Fannie Mae vs Freddie Mac mobile home park loans

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lend on mobile home parks at the same headline terms: up to 80% loan-to-value, 1.25x debt service coverage, 30-year amortization, non-recourse. A stabilized park over 50 sites with few park-owned homes can usually take either, and the quotes decide it. The real differences are at the edges: Freddie Mac goes down to 5 pads but caps park-owned homes at 25% and wants an experienced sponsor; Fannie Mae starts at 50 sites but allows park-owned homes up to 35%.

The rules side by side

	Fannie Mae MHC	Freddie Mac MHC
Minimum size	50 sites	5 pads
Minimum loan	Not published	$1 million
Max loan-to-value	80%	75% for terms from 5 to under 7 years; 80% at 7 years and longer
Min coverage	1.25x	1.25x amortizing
Amortization	Up to 30 years	30 years
Terms	5 to 30 years	5, 7 and 10 years
Occupancy	85% physical and 70% economic, on the commitment date and the 3 months before (Guide-wide rule)	85% of home sites for at least 3 consecutive months before closing
Park-owned homes	Tenant-occupied homes up to 35%; a business plan to convert them once over 25%	Homes owned by borrower, affiliates and third-party investors up to 25% combined
Quality	Level 3 rating or better	“High-quality, professionally managed”
Sponsor	No park-experience rule published	Key principal with 2+ years of park ownership, operation or management who owns at least one other park
Recourse	Non-recourse, standard carve-outs	Non-recourse, standard carve-outs
Reserves	Replacement reserve escrow typically not required	At least $50 per site per year; the Guide adds $250 per year for each borrower-owned home
Tenant lease protections	Required on all sites by the end of the first loan year	Required in writing within 12 months of origination

Sources are listed at the end. Freddie Mac’s sheet is dated April 2026; Fannie Mae’s Guide is effective September 28, 2026.

What Freddie Mac adds that Fannie Mae doesn’t

Freddie Mac’s Guide (Chapter 22) has property rules worth checking before you apply. Leases can’t give residents an option to buy their pad. The park can’t sell or finance homes at retail, and that includes rent-to-own. Roads have to be paved, and the park needs an on-site management office. Initial lease terms should be at least 12 months. The application fee is the greater of $2,000 or 0.1% of the loan.

Its sponsor test is the one that stops first-time buyers. If you’ve never owned a park, you can’t be the key principal on a Freddie Mac MHC loan. One way around it is to bring in a partner who qualifies, which means giving that partner a real role in the deal.

What Fannie Mae adds

Fannie Mae’s Guide wants written site leases with no option to buy the site and no master leases. Month-to-month leases and terms up to two years are fine; longer terms are allowed only with CPI-based increases and tax and utility pass-throughs. Density can’t generally exceed 12 homes per acre on an existing community. Fannie also underwrites at least 5% economic vacancy, so a full park still gets a haircut on income.

Loans of $9 million or less can be underwritten under Fannie Mae’s small loan chapter, which matters for a 60 or 80-site park.

A worked example

Take a 120-site park with $600,000 of net operating income, valued at $8.0 million (a 7.5% cap rate, picked for the example). Assume a 10-year Treasury of 5.00% plus a 2.00% spread, so a 7.00% rate; the spread is an assumption, not a quote.

On a 30-year amortization at 7.00%, each dollar borrowed costs about $0.0798 a year. At 1.25x coverage the park’s income supports $600,000 ÷ (1.25 × 0.0798) = about $6.01 million. Eighty percent of value is $6.4 million. So on both agencies the loan is about $6.01 million, limited by coverage, not by value.

Now take a 5-year Freddie Mac term. LTV drops to 75%, or $6.0 million. With a 5-year Treasury of 4.82% plus 2.00%, coverage supports about $6.12 million. Now value is the limit, and the loan is $6.0 million.

Which to call first

If your park has 50+ sites, 85%+ occupancy and park-owned homes under 25%, both agencies will look at it; get quotes from lenders on each. Between 25% and 35% park-owned homes, Fannie Mae is the agency option. Under 50 sites, Freddie Mac is, if your sponsor qualifies. Below 85% occupancy, neither will lend yet. Run your park through the loan sizer to see which gate it hits.

Sources

• Fannie Mae, Multifamily Term Sheet: Manufactured Housing Communities, © 2026 (read from the Internet Archive copy of April 21, 2026).
• Fannie Mae Multifamily Selling and Servicing Guide, Part III, Ch. 6 and Part II, Ch. 1, effective September 28, 2026.
• Freddie Mac, Optigo Manufactured Housing Community Loan term sheet, April 2026.
• Freddie Mac Multifamily Seller/Servicer Guide, Chapter 22, update of April 22, 2025.
• U.S. Treasury, Daily Par Yield Curve Rates, October 23, 2026 (5-year 4.82%, 10-year 5.00%).