Buying a Mobile Home in Tennessee

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Our Mobile Home Living State Guide series continues this week with resources for Buying a Mobile Home in Tennessee. Last week’s installment, Buying a Mobile Home in Maine, offered a look into some beautiful homes available and the homeowner resources you could find there.

Buying a Mobile Home in Tennessee By the Numbers

Mobile Home Village has been one of our top resources when it comes to mobile homes and their communities. Their statistics include:

• The average price of a pre-owned home: $70322
• Average model year of a pre-owned home: 2007
• Average pre-owned home size in square feet: 1531
• The average sites in a manufactured home community: 83
• The average year a community was developed: 1982
• Number of age-restricted communities: 9
• Number of all-age communities: 298

A Look at Buying A Mobile Home in Tennessee

Mobile Home Buyer Resources

The best source for information for new mobile home buyers when considering a purchase is the state manufactured housing association. The Tennessee Manufactured Housing Association is a wealth of information regarding dealerships, communities, and why mobile and manufactured homes are such a great investment.

Tennessee MHA
604 4th Ave. N
Nashville, TN 37219
(615) 256-4733
www.tnmha.net

Keep in mind, if you are buying a mobile home in Tennessee you are required by law to have the mobile home installed by a licensed professional. This is to ensure that it is set up according to the standards set by the state.

Also, each mobile home is required to display an installation decal on each section of the mobile home. This sticker is a requirement of the state.

Titling and De-titling the Mobile Home

If you are purchasing a mobile home to be placed on a leased lot, you will need to be sure to have it titled. This is done at the local DMV office. Typically, this is handled by the dealer that you purchase the home from. However, if you are buying a used mobile home directly, you will need to be sure that this is completed. The home will be taxed as personal property by the state.

However, if the mobile home is being placed on a piece of property owned by you, the home doesn’t need to be titled. It is considered real estate and will be taxed as such.

In the state of Tennessee, mobile homeowners have the option of de-titling their mobile home if they move it onto their property after it has been titled. It isn’t mandatory that you do so. The following is required if you want to de-title your home:

• Letter of request to de-title.
• Certificate of Title (or Certificate of Origin or Manufacturer Statement of Origin in the case of a new home that has not been titled).
• Certified copy of warranty deed or equivalent that shows evidence of real property. (Mobile homes affixed to real property do not have to be titled.)
• Certified copy of the Affidavit of Affixation that is recorded at the local Registry of Deeds Office where the home is located.

You can find more information about the titling/de-titling process at the Tennessee Department of Revenue site.

If There is a Problem

Tennessee handles their own manufactured housing dispute resolution program. If you have reached out to the dealer, manufacturer, or installer of your mobile home and haven’t been able to resolve your issue, your next step would be to file a complaint with the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance Division of Fire Prevention-Manufactured Housing Section.  There are two ways to file a complaint. You can submit your complaint online, or you can mail your completed form to:

Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance
Division of Fire Prevention – Manufactured Housing Section
500 James Robertson Parkway
Nashville, Tennessee 37243-1162

The Department asks that you keep the following in mind:

• In itemizing your complaint, be brief but concise in your description.
• When contacting this office, always do so in writing to keep your file up-to-date.
• It is not necessary to call to check the status of your complaint. You will be notified by email when we receive information from the manufacturer, retailer and/or installer that your complaint has been resolved.
• Law and regulation limit the extent to which this office can help you in resolving your issue and, to a great degree, depends upon the seriousness of the problem as determined by the manufacturer in accordance with the regulations. This office will review the manufacturer’s determinations in this regard to assure that they have appropriately selected the degree of seriousness.
• In cases where safety-related defects in homes create an unreasonable risk of injury or death to the occupants, manufacturers must correct the defects in a relatively short period of time. However, where a serious hazard cannot be directly related to an error in design or assembly, including the design or assembly of any component or sub-assembly, we cannot require a manufacturer to correct them. Even though a problem determined to be of a less serious nature may seem very important to you, the law does not obligate the manufacturer to correct it.
• You may be able to seek assistance from the Division of Consumer Affairs in those matters, or you may have other avenues of recourse available to you through other State or Federal agencies.
• When submitted to this office, your complaint will be sent to the manufacturer, retailer, and installer for a response. Please be patient as this may take some time to obtain responses and/or the service required for the resolution of your complaint.
• As the homeowner, you will always be notified by email if the manufacturer, retailer or installer responds to this office that all items have been repaired, for confirmation on your behalf that these repairs were made prior to your file being closed.
• In the event that the manufacturer rests, and there are still applicable issues which have not been resolved, an inspection may be performed.

What Mobile Home Living Looks Like in the State

Currently, there are over 800 mobile and manufactured homes for sale in Tennessee listed on Zillow. Take a look at some of the gorgeous homes we found.

Related: 9 beautiful manufactured home porch ideas.

We hope you have enjoyed reading about buying a mobile home in Tennessee. Stay tuned, next week we are heading to Missouri to see what Mobile Home Living looks like there.

Have a question about buying a mobile home in Tennessee that we didn’t answer? Comment below, and we will try and find the answer.

Thanks for reading Mobile Home Living!