Personal property
Also called: chattel
Property that is not land or permanently attached to it. A manufactured home on a leased lot is normally personal property.
A manufactured home that has not been converted to real property is personal property, titled much like a vehicle. This is the default for any home on a leased lot in a community, and it remains the case for many homes on owned land where the conversion was never completed.
Being personal property affects almost everything financial about the home: it is usually financed with a chattel loan rather than a mortgage, taxed differently, insured under a different kind of policy, and transferred by assigning a title rather than recording a deed.
It also affects how the home holds value. Homes that remain personal property tend to depreciate more like a vehicle; homes converted to real property on owned land tend to behave more like real estate.
See also
- Real property, Land and anything permanently affixed to it, including a manufactured home that has been properly converted.
- Chattel loan, A loan secured by the home itself as personal property, rather than by real estate, the most common way manufactured homes are financed.
- Title, The ownership document for a manufactured home held as personal property, issued much like a vehicle title.