You are an FHA borrower looking to buy a manufactured home. Your bank notifies you of the following requirements as a condition of your loan and will need these satisfied before they can proceed:
Satisfactory engineer's report from a licensed engineer verifying the subject property foundation meets all HUD requirements for manufactured homes.
Provide an acceptable engineer's certification for FHA manufactured home.
Huh?
Long story short, it means that you need to have the foundation certified.
So do you have to hire an engineer? Sounds expensive. In reality it's not too bad with prices ranging from $300 - $600; the majority of the foundation inspections we've done are in the $300 dollar range.
There are a couple engineering firms that I personally work with who are licensed in most U.S. States that can take care of all the details for you.
So what is a foundation certification?
A foundation certification is a process initiated primarily by mortgage companies for people who desire a FHA / HUD, VA, or another type of government loan for a manufactured or mobile home. The loan underwriter requires that the manufactured home foundation be in compliance with FHA / HUD or VA guidelines before they can obtain a loan.
A licensed engineer produces a foundation report, or engineering report certifying that the manufactured homes' foundation system complies with the HUD Permanent Foundation Guide for Manufactured Homes (PFGMH - HUD 7584). The first step in obtaining a foundation certification or foundation report is to get a Foundation Inspection.
That's where companies like mine, Housecall Property Inspections come in. You see, the engineers cannot effectively cover the entire U.S. so we become their "eyes and ears" (well, mostly eyes), and we perform the site inspection for them.
Afterwards, foundation inspectors like me provide all the details - pictures, measurements, etc. to the engineer of record. They take the data we provide and develop the report using special whiz-bang calculations and expensive tools to produce the certification letter (at least that's what they tell me).
So unlike a typical home inspection, where there is no "pass-fail", you can certainly "fail" a foundation inspection. Some of the more common reasons these foundations fail in San Diego is a lack of adequate "tie-downs" which are the anchors that keep the manufactured home perched atop it's foundation should the earth begin to shake-rattle-and-roll as it does frequently here.
Read more about foundation inspections and manufactured home tie-downs.
