Best Personal Loans for Mobile Homes

With housing prices hovering around all-time highs, mobile homes and manufactured homes offer prospective homebuyers an affordable alternative. You might be able to apply for a mortgage to pay for your mobile or manufactured home, but if not, several lenders offer personal loans that you could use to finance a mobile home purchase. Find out which lenders are best, how the application process works, and the pros and cons of using a personal loan to purchase a mobile home. 

Compare personal loan rates for mobile homes

Some of the lenders below offer personal loans specifically for purchasing a mobile home. Others offer the option of selecting “Other” or “Major purchase” when you begin prequalification.

Types of financing for mobile and manufactured homes

There are several loan types that you can use to purchase a mobile or manufactured home. If your home is not on a permanent foundation, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to use anything other than a personal loan or chattel loan to finance the purchase.

Personal loans

Personal loans are a type of installment loan used for a wide range of purposes. Although personal loans for the purpose of home-buying are typically prohibited, lenders might make a distinction between homes that are permanently affixed to a foundation and built on-site (considered real estate) and mobile homes (considered personal property). 

As with most types of credit, the lowest personal loan rates tend to go to borrowers with good credit (generally a credit score of 640 or higher). However, a small number of lenders offer personal loans for bad credit. Repayment terms typically range between two and seven years.

Conventional loans

Conventional loans are mortgages offered by mortgage lenders that aren't backed by a government program such as the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), or Department of Agriculture (USDA). These loans are only available for homes on a permanent foundation that are considered real property and typically require a down payment. Borrowing requirements vary between lenders. Also, conventional loans usually have repayment terms of 15 or 30 years.

FHA Title 1 loans

FHA Title 1 loans are mortgages designed specifically for manufactured homes and may be available for homes considered real or personal property. The program backs loans offered by private mortgage lenders. You can use an FHA Title 1 mortgage for a manufactured home, the lot the home will sit on, or both. Some of the requirements of the Title 1 program include new homes having a one-year manufacturer's warranty and meeting local and state rules for the installation and construction of your home's foundation. 

Fannie Mae manufactured housing loans

Government-sponsored company Fannie Mae offers backing for conventional mortgages used for manufactured homes titled as real property. The loans are similar to conventional mortgages — you have to pay for mortgage insurance unless you make a 20% down payment or have 20% equity in your manufactured home, and you can purchase points upfront to lower your interest rate. Additionally, manufactured home loans backed by Fannie Mae are eligible for borrowers with credit scores equal to or greater than 620. 

Freddie Mac mortgage

Government-sponsored company Freddie Mac's CHOICEHome program is tailored to buyers looking for a manufactured home that is considered real property and affixed to a permanent foundation. Through the program, you get access to mortgages with a 3% down payment requirement. 

VA loan

Offered through the Department of Veterans Affairs, these loans provide several benefits if you're a qualified borrower and shopping for a manufactured home that meets certain criteria. Like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, you can only finance mobile homes that are affixed to a permanent foundation. 

Loan terms are up to 15 years for a manufactured home lot purchase, up to 20 years for a manufactured home, and up to 25 years for a manufactured home and its lot. One of the perks of a VA loan is that you don't have to get private mortgage insurance if you have less than 20% equity, and qualified applicants don't have to make a down payment. 

USDA loan

The USDA offers a program that backs mortgages provided for borrowers who want to buy a manufactured home. Known as the Combination Construction-to-Permanent Loan Program, the USDA provides 100% backing for manufactured home mortgages, plus additional fees such as buying a lot, landscaping costs, and builder's risk insurance. The loan is available to borrowers who live in “eligible rural areas with populations up to 35,000,” the USDA notes in the program's guide. A list of USDA-approved lenders for the program is available here.

Chattel mortgage/Mobile home loan

A chattel mortgage is an out-of-date term that describes mortgages for movable property, such as machinery or a mobile home. They're typically offered by manufactured home builders. To secure your mortgage, you allow the lender to place a lien against the mobile home until you've paid it off, similar to how an auto loan lender owns the title to your car until you pay off your auto loan. In some cases, chattel mortgages might allow a wider range of credit scores, have repayment terms of less than 30 years, and allow debt-to-income ratios that are typically higher than what's required for traditional mortgages.

What types of mobile homes can be financed with a personal loan?

Mobile home

“Mobile home” is a phrase used to describe a mobile home built in a factory and initially sold before July 1, 1980. “Mobile home” and “manufactured home” may be used interchangeably. But a home that is literally mobile (without a permanent foundation) typically has fewer financing options — which is why a personal loan can be a good financing tool.

Mobile homes underwent an official name change because of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1980, which “amends the United States Housing Act, the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, and the National Housing Act to change the term 'mobile home' to ‘manufactured home.’”

Some manufactured homes

“Manufactured home” is the modern terminology for mobile homes and technically speaking, refers to a mobile home built in a factory and initially sold on or after July 1, 1980. Manufactured homes are held to HUD standards for safety, and typically include the systems you'd normally find in homes built on-site, such as air conditioning, electrical, plumbing, and heating. 

Manufactured homes on a foundation, however, are typically considered real property and are more likely to be financed with a mortgage (as opposed to a personal loan or a chattel loan). A personal loan may be an option to finance a manufactured home that’s not on a permanent foundation, or that doesn’t meet HUD requirements.

How to get a personal loan for a mobile home

Mobile home financing with a personal loan is a relatively simple process compared to other options, such as any type of mortgage, since no appraisal is needed. The steps are as follows:

1. Prequalify: Prequalify with several lenders to get a sense of whether your application will be approved and what interest rate, loan amount, and repayment terms you might be eligible for. Prequalification won't hurt your credit and takes about 10 minutes.
2. Apply: Once you've found a lender that looks good, fill out a full application. You'll need to support your application with documentation like your ID and bank statements or pay stubs. You'll also need to authorize a hard credit check, in most cases. Expect to spend an hour or more on this step.
3. See if you're approved: Some lenders let you know instantly, while others could take a few days to approve (or deny) your application. Once approved, review the loan agreement to make sure the loan amount, rate, repayment term, and fees are acceptable — these could differ from what you saw in the rate quote.
4. Accept the loan and await funding: If you accept the loan, the lender will send the money to your bank account. This step could happen as soon as the same day you're approved (with a handful of lenders), but it will likely take 1 to 3 business days.

While mortgages have repayment terms of 15 and 30 years, personal loans have shorter repayment periods that typically fall in the two- to seven-year range.

“The strongest appeal of a personal loan lies in its speed and simplicity,” Fisher says. “No home appraisal. No escrow. No collateral.”

He mentioned a client who planned to use a mobile home as a rental property but was frustrated with how long her mortgage application was taking. 

“Her mortgage application had been pending for months, so she secured a personal loan, getting her cash in hand within five days,” Fisher says. “In less than a month, she was already taking bookings on Airbnb. That kind of agility offers strong leverage if you're under time pressure or trying to seize a short-term rental opportunity before peak time.”

Pros and cons of financing your mobile home with a personal loan

Pros

• Easy application process: Whereas a mortgage application can take longer than a month to complete, some personal loan lenders often can approve your application within seconds.
• No collateral required: Most personal loans are unsecured, which means they don't require collateral. Therefore, if you default on your loan payments, you won't lose what you purchased with your loan funds. With a mortgage, your home is used as collateral, and you could lose it if you default.
• Interest savings: Even though rates may be higher, personal loans tend to have shorter repayment periods than mortgages — which means your total interest cost over the life of the loan could be much lower.
• No down payment required: Unlike personal loans, mortgage-type financing options typically require a down payment.

Cons

• Limited options for loan amounts above $50,000: Finding a lender that offers loans big enough to pay for a new mobile home may be difficult, as only a handful of them offer personal loans above $50,000.
• Higher interest rate than mortgages: The average mortgage rate has been in the 6% to 7% range (for the most part) over the past couple of years, while Federal Reserve data show the average interest rate for a 2-year personal loan at 11.14%.
• Shorter repayment terms mean higher monthly payments: Personal loan monthly payments tend to be higher than what you'd pay with a 30-year mortgage, since loan terms are typically much shorter.

“Using a personal loan to buy a mobile home can be a good option, especially if you've got a decent credit score and don't want to deal with the red tape of a traditional mortgage,” says Char Hiaring, founder of real estate firm Sell My House Idaho. “From what I've seen, it can usually get you funding quickly, and you can avoid the stricter requirements tied to mobile home financing, which can honestly be a real headache.”

Hiaring says personal loans are often effective “when someone's buying an older mobile home that wouldn't qualify for other financing, or if they just need a small amount to cover the cost outright.”

How much does a mobile home cost?

Census Bureau data show that the average cost of a new mobile home was $124,800 in April 2025. Exactly how much your manufactured home will cost depends on the size (single- or double-wide), where you live, and whether it's new or pre-owned. Here's a breakdown of average prices for new mobile homes across the United States:

However, prices for pre-owned mobile homes tend to be significantly lower. Depending on its age and condition, the price of a used mobile home could range from $10,000 to $250,000 for a single-wide and $20,000 to $60,000 for a double-wide.

Methodology

Credible evaluated 32 lenders across 1,216 data points to find the best loans for mobile homes. The lenders on our list either offer mobile home loans as a specific type of loan or allow general-purpose loans such as major purchases. We chose the best lenders based on the following weighted categories:

• Rates and fees: 18.75%
• Eligibility and options for bad and no credit: 17.5%
• Availability: 12.5%
• Loan amounts and terms: 10%
• Customer satisfaction: 10%
• Customer service: 10%
• Efficiency and fund delivery: 10%
• Discounts: 7.5%
• Credible proprietary data: 3.75%

Credible's team of experts gathered information from each lender's website and from our partners directly. We also considered each of our partner lenders' statistics over a 12-month period — including average funding times, average credit scores for approved applicants, and average rates. Each data point is verified by a senior editor to make sure it's accurate at the time of publication.

Learn more about how Credible rates lenders by exploring our personal loans lender rating methodology.

Disclosure: Some lending partners that participate in Credible's comparison marketplace offer loans to borrowers with scores as low as 550. Borrowers with low scores will have fewer lending options than borrowers with higher credit scores.