title in Oregon is a paperwork nightmare most people abandon halfway. Investors who used to snap these up have mostly vanished thanks to rent control and eviction laws.

So What Actually Sells?

Only two types right now:

1. Owned-land homes already converted to real property, priced 25–35% below stick-built comps.

2. Everything else—sold cheap and fast for cash to an investor or the park owner (and yeah, the offer usually stings).

Everything in between just sits. And sits. And sits.

The problem isn’t lack of photos or MLS exposure. It’s that 98% of buyers literally cannot close, no matter how bad they want it.

If you’re trying to move one this year, price it like you’re scared (you should be) and aim straight for cash. Anything else is just praying for a miracle that isn’t coming.

Drop a 🙋‍♂️ if this feels way too familiar. You’re not crazy—this market really is this broken.