This story,f rom the Business pages of today's NYTimes.com, says that we can't rely on the Federal Housing Administration to bail out homeowners, because the FHA has troubles of its own ....  Yours in Him, Deb

Hmm... I wonder if this means we can't re-finance our home?  Ours is an FHA-backed mortgage; it is a house trailer on rural land and my husband said when he got it 7 or 8 years ago, no bank would touch it. 

It doesn't hurt to look around, Keriamon. But your husband is right, a lot of banks won't touch a loan for a house trailer, even if its now on a permanent foundation.  At the mortgage bank I worked for we'd always ask the customer "Did it come in on wheels attached to a built in undercarriage?" "Did it ever have a VIN number?" If so we'd stop the application right there, because there's no way Underwriting would approve it--too risky. I think banks are afraid you can always just up and move your house and not pay your loan. Funny, I know!

Especially funny given that ours has no tongue, no wheels, is on a permanent foundation and surrounded by a deck.  I actually asked my husband if we sold the place, what about hauling the trailer off and selling the land raw (make it easier for someone to get a mortgage) and he said he didn't see how we could.    (My mother says there are places that will redo the tongue, wheels, etc., but we'd probably just have to give it to them for the cost associated with doing it.)  So no, it can't go anywhere! 

Where I grew up, there were lots and lots of trailers on patches of rural land.  It's considered a starter home for a lot of people: buy land, get a trailer on it, build yourself a house behind it in 5-10 years.  That's not as common where we live now; I think we'd have less problems getting a mortgage through a hometown bank if we lived in the county where I grew up because those people have to be getting mortgages there somehow. 

I agree with you Keriamon!  A mortgage for the land-only is much easier, the trailer would just have to be bought & paid for.  Then a person can get a construction loan to build the house behind it.  I think its stupid myself.  Trust me, I had more than one loan fall through because people lied about it being a prefab and not a trailer.  Then the title search would come back with--tada--a VIN number. 

Trust me, when you're making $5.75 an hour, you really need that commission (a whooping $400 for most loans). It was hard enough actually getting people to agree with the refinance (to many shopping around, not enough committment), and then to have it fall through because the owner thought they could get away with it...argh.  I'm so glad I don't do that anymore.